Vegetarian Phyllo Pie

After attempting to make some Turkish cigars I had some left over phyllo pastry. I also happened to have a lot of mushrooms and an urge to eat pie (despite the temperatures outside being 30℃!). The pie filling was very photogenic and my tummy was rumbling even before I had put it in the pie. Definitely a keeper since it tastes as good as it looks.

PS. You could use a basic dough or use my pot pie filling with the phyllo dough.

Preparation time: 90 minutes; Serves 2-4

Ingredients

250 g	Brown mushrooms
350 g	White mushrooms
1 medium	Red onion
1 tbsp.	Oil
250 g	Potatoes, peeled
1 tsp.	Minced garlic
180 g	Vegan sausages
2 tbsp.	Fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 tsp.	Fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp.	Flour
8 leaves	Swiss chard (Mangold)
1 tbsp.	Olive oil
	Salt & pepper

Method:

Wash your mushrooms and either slice them into 4 or quarter them. I've heard you should not wash your mushrooms but I always do because they are always dirty. Cut your onion. You can either dice it or slice it finely. I sliced mine in this instance. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan on high heat. When frying mushrooms I always like to use a cast iron pan. It makes the mushrooms brown and caramelises the red onions better. Also using high heat seals in the liquid which makes them taste really good. When the oil is hot add the onions and stir fry for about 1 minute. Next add the mushrooms, sausages and garlic continue to fry stirring occasionally until all the mushrooms are browned (they might not brown if you use a non-stick pan so go for cooked instead). This could take up to 5 minutes. When they are done remove from the heat. 

While your mushrooms are cooking prepare the potatoes by peeling and cutting them into large dice (around 2.5 cm). Boil the potatoes. They should be cooked but not break to pieces because they are going to be cooked again and you don't want them to turn to mush. During the time that the potatoes are boiling, and after the mushrooms are done (else you may burn the mushrooms!), wash and roughly chop the Swiss chard. You can use the stems in the recipe too. Drain the potatoes and add them to the mushrooms. Add salt, pepper, oregano, thyme and Swiss chard, sprinkle the flour on top and then mix everything together.  It is important to sprinkle the flour on top so that it doesn't clump. The flour is to bind together the juices from the mushrooms and chard forming a thick sauce. Return to the cooker on medium heat and continue to carefully turn things over until the chard is cooked (i.e. is limp). 

Put your oven on at 180 ℃ for a fan oven or 200 ℃ for a convection oven.

Now you can concentrate on putting the phyllo dough together. I used store bought dough that was pre-cut to a triangle, but you could use any shape you like and be creative when lining your pan. I used an approx. 20 cm diameter stoneware soufflé dish. Brush your dish with olive oil. Then brush a sheet of dough with olive oil. Make a very thin coating. I found the best way to do this was to use my fingers. I first applied the dough with my brush and then distributed it with my fingers. Line the pan with dough. Make sure there is plenty of overlap and plenty extra to wrap over the top. Each new piece you add to the pie should be coated with olive oil. If you prefer a thicker crust just use more layers of dough, especially if you want to take it out of the pan to serve it. 

Pour in the filling and top it off with some extra dough with not so thin layers of olive oil! 

Bake at 180 ℃ for 30 minutes.

Vegetarian Pot Pie

Oh, I was so craving for something wholesome and hot to eat!

The bright September sunshine had given way to clouds and there was a chill in the air and thus the craving. But there were other problems to be solved: like the ton of vegetables sitting in my fridge just begging to be eaten. I pulled them all out and found that I had quite a colourful array.

Remembering the taste of the chicken pie's my mother used to make when I was young, inspired me to turn the veggies into a pot pie (or pot pie's as it was since I don't have a proper large pie dish). So I did my usual thing, I Googled "vegetarian pot pie recipe". Nothing interesting showed up, nothing that would use up MY particular array of vegetables. So I decided to go it alone! The result turned out quite okay and pleased the whole family. There was a bit of haggling over the pie crusts. My husband doesn't like his crusts so I thought I could eat his but he wasn't parting today. My little one was saving them to the end so I pretended to be dense and asked her if she'd set them aside because she didn't want them (reaching toward her plate as I was saying this). Her plate moved super fast. Needless to say there was no chance of getting a bite of someone else's crusts. My older daughter told me that she was not parting either, not today!

