Meatless Monday: Mushroom Pie Floater

Food never seems to be far from my mind, whether planning meals, or wondering if I'm out of a particular ingredient necessary for a recipe, or thinking how a meal could have been improved.

So, there I was last week without any hint of an idea what to cook for dinner when my lovely neighbour (MLN for short) appeared at the door with a bundle of dried lavender to use in the fire so we could enjoy the wonderful fragrance.

Naturally we got to sharing recipes. MLN is a great cook, and generous sharer of home grown vegetables. She also teaches people on a tight budget how to cook nutritious meals .

I confess, my eyes bulged when MLN said she'd recently taught the class how to cook a Pie Floater.

Could I have misheard? It appeared not. I checked to see if she was joking, but no, she was quite serious. I was skeptical to say the least.

My first introduction to the concept of a Pie Floater was from a South Australian drooling over the memory of eating one at an Adelaide railway station on a cold winter evening. It sounded disgusting.

This did not bode well. But MLN is honest, reliable and, so far, totally trustworthy with recipes, so naturally I had to give it a go.

Here's her version, my vegetarian offering follows.

MLN's Pie Floater
Serves 2.

Purchase a 2 pack of good quality frozen pies
500 gm frozen peas (she liked the minted variety)
about 1 cup boiling water

Cook the pies according to the directions on the pack.

Meanwhile put the frozen peas in a saucepan, add boiling water to almost cover. Cook about 10 mins. Buzz with a wand or food processor. The soup should be very thick.

Ladle soup into bowls, place the pie in an elegant fashion into the soup, swirl tomato sauce on top and enjoy.

I had to eat my unexpressed comments! I'd been hesitant to sample this culinary weirdness, but it was not only delicious, the different textures of crunchy pastry, hot meaty filling and buzzed peas were brilliant together. It was also fun to make as well as being a visual delight.

And of course, being me, I just had to tinker with the recipe the second time...oh, ok the first time too ;-)

Verdant green soup - suitable for pie floater - serves 4

• About 500 gms frozen peas
• olive oil - about 1 tablespoon
• 1 onion - chopped
• chilli
• garlic
• 1 vegetable stock cube & about 1 cup boiling water (or fresh stock) 
• slosh of white wine (1/4 cup?)

Sizzle the onion, garlic and chilli in the olive oil 'till softened. Slosh in some white wine. Add the frozen peas and approx 1 cup boiling water and stock cube (or stock) Simmer for around 10 mins. Whizz with a wand or whatever implement you have - a bit lumpy is fine. (A potato masher would work well if you don't have anything else).

Now for the absolutely amazing mushroom pie. The original recipe came from veggienumnum.com, a wonderful site well worth spending time drooling over!

I'd planned to follow the recipe, truly! But .... well, it just didn't happen that way - I didn't quite have the right ingredients, and there were some useful leftovers in the frig that needed to be used up. Here's my version.

Marvellous Mushroom Pie - Serves 4

Filling:

• olive oil or butter - about 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 large onion chopped (or 1 smallish one, or a leek)
• garlic - I used 3 very large cloves
• chilli - as much as you enjoy
• a slosh of white wine
• 2 large handfuls of button mushrooms - sliced
• 1 large field mushroom - chopped roughly
• 1 large handful of mixed exotic mushrooms - sliced (those wibbly unfamiliar ones from the supermarket unless you really know what you're picking in the wild)
• flour to thicken - about 1 tablespoon
• Stock or stock cube. I only needed about 1/2 cup
• The original recipe called for yogurt, but I had about 8 ping-pong ball sized bocconcini left over from something else, which was an excellent addition.

Heat oil or butter, add onion, garlic, chilli. Sizzle. Add wine, stir. Add mushrooms. Stir. (There seems to be a huge quantity, but they soften and shrink)

Add stock (or boiling water and stock cube) Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on top gently and evenly or it goes lumpy, and stir to blend it in. (The keen cook will make a swishy sauce, but if you're very careful, this is fine!)

Add the bocconcini and stir till more or less melted. It should be thick. Remove from heat to cool and till you're ready to put it in the pastry.  If you're using yogurt, remove the pan from the heat first. 

Pastry: (easy - honestly!) enough for a 35cm pie dish

• 225 g flour (I used attar which mixes and rolls very easily and seems to stick together better than the standard type)
• 115 g butter
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano (the original recipe used dried thyme which would be lovely too)
• just enough cold water to bind - about 1/4 cup - add slowly as it's easy to overdo it.

I added the flour, a grind of salt and oregano then cut in the butter using two blunt knives (held together to make two blades) to make it look like breadcrumbs.

