Ned Hanlon vs. The Great Met Opera Bake-Off

A chicken pesto pie in the shape of a viking helmet?!?! Sure… Why not?

by Ned Hanlon

To start with, I think I should be completely honest: this recipe was a failure. Its purpose was to fulfill a simple and laughable goal I set for myself: winning a baking competition. But not just any competition… the renowned Metropolitan Opera Bake-Off!

But why was that goal laughable? Well mainly because I’m not a terribly good baker! Sure, over the past year or two I’ve developed a strong quiche game and have mustered solid meringue efforts but, largely I remain very mistake-prone. I have still never succeeded in caramelizing sugar and only recently confused baking soda and baking powder in a chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Despite this handicap, I decided to win. I knew I had to go with my strength: savory baking. If you squint just the right way at a quiche, it’s basically a pie, and I was determined to make that a reality. So I did! The recipe below, my chicken, pesto, sun-dried tomato and feta pie, tasted pretty good. I’ll leave you to judge on appearance!

But despite everything, I didn’t actually win. My pie was beaten by some truly remarkable blue cheese walnut scones. And you know what… that’s fine! I had a wonderful time making it, people were so nice in their feedback and compliments, and I had the legit honor of baking for the great New York Times reporter Melissa Clark (one of the judges), whose recipes are my go-to when it comes time to making dinner!

With that all said, let’s get on to the recipe! One note: A LOT of this was free-handed, and I’m trying to reconstruct amounts in hindsight. Basically, I could have written “to your taste” for every amount, so please, if you want more garlic, add more garlic! The pastry is an amalgam of a recipe from the Great British Bake-Off, and the more standard one below.

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Ingredients:

For the Rice:

• 3/4 cup Italian Rice

• 1 1/2 cup stock

• Salt

For the Pastry:

• 450 grams all purpose flour

• 100 grams bread flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 150 grams lard (I was unable to find lard on short notice, so I went with shortening, which worked fine)

• 25 grams unsalted butter

• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze

• 30cm circular template (I did mine with a compass and parchment paper).

For the Filling:

• 2 onions, diced

• 1 1/2 lbs chicken, cubed about 3/4 inch

• 1 zucchini, diced

• 2 tomatoes, seeds removed and diced

• 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced (bet you thought I was going to say diced again!)

• 6 oz pesto

• 10 oz crumbled feta cheese

• 1 tbs dried basil

• 1 tbs dried oregano

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Salt

• Pepper

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Directions:

First make the filling:

1. Add 1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil (henceforth known as “EVOO”) to a large skillet on medium low heat. When hot, add onions, 1/2 tbs basil, 1/2 tbs oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook 15 minutes, or until slightly golden and delicious smelling.

2. While cooking the onion add 1 tbs EVOO to another large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add diced zucchini and a pinch of salt. Cook until soft (10 minutes maybe?) then remove to a large bowl.

3. Once onions are golden, add garlic and sun-dried tomatoes and cook for one minute, until fragrant. Remove onions, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes to bowl with zucchini.

4. In the skillet used for onions add 1 tbs EVOO over medium-high heat and, once hot, add chicken, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Cook 6-ish minutes, until just cooked through, then remove to bowl.

5. While chicken is cooking, add 1 1/2 cup stock to a medium pot. Bring to boil then add rice. Bring back to boil then turn the heat down to low and let cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Leave in covered pot for another 15 minutes then remove to bowl and set aside to cool completely.

6. Stir to combine chicken, onions, zucchini etc. Add pesto and tomato. Stir again, then gently fold in feta. Spoon into colander and set aside to drain and cool.

Now we do pastry! (Note on pastry: hot water crust pastry can only be worked on when it’s hot, so don’t start this process until your fillings are cool and ready to go. In fact, you can totally make the rice and filling a day before and store it in the fridge if you’d like!).

So are we ready? All right, let’s do it!

Photo: Jenny Gorman / Met Opera

These were only some of the amazing baked creations made by artists, artisans, and staff at the Met Opera!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. (I legitimately have no idea what that would equal in Celsius… probably somewhere between 0 and 100 degrees I think.)

   [Editor’s Note: It’s around 200 C.]

2. Combine both flours and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

3. Place 200ml of water in a pan over high heat. Add lard and butter until they have melted (around 2ish minutes). Pour wet mixture into flour mixture and mix. Use a wooden spoon while it is hot but as soon as your hands can take it, combine with your hands. Tip onto floured baking surface and knead until smooth. Roll into a ball and then cut off 1/3. Put the other 2/3’s in a covered bowl to keep it warm.

4. Roll out the dough pretty thin (sorry I can’t be more exact about that!) use the template to cut dough in a circle. Return trimmings to warm bowl.

5. Move circle of dough to a lined baking sheet. Pile somewhere between a half and a full inch of rice on dough circle, leaving an inch around the edges. Brush the edge of the pastry not covered by rice with water

6. Pile chicken filling in a dome filling on top of rice. Make it approximately like half of a globe. Smooth out dome as best you can.

7. Cut off 3/4 of remains pastry. Roll out dough. Drape over chicken. Smooth over filling and trim so that the edges line up with the edges of the base pastry. Press edge with the tines of a fork to seal.

8. Use the remaining dough to decorate in any way you see fit! You can see what I did but the world is your oyster!

9. Mold two cones (horns!). Place them on the baking sheet next to the pie.

10. Brush pie and horns with egg wash and cut two slits in the top of the pie for steam to escape

11. Cook for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Keep an eye out for some of the decorations which are more likely to burn. If anything darkens too much, cover in tin foil.

Enjoy!

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Edward Hanlon, graduate of McGill University and University of Michigan, is a Long Island boy making good with the Metropolitan Opera. He serves in dual roles as chorister and chair of the chorus and Met AGMA committee at the Met. Favorite roles include Figaro, Sparafucile, Dick Deadeye, Sarastro, and Nick Bottom with companies such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Lincoln Center Theatre, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. He dreams of singing another Figaro with his beautiful wife, soprano Tanya Roberts. His first novel is is due to be released this summer ... at the end of the 2017-18 season ... umm... someday?

Check out his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.