Ingredients
| OLIVE OIL DOUGH | |
| 300g plain flour | |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder | |
| ½ teaspoon salt | |
| 75ml olive oil | |
| 75ml tepid water | |
| PLAIN DOUGH | |
| 300g plain flour | |
| ½ teaspoon salt | |
| 150ml tepid water | |
| MUSHROOM FILLING | |
| 3 tablespoons olive oil | |
| 400g shallots, peeled, thinly sliced lengthways | |
| 600g mixed mushrooms – portobello, Swiss browns, shiitake | |
| zest of 1 lemon | |
| 300ml vegetable stock | |
| 2 tablespoons French tarragon leaves | |
| 200g Remutaka Pass Creamery Garlic Havarti | |
| 1 egg, beaten | |
| coarse sea salt, to sprinkle over the pastry |
When the temperature drops and it’s wincingly cold, few things satisfy like a savoury pie. Crisp crusts are essential to a decent pie, providing a contrast to the soft filling. If you omit the havarti from this recipe, you’ve a pretty decent dairy-free pie. This dairy-free and lard-free pastry has a light texture, not as flaky as puff pastry but one that has a scone-like quality to it, perfect for the pie as it absorbs all the mushroom juices. The olive oil can leave the pastry feeling a bit greasy, so I use an idea from baker Dan Lepard, and make a simple flour and water dough as well and roll the two together as if making puff pastry.
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Instructions
| 1. | OLIVE OIL DOUGH |
| 2. | Mix all the ingredients, kneading until smooth – you could use a food processor, but it’s simple enough to mix it by hand. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes. |
| 3. | PLAIN DOUGH |
| 4. | Mix the ingredients and knead until smooth. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes. |
| 5. | Lightly dust a bench with flour and roll the olive oil pastry out to about 1cm thick. |
| 6. | Roll the plain dough out until large enough to cover the olive oil dough. |
| 7. | Place the olive oil dough on top of the plain one and fold over the edges until they meet in the middle. |
| 8. | Roll the dough out to 1cm thick, fold into thirds, repeat the rolling and folding procedure and chill for another 30 minutes. |
| 9. | Do this twice more, chilling between each turn. |
| 10. | Finally roll out the dough thinly and cut out circles large enough to cover six 6cm pie dishes, with an overhang. |
| 11. | MUSHROOM FILLING |
| 12. | Heat the oven to 190 ̊C. |
| 13. | Heat a large frying pan over a moderate heat and add the olive oil. |
| 14. | Add the shallots to the oil and cook for 10 minutes until soft and lightly coloured. |
| 15. | Sort the mushrooms, washing and peeling them, then halve, quarter or slice as needed. |
| 16. | Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for a minute without stirring, adding more oil if necessary. |
| 17. | Stir the mushrooms and add the lemon zest. |
| 18. | Continue cooking for several minutes until the mushrooms have softened. |
| 19. | Pour in the vegetable stock, increase the heat, season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 8 minutes, until the stock has reduced and there is relatively little left. |
| 20. | Stir the tarragon leaves into the sauce. |
| 21. | Divide the mushroom mixture equally between the pie dishes. |
| 22. | Cut the havarti cheese into small pieces and sprinkle over the top of the mushrooms. |
| 23. | Brush the pastry rounds with water and place over the top of the pie dishes, water-side down. |
| 24. | Press carefully around the edges to form a seal. |
| 25. | Brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt. |
| 26. | Place the pie dishes onto a flat tray and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until golden. |
Photography Amber-Jayne Bain