rosie ramsden's kale, chestnut and mushroom pie

Truly the cold, Autumnal nights are the domain of the pie! What with their comforting smell and crisp scrunch of pastry, revealing the warming filling and unctuous gravy within, they’re the edible equivalent of fluffy slippers: Perfect to keep the chills at bay, and to make you feel toasty and at peace with the world.

They are however an absolute bugger to make, if you’re in any way in a hurry. Particularly if you’ve just run home (in record breaking time, mind) and then discover all the utensils you need are malingering near the sink. Personal bests are literally cold comfort when you’ve got to spend 15 shivering minutes washing up and putting away stuff before you’ve even begun. Once done though, everything proceeds quite happily along, although what with the run/washing up/shower, we’re well-behind schedule.

I do have one shortcut up my sleeve though, having learned my lesson from last week’s finger-shredding incident shelling chestnuts: pre-prepared chestnuts. In a box. It’s the future.

Once you’ve sweated off the onions, this turns into a pretty simple assembly job: Chuck in the mushrooms, chestnuts and sage, add flour, add milk, blanch kale before adding it to the mixture, bung it in a pie dish, cover with pastry, cook. 25 minutes later eat 2 to 3 portions of deliciously earthy, toe-warming pie.

Despite its ease of construction and the fact I forgot the dried porcini mushrooms, there a couple of things worth bearing in mind if you fancy giving this a whirl:

1.  You need to use more milk than the recipe calls for, if you don’t want it to dry out
2.  Pancetta would make a nice, salty addition to the filling
3.  You’ll end up with loads of kale leftover, which you don’t really know what to do with

I suppose 3  is more of a general point whenever kale is involved.

sources
kale, chestnut and mushroom pie - rosie ramsden, Delicious, October 2013, p65