Serves: 4 as an appetiser or 2 as a main

Ingredients:

Pastry:
	6 oz (175 g)	Flour
	3 oz (90 g)	Cold butter
	1/4 tsp.	Salt
Filling:
	1 1/2 oz (40 g)	Butter
	1 cup	Sliced onions
	1 tbsp.	Chopped garlic
	2 tbsp.	Flour
	1 1/2 cup	Water
	1/2	Veggie cube
	2	Bay leaves
	2 bowls	Random vegetables cut into bite sized cubes
		Salt and Pepper
	1	Egg, lightly beaten

Method:

I firmly believe that the pastry requires it's own post! So if you've discovered this after I've written the pastry post (I guess I should have done that first!) here is the link: Pastry Post. But if you are an ardent follower and just live to read my rantings then the above link DOES NOT WORK! But then that is not an issue because you'll soon see the recipe here.

So start off by making the pastry, wrap it in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge to rest.

You need to prepare your vegetables into bite sized pieces. If you are making individual pot pies like I did then it's not possible to eat your pie with a knife and fork. Actually it's quite challenging to cut anything which is inside a ramekin! My two bowls of veggie were just enough for everyone to be full but not stuffed. Next time I will make a bit more.

Notice, that all my veggies take about the same time to cook. Nothing is going to get over cooked if I throw it all in the pan at the same time. This was just luck. If you have things that cook quicker you'll have to add them later (mushrooms for example). 

Put a pan on the stove on medium heat and add the butter. Let the butter slowly melt. If you happen to burn the butter (i.e. it turns brown) trash the butter, wipe out the pan and start over. Burnt butter tastes disgusting and thus so will your pie.

Once the butter has melted add the garlic and onions and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir them regularly so that they are evenly cooked. 

Next add the flour and continue to stir until the flour is cooked. What on earth it means for the flour to be "cooked" and how you can tell that it is "cooked" I have no idea! So I generally cook it for about 30 seconds. If you want a bit of colour to your gravy then you have to let the flour brown a bit. 

Next add the water and the veggie cube all in one go and continue stirring. (You can substitute vegetable stock instead of the water and veggie cube.) Thanks to the onions and your vigorous stirring your gravy should not form any lumps. Once the gravy is smooth (i.e. all well combined, no lumps) throw in the bay leaves. Allow the gravy to simmer until it thickens. This is not a very thick gravy. 

Once the gravy has thickened add the vegetables, ...

and stir until it's all well combined. Next add salt and pepper to your taste. 

Cover the pan and let the contents simmer and cook for around 20 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender. Of course the time needed to cook will depend on the vegetables used. Be careful not to over cook them because they have to go back into the oven and you don't want to be eating mush.

While the filling is cooking take out the pastry from the fridge and get ready to make the pie lids. I used four small ramekins for my pot pies. You can use a large pie pan or any other pan as long as it is oven proof. 

I cut my pastry into four pieces and rolled each one out so that it was just larger than the top of the ramekin. If you want to have a base for your pie you will need to make double the amount of pastry. 

Then once the vegetables are cooked divide them equally among the ramekins.

Pop the pie lid on top and trim the sides. I kept on as much pastry as possible and secured the sides by pressing down on the outside of the dish. Don't forget to make some slits on the top so that the steam can come out. Make a pretty pattern with a sharp knife.

Then brush the lid with the beaten egg and voila! it is ready for the oven. 

Bake this baby (or these babies!) at 180 Celsius in a fan oven or 200 C in a conventional oven (that would be 400 F in most American ovens) and after around 30 minutes (I'm guessing, I forgot to look at the time when I pulled it out of the oven), once the pastry is golden brown it is ready to be served. Be careful it is extremely hot. Ours sat on the table for at least 20 minutes before they were eaten (hubby got stuck at the office) and they were still very hot.