Category Archives: crust

mushroom walnut dumplings

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mushroom walnut dumplings

Inside: Roasted mushrooms, walnuts, parsley and cheese. Outside: a biscuit-like crust made with whole wheat flour, toasted oats, rosemary, black pepper and buttermilk. I called these dumplings because of their shape, but it might be more accurate to call them stuffed biscuits. They’re not soft and flaky, like anything made with paté brisée. They’re a little heartier-tasting, so they’re nice with soup or something saucy. Or even a sauce! Like the herbed walnut sauce, perhaps. Each bite has subtle flavors of baked rosemary and black pepper, and you can pick them up and eat them with your hands! Always a bonus.

Here’s Big Joe Williams with King Biscuit Stomp
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Parsnip & apple galette

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Here’s another one that Mrs Rabbit could make after she sends Peter foraging in the hedgerows for nuts and stealing root vegetables from their neighbors’ gardens. This is a rustic-looking galette, with roasted parsnips, apples and shallots, sharp cheddar cheese and some arugula thrown in for greenness. The parsnips are sweet, the apples are tart, the cheese is sharp, and they all go well together. The crust is made with hazelnuts, and lends a nice crunchy nuttiness to the soft, sweet insides. Galettes are the easiest crusted-thing to make, because you just fold them over and they look nice. There’s not fussing with crimping or roundness or fitting-into-anything-ness.

Here’s Sonny Boy Williamson with Apple Tree Swing.
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Eggplant Wellington

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Eggplant Wellington

In my mind, beef wellington is the great uncle of savory pastries. The one with the muttonchop whiskers and the velvet smoking jacket, sipping on a brandy. As it happens, this great uncle doesn’t go quite as far back in the family history as you might think. As they tell us over at Historical Foods…

The culinary history of Beef Wellington is a bit of a mystery, with far too many theories, (and all of them lacking in any hard evidence) to put this dish any earlier than the 20th Century – it certainly does not appear in any Victorian recipe books. So ignoring for now the myths surrounding this recipe we should instead concentrate on making it.

Indeed we should! For my vegetarian version, I decided to wrap the pastry around eggplant anyone could love (marinated, breaded, baked), I topped it with roasted mushrooms and shallots sprinkled with sherry, and I put a layer of sautéed chard in the middle. It turned out very well indeed! Tasty, and substantial, but not overly heavy considering it’s really only vegetables inside. (And a few slices of cheese!)

It’s not a last-minute meal – it did take a bit of time because there are a few parts to contend with, but most of them could be made earlier in the day, or even the day before. And if you buy your puff pastry, you’d cut down even more time. (I’d be more likely to cheat and use a quick paté brisée before I’d buy frozen puff pastry, though.) It’s very fun to make, too – and a delight to take out of the oven. I felt so proud of myself! It makes a nice crowed-pleasing meal for a special occasion. Like Christmas dinner!

We ate it with a lovely tomato & port wine sauce that went perfectly with all the flavors and textures.

If you liked this, you might like to also try my Portobello Wellington.

If you’d like to compare this to genuine beef wellington, check out Felicity Cloake’s article in the Guardian.

Here’s Michael Coleman, a fiddler active in the 20s, playing Wellington Reels.
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Don’t Fear the Crust! Puff pastry Edition.

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Puff pastry

Once upon a time, puff pastry seemed like one of those foods that is so mysterious and complex that you have to buy it ready-made. Well, that’s not quite true. Once you’ve made it once or twice, you’ll see how easy it can be. It is time-consuming, but it’s not really labor-intensive. And it’s not actually all that complicated. If you have a day that you’re going to be around the house anyway, doing other things, or in-and-out… that’s the day to make puff pastry. To be completely honest, the pasté brisée recipe I’ve mentioned, with the frozen, grated butter, makes pastry almost as flaky, and takes a lot less time. There’s something about puff pastry, though…it’s like a dragon to be tamed and befriended. Personally, I think it works best for smaller things that you don’t mold the heck out of. It’s very versatile, though!!

Here’s Broken Social Scene with Puff the Magic Dragon, because there is something magical about puff pastry.
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Non-sausage rolls with chard and olives

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chard rolls

We had a party the other night, and I made these chard “non-sausage” rolls. They’re substantial enough that you could have a few with a good salad or some soup and it would make a meal. But…because they’re cut into small pieces they make good snacking food. They’re easy to make as well, because you don’t shape each individual one – you just cut them apart.

I combined swiss chard with a sort of deconstructed version of my tapenade. Kalamata olives, hazelnuts, capers, rosemary, thyme and garlic. Lovely flavors together – earthy, salty and very satisfying.

See also non-sausage rolls with butternut squash and goat cheese.

Here’s another reggae christmas song, because I’m obsessed with them at the moment. This one is completely brilliant…Eek-a-Mouse with The Night Before Christmas (not a creature was stirring, only an Eek-a-Mouse
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Cracker cups

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paprika cracker cups with membrillo and manchego


When speaking of my quince obsession the other day, I told you about membrillo, a delicious Spanish quince paste. Due to the miracle of quince’s high pectin content, when cooked for a long time at a slow temperature, it makes this lovely firm jelly, that is as pretty as it is tasty.

