Mushroom Pinchy Pies
52 weeks of baking – Veggie
You know those items that sit in your fridge for a long time and you keep planning on using them, but it never really happens? Well these mushrooms sat around for awhile, but I did finally end up using them.
The ship is headed to yard and while we are hauled out of the water we are on sever water restrictions. If we use a lot of water it’ll fill the tanks, if we fill the tanks we’ll have to dump them before they over flow into the bilges. If we dump them they might end up being dumped on people who are working on the hull of the ship, no fun. So we try to avoid this by planning ahead, using paper plates and meals likes sandwiches where there is very minimal clean up. Plus, with such quick meals the hands that were once allocated to food preparations are now outside doing something to the ship. The faster we get our work done the sooner the ship gets back in the water and the smaller the bill is.
So in preparation for not cooking for a few days I wanted to clean the fridge out of anything that might not be good on the other hand. These mushrooms were already looking a little sad and dry, I wanted to use them up and not throw them away. I feel worse about wasting mushrooms than I do lettuce.
These little pinchy pie pockets were great, it was all about the filling really, rich, creamy and very mushroomy with a hint of musk from the thyme. Their shell of bread was crispy where browned but also that nice chewy squidgyness of squished bread around the edges. Normally little pies like this are deep fried but I prefer the taste of bread that’s been fried in butter, in a way it reminded me of part of an English breakfast.
Mushroom Pinchy Pies
- Yield: 12 pies
- Category: Appetizers
Ingredients
- 24 slices of white bread, I used Texas toast
- 1/4 c butter, for frying
Filling
- 12 medium mushrooms, roughly chopped = 2 cups
- 1/4 of a red onion, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp. thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 c white wine
- 1/4 c heavy cream
- 1/2 c gruyere cheese, grated
- 4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Directions
Filling
- Sauté the mushrooms in a little butter with a pinch of salt until they loose their moisture and start to brown. Add the onions, garlic and thyme, cook for 3-5 minutes until the onions have softened, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Deglaze the pan with the white wine scrapping the bottom of the pan to pick up any tasty bits that have stuck. Turn off the heat and add the cream, let cool for a few minutes before adding the cheese and parsley. Set aside while you prep your bread.
Pies
- Remove the crusts from your bread, you could use a round circle cutter to end up with very tidy pies.
- Put a spoonful of filling in the middle of a slice of bread, lay another pieces of bread on top and firmly squeeze the edges closed. It might take a few pies to get them just right.
- Cook the pinchy pies in 1-2 T of butter, about 2-3 minutes per side on medium low heat until golden brown. Sprinkle them with salt as soon as they come out. Alternatively, you could deep fry them, you’ll want a very good seal.
