Aunty Tamara’s Mushroom Pie

Serves 8-10

You will need a 27cm flan tin with a removable base, 1 recipe sour cream pastry, and mushroom filling.

Sour Cream Pastry

• 200g chilled unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces

• 250g plain flour

• ½ cup (125ml) sour cream

Put the butter and flour into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add sour cream and pulse again until the dough just forms a ball.

Turn out onto a floured board and gently bounce the pastry (helps to stop shrinkage).

Flatten into two discs, wrap in plastic film and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.

After half an hour, remove one of the pastry discs from fridge, roll out thinly, and line the flan tin, letting the pastry hang over the sides. Put back in fridge.

Mushroom Filling

• 2 brown onions, chopped

• 1 kilo fresh mushrooms of your choice, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 4 sprigs thyme, leaves removed

• 2-3tbsp butter

• Freshly ground nutmeg to taste

• 1tsp roasted, crushed coriander seed

• ½ bunch tarragon leaves, chopped

• 1.5 cups cooked basmati rice

• Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

• Panko or fresh breadcrumbs

• 1 egg yolk mixed with a little milk to make an egg wash

In a large frying pan melt 2tbsp of the butter and gently sauté the onions over a low heat until softened. Turn up the heat, toss in mushrooms, garlic and thyme, and cook until mushrooms have lost all their liquid, and mixture is dry (You may need to add the remaining 1tbsp butter if the mushrooms seem to be burning).

Season well with salt, pepper, nutmeg and coriander seed, add tarragon and rice, and set aside to cool.

When cool, heat oven to 200C, and take pastry and extra disc out of the fridge. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the base, and after determining that the mixture has enough flavour, spoon into the tart tin, making a flat and even surface.

Roll out the other disc of pastry, and lay on top of the filling, pressing both edges together to seal well. Make three slits in the middle of the pie so that steam can escape, and brush with the egg wash. Put pie into the fridge for fifteen minutes, then take out, place on a baking sheet and bake for forty minutes in the oven until crisp and golden. After thirty minutes check to see if the top is browning too quickly, if so cover loosely with foil.

Remove from oven, place onto a cooling rack, and serve at room temperature.