wild mushroom pie

When you co-habitate with a vegetarian and you have friends who are vegetarian and those friends are awesome cooks (you know who you are), it’s a little intimidating when you invite them over for dinner.  At some stage in the friendship you have to pony up to the plate and whip something up that’ll knock their socks off.  You can’t always be hovering around waiting for their dinner invitation, again.

Take that air high five and a quiet pat on the back because I’m about to unveil my secret weapon, go to recipe, to you….. yes you and besides you can’t eat meat every night of the damn week,  now can you ?  So the next time you find you’ve somehow blurted out “why don’t you come over for dinner”.  Unclench, you have an ace in the proverbial hole!

Wild Mushroom Pie

2 sheets puff pastry

1 onion sliced

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 c heavy cream

2 tbsp dry sherry (don’t evoke your inner Julia its 2 tbsp spoons!)

1 packed tbsp thyme leaves

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp butter, salt & pepper

1 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms (absolutely any kind you like), I like a variety of shittake, white button, cremini, baby bella, oyster, maitake, SLICED roughly the same size.  If your supermarket can be fresh produce challenged, like mine is sometimes, you can always keep in the pantry some dried mixed mushrooms, reconstitute these and add into whatever fresh you can find…

In a large skillet heat oil and saute onions and garlic until golden,  add butter and  mushrooms and saute until soft and browned, add herbs, salt & pepper, sherry and cream, and gently keep on the heat until the liquid is almost evaporated.

Cool. Then heat oven 400F

You have at this stage defrosted your puff, right? No, well you need to, then dust board with flour and roll out just a bit, line baking sheet with parchment or dust with flour, transfer pastry onto this…. when mushroom mixture has cooled, dump into the middle of the pastry square, or rectangle depending on what kind of pastry you bought, (I used Trader Joes, yeah I know surprise surprise), which comes in a square form, but the most common Pepperidge Farm is a rectangle, just roll this loosely a little).

leave about a 1 1/2 inch border, using a pastry brush, or any old brush or even your fingers, use a little water and run around the outside edge, then roll the other piece and place over… trim pastry even, and using a fork press edges together…. like so

prick the top a few times… and bake for about 30-35 minutes until its golden brown and puffed! This pie is great hot, warm or cold the next day… I just ate a left over cold piece now, yes I did and I begrudgingly shared it with Mr Weiss… I know big of me.