Wild Mushroom Pie

I love autumn. The days are still warm enough to be outside pottering around the garden, the nights are getting quite chilly and towards the end of April we start lighting our slow combustion fire. It's cosy and pleasant. And there are mushrooms. We had so much rain at the beginning of autumn the mushrooms have been popping up ever since. ***Word of warning here folks - if you don't know which mushrooms are safe to eat don't go collecting wild mushrooms*** Here where we live in the upper Blue Mountains saffron milkcaps abound for easy picking if you know where to look. Lucky for us a great deal can just be found in our own garden under the pine trees and azaleas where they flourish and pop up reliably every year. So I took to making a delcious wild mushroom pie.If you don't have wild mushrooms, just get a nice of full flavour mushrooms from the market or grocer.

Ingredients
shortcrust pastry for bottom (I used two sheets of store bought because I was lazy)
puff pastry for the top (1 sheet)
3 cups sliced wild mushrooms (or mixed bought doesn't matter!)
1 stick of celery diced
1 carrot diced
2 bay leaves
handful sage leaves, shredded
1 brown onion diced
1 clove garlic
1 small bunch fresh thyme, chopped
cracked black pepper to taste (few twists will do)
2 cups porcini mushroom stock (porcini mushrooms left to soak in hot water) OR beef style stock powder
1 tablespoon of plain flour
2 tablepoons butter or vegan margarine
vegetable oil for frying plus  butter (or vegan margarine)

Method
1. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat and  add a tablespoon of butter. Add the onion, carrot, an celery, and saute until soft.Add the garlic, bay leaves,sage, thyme, and cracked pepper.
2. Add the sliced mushrooms, and a little more butter if needed, cooking gently on low heat until the mushrooms soften and wilt down.
3.In a saucepan melt two tablespoons of butter on low heat and whisk in the flour. Keep stirring for a few minutes to cook out the flour (or your pie will taste like batter!). Slowly begin adding in the hot stock, a tablespoon at a time and keep whisking to prevent lumps as it begins to thicken.
4. add this sauce to the mushroom mix and simmer on a ow heat for about 10- 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaves, and set aside to cool. (Tip: Making this the day ahead and leaving to be completely cool also enhances the flavour for the next day).
5. Grease a 20 cm pie tin and line with shortcrust pastry. Blind bake for 10 minutes and then remove.
Spread out the mushroom filling into the case, and top with puff pastry, pressing firmly all the way around (I do a little roll around the edge to ensure it stays put).
6. Bake in a 180C preheated oven for approximately 30minutes or until the top is puffy and lightly golden.
7. Let the pie rest for a few minutes when out of the oven before slicing and serving.

Creamy Corn and Leek Pies

This may not be the best time of year to start a blog, especially one that involves gardening...but actually, it probably is, because there are always a hundred things to do in my garden, and winter is the best time to prepare for planting. On the food side, winter is a time for indulgence, when a cosy slow combustion fire warms the body, and a decadent treat cheers the soul. So unable to share much in the way of the spade with you while this rain holds out, I'll stick to the spoon.

This June long weekend was just wet wet wet. Having a touch of cabin fever to get outside, I had to keep myself occupied looking for inspiration in cookbooks and magazines...so I baked. Still having plenty of home grown leeks left in the freezer, I decided on a simple vegan leek and corn pie in a creamy sauce, perfect for a winter day. It went down a treat with the Beloved, and I got to try out my new pie tins!

Creamy Leek and Corn Pies

Pastry

90g nuttelex or other dairy free margarine

1 1/4 cups of plain flour

pinch of salt

1 Tablespoon cold water

Sift the flour and salt, and rub in the margarine until it resembles breadcrumbs (or use the food processor if you are impatient like me) add the water and draw together. You may need to add a bit more flour or water depending on the temperature and humidity of the day, you can't use a food processor for this bit! the pastry should hold together without being crumbly, or too sticky. Cover and rest in the fridge for at least 1/2 an hour.

Filling

1 cup chopped leek

1 clove garlic

1 cup corn kernals

1 cup soymilk

2 tablespoons plain flour

2 tablepoons nuttelex

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon savoury yeast flakes

ground white pepper

In a small saucepan melt margarine, then add flour and stir quickly to make a roux. Slowly add the soymilk and whisk a bit at a time so as not to get lumps, until you have a thick white sauce. Add the mustard and yeast flakes, and pepper to taste, turn on low and make sure the flour is cooked out properly, about 10 minutes, adding more milk if necessary.

Saute leeks in a separate pan, with garlic until softened. Add corn kernals. Mix into white sauce, and pour into a shallow dish to cool in the fridge.

Turn on oven to 180 C

Assembly

Roll out pastry to 3mm thick and put into greased pie tins. Fill pie cases with cold filling (note, filling must be cold or pastry will sog, not crisp!) and top with pastry, pinching around the edges to seal. Brush tops with soymilk, and cut a couple of slits in the top to prevent the filling erupting all over your oven!

Bake for approximately 25 minutes until pastry is lightly golden.