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Nenshi Pie

Nenshi pie 2

He has a shirt and a noun (or many), in lieu of a Nenshi action figure, why not a pie?

Generally in Calgary we gear up for Canada Day and Stampede, energy-wise – this year the city was tired, still collectively recovering from the floods and the muck when July 1st snuck up on us. (Or on me, anyway.) It was good timing, actually – everyone was in need of a little reprieve and celebration, and our mayor suggested we all take a day off and enjoy each others’ company. (Amid all this, one day upon seeing a photo of Nenshi on the cover of Avenue, W said to his cousin: “see that guy? He’s the principal of Calgary.)

Emceeing the festivities at Fort Calgary I got to talking with the chairman of the (Fort Calgary) board, who told me one of her family’s favourite meals is something they call Nenshi pie – made with the filling from his mother’s samosa recipe baked in a pie crust and served with salsa or chutney.

Nenshi Pie Collage

Brilliant, don’t you think? It’s sort of a dry (in a good way), flavourful east Indian-inspired meat pie. I tried it – made as a free-form galette – and ate most of it by the sliver with my fingers, standing at the counter. Much of it with spoonfuls of green tomato chutney from the market.

Nenshi Pie Collage 2

A galette is easy, especially if you start with that puff pastry you just thaw and unroll; it can be a circle or a square or an oval, and so long as the edges fold over the filling somewhat, creating a pastry berm to enclose the filling, you’re good. The more haphazard it is the more endearingly rustic it is.

Nenshi pie 1

A Nenshi pie, unlike most samosas, is delicious hot, cold or somewhere in between – perfect for picnicking now that the water has receded and the sun has come out. (Mostly.) Begin with traditional or puff pastry for a single or double crust pie; use a proper pie plate and cover the filling with a top crust, or make it free-form. (The filling isn’t exactly the same as the family’s traditional recipe, but more a streamlined version – feel free to take liberties according to what you have in your kitchen or what you’re willing to go to the market for.)

[cooked-recipe id="22684"]
(recipe not found or in draft status)

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14 comments on “Nenshi Pie

  1. Avery
    July 15, 2013 at 3:49 pm

    Does he know he has his own namesake pie? Looks great!

  2. vanillasugarblog
    July 15, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    Oh that sounds so good.
    And easy.
    And yes, chutney on the side! I love that.

  3. Theresa
    July 15, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    Sell these frozen please!! 🙂

  4. bellini
    July 16, 2013 at 7:55 am

    It sounds so delicious Julie. Glad yo hear all is getting back to normal in Calgary.

  5. Rose
    July 16, 2013 at 9:08 am

    Hi Julie
    It’s Tuesday morning and I’m waking up to the sound of bells here in Calgary at the Palliser. We are visiting from Vancouver for a few days while my husband is here working. Would you mind emailing me back? I’d love to treat you and W ( I have a ten year old with me) to lunch at a place you would choose!
    Rose

  6. Laurie from Burnaby
    July 16, 2013 at 12:36 pm

    Oh, Yum! I had a samosa pie once, and I’ve always remembered it. this would be wonderful! I love samosas, and pies. How cool to have a pie in his name! I’ll make it just for that, never mind it being delicious!
    😀

  7. Geneil
    July 16, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    Made this last night – so delicious! Husband and 2 year old were so happy and have requested it to be in regular rotation. You forgot to mention to eat it with ketchup, the classic condiment for beef samosas!

  8. Mary Spensley
    July 16, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    I haven’t been making a lot of meat dishes lately, but this one just might be the exception. Samosa filling in a puff pastry is brilliant! I hope he likes this!

  9. kathy
    July 22, 2013 at 11:29 am

    thank you for this….I’m already tired of making something different. And it’s only July 22nd. I vow to make as much on the bbq as possible this summer. (I love my new bbq) so I’m going to put this on a pizza stone. Wish me luck.
    On sunday I even surpised myself and managed to make bacon, hash browns, and fried eggs on the grill. Everything but the toast. And that was only because I turned off the qqq before I remembered the toast. Fried eggs on parchment lined heavy duty foil that is covered in the bacon drippings (grease is such an ugly word) is so fast and easy….and you can crack and cook 8 eggs at a time (just prevent the egg from speading by folding in the edges a bit before breaking the next one)….something impossible in a frying pan. And the yolks were perfectly nice and runny and they were so easy to flip. I will prob make them on the frill all the time now. Even when it’s -50.

  10. Shelli@howsitgoingeh?
    July 24, 2013 at 9:12 am

    Nenshi pie!!! Yum that looks like some crazy savory goodness!!! So cute W said Nenshi was the principal of Calgary. Kids say the best things!

  11. Beverley M
    August 4, 2013 at 6:38 pm

    Thanks for this recipe! I made it this week. I used a frozen pie crust (top and bottom) and discovered my cilantro had bolted and gone to seed so rather than fresh cilantro and dried coriander, I used fresh coriander, mostly whole. (I tried putting it in the food processor but there wasn’t enough volume so it just beat them up a bit)

    It was very good and BOTH of my kids (2 & 5) ate it!!! Keeper!

  12. A Canadian Foodie
    August 31, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    Julie Julie Julie do ya love me? Julie Julie Julie do ya care – Julie Julie are ya thinkin of me – Julie Julie will you please add feedburner to this site so I can get your posts in my mail box? To think I missed your Nenshi pie finds me truly upset. What a tribute. I like the way you think. That has been what draws me to your work, consistently. Your thinking – and then, of course, your doing. Your endless doing. What a great tribute to your Mayor at this time. And thankfully, your neighbour wrote about this in her Canadian Food Hero post this month so I could know about this PIE and this POST and be once again wowed by the way you think.
    Big hug
    Valerie

  13. Robyn
    March 17, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    The man himself just tweeted your recipe! Looks delicious, will have to try this!

  14. Rebs Lee
    September 24, 2022 at 8:48 am

    This recipe is missing and I’d love to make it again

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