Add a trickle of water at a time and mix - it shouldn't be sloppy or too sticky.  Divide it very roughly into 1/3 and 2/3. The larger for the base of the pie dish, the smaller for the top. Roll the larger out on a floured board to fit the base of the greased pie dish. Fill with the marvellous mushroom mixture. Roll out the smaller piece and place on top. Pinch the top and bottom together. You could use a pastry brush to paint about a tablespoon of milk over the pastry. I didn't have one, so used my super clean fingers. Make a couple of vents with a knife to let the steam escape.

Cook in a 180 degree C oven for 30 mins or until brown on top.

The original recipe calls for chilling the pastry, but I was running late and didn't want to wait. It worked fine!

You'll notice that I didn't mention individual pie plates. I cut the cooked pie into quarters and collated the pie floater as above. It was stupendous, delicious, scrumptious and simply so amazing that I went out and purchased 4 little pie plates for next time... because there will be many next times!

I'm a convert to pie floaters, and now wonder at my undeniable prejudice toward this wonderful invention.

Sorry about the lack of photo of the marvellous mushroom pie floater, but you know how it is sometimes, food takes precedence over photography ;-)
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Meatless Monday: For those who detest Cauliflower Soup

Mills Beach. Mornington.

It's cold in Melbourne, and after a long bracing walk along the beach and up the cliff, I wanted soup for lunch to help warm me up.

Cauliflower isn't my favourite vegetable, but it was cheap and in season, so I'd bought one yesterday ... because it seemed a good idea, not because I really wanted one. So, there I was walking along planning Cauliflower soup - until I got distracted by a group of animated geology students discussing rock formations with more hand waving and enthusiasm than you would have thought possible. I felt sorry for the students as I imagined them picnicking on the beach.
But maybe they ended up at the pub which would have been pleasant :-)

Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients

• onion - 1 small - roughly chopped
• garlic - 1 large clove - chopped
• chilli - sprinkle of dried
• potato - 1 extra large - roughly chopped
• cauliflower - 1/4 chopped or broken into bits, including the stem
• a shake of salt and a grind of pepper
• stock cube or stock
• about a teaspoon or so of Tikka Masala paste
• a small slosh of white wine (not necessary, but the cask isn't very nice so it seems a good use for it)
• a smidge of olive oil or butter

Method

• Melt butter or heat oil, add onion, garlic & chilli. Stir till sizzling then add the small slosh of wine just to stop it sticking. 
• Add the potato and cauliflower and stir.
• Add soup stock (or water and stock cube) and Tikka Masala paste. The stock doesn't need to cover the vegetables entirely.

The cauliflower soup cooked in about 20 minutes, I buzzed it with the wand thing and ate it with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of coriander. It was good and didn't taste strongly of cauliflower.

I've never grown coriander successfully before, but this year I have mounds of it. I've made Coriander Pesto which is nice as a dip with fresh veggies and just discovered that I've managed to dry some by leaving it in an open container of the bench. (I'd chopped it to use on something earlier in the week). The wood heater in the evening and general chill the rest of the time must have provided just the right conditions! 

I've cut a bunch, chopped it and laid it on a plate to see if I can repeat the drying process - it'd be great to have some stored for when the plants die off.


Any suggestions for additions?


*I have no idea why the formatting shows white behind some areas, that's new but I can't be fussed trying to figure it out.
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Meatless Monday - Mushroom soup

Grey soup? Bleah
Mushrooms? Yech

Whoa! It's not that bad, mushrooms can do taste good and this soup is really easy to cook.

Ingredients: 

• Garlic, of course
• Chilli, naturally! 1 small killer one if you're game, or a shake or two of dried
• Potatoes, 3-4 small, roughly chopped. I left the skin on - fibre is good for us
• Onions, 2 small, again roughly chopped - peeled because onion skin doesn't taste good
• Mushrooms, a few generous handfulls, roughly chopped. Wild would be good if you're confident you know what you're picking. Note: Please be extremely confident if you harvest wild mushrooms. People die slowly and painfully from organ failure when they get it wrong. 
• Salt and pepper. A pinch of the first and a grind of the second. 
• Butter, a small dollop
• Wine, a decent slosh
• Stock or a stock cube. Possibly a cup or two, maybe a bit more 

• Yogurt for topping
• Parsley or coriander to add colour

Method:

• Melt butter (it tastes nicer than olive oil in this soup) I use salt free
• Add onion, garlic, chilli, s & p and stir till it smells wonderful
• Pour a glass of wine, check quality, slosh some in the pan - by this time, the smell is heavenly
• Add potato, stir while you sample the wine again. You may need to add a bit more if it's evaporated too fast 
• When the potato has softened a bit add the mushrooms and stir
• Add stock to almost cover the veggies. I didn't have any fresh so used a chicken stock cube and boiling water
• and that's pretty much it. Bring to a simmer, enjoy the wine then buzz the soup enthusiastically carefully so it doesn't splatter all over the kitchen which is a real pain to clean, especially when it dries and gets baked onto the stovetop.

