Pig & Pastry Pie

Good cooks insist on good ingredients for their creations, and Melissa, the creator of the Pig & Pastry Pie Co., uses only the best for her delicious chicken pot pies and beef pot roast pies. It helps that her day job is manager of my favorite butcher shop, Lindy & Grundy. Pig & Pastry Pie Co. is her "side gig" and she personally makes the pies on her time off from the shop.

If you have never had a home made pot pie or shepherd's pie, Melissa's will set the paradigm so high that you might be unwilling to ever try to make your own. My favorite is the chicken pot pie which is loaded with wonderful bite sized pieces of chicken, carrots, and peas. This is comfort food at its most noble, with a pastry crust that is so flaky and crisp, I devoured it (and I almost never eat any crust).

The filling is a sumptuous blend of all the creamy goodness you want in a comfort dish. Seasoned perfectly with hints of thyme, this pie manages to be both upscale and old school rustic at the same time. I should probably fill my freezer with these vacuum sealed frozen pies for the apocalypse (assuming we will have electricity or gas during the end of the world).

The beef pot roast pie has a mashed potato and TRUFFLE topping, so it is more of a shepherd's style pie than a pot pie with a flaky crust. Like all the pies, it is vacuum sealed and frozen so you can easily store and bake it at your convenience.

 When it is baked it is a meat and potato lovers paradise of a meal.

The interior is a hearty blend of pot roast, carrots and celery. My only critique of this pie is that the mashed potato topping was a bit salty. Having truffles in it made me eat more of it, but for those who are sensitive to salt, the chicken pot pie would be a better choice.

Unfortunately these pies are only available at Lindy & Grundy right now, but fortunately that means you will have to go to the best butcher shop in Los Angeles:)