The name “pot pie” may inspire thoughts of heavy, hearty comfort food. The comfort food part certainly applies to all iterations of this dish, but pot pies don’t need to be heavy dishes that you save for the winter time. in Pot Pies: Yumminess in a Dish, all kinds of pot pies are put together, from the heavy dishes that you want to eat on the coldest winter days to lighter and more elegant – but still one-dish – meals that you could easily enjoy on a summer night. The selling point is not just flavor, but how easy the dish is to prepare and the fact that it comes out of the oven as a complete meal.
The cookbook is beautifully presented with full-color photos of all of the recipes in it. I’ve heard that it is difficult to photograph pot pies since you need to see the not-always-pretty filling in the photos, but you would never know that looking at the beautifully styled pictures in this book. The recipes range from the fairly familiar to the more exotic, with things like Beef & Vegetable Pot Pie on one end of the spectrum and Lobster Pie Pie and Thai Chicken Pot Pie on the other. Three different, all equally easy to put together, pie crust recipes are given at the beginning of the book for reference. You can also use these pie crusts for other pie recipes.
Overall, the book is well laid out and easy to follow. The recipes are clearly explained and, although the ingredients lists can sometimes get long with all the veggies and spices, everything used in the book should be easy to find in the grocery store. It’s a great volume if you already like pot pies, but it’s even better if you’re not too familiar with them and really want to see how good a one-dish meal made of a juicy, flavorful filling and topped with a flaky, tender crust can be.
What do you think?