Wrapping Up Warm

So continues the descent into winter, and I still have no decent coat to see me through it, despite promising myself I would buy one before it turned chilly. Well, it's nothing to be surprised about, coat-shopping and I have a long history of abject failure (I remember my mum buying me one or two 'sensible' coats during high school which I shunned in favour of thick and illegal jumpers and two pairs of tights) so I may as well accept it.

Now, winter food is a seasonal routine that I'm much better at! This weekend just gone was so miserable that on Sunday, with plans to have lunch with Maddy (my good friend from uni), and Martina (my flatmate), I decided a pie was the way to go.

I can't claim to be the absolute originator of this pie, because I'm convinced that I saw a similar recipe in a magazine or book recently, and that, truth be told, was the inspiration behind it. However, I added a couple of twists that I'm pretty confident are original, and it all worked a treat.

A Hearty Mushroom, Leek and Stilton Pie
For three or four

About 250g frozen puff pastry slab, defrosted.

Sauce
25g butter
25g flour
250ml milk
60ml single cream

Filling
20g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
250g baby portabella mushrooms, or chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 large leek, sliced diagonally
200g small waxy potatoes, like Charlotte or Anya
10g dried porcini mushrooms
150g stilton

First make the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the flour. Cook for about one minute. Add the milk gradually, whisking all the time. Keep whisking over a low heat until the sauce has thickened. Add the single cream and cook for another minute or so. Season (but not too heavily, remember you're adding very salty stilton) and set aside.

Put the porcini mushrooms in a small bowl or jug and cover with hot water. Leave them to soak while you prepare the other ingredients. Cut the potatoes into rounds about 1/2 cm thick. Steam for 10 minutes or until just soft. Set aside.

Melt 10g butter in a pan with 1tbsp olive oil over a fairly high heat until it starts to froth and add the fresh mushrooms. Season with a little salt. Fry the mushrooms until they have given off nearly all their water. (Don't want mushroom-watery pie filling!) Rinse the pan out, set back on the hob and melt the remaining butter with the olive oil. Fry the leek until it starts to turn golden and brown in parts. As you cook press the leek slices gently with a spatula so the centres pop out and have a chance to soften and brown too.

Place the leeks in a pyrex or earthenware dish about 20 x 20 cm. Add the mushrooms and potatoes. Drain the porcini and squeeze out any excess water. Chop and add to the pie dish with the other ingredients. Now crumble in the stilton. Mix so that all the ingredients are well distributed, then pour over the white sauce made earlier. Give the mixture a very gentle stir, well more of a prod, just to make sure the sauce has got into all the nooks and crannies.

Grease the exposed edge of the pie dish. Roll out the pastry and lay over the pie dish, then trim so that there's not too much excess hanging over the edge, but just enough to 'anchor' it to the dish. Pinch the pastry all around the edge of the dish, between your thumb and forefinger.I had some pastry trimmings so I made some little leaves to go on top... And a few holes pierced with a fork don't do any harm. Bake at 220° for 20-25 mins.