Mushroom Pie Pitched for Complete Novice Home Chef Recipe

(serves 6) A flaky crust with a rich sauce and oodles of vegetable filling.
Ingredients
Filling
500-525g Chestnut mushrooms quartered
1 Cannonball or 2 Large Onions chopped
5 Garlic Cloves Chopped (Fresh or Frozen)
1 Large carrot Chopped (200g)(Fresh or Frozen)
2 Stalks Celery Chopped (Fresh or Frozen)
100g Frozen Sweetcorn
35g Vegan Butter
80 ml White Wine
80ml Vegetable Stock
1 ½ Tbsp Soy Sauce (for deglazing - removing suck bits)
50g Plain Flour
2 ½ Tbsp (45ml) Full Fat Coconut Milk / Vegan Cream
½ Tbsp / 5g Light Brown Sugar
¾ Tsp Dried Thyme
1 Tsp Table Salt
½ Tsp Ground Black Pepper
Topping
1 Ready made Puff or Crust pastry
30 ml sweet nut milk
Prep
Wash the 500g mushrooms (wipe, as you should never immerse mushrooms in water), then
quarter and set aside in a large bowl.
Top, half, skin then roughly chop 1 cannonball or 2 large onions. Set aside in a covered bowl to
protect your eyes.
If using frozen garlic, let it defrost for 30 mins before chopping or give it 15 secs in the microwave.
Finely chop the garlic, then set aside in the same bowl as the onion. If using fresh garlic, de-skin
the cloves by pressing down hard on each clove with flat solid surface. If confident, use the flat of
your kitchen knife. Add the chopped garlic to the asme bowl as the onion.
Wash, peel, top and tail 1 large carrot (200g), then half along its length, before halving each
separate part. Roughly chop into slices about 6-7mm broad. Add to a separate bowl and set
aside.
To the same bowl, add your celery. Wash the celery, then half each stalk along its length, before
chopping into pieces roughly 6-7mm broad. If using chopped frozen celery, add to the same bowl
as the carrot. No need to defrost if its already chopped.
Add the 100g of frozen sweetcorn to the same bowl as the carrot and celery. Again no need to
defrost.
Measure 80ml of white wine and set aside, and repeat for the 80ml vegetable stock.
Add 1 ½ Tbsp of soy sauce to a ramekin and set aside.
To a separate ramekin, add 1 tsp of table salt, ½ tsp ground black pepper and ¾ tsp of dried
thyme.
Set aside 50g of plain flour on a small plate.
Add 5g / ½ Tbsp of light brown sugar to a ramekin
Add 35g of vegan butter to a large heavy based pot.
Method
Preheat oven to 220°C (fan oven)
In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt the butter at a med heat.. Once melted turn the temp up to
high, add the onion and garlic and sauté until golden brown, 3 minutes.
Add the carrot, sweetcorn and chopped celery, turn the heat down to med-high and cook until the
carrots are just tender, around 4 mins.
Add the quartered mushrooms and sauté for around 5 minutes. Use the 1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce and
a straight edged wooden spoon to deglaze the pan. (Deglazing is using a small amount of liquid to
remove stuck foods on the pan).
Stir everything together to combine.
Add the 80ml white wine to the pan and if the pan did not fully deglaze (which if often hasn’t) use
the wine to continue the process whilst simmering for 2 minutes.
Now add the remaining ingredients, the 80ml vegetable stock, 50g plain flour, 2 ½ Tbsp coconut
cream, 5g light brown sugar, ¾ Tsp Thyme, 1Tsp of table salt and ½ Tsp ground black pepper. Stir
until the flour is fully combined and dissolved and cook until the sauce is thickened, around 1-2
mins.
Remove from the heat and add to a suitable oven dish. Cover with your rolled out puff or crust
pastry. Lightly press the edges around the pan to ensure the pastry is sealed. With a sharp knife
add about 5 slits across the pie (around ½ the total width of the pastry). Then brush with the nut
milk and bake in the oven at 200˚C for 30 mins (until golden brown).
Let the pie cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Puff pastry shrinks when cooking so it should be around 3 cm wider than the size of your oven dish to account for this.
Crust pastry should be cut to the size of the oven dish.
The mushroom filling can be prepared a couple of days in advance of making the pie. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
This is an extremely versatile recipe and you can play with the vegetable fillings quite heavily or even add seitan or tofu to make it even more filling.