Mushroom Pie

No, this is not a Quiche Lorraine, but a Mushroom Pie.


Made this pie for lunch yesterday, using a recipe from a Chinese cookbook. It was a breeze making the pie crust as the pastry was not overly soft or sticky. The only problem I had was the fillings! I didn't follow the recipe to use dairy whipping cream and milk to make the sauce as I ran out of cream. So I thought I could replace it with a ready-made pasta cream sauce which I bought recently.


To our great disappoint, the sauce didn't taste very good! Not only there was too much sodium, the taste was a bit off!


Thanks to my "temperamental" oven, the sides of the pie crust was not very browned, it was still quite pale when I unmold the pie. As a result it was not very crisp.



Here's a photo of the innards. Not very appetizing...as the sauce was not white but light brown...it was a "grilled chicken sausage" flavour. I added fresh button mushrooms and some picnic ham to the sauce. I am lucky to be blessed with 2 boys and a cute niece who are not fussy eaters. The four of us gobbled down the entire 8" pie in no time!

For those who are interested to try this out, I have posted the recipe here. I am sure if I were to make the fillings from scratch, this pie will really taste much better!


Ingredients:

pastry base:
70g butter, chilled
140g flour
15g dry grated parmesan cheese
2g salt
50~60 ml ice water

fillings:
500g assorted fresh mushrooms
25g butter
salt and pepper

sauce:
60ml milk
120g dairy whipping cream

1 egg, lightly beaten (for brushing the pie crust)

Method:

fillings:
- Stir fry assorted mushrooms with butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cool.

sauce:
- Mix whipping cream with fresh milk.

pastry base:

1. Lightly grease an 8 inch pie pan, set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cheese powder and salt, stir to mix. Rub-in the butter into the flour mixture, until the mixture resemble crumbles. Drizzle the ice water over the mixture and mix to form a soft dough. Shape dough to form a round disk and store in a plastic bag or cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30mins or up to overnight.
3. Roll out the pastry in between 2 sheets of cling wrap or baking paper (I used two sheets of cut-out plastic bags) to about 2~3mm in thickness.
4. Remove one side of the cling wrap or baking paper. Place it over the prepared pie pan. Mould the pastry into the pan, smoothing the edges and the rim carefully.
5. Use a fork to poke holes on the pastry. Line the pie crust with a piece of foil or parchment paper, and fill it with dried beans, uncooked rice or metal pie weights. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degC for 10mins. Remove the weights and continue to bake for another 10mins. Remove from oven and brush the surface with the lightly beaten egg.
6. Drain and add in the cooked assorted mushrooms.
7. Pour over the whipping cream/milk mixture. Top with grated cheese. Bake at preheated oven at 160 degC for 30mins until the cheese turn golden brown.
   
   Recipe source: adapted from 曾美子的黃金比例蛋糕