This Mushroom & Leek Pot Pie is comfort food at its best. Quick ,easy, warming and oh so satisfying. All you need is a sofa and a fork. It’s like a big hug in dish.
Today we walked about 15 km around the Barranco Blanco valley. The first picture is the view to the hill retreat we visited yesterday, from the other side of the valley.
It rained on and off as we walked round which meant we were lucky enough to see a beautiful rainbow as we descended into the valley. We remebered to take a picnic this time. At the bottom of the valley we came across a stream which led into an overgrown woodland area. We saw amazing mushrooms growing in the woodland but I have absolutely no idea if they were poisonous or not so decided it was best to leave them where they were.
Got me thinking about dinner though, after three and a half hours walking in the rain it had to be quick and comforting!
Individual Mushroom & Leek Pot Pies
makes 2 vegetarian
* 1/2 pack frozen puff pastry (defrosted in the fridge overnight)
* 15 gr butter
* 1 clove garlic chopped finely
* 1 pack mushrooms approx. 300 gr (I used small portobellos) quartered, you want chunky
* 1 leek, cut in half lengthways, rinsed and sliced into 1 cm half moons, chunky again
* 2 or 3 tbsp flour
* 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
* 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
* a few sprigs of thyme leaves
* some chopped parsley
* salt & black pepper
* about 200 ml veg stock (you could use 1ooml white wine 100 ml veg stock)
* 50 gr grated cheese (I used Manchego)
* 1 egg beaten mixed with a little water to brush on the tops
Melt the butter over a medium heat in a large frying pan, add the leeks & garlic and soften gently for about 3 minutes. Meanwhile put the quartered mushrooms in a freezer bag and tip in the flour, herbs, spices, salt & pepper. Shake it around a bit to get the mushrooms coated in the seasoned flour.
Tip the mushrooms and the floury mix into the pan with the leeks and stir everything around. Cook this for a minute or two then add in the veg stock little by little until you get a thickened white sauce consistency. You may not need all the stock. Leave this to cook gently while you do the pastry.
If necessary, roll out the pastry to a rectangle about 2 or 3 mm thick. Preheat the oven to 21o degrees. Take a dish that you will be using for the pies and cut out two circles about 1 cm larger than the top.(you may need to re roll the pastry to get two). From the leftover pastry cut 1 cm thick strips to stick around the edge of the dishes.
Stir the grated cheese into the mushroom mix and pour the whole lot into the two pie dishes. Wet you fingers and run them round the edges of the pie dishes then stick the strips of pastry round the top edge. Wet the strips and stick the circle of pastry on top of each dish. Squeeze the pastry together to seal the edges and crimp round the edges with a fork. (This doesn’t have to be perfect, messy is good!). Make 3 sets of holes in the top of each pie with a fork then brush the tops with the egg wash. Cook in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is golden brown & crispy.
Serve immediately and feel yourself coming back to life”¦”¦..
