Mighty fine Sunday pie

Four days down in the veg box challenge and we are gradually munching our way through the gorgeous produce that arrived on Wednesday. The squash has all gone, as have the carrots and the cherry tomatoes. There's still a couple of onions though, most of the leeks and mushrooms, the lettuce, one parsnip and a handful of chard as well as potatoes.
So to Sunday dinner - what to have? There's plenty of curry leftover from Saturday night, but those big fat juicy leeks are just begging to be eaten, so it just has to be a leek and mushroom pie.
I know some people aren't keen on pie, especially as a thick layer of butter pastry can result in a serious case of indigestion afterwards. But I've always been a fan, and ended up missing out for a while when I first went dairy free. It then got more complicated when I went plant based and then nigh on impossible when I went gluten free. But where there's a will there's a way, and a desire for pie can overcome all obstacles!
Ever since grain was milled, people have made some sort of crust to stuff a filling into! First it was more of bread or pancake. Then the Greeks developed pie pastry, and the Romans started documenting pie recipes. Apparently the most popular recipe was called 'placenta' - somehow that doesn't sound too appealing to me........
Pie has been a feature of British cuisine since Roman times, and take different forms all round the world. We noticed the Aussies are particularly fond of pie when we were over there at Christmas, and I always think of Twin Peaks when anyone has cherry pie!
For a plant based pie filling, in my mind there is no better than a simple leek and mushroom one, especially if they are firm, nutty chestnut mushrooms, which is fortunately what was in the veg box. They go together brilliantly with tarragon and a creamy sauce, making such a delicious filling you might just prefer it to a meat pie!

You may not think of leeks as being particularly special, but being part of the allium family they are packed full of phytonutrients such as flavonoids and polyphenols that help protect and support our blood vessels and help protect against oxidative damage and stress. And mushrooms, although in lesser amounts, have a whole range of vitamins and minerals, particularly selenium, and lots of fibre. On top of that, they produce their own natural antibiotics that can help boost immunity.
I made my own pastry for this pie as I haven't found a gluten and dairy free alternative in the shops. If you're ok with shop bought pastry, then go ahead and use it if making it is not your thing - JustRol is dairy free and definitely easy to use. I've not included my recipe for gluten free pie pastry here - I'm well chuffed with it though, and will save that for another day.
To make the creamy sauce, I kept it really simple and used some soya cream -it works brilliantly and is no hassle. If you don't do soya, then there are some other dairy free creams on the market such as oat or rice. You could of course make a white sauce, but I was too busy making rhubarb crumble (dessert is most important!).
For a complete Sunday night feast, our pie was accompanied by crushed potatoes (mash with skins on!) and some steamed cabbage, admittedly not from the box, but perfect anyway.
Mighty fine leek and mushroom pie

4 medium leeks, washed and trimmed
150g of chestnut mushrooms (more if you have them)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons tarragon, fresh or dried
1 carton dairy free cream
salt and pepper
1 portion pastry, enough for a double crust
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Slice the leeks and mushrooms, then heat a dash of olive oil in a large pan and sauté the leeks for a few minutes, then adding the mushrooms. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic for a couple more. Pour in the cream, add the tarragon and seasoning and simmer until everything is cooked through. Let it stand for a few moments.
In the meantime, divide your pastry in two and roll out the first half and cover the base of a pie tin or dish. Wet the rim with a little water. Then roll out the second half of the pastry, making it big enough to cover the top. Spoon in the leek mixture, then place the pastry on top, pressing the edges together. Make two small slits in the middle to allow the steam to escape, brush the top with a little water or dairy free milk, place on a baking tray and pop in the oven for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is firm and light brown (remember you might not get this brown with gluten free pastry). Remove from the oven, let it sit for a couple of minutes then serve and enjoy!

Pastry solution

When you have to adapt your favourite foods to accommodate an intolerance, it's great to be able to find ready made placements in your local supermarket. I always assumed that ready made pastry contained butter or some form of dairy, so life was much easier when I found that most of the products contained no butter at all. The fact they contain lots of hydrogenated fat is not so good health wise, but sometimes you just have to ignore that when you fancy a mighty fine pie.
In India, however, I've not managed to find any pre made shortcrust or puff pastry. Filo can be found in some imported stores for a phenomenal price and who wants to defrost a whole box as once? Home made is the only option and for this you need 1) none dairy "butter" which I've not found here and has to be snuck in suitcases (it's heavy too!) and 2) a delicate hand, which I do not! And as for trying to make it with oil, well that was just a complete disaster. Plus it really is too hot in the kitchen to spend too long mixing and kneading a sticky ball of goo.

The solution came one day in the form of my lovely friend Mandy - vegetable suet. It provides the right fat base to work in to flour with a good dollop of cold water to form a firm, kneadable pastry. I've still not found it in the shops here, but it's fits quite comfortably in a spare suitcase corner!
All you have to do is mix 100g of self raising flour with 50g of suet, add a little salt and pepper. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water (more if you're using wholemeal flour as it absorbs more water) to form a firm but flexible dough. Knead until the texture of the suet has been broken down into the flour and you have a smooth dough. This makes enough for 4 individual tart tins or the top of one bigger pie. You don't need to chill it as it doesn't seem to shrink in the same way normal pastry does, but equally it doesn't do any harm. You can then cook it as per whatever recipe you are doing. If you want a sweet pastry, you can add 25g of caster sugar before the water.
Unfortunately, this is not an option for those who are gluten intolerant as the suet contains wheat. And if fat is something you are trying to avoid, then you should definitely think twice as despite the 25% fat claim there's still over 60g of fat in every 100g - yikes! But then again, if you're avoiding fat, pastry really is not the way to go.