Mushroom & Turnip Parcels

A transitional dish that works well for those late Summer evenings and Autumn lunches. Suitable for vegetarians but those omnivores among us won't notice the lack of meat.

Serves 4

Oven Temperature 180°C

Ingredients

250g field mushrooms
400g turnips, peeled and cut into a rough 2.5 cm dice
75g butter
100ml white wine (optional)
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp powdered wasabi (optional)
8 sheets of brick or filo pastry
40g melted butter
salt & pepper

Method

Put the turnips in a pan together with the wine and 25g of butter, top up with water to cover the turnips.

Heat the pan to boiling point and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook until soft. Remove the turnips from the pan, reserving the liquid, and set aside to cool.

Return the pan to the heat and boil the remaining liquid until only a teaspoon of wine & water together with the butter remain.

Chop the mushrooms into a ½ cm dice. Heat a frying pan until hot, add 50g of butter together with the mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Fry until the mushrooms are golden, turn off the heat and add the garlic stirring gently.

Place the cooled turnips in a blender together with the reserved juice and puree the mixture until smooth, add the wasabi (if using) and the soy sauce. Place the turnip mixture together with the mushrooms in a bowl and gently stir them together. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Set aside in the fridge to chill.

Take a sheet of pastry and, using a pastry brush, cover with a thin coating of the melted butter, repeat with a second sheet and lay this on top of the first. Then either push the middle of the 2 sheets of pastry into a deep muffin tin, or lay flat on a baking tray, spoon ¼ of the turnip & mushroom mixture into the middle of the pastry. Gather up the outer edge of the pastry and twist it so that it creates a ball of filling in the bottom with a frilly pastry top - as the butter cools & sets it will hold the shape.

Repeat this process with the remaining sheets of pastry and the filling. Allow the melted butter to cool before putting the parcels on to a baking sheet, then place in the oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry top is a dark golden colour.
Serve hot.