I love going home to my mums cooking but it is the regimented Sunday lunches that make it extra special, not something I do when I am away and it really brings back that special winter feeling of holidays and the festive period.
For the sunday roast my go to is a roast veg or mushroom pie with roast potatoes, veg and gravy. It combines the best winter flavours into one meal and can be altered to suit anyone's tastes.
I’ll leave you to figure out the best way to make the roast potatoes, since there is an abundance of information on that. The key is to put them in the oven 20 minutes before the pie so that everything is ready at the same time and they come out as crispy and delicious as possible.
Prep work
Vegetables for the pie (I find that mushrooms, parsnips and sweet potatoes work particularly well, but any will do.) 600 grams works well, but it all depends on the size of dish you use. You can put them in once you've chopped them up to see roughly how much space they will take up.
An onion diced, half a bulb of garlic crushed or diced.
A dash of soy sauce and season to taste - I use mustard, pepper, pink rock salt and brown sugar along with herbs (rosemary and thyme), these remind me of the winter flavour I am trying to cultivate with the dish.
A half bottle of stout or other dark ale, Guinness works well too.
Have some plain flour handy, a tablespoon should be enough but you will want some for rolling out the pastry too.
One block of puff pastry (Vegan) that will be rolled out and placed on top of the dish until it fits with some hanging over. Cut this spare away and then cut out a fun shape from any spare pastry to put on top, this is when your artistic talent can shine.
Cooking Instructions
Put the vegetables or mushrooms you want in the pie on a baking tray, pour over some oil and season with salt and pepper. Put this in the oven while you prep the rest of the ingredients: roughly 20 mins.
For the pie, add the onion and garlic into a hot pan with oil. Then season with rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.
Pour in the roasted vegetables you made earlier and stir well.
Add the stout and simmer on a low heat, add the mustard and soy sauce and sugar here.
Use some of the flour to thicken the mixture to your preference.
Pour the mixture into your pie dish and place the pastry over the top. Nip the pastry round the edge to hold it to the dish and then cut two slices into the top with a sharp knife.
Put it in the oven for ~15 mins until the pastry on top is a nice golden brown colour.
Wa-la, the dish is made and ready to eat.
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