Dry Drayton Recipes
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Dry Drayton Vegetarian Pork Pies
Dry Drayton Vegetarian Pork Pies
Of course, the title is a contradiction in terms. However - if you are a vegetarian and occasionally miss a piece of cold pork pie with a salad, you may have searched in vain for a good veggie substitute. Those products I've found have been either pastry wrapped around something mainly potato based, or have been full of fatty stodge and very unappetising. So here is a healthier, tastier, veggie substitute designed in Dry Drayton and published for the first time on www.drydrayton.net.
Ingredients
3 leeks
1 onion
250 gms mushrooms
2 cooking apples
100 gms of roasted chopped hazelnuts (or a 200gm packet of pre-cooked chestnuts if you can find them)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50 gms butter
200 gms breadcrumbs
Fresh herbs to taste, e.g. Rosemary, Thyme, curled parsley to taste
About 150 gms goats cheese, or if you prefer, another soft cheese such as Brie or Camembert
for the pastry
For hot water crust pastry
350gms plain wholemeal flour#125 gms vegetable fat, such as Trex
150 gms water or water/milk mix
pinch of salt
Or for Filo pastry
1 packet Jusroll frozen filo pastry - thawed before use
Method
Turn on the oven - fan 180 deg C. Finely slice the leaks, chop the onion, clean and chop the mushrooms. Lightly fry these in a little vegetable oil until softened. Pour away any liquid that has formed and set aside the softened leeks, onion and mushrooms.
If you are using pre-cooked chestnuts instead of chopped hazelnuts, roughly chop them, and stir them for around 3 minutes in a hot frying pan in which is melted about 25 gms of butter.
Prepare the breadcrumbs by chopping up some wholemeal or sourdough bread in the food processor.
Chop the herbs.
Grate the two cooking apples into a bowl
Mix the softened leeks, onion, mushrooms, the hazelnuts, (or prepared chestnuts), breadcrumbs, beaten eggs, herbs and grated apples together thoroughly. Add seasoning to taste if you wish.
Oil a couple of suitable baking molds or tins. I use a silicon deep 6 muffin mold. Press the mixture into the bottom of the mold about one inch deep. Break the cheese into small pieces about the size of a thumb nail and add a layer of these, avoiding the edges, then fill with the rest of the mixture and press and smooth this into the utensils. Bake for around 40 mins, remove from the oven, allow to cool a little and then carefully turn out onto a baking tray covered with a sheet of baking paper.
You can add a bit of extra flavour here if you wish by spreading some Marmite, to taste, on the top of the molded pie filling.
To make the hot water crust pastry
Warm the milk and water in a pan, add the fat and stir until it dissolves. Mix the salt and flour. Gradually stir the liquid into the flour until this makes the pastry of an even consistency. Roll out small pieces of the pastry and wrap the pies in this. brush a little beaten egg yolk on the top to add colour. Pierce the top in a couple of places with a fork.
If using filo pastry instead, wrap the molded cooked mixtures in filo pastry. Use the sheets whole, brushing a little melted butter between layers, and folding the sheets back on themselves, scrunching the filo round the sides and tucking it underneath. If you wish, you can add a little decoration to the top of the pie with Marmite diluted with a touch of warm water. Put five or six layers of pastry on each, until the pack is used.
Return to the oven on the baking tray - fan 180 deg C for around 45 minutes until golden. (170 deg C and 35 minutes for filo pastry) Remove and allow to cool. They will keep in a fridge for a few days. Slice carefully to serve with salad.
Fed up with the highly coloured and salted tins of mushy peas available from the supermarkets? We set off to produce the ultimate in Mushy Peas, combining texture, flavour and no unhealthy additives.
Peas were once an important local crop and we researched growers and varieties through the British Edible Pulse Association and the Process and Growers Research Association. This led us to one of the top BEPA growers, Askew and Barrett (Pulses) Ltd, Smeeth Farm, Marshland St James, Wisbech. Paddy Barrett from the firm kindly provided us with dried peas of a variety called Princess, which are actually supplied by them to the Fish and Chip Shop trade. A brilliant starting point - these peas are excellent.
We have experimented extensively and settled on the following way of preparing them.
Take 500gms of dried Princess peas. Place them on a large basin and cover them with cold water in which is dissolved a table spoon of bicarbonate of soda. The peas will expand considerably so have the water level at least six inches above the peas. Leave to soak overnight.
Drain the peas and wash in a colander in flowing cold water for a few seconds.
Put the peas into the bottom of a pressure cooker and just cover them in cold water. With all the scares of associations between aluminum and Alzheimer's, we use one of the modern Tefal stainless steel pressure cookers (as endorsed by no lesser chef than Jamie Oliver!). Bring the pressure cooker up to pressure and cook for 30 minutes. After cooking strain off any really runny liquid - there won't be much. Take about 30 gms of butter, cut this into slivers and gently fold these into the peas. Divide the peas into around 8 portions, seal them into plastic bags and freeze them. Each portion serves two. To use, simply defrost and warm them through thoroughly either in a pan or using a microwave. At this stage if you want minty peas, stir in a teaspoon of mint jelly from the supermarket, or some finely chopped fresh mint leaves.
A recipe from village coffee mornings, published in the Village Newsletter (No 318 April 2008)
110g mature cheddar grated
125g plain flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling
95g unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 level teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt
Mix all ingredients in a food processor for 30 secs until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and kneed for a minute, wrap in Cling film and chill for 30 mins. After chilling roll out the dough, chill again for 20-30 mins. Preheat oven to 190 C and bake for 10-12 mins.