Daring Cooks May 2013: Mushroom Wellingtons

Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

I don't have any kids but I kind of made up my own recipe anyway, based on the mushroom one, but using what I had in the house. This was delicious, although I did have a bit of a disaster as I didn't have any eggs so I used milk to stick the pastry together. It didn't stick properly so most of my cheese leaked out as you can see at the bottom! However I just scraped it up and had it on the side and the dish was still delicious. I served it with roast squashed new potatoes and salad. I love things en croute so this was a fantastic challenge!

















I've also just realised that this is my 700th post! That's pretty good!!

Mushroom Wellingtons
(Serves 4)

4 large portobello mushrooms
4 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
200g spinach leaves
200g chard leaves
a dusting of flour
500g block all-butter puff pastry
140g Harrogate Blue cheese, sliced
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Remove the stalks from the mushrooms. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan and sizzle the mushrooms for 3-4 mins on each side until golden and cooked. Lift the mushrooms out onto kitchen paper to drain.

Place the same pan back on the heat with the rest of the oil. Fry the garlic for a moment, add the spinach and chard to the pan, then cook for 2-3 mins over a high heat until completely wilted. Season with salt and pepper, then tip the spinach and chard into a large sieve to drain thoroughly.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the pastry into 4 rectangles and on half of the pastry place the spinach and chard mix and then top with a slice of cheese, then a mushroom top side up and then more cheese.

Brush the border  of the pastry with egg, then gently fold the other half of the pastry over the mushroom, trying not to trap any air, then press the edges together with a your fingers or a fork.

Trim the edges with a knife if you want, then brush each generously with egg. Bake for 30-40 mins until golden, then leave to cool for a few mins before serving.