Do You Like... Mushroom Pie???

If Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson were to ask me that (hey, a girl can dream, right????????), I'd say, "Yes.  Yes, I do like pie.  I like apple pie, blueberry pie, peach pie, cherry pie, chicken pot pie, and then some."  I mean, c'mon - two layers of carb-tastic crust with a delicious filling - what's NOT to like?
So when I saw several of my blogging buddies start talking about #PieWeek, I totally invited myself like the ugly girl tagging along at the fraternity party.
Thank goodness they like me.
Because this is a group of bloggers who make some flat drool-worthy pies!
Case in point:

• Kirsten at Comfortably Domestic presented an apple pie with a cheddar streusel topping.  I'm already in love.
• Jeanne at Inside Nana Bread's Head gave us fried bananas foster pies.  Oh my word, catch me when I fall!
• Kat over at Tenaciously Yours (she's a fellow "new runner," just like me!) made her first pumpkin pie.  So proud of her!
• Mads, from La Petite Pancake, tackled a snozzberry pie, her first foray into fantastic fruit (hi, alliteration!).  Mmmmmm.... berries!
• And Megan at Wanna Be a Country Cleaver left her labradork Huck wishing that he could have a bite of her Nutella® pecan pie.  It's OK - I swooned, too.

So I am honored to offer a savory addition to this selection of sweets.
OK, so it's confession time first.  The one rule I had to follow - to use Kirsten's No Excuses Pie Crust recipe - I sort of, kind of broke.  Not really, but I used whole wheat pasty flour instead of all purpose flour.  It really wasn't that different, so not really that much of a rule break, but I worked in Catholic schools long enough to feel that I needed to confess that minor transgression.
Just so you know, this pie crust recipe is superbly easy AND divine after coming out of the oven.   I have always used Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe, but I think I'm going to switch over to this one.  It's more fun and less pretentious than Martha.  Plus I love Kirsten but have no emotional attachment to Martha.
OK, so back to the pie.  I had thought about doing a trial run of the pie I'll be making for Thanksgiving, and I should probably do that anyway.  But I opted to look for a new savory pie that would fit into my "less meat" plans.  So when I thought creatively for a few minutes googled "savory pie," mushrooms were the immediate front runner.
I kind of wanted to just copy a recipe from another website, but none of the recipes really sang to me, so after narrowing down the field to four candidates, I opted to just combine them and make my own recipe (I even tried to measure stuff out and all that - so weird for me!).

Thus, I give you...

Mushroom and Red Wine Pie

• 1 batch No Excuses Pie Crust
• 1 1/2 pounds assorted mushrooms, sliced* - for this recipe, I used shiitake, oyster, portabella, and button mushrooms
• 2 Tbsp butter, plus a bit more to butter your pie dish
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1/2 onion (any variety - whatever you like), chopped
• 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 cup vegetable stock*
• 2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped very fine
• 4 tsp tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 egg, beaten, some sea salt, and garlic powder

*If you choose, you can use a 2 oz package of dried mushrooms that have been reconstituted in water for a portion of your fresh mushrooms.  Then use a cup of the reserved liquid instead of the broth.

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Combine the vegetable stock, thyme, and tapioca starch; set aside.

Melt butter over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add garlic and cook another minute, until fragrant (not that it wasn't fragrant before you started cooking, but all the good recipes say that, so there).

Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, until the mushrooms begin to soften.  Turn up the heat to high and add the red wine.  Allow to cook for just about one minute before stirring in the stock mixture.  Stir thoroughly and turn the heat to low.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes (or until the mushrooms are cooked down).

Turn around to see a very pathetic black and tan coonhound looking at you, crushed because you carefully ensured that all ingredients went into the pan and nothing fell on the floor.

While the mushrooms are simmering, roll out one of your two refrigerated disks of pie crust.  Attempt to pick it up; rip it; swear at the dough.  Repeat several times before actually getting it right.  Carefully roll out the crust into a pie or tart pan and make sure that the crust is all the way down (we don't want a ripped crust now, do we?).

Remove the mushroom mixture from the heat and stir in the sour cream.  Season with salt and pepper to taste; spoon the mixture into the pie crust.

Roll out the second disk of refrigerated dough, repeating the roll-attempt-rip-swear process until you are able to lift the rolled-out dough over the pie mixture.  Crimp edges, and cut some slits in the top to vent.  Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sea salt and garlic powder (if desired).

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until the crust begins to brown.

Allow to cool before cutting into it.  That way the tapioca has time to firm up.  We were hungry last night, so we didn't wait.  The end result wasn't that pretty.  However, I am happy to report that Scott, who generally thinks everything is "OK," deemed this pie "outstanding" and would have gone back for thirds except that we decided to have it for breakfast this morning as well.

This pie is certainly going to be a part of the fall goodness rotation.  It took less time to put together than a chicken pot pie, but it still had the depth and warmth.  It will be fun to play with different wines (red or white, honestly) and various herbs to come up with new and exciting flavor combinations.
Ladies, thank you so much for letting me tag along and finish off Pie Week 2011 - it was a blast reading (and drooling to) your blog posts; I'm honored to know you all!
Now, let's eat!


Addendum
Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom, sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom, and Harvard Common Press!  You'll love all the incredible pie recipes!