Mushroom Wellington

Busy Student's Note:

This recipe made an excellent entre for a Vegetarian Holiday dinner. It is from ivillage.co.uk, but I keep having problems getting the page to load and I don't want to lose this recipe. The following is from ivillage: "This dish is time-consuming, but you can prepare it up to the baking stage and freeze it weeks in advance. Before serving, remove the wellington from the freezer and, after thawing, glaze the pastry with beaten egg and put it in a hot oven to bake for 45 minutes at 220C/425F/gas mark 7 until puffed and golden."

• Total Time: 1 hrs 50 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

• 600 g puff pastry
• 50 ml sunflower oil
• 675 g chopped onions
• 450 g whole chestnut mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 tablespoons soya sauce or 4 tablespoons tamari or 4 tablespoons marsala or 4 tablespoons sherry wine
• 320 g broken cashew pieces
• 320 g ground almonds
• 175 g fine freshly made white breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten for glazing
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Roll out the pastry into two rectangles, 23x30.5cm each, cover and place in the fridge.
2. To make the filling, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion with half the crushed garlic for at least 20 minutes or until it turns a deep golden colour. This is crucial, as pale onions will give an insipid mix.
3. Remove onions from the pan and set aside, then add the mushrooms to the same pan with the rest of the garlic and half the tarragon and cook on afairly high heat. Halfway through cooking, add the soya sauce or tamari and the alcohol, if you are using it.
4. Continue until the mushrooms are cooked through; there should be no white centre left when you cut one open. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Set aside, reserving all the mushroom liquor (the intensely flavoured liquid given out by the mushrooms).
6. In a food processor or blender, blend the cashews with the reserved mushroom liquor to a fine, smooth purée, adding a little water or even more of whichever alcohol you are using, until you have a smooth, sweet paste or pate.
7. Remove mixture from the blender and blend first the onions, then mushrooms – you can mix them up if you wish – until they are perfectly smooth.
8. Mix all the blended ingredients together in a bowl, adding the breadcrumbs, ground almonds and the remaining tarragon. The mixture should gently hold its shape when formed with the hands.
9. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Remove the pastry from the fridge. Divide the mixture in two and place one lot on a sheet of pastry, shaping with your hands as you go to make a long rectangular shape about 28cm long, 7cm wide and about 5cm high.
10. With the thin point of a sharp knife, make diagonal cuts at a 45-degree angle, starting from the left hand corner of the pastry towards the pate mixture. Repeat on the other side, this time starting at the top right hand corner and cutting down towards the centre. The strips should now be about 2cm apart.
11. Fold in the end pieces first. Then draw a strip over from the left, then one from the right, crossing them over (you can tug lightly at the strips if you need to) so the mix is snugly wrapped up. Repeat for the second wellington.
12. Either freeze at this stage or glaze generously with beaten egg.
13. Place upon a floured tray, using two fish slices or the loose base of a tart tin to help you.
14. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes until golden.
15. Allow to cool for a few minutes before attempting to lift onto a serving dish. Once again you'll need the help of some implements.
16. Allow 2 perfect slices per person, cut with a very sharp serrated or electric knife.