Vegetarian Offerings - Lentil and Mushroom Pie

It's nearly upon us - Christmas.  And this year for me it means a lot of planning and even preparing ahead.
We're having a Boxing Day Party for 20 adults and a few small children.  Whilst most guests are meat eaters, the 3 vegetarians will be well catered for. One of the vegetarian centerpieces is this Lentil Pie. It is cooling down at the moment and tomorrow morning I will carefully place it in the freezer, to be taken back out on Sunday evening.  Monday, it will be reheated in a hot(ish) oven.

Stuffing
Ingredients

• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 1 large clove of garlic, crushed, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 leek, cleaned, sliced in rings and rinced
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 500 grs Puy lentils
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 700 ml vegetable stock
• knob of butter or vegetable oil
• lots of freshly cracked black pepper
• seasalt to taste
• punnet of mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and sauteed in oil or butter
• and I hope I haven't forgotten anything

Preparation

• Sautee the onions, leeks and garlic in oil or butter over a moderate heat.
• Add the thyme.
• Then add the Puy lentils. And sautee these to, stirring regularly.
• Pour in the wine and simmer for 3 minutes before adding the stock.
• Add the pepper and leave to simmer, with lid on, till the lentils are cooked, but al dente.  Should take about 20 minutes.
• If the stock has evaporated before the lentils are cooked, you may need a little extra water.
• Taste and season. Sometimes adding a splash of balsamic vinegar, gives it an extra lift.
• Cool and take out 1/3 of the lentils.
• 2/3 can be blended with a handheld blender, not too smooth.
• Bring the blended and whole lentils together and put them in the fridge till needed.
• Oh, the mushrooms, they can be put in the fridge too. They'll come in at a later stage.

Pastry - shortcrust
Ingredients

• 700 grs plain flour, sieved
• 350 grs cold butter, cubed
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
• very cold water

Preparation

• Bring together the flour, salt, thyme, pepper and butter.
• Rub the butter into the flour, till it resembles crumbs.
• Then add in some water, not too much and the quantity will depend on the moisture content of the flour.
• Bring together, adding just the tiniest amount of water at a time - do not overwork the pastry, just pull it together.
• Shape into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and rest in the fridge for a couple of hours, overnight even.

Everything has cooled properly and you have lined a cake tin with greaseproof paper.  Your cake tin is preferably one with a removable base and spring-sided. My pie tin is 25 cm diam. and 7 cm high.

Ready to roll

• Roll out approx 2/3 of the pastry on a floured surface. I have a marble slab that I use for this purpose as it stays cold.
• Thickness of the pastry should be about 4 mm.
• Line your tin with the dough and leave enough overlap to 'glue' the pastry top to it later.
• Punch a couple of times with a fork over the base.
• Fill with half of the lentils.
• Scatter now the sauteed mushrooms over this, to be topped with the other half of the lentils.
• Roll out the rest of the pastry (same thickness)
• Hah ! You need a beaten egg now.
• Brush the sides with beaten egg (this is the glue that will hold the sides and top together.
• Cover the pie with the top layer of pastry and crimp together.
• Cut off any overhanging excess pastry
• Make a whole in the center of the top for any moisture that might turn into steam to escape.
• You can decorate with any leftover pastry, glued with egg.
• Eggwash all over the top.
• Put in fridge while the oven heats up. I heated the fan oven with extra heat from below to 210° C.
• Bake the pie for 15 minutes, than reduce the heat to 190°C for 30 minutes. 
• Seeing the stuffing was already cooked, you'll have to gauge when the pastry will be ready. A golden brown will do.
• Leave to cool for 20 minutes before taking out of the tin.
• Ready to eat straight away or you can let it cool even further as it is also tasty cold or room temperature.

Wow, that looked like a lot of work, but in all honesty, it wasn't.
And if you have made shortcrust pastry before, this will certainly be a doddle.

No cross section  picture of the pie, that is for after the party.
Only 50 more dishes to go ;) and I'm not intending to put all the recipes on here.  No time, gotta go !

Patricia xxx...x