No Leftovers

 

I guess that means it was tasty.

There were two blobs of pastry dough leftover from Thanksgiving day.

One of them was too big for a bottom crust, so I decided to make a savory pie.  There were about 2/3 of a pound of mushrooms left in the fridge, so I washed, dried, cut and sautéed them in butter with salt and black pepper to reduce the amount of liquid that could come out of them in the baking process.  They were dumped into a pyrex bowl to cool while a large, chopped white onion was cooked in more butter with salt and black pepper until the onion was soft.  Water was added twice to keep the onions from scorching.  Then approx. 1/4 cup of flour was added to the onions, it was stirred in well to make a roux with onion lumps.  A few glugs of cream and some milk - probably about 1/3 to 1/2 cup total were then added and stirred well until thickened.  The consistency was a bit too thick for gravy.  That was dumped into the mushrooms, a few dashes of ground nutmeg were added and stirred together.  Then very thin slices of lean beef (approx. 1/2 to 2/3 lb. total weight) were salted and peppered then browned in a little more butter just to keep them from sticking.  After turning the pieces, the (electric) burner was turned off and the meat was allowed to finish cooking with the residual heat.  The slices were still slightly rare.  The meat and all the juices were dumped into the mixture of onions, mushrooms, and gravy and allowed to sit until it had cooled a bit.  The pastry was rolled out to a diameter approx. 4-5 inches bigger than the pie tin, and it was placed in the tin.  A few slices of cubed baby Swiss cheese was added to the filling which was stirred again and added to the pan, and the excess pastry was folded toward the center of the pan in overlapping folds.  It was baked at 365 deg. Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes on the lower rack and 20-25 minutes on the upper rack until the crust was golden.  We were hungry; brunch was around noon and supper was a bit late, so the pie disappeared.  Next time, if I want leftovers, I'll have to make two.