From the Kitchen : Spinach and Mushroom Pie

My relatives decided to come over one weekend and seeing that most of that side of the family generally prefer meat, I took it as a challenge to make something completely vegetarian and yet goes down like a storm when they are over for dinner. 

After looking into my old bag of tricks, I have decided to take a classic English favourite of mine, fish pie, as my base and work myself from there. I ended up with a vegetable loaded cottage pie that was packed with flavour. And it did go down like a literal storm with people hunting down for seconds. Do note that this is a very involved recipe and despite being relatively simple, there is alot of steps and prep to consider. However, the end result was absolutely worth it and I would probably revisit this recipe with other fillings in mind. 

Spinach and Mushroom pie

Pie topping: 

5 large floury potatoes (like russets or yukon gold) 

180 ml milk

1/3 cup butter

salt and pepper

Pie filling:

300 gm spinach

300 gm mushrooms

1 carrot, chopped

2 onions ,chopped

5 garlic cloves, chopped

Pie sauce:

450 ml vegetable stick

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

200 ml milk

1 tbsp allspice

3 tbsp grainy mustard

Steps:

Its clobbering time!

1. Make a mash by first peeling and boiling your potatoes. Cooking time will depend on how the thickness of your potatoes. Once soft, mash the potatoes with a masher and place it into a pot that is under some heat. Add in your milk, butter, salt and pepper into the mashed potatoes and slowly cook off the moisture. You will know you have the right consistency when your mash becomes velvety smooth yet pliable.

This is what you need to look for. It does not need to be too smooth. 

Pro tip : Add in your milk  and butter in increments. In the event that you have found that you have reached that smooth yet pasty consistency, you can stop including the milk. Also, feel free to tweak the ratio for the butter too when you already reached that said consistency. 

I love my new pan, but its just way too small.
As such, I had to cook my ingredients in batches. 

2. Leave your mash aside and prepare your filling. Saute your ingredients until  a good amount of water has been cooked off. Season to taste and you may use butter to add more flavour here as well. I use a good amount of dried mixed herbs too to add more personality to the dish. 

Boil boil boil!

3. Make your sauce by creating a roux. Start my melting your butter and cooking off some of the moisture under a low heat ( do you see a connection here?). Once the butter is melted and slightly brown, add in your flour and create a paste by slowly cooking it in the melted butter. Add in your milk once you get a smooth paste. Slowly include your stock until you have a saucy gravy. Add in the mustard and at this stage. 

Before the potato comes into play. Trust me, this will taste good. 

4. Once you have prepped the mash, the filling the sauce, you can start assembling. Place the filling first then the sauce and spread evenly. Once that is done, place the mash on top and add a sprinkle of salt and pepper on top with a dash of dried herbs. 

5. Pop it into a 200c oven for 45 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown. 

Holy smokes!

A killer recipe that was an absolute hit, this is a must try if you are a full blown vegetarian or you just need to convince some people to have more greens in their diet. Warming, robust and comforting, this is a dish that is best served during rainy days, although if  you serve me this at any day of the week, I would not be complaining. Do note that this was a serving for 10 people! So you may want to scale down, or rather multiply depending on your needs. 

Again, this comes with a warning to be a little more technical than my usual recipes but it is worth a shot. Enjoy! 

Delish!