National Vegetarian Week - Leek and Mushroom Pie

This pie is one of my mum's recipes, and I hadn't actually tried making it before, but it's so simple to do and you can change it to any other vegetable and it'd work fine! Sorry for the poor picture quality, this was taken after a night in the fridge and it looks a little sad.

Originally I'd planned to make it using wholemeal pastry, but unfortunately wholemeal pastry is HARD to make and it was a complete disaster, so it ended up using white pastry instead. White pastry is easy:

200g plain flour
100g white fat/butter
60ml water
Pinch of salt

Sift the salt and flour together, and add the white fat. Mash with a fork or pastry blender until the texture is similar to breadcrumbs. Slowly stir in the water a bit at a time, until the pastry is sticking together. Roll it into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge to sit while you make the filling.

The trick with pastry is to keep everything cold. I usually run my hands under cold water until I almost can't feel them, and use a glass worksurface.

To make the sauce, mix up a basic white sauce. Melt a large blob of butter in a saucepan and add two heaped spoonfuls of flour. Stir into a paste/blobby lump. Then add milk a little at a time, stirring on a medium heat. At first I didn't believe it would ever turn into a sauce but it really does if you persevere.

If, like me, you find there isn't enough sauce, or it isn't thick enough, you can add more flour but turn the heat right up so that it's bubbling, add a tiny bit at a time and keep stirring or you'll get lumps.

Once the sauce is done, leave it to simmer and stir occasionally. Take a leek and chop the middle part (the pale bit,  but not the hard end) into circles. Slice some mushrooms and fry them with the leek. Once they are tender, add some Quorn pieces and fry for a few more minutes. Then pour in the sauce and stir it all up together. Leave it to cool down for a while.

Now get out your pastry. Chop it into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other, and roll out the larger on a dusted work surface until it is big enough to cover a pie dish. Put it into the dish, trim the excess and pour in your pie filling. Roll out the second piece of pastry to make a lid, cover the pie and put the whole lot into the oven at 170 degrees for about half an hour.

We normally use any leftover pastry for jam tarts, but if there's a lot left you can freeze it for next time.