Enjoy with a slice of wholegrain toast. I think this soup would be good with brown lentils. Next time I'll rinse a handful and add them at the same time as the mushrooms. Please don't use the canned variety, it's so easy to use dried ones and then you know there aren't any additives.

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the first bowl and had to go back for seconds to get a photo ;-) See how the coriander makes it look less boring. Arty types will manage to make the yogurt look elegant - I was more interested in functionality! A sprinkle of paprika would also look (and taste) good, or for the real fire lovers, some fresh chopped chilli.
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Meatless Monday Recipe: Carrot Soup ... sort of.

I'm sitting here licking my fingers and peering into a cold container of leftover orange soup trying to remember how I made it.

Hubby and I had both purchased carrots (because they were cheap) on two consecutive days and hadn't noticed an overabundance of orangeness in the frig. It had turned cold (where did Summer go?) and making carrot soup seemed to be the order of the day. You can use up a lot of carrots in soup!

Ingredients (possibly)
1 Onion chopped
Garlic (lots)
Chili (of course!)
Carrots 500gm? scrubbed and roughly chopped (or more if necessary to make space in the frig for other things)
Pumpkin (whatever was in the frig - possibly 500gm) peeled and unenthusiastically chopped
Sweet potato (a chunk as big as your fist) Less enthusiasm for chopping now, very random chunks.
left over Red Capsicum (it adds a lovely colour) sample as you chop.
Tomatos (the cacky cheap tasteless ones can be used at a pinch - about 8, but less is fine) very half hearted chopping by this stage.

...and what else? Possibly some white wine, (one for me, one for the soup) maybe some cumin, definitely a smidge of salt and pepper, and a vegetable stock cube or frozen chicken stock. Just enough to cover the vegies or it's too watery. I imagine if I'd had a stem of broccoli I'd have added it too and any sad looking leftover vegietables that could have been slumping forlornly at the bottom of the crisper. And there would have been a few bay leaves, parsley, and oregano ceremoniously added and plucked out at the end of cooking. Oh, there was a very soft apple sitting on the bench, it got chopped up and plonked in too.

Method
Put a small glug of olive oil in a large saucepan, heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic and chili. Stir till sizzling. Toss in assorted chopped vegetables, let them sweat and sizzle then add the heated stock - just enough to cover.

Let it bubble away gently for a 1/2 hour or so. When you can squash a piece of carrot against the side of the saucepan, it's ready to be buzzed with a kitchen wand.

Add a dollop of yogurt and enjoy!

What would you have added (or not)?
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Meatless Monday Recipe :)

- adapted from a recipe in Tamara Milstein's "Soup"


This is a really easy recipe and very filling :)

Our neighbour's vegie garden

Indian Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup


60 g ghee
2 Tablespoons ground coriander (sounds a lot but is fine)
500g carrots grated
500g tomatoes chopped
3 Tablespoons sugar (less is fine)
4 Tablespoons vinegar (I used white, but apple cider vinegar could be nice)
1 medium cabbage sliced finely (1/2 a largish one was ok)
4-6 cups vegetable stock


Heat ghee, add coriander, stir.
Add carrots and tomatoes, stir over heat till softened.
Add sugar, vinegar, a smidge of salt and pepper and some of the stock, then buzz till mushy. Keep on low heat.
Add the rest of the stock and the cabbage and enjoy a glass of wine (or beer) while you wait for it to get soft - about 30 minutes or so - when you're on the second glass of wine (or beer) remember to check to make sure it's bubbling along merrily.


Serve with a dollop of yogurt and a grate of nutmeg. I added some precooked brown rice which was scrumptious - I might try a few lentils next time.

Bug free, healthy, prolific - why doesn't my garden look like this?

And why, I hear you ask, did you cook a cabbage soup in the middle of summer? 


It had turned chilly, and our lovely neighbours had appeared at our back door laden with gifts: tomatoes, cabbage and assorted greens. There's only so much coleslaw one can eat in a week before you start looking for something a bit different! Soup was ideal.
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