Mushroom pot pie

Oh finally, finally I`ve finished my presentation today and now is time get back to my "more fun" world.

Before I share the food, let me share about this one first. Or these ones. A blogger friend of mine Sissi from  With A Glass, who is a very dedicated food blogger and talented cook (I truly admire her productivity!) recently passed on the Versatile Blogger award to me, and as if that`s not making me flattered enough, she passed on another award, the Liebster blogger award. Must be my lucky day! Thank you, Sissi! As the award requires the one who accepts it to share a list of 7 random things, here is my list!

1. I`m more a writer than a speaker.
Sadly to say, that doesn`t necessarily mean I`m good at writing.

2. My precious collection is books. 

3. List no 2 explains for my poor eyesight.

4. No heels, flats only.
Well, I tried, but my feet kept telling me that heels are not for them.

5. I`ve never eaten scones in my life. Embarrassing, I know.
6. Doing jogging is my annual New Year`s resolution.
7. "Inception" puzzled me big time.

Now you know more bits about me, and to continue the award tradition, I`d love to pass the Versatile Blogger award on to these food bloggers who are such fabulous cooks, photographers, and bento stylists. I`m 200% sure that all bloggers in my list have (repeatedly) accepted such awards, but I hope they don`t mind accepting another award from me. If you haven`t visited their blogs, oh you should now!

1. Jun at Indochine Kitchen

2. Rita at Mocchachocolata Rita

3. Jenn at Bentobird
4. Nami at Just One Cookbook
5. CG at Cooking Gallery
6. Lauren at Lauren`s Latest
7. Lindsey at The Tiny Skillet

I`m really embarrassed to say that I`m still working on my list for bloggers to whom I`d like to pass on the Liebster award, but I hope to come up with it on my next post. So, until that happens, let`s cook now!

I had been wanting to make this pot pie since 2 years ago when I watched Nigella`s video on chicken pot pie. I hope you don`t get sick of hearing me referring to Nigella`s recipes, but  other than I`m a fan of her, it was actually my first time knowing how to make a chicken pot pie and she absolutely makes the process look incredibly easy. Anyway, based on that, I made my version of no meat, all mushrooms pot pie and I l-o-v-e-d it. Not really proud of the cheating step using storebought pie sheets, but still, I loved it.

Okay, so these are the mushrooms I used for the pie filling. They are shimeji (upper left), eringi (upper right), and shiitake (center bottom). Slice or chop them up and set aside. Do not mix them up, since we`re going to cook them separately.

Heat oil on a pan and saute chopped/minced garlic.

Now we`re going to saute the mushrooms, but we need to do that one mushroom type at a time.
Start with shiitake mushroom first. Throw them in to the sauteed garlic and cook them until they shrink and wilted. Ideally, I want them to get browned rather than steamed. When I put too much of them in the pan, I add a little more oil to help the browning. And that usually works for me.
When the shiitake mushroom looks done, place the mushroom and the garlic, everything on a plate and set aside.

Continue with the eringi mushroom. The pan should be still oily enough, but you can add the oil if you need to. Same like the shiitake, sautee until they get browned and set them aside.

Last mushroom, the shimeji. Now, the reason I cook shimeji the last is because this mushroom has way more water content than shiitake and eringi do. After one minute sauteing or so, you`ll see how much water released from the wilted mushroom and this water would hamper the browning process. I suppose cranking up the heat and adding more oil will do the trick, but I`m good with them get cooked through.

Put back the browned shiitake and eringi mushrooms to the pan together with the "watery" shimeji.

To make the white sauce, I added 2 tbs of flour to the mushrooms, but I think the sauce ended up too thick with  200 ml of milk. So I think I`ll reduce half of the flour next time I make this again.

This is the 200 milk I poured into the mushrooms. And it was plain soy milk. It was Plants day.
Stir until the flour is dissolved and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

And I added 1 tbs (or maybe more) of aonori (seaweed flakes).
Okay, I have a confession to make. I remembered having like 1 tbs Parmesan cheese left in the fridge, so I used it up for this filling. Not a Plants day anymore.

Place the filling in individual ramekins, or whatever baking dish you use.

I`m not proud of this, but I was really excited using this pie sheet since it`s my first time making pie.  You make your own pie sheet? Then I salute you, my friend.
Cut the sheet into size that is enough to cover the top of your ramekins or dish and use the leftover for the rim.

Now this is my verdict about this step. Nigella wet the rim of the ramekin with water and lined it with the sheet. So that`s what I did. I suppose this would help the pie sheet covering the top stick to the ramekin and also give a nice thick puffy pie on the rim. But in my case, when the baking is done, the pie sheet on the rim was slightly undercooked. So, although I don`t know for sure, I think skipping the rim part of the pie wouldn`t hurt.

And by skipping the rim, you can go placing the sheet to cover the ramekin while giving the sheet a gentle push so it sticks to the dish.

Now this is a decorative step that you can just follow or simply skip. I probably didn`t push it enough to make the lines visible in the final result.
Finished the preparation? Bake the pie in preheated oven at 200 C for 20 mins. Or just follow the instruction on the pie sheet`s package.

Woohooohoooo....look at these chubby pies! They beautifully puffed up and the smell was really, really good!

Even my spoon smiled a lot. Well, I smiled a lot.

Oh, look inside, and go dig in! Every spoonful of this pie and the filling will totally bring the oomphs out of you.

MUSHROOM POT PIE

Makes 2-3 individual pot pies

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic

100 g shiitake mushroom

100 g eringi mushroom

100 g shimeji mushroom

1 Tbs flour

200 ml plain soy milk

1 Tbs aonori (seaweed flakes)

1 Tbs parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

2 sheets of 10x10-cm pre-made puff pastry or according to the ramekin`s size

Strips of pre-made puff pastry to line the ramekin`s rim (optional)

Method:

1. Slice or chop up mushrooms, separate each mushroom type, and set aside.

2.  Heat oil on a pan and saute chopped/minced garlic.

3. Saute mushrooms one type at a time. Start with shiitake, eringi, and end with shimeji. Saute the mushrooms until browned and wilted.

4. After all mushrooms are browned and wilted, put them back together in the pan. 

5. Stir in 2 Tbs of flour and cook for 3 mins.

6. Pour in 200 ml soy milk and add 1 Tbs aonori and 1 Tbs parmesan cheese. 

7. Stir to combine and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

8. Place the filling in individual ramekins.

9. Wet the ramekin`s rim with water.

10. Optional: Line the rim with the reserved puff pastry strips.

11. Cover the ramekin with the puff pastry sheet and press the edge to make sure that it properly sticks.

12. Pierce the middle of the puff pastry for air vent during baking.

13. Optional: Press the surface of a fork on the ramekin edge to give a decorative grids.

14. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 C for 20 mins or according to the puff pastry`s package.