The ultimate comfort food

A new recipe from our head chef Tony Keogh

This is my favourite time of year. There is a palpable sense of change as the days draw in and the abundance of summer gives way to the harvest of autumn. Courgettes, tomatoes and peppers give way to mushrooms, large Autumn cauliflowers and squash. light summer tarts and pilafs give way to hearty stews and pies. It is the season of comfort food, the kind of food that implores you back for seconds,The stews, coddles and cottage pies of childhood.  the above recipe epitomizes this, It is easy enough to prepare it will take about 45 minutes to prepare it, 45 minutes to cook and It will serve about 8 people or maybe 4!

You will need

For the filling;

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and halved and sliced into 1 cm pieces

500 grams cauliflower in florets

3 medium leeks, sliced in half lenthways and again into 3 cm pieces

200 grams button mushrooms

400 grams tofu, cubed

140 grams tomato puree

1 dessertspoon of ground cumin

1 level teaspoon of Chinese five spice

Few drops of sesame oil

30 ml shoyu or good quality soy sauce

3 heaped dessertspoons of peanut butter

Dessertspoon of rice vinegar

Dessertspoon of brown sugar

For the dough;

450 grams cream flour

100 ml oil [50 sunflower, 40 olive, 10 sesame oil, any combination of sunflower and olive is fine, sesame is optional]

150 ml water

Pinch of salt

Pinch of turmeric

For the wasabi and rocket cream

200 grams silken tofu

1 heaped teaspoon of wasabi

Dessertspoon of chopped rocket

Juice of half a lime

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

Firstly pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius. Now get started on the filling. Heat a little sunflower oil in a large heavy bottomed sauce pan. When it is beginning to sizzle add the onions and carrots, Stir for a about two minutes and add a little water, about 100 ml along with the cumin and five spice. Leave to simmer

Make the dough, Sift the flour, salt and turmeric into a bowl and add the oil. Begin to mix with your hands and slowly add the water until a smooth dough begins to form and the mixture pulls away from the edge of the bowl. Roll the dough into a ball and refrigerate in cling film

Spread the cauliflower onto a baking tray, sprinkle with a little salt and a drop of oil and put the tray into the preheated oven. Repeat the same procedure with the tofu and the mushrooms, these can be cooked together on the same tray as they both take about the same amount of time to cook

Add the leeks to the onion carrot mixture and leave to cook and soften for a few minutes while you prepare the wasabi cream. In a food processor blend all the cream ingredients and put it into the fridge to cool

Add the tomato puree, peanut butter, sesame oil, shoyu, vinegar, sugar and seasoning to the filling mixture and leave on a low heat to simmer while you organise the dough

Divide the dough into two pieces one slightly larger than the other, I baked my pie in a 12” pie mould, you could also use a similarly sized flan ring ring or spring form. Grease the mould or dish with a little oil

The mushrooms, tofu and cauliflower should all be cooked at this stage, remove them from the oven and add them to the spiced vegetable mix, stir well to combine, check the seasoning  and set the mixture aside while you roll the dough

Roll the larger piece of dough to fit the base leaving a slight overhang around the edges. Pour the mixture into the dish and level it off. Roll the second piece of dough to fit on top. brush the edges with a little soy milk and press the top into place. Crimp the edges and discard the excess. Brush the top with soy milk and bake on a baking sheet at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.

When cooked leave to cool before removing from the dish and serving. It should yield about 8 portions