In Spain they eat it with manchego cheese, a dry, salty sheep’s cheese. The combination is uncommonly good! I decided to make some little cups out of cracker dough, and put a small piece of membrillo and a small piece of manchego in each one. It looks fancy, but it’s also nice because you get the full experience in one bite – sweet & soft, salty, and crispy crunchy. I made these with smoked Spanish paprika. Because 1)I make everything with smoked spanish paprika (I swear, I have to stop myself, sometimes!) 2) It’s Spanish, like the cheese and the quince paste 3) it makes the dough a beautiful pinkish salmon color that goes so nicely with the lovely pinkish amber membrillo!

I simply made a quick cracker dough, and rolled it into little discs that I pressed into a mini muffin tin. I didn’t want them to be too neat and orderly, they look more like little flowers if you just press them quickly together and crimp them randomly with your fingers.

You could use any kind of cracker dough, and put any number of things inside (food-type things, preferably!) Tapenade and fresh mozzarella would be good. Or goat cheese and a little sprig of arugula, or some capers. Whatever you like!

Here’s Bob Marley’s beautiful My Cup to listen to while you make your little cracker cups.
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Empanadas with chipotle and butternut squash

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Red bean and butternut squash empanadas

These empanadas are like an evening in autumn – the leaves are all golden, red, and orange, and the smoke from somebody’s fireplace fills the air. Made with yellow corn, red beans, roasted butternut squash, and smoky paprika and chipotle puree, they’re pretty and delicious. They go well with artichoke heart salsa, which brings coolness to their smoky warmth. I baked mine, but you could fry them if you wanted.

Here’s Red Beans by Coleman Hawkins with the Red Garland Trio
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Greens & roasted butternut squash in a hazelnut crust

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Greens & butternut squash in a hazelnut crust

It’s a big handsome pie! This is another good option for a vegetarian holiday meal. It’s pretty enough and satisfying enough. I love the combination of butternut squash, goat’s cheese and hazelnut. Something about the nuttiness, tartness and sweetness just blends perfectly together. The crust is crispy and delicious, with ground hazelnuts and white & black pepper. Inside we find layers of butternut squash roasted with sage and rosemary, alternated with layers of fresh ricotta mixed with greens, artichoke hearts, capers, and goat cheese. It sounds complicated, but it’s not hard to make. I love this particular shape of pie. I think I might have invented it! I think it looks nice, but it’s completely easy and forgiving and fun to make.

This is delicious served with romesco sauce or a simple tomato sauce.

Here’s Squash Dance, from the Anthology of Central and South American Indian Music
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Roasted carrot & apple with goat cheese in a rosemary crust

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When I was little, I loved the Little House on the Prairie book that was about Almanzo Wilder’s childhood in upstate New York. In one scene, he gets all excited because his mom makes him his favorite dish – apples and onions. As a child, I thought this was a very odd combination, because apples were sweet. Well, it turns out that little Almanzo was a culinary genius, because apples are lovely in a lot of savory environments. In these little pastry parcels, carrots and apples, roasted with shallots and garlic, show off their sweetness to tart goat cheese and sharp cheddar, and all the tastes are enhanced by the lovely combination of golden raisins and rosemary. A surprising mix-up, perhaps, but really delicious. I made these quite small, because the filling is soft and it contrasts nicely with the crispy crust. Have 2 or 3 with soup or a salad for dinner, or take them to a party as a fancy appetizer.

Here’s Neutral Milk Hotel’s King of Carrot Flowers. Might not actually be about carrots, but such a good song.
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Pie, Mash & Liquor – vegetarian style

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I first came across pie, mash & liquor in the wonderful blog Spitalfields Life. This meal is an east London phenomenon, which consists of a meat pie, a pile of mashed potatoes, and a drenching of liquor (parsley sauce). And it seems to be accompanied, traditionally, by jellied eels. (I haven’t come up with a vegetarian version of this, but it would probably involve okra.) The meal is served in gleaming marble and glass pie shops, which I vow to visit one day!

I used a black bean and mushroom substitute for the meat. From the recipes I’ve seen, there’s a bit of leeway with different flavorings – it’s not as pure and simple as a cornish pastie, for instance. I added marmite, mustard powder, paprika, and beer, and the result is really delicious! I have made parsley sauce in the past, but I was in the mood for something different, this time, so I made an herbed walnut sauce, and stirred a big helping of pesto in at the end so it would be green (and tasty!!)

I used a hot water crust on the bottom and a paté brisée on the top, which seems to be traditional, according to some sources. But you could use one or the other. And I used a large-sized muffin pan, but you could use a regular muffin pan, or, to really keep it simple, just use paté brisée and fold them over like turnovers.

Here’s Dee Dee Sharp doing Mashed Potato Time
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