Portabella Mushroom en Croûte

Coming up with dishes that appeal to meat lovers is always fun and this is one of Mo's favourites that we often use for such occasions (and for Christmas too...) because it's pretty easy and actually makes a substantial statement in the middle of the plate which is the space that can be bothersome.

So when it came to holding a team building lunch on the Farm for one of our favourite local businesses in Liverpool, The Chocolate Cellar, we wanted to impress their veggie-wary staff - and in fact these worked even better as mini pies (always useful to have something that people recognise at a buffet I recall from catering days).

Ingredients

2 tsp oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

200g baby spinach, rinsed

2 large portabella mushrooms

2 tsp white balsamic condiment

50g vegetarian tapenade

200g puff pastry

1 medium egg, beaten 

Serves 2                         

                                   

First pre heat your oven to 200ºC/Gas 6. Then in a large frying pan sauté the garlic for a few minutes, then add the spinach and sauté until wilted, when cool, squeeze out any excess juices and chop finely.

Next, remove the stalk from the mushrooms and score the surface with a sharp knife. Pour over the balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Top each mushroom with 25g of tapenade.

Then roll the pastry out as thin as possible (best if you use the block version - ready rolled these days doesn't have much 'puff'') and cut in half. Cut each piece into a circle large enough to cover and enclose the mushroom. Either by hand or with a nifty little lattice cutter, cut several lines just in the middle of the pastry (not the edges). Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg.

Now you're ready for the fun part - divide the spinach in half and place on top of the mushrooms, then carefully place a circle of pastry over the mushroom  to enclose, making the pastry stick to the bottom of the mushroom (it does, honestly!)

Finally place the mushrooms on a lined and greased baking tray, brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. If you fancy you can always add some feta or goats cheese on top of the spinach.

ps. I think you should also get to share, at least visually, the glorious array of brownies that we had to (yes had to!) sample in order to find the winner. I think perhaps 6 were indeed my max in one sitting.