I can not believe it has been 12 days since my last post. I’m not quite sure where the time has gone! One thing I know that took up some time was enjoying catching up with lots of my friends this weekend. Once a month me and a group of friends meet up and have dinner, we call ourselves the Dishy Diners. Each month we choose a different country for the food to be from and everyone brings something. This month the country was France, as I am the only vegetarian in the group I made the vegetarian main. Trying to find a classic French recipe for vegetarians is very hard so I decided to use a bit of creative licence and made a chestnut and red wine en croute. I chose this as chestnuts are widely used in French cooking and are a brilliant ingredient that is rarely used in British cooking.
I usually make this during the winter months as I always associate chestnuts with winter. This recipe is really good for a vegetarian sunday dinner or as an alternative for Christmas dinner (I know 11 months to go but it’s worth remembering!). I find it hard to write up my recipes at times as I am the type of cook who adds things as they go along and measures by eye rather than with scales and measuring jugs but I have made this so many times I know this one off by heart. It is a is a very simple recipe but looks very impressive and tastes great.
Chestnut and Red Wine En Croute
Ingredients (serves 4-6 depending on how hungry you are!)
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 x 415g tin unsweetened chestnut purée
- 100g bread crumbs
- 100ml red wine
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 x 400g packet puff pastry
- 1 egg (for the egg wash)
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F.
- Fry the onion in olive oil until softened, add the garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes.
- Take off the heat and add the chestnut purée, wine, breadcrumbs and salt and pepper.
- Roll the pastry out and cut it in half, put the chestnut mixture onto one of the halves, leaving a 2cm gap around the edge.
- Place the other half over the top and crimp all of the edges tightly so the filling doesn’t escape and the pastry come apart. Using a pastry brush egg wash the pastry.
- Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
Enjoy! H x
Adapted from Rose Elliot Vegetarian Christmas (1992) Chestnut and Red Wine Pate En Croute
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