Wild Mushroom Pot Pie

Regrettably, I had a less than successful Hen of the Woods foraging season this year…but fortunately, our local grocery store (McCaffrey’s) has a great array of dried mushrooms, and Wegman’s actually had fresh hen of the woods on our last trip, so we’ve had a great safety net to bail us out of our fungus hunting failures.

With our fresh hen of the woods secured, we decided to make a vegetarian pot pie! Unlike our Chicken Pot Pie, we decided to only partially cover our entree with a dome of dough…and we used a little more butter in our dough for this one so it would get puffier.

We served our pot pies in small ramekins with a spinach and tomato side salad!

Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients (To make one regular sized pie or three small ramekins):

  • For the filling:
    • 4 Ounces Hen of the Woods/Maitake Mushroom
    • 1 Sweet Onion
    • 4 Celery Stalks
    • A few cloves of Garlic
    • 15 Baby Carrots (or whatever the big carrot equivalent is)
    • 1 Tablespoon Butter
    • 1 Tablespoon All Purpose Flour
    • 4 Ounces Vegetable Stock
    • A few splashes of Worcestershire Sauce
    • Black Pepper
  • For the Dough Topping, either use a premade pie dough or:
    • 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
    • 3 Tablespoons of Butter
    • A little Cold Water

Method:

  • Start my prepping your dough.
    • Add your butter and flour to the bowl of your food processor, and pulse to combine.
    • Slowly add in cold water an ounce at a time, and pulse until your dough clumps.
    • Use your hands to combine the clumps into one big dough ball, and then wrap in plastic wrap, and place in your refrigerator to cool.
  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and turn your attention to your filling:
    • Dice your onion, celery, carrots, and garlic, and set aside.
    • Rinse your mushroom, cut off any tough or woody bits, and then slice. Don’t dice, as they will cook down anyway.
    • Heat some butter in a large pan, and then add your onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.
    • Allow to sautee for 10 minutes or so to soften your veggies a bit. Then, add in your hen of the woods/maitake mushroom, and sautee everything for another 3-5 minutes.
    • Sprinkle your flour atop your veggies, and stir to combine.
    • Sprinkle in some black pepper, pour in a little worcestershire, and add your vegetable stock. Allow to simmer and for your sauce to thicken.
    • When your sauce has thickened, pour into your pie pan or ramekins.
  • Sprinkle some flour down on a large, clean surface, and then pull your dough ball out of the fridge.
  • Roll it out into a rectangle that is at least as long as the diameter of your pie dish/ramekins (to ensure that your dough will completely cover your pie when you arrange it).
  • Use a pizza cutter to cut your dough into strips. Then, layer those strips into a pound sign (hashtag for younger readers) over your pie. You may need to recombine and reroll leftover dough scraps to get enough.
  • Place your pie(s) in the oven, and bake for 35-40 minutes to cook and slightly brown your dough.
  • Plate, devour, and enjoy!

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