Puff Ball to Puff Pie

We really haven't had a huge amount of success so far this year with our mushroom foraging.  Some of that has been a lack of time due to more pressing issues, but on the occasions we have gone out on the 'mushy' hunt, apart from a few chanterelles and the odd bolete, we've come back predominantly empty handed.  Imagine my delight therefore when an ex-student turned up at work with a prize giant puffball that was going spare.  He was going away and, not having had the chance to use it before, hadn't wanted it to go to waste.  Being a fellow mushroom hound, it seemed my name was written all over it.

I hugged it like a baby and immediately had to ring Phil to tell him the good news.  I really was that excited!  My excitement may have seemed disproportionate but it had been years since we'd found a giant puffball, our very local source having been non-productive for a few years now despite us being very reserved with our harvesting.  A giant puffball represented a very tasty few meals ahead of us.  

First up was pie; creamy mushroom pies to be exact. Having a pack of puff pastry to hand, it was a quick and easy way to inhale and ingest some of the earthy white flesh of this giant wonder.  To counter the naughty pastry element I served the pies with a selection of salads. Only a third of the puffball had been used to produce four individual pies.  'Two Pies Chapman' ensured that only one of these remained to photograph, so he thought they were very tasty indeed.  It's pretty simple to make up a filling for a pie but my recipe is below in case anyone is interested in this quick (and lazy) recipe!  You can use any mushrooms you have to hand.  It involved another element of laziness in using the new Sacla Vegan Ch**se Sauce that has recently come on the market.  We'd never tried it before so this gave us the perfect opportunity and the bonus was, I only needed to use about half the jar so the rest was used on a lasagna the next day.

What's in store for the rest of the puffball? Well that is undecided as yet apart from the fact we will no doubt have mushroom 'steaks' at some point.  This is even more lazy and quick than the pie in that you just cut thick slices off the puffball, pop them on a baking tray, add a topping of your choice (sun dried tomato paste and slices of favourite vegan cheese are good) and just bake until soft and browned.

Puff Pie

Packet of vegan puff pastry, or shortcrust, or make some pastry if you like!

A slurp of olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, minced

Mushrooms of your choice, chopped or sliced (just judge the amount!)

Salt and pepper

1/2 jar of Sacla Vegan Ch**se Sauce

Gently fry the onion in the olive oil until softening and starting to brown.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to cook until softening.  Add the salt and pepper.  Add the sauce ensuring a lovely good coating of the mushrooms.  

Lightly grease either one big pie dish or several small ones and line with pastry.  Pop in the filling, top with pastry, ensuring you seal well around the edges but put a little slit in the top to let the steam out.  Bake at about 200 degrees C until the pastry looks brown and crispy.

Enjoy!