Recipe: Mushroom Paté Pocket Pies

The mushroom paté we had with our friends for dinner one weekend was spectacular, but the recipe I have makes a huge batch. To be honest, the making of the paté originally wasn’t so much because our friend, Duchess Boo, loves mushrooms but because I wanted to use the new toy The Big Guy bought for me: my Cuisinart food processor. I think I was a little overzealous and simply kept dumping ingredients into the bowl just for the thrill of hitting that pulse button a few more times on its maiden voyage. Despite our best efforts at dinner that night and then further nights with the remainder of a box full of Triscuits, we knew we couldn’t finish it all (so sue me; I was in a hurry and didn’t make my own crackers).

But, what to do with the excess filling? I toyed a bit with stuffed pork chops (and I still might try that some day) and even baked, whole apples, but The Big Guy got all pouty and I knew I needed to pull out my secret weapon: pastry. Little mushroom pocket pies seemed the perfect way to use up the excess and put a smile back on his face. Considering that I got the happy dance out of him, I’d say they were a success.

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole almonds
• 1 fat clove of garlic
• 1 cup dried, sliced shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water
• 1 cup sliced fresh portabella mushrooms, broken into pieces
• 1 cup sliced white button mushrooms, stems removed and set aside for another use
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped roughly, or an equivalent amount of shallots
• 1 teaspoon smoked sea salt
• 1 healthy teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup (about 1 stick) butter
• you favorite double crust pie dough recipe
• 1 whole egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon of room temperature water

Instructions

1. In a cast iron pan or another pan that evenly heats, toast the almonds in a single layer until browned and fragrant, but not burnt. Cool completely.
2. Once cool, pulse several times, carefully, until finely ground but not oily.
3. Drain the shitake mushrooms, reserving the liquid for another use (such as a vegetable broth).
4. Add the garlic, all three types of mushrooms, and the onions to the large bowl of a food processor and pulse in short bursts until everything is evenly chopped.
5. Sprinkle the mushroom mixture with the salt, thyme, pepper and pulse again briefly until combined.
6. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat, then add the mushroom mixture and cook approximately 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture has released all its moisture and the liquid has evaporated. The mixture should be lightly browned by the time it’s cooked.
7. Set the mushroom mixture aside to cool.
8. Carefully but thoroughly combine the nuts with the mushroom mixture until evenly distributed.
9. Check the seasonings and adjust as necessary.
10. Preheat the oven to 350F.
11. Roll out your pie dough to about 1/3 of an inch thickness.
12. Using a round cookie cutter, a wide-mouthed glass jar, or a biscuit cutter, cut out rounds of pie dough.
13. Fill each round with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the cooled mushroom mixture, lightly brush the edge of half the round with some of the egg wash, then fold over and seal the edges with the tines of a fork that you’ve dipped briefly in the egg.
14. Using a very sharp paring knife or kitchen scissors, lightly snip 1 or 2 slits in the pockets to allow the steam to escape while cooking.
15. Place the pies on an ungreased cookie sheet or a preheated baking stone and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until they turn golden brown.
16. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before eating.

Notes

If you find you don’t have the mushrooms I’ve listed, try any combination that you find you have on hand. I’ve tried several different kinds since I first made this recipe with great success. Have you ever tried Lion’s Mane mushrooms? Or wild crafted puffballs? There are some lovely varieties out there waiting for you to explore their flavors.

One of the really nice things about these pies is that you can get them filled and then freeze them before they’re baked. When it comes time to bake them, just pop out the number you need, stick them directly on a baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake them a little longer directly from the frozen state. You can even bake them on the grill in the heat of the summer.

If you prefer to pan fry these little pockets, I recomend using 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil heated to medium low heat in a cast iron or non-stick pan. Once heated, only cook 3 or 4 pockets at a time, working not to crowd them all in the pan at once. They only take about 3 or 4 minutes on each side to be cooked through in their freshly made state. I’ve not yet tried them in a pan from their frozen state yet though, so report back if you try it.

My husband, connoisseur that he is, once asked if I could make these shaped like toaster pastries too. And I’m happy to report that you can. When it comes time to roll out the dough, roll it out to a little less than 1/8-inch thick (use a ruler, as this thickness is really important for the pastries to cook completely). Instead of cutting the dough into rounds, though, cut them into rectangles approximately 4″x5″. Use the same amount of filling, but spread it out, taking care to leave enough space all the way around the edges to allow you to seal them properly with the fork and egg wash technique. Bake these pastries for 20 minutes (they’ll be intentionally underdone), then take them out of the oven and cool them completely. Carefully place them in a container until you’re ready to toast them in your toaster. Since each toaster is different, you’ll have to play with the settings to get it right, but the pastries should brown up quite nicely when you’re done.