Veggie Pie

For the filling

• 100 gm cottage cheese, diced into small cubes

• A ready paneer curry

• mix of your choice eg paneer tikka mix or a mixture of spices like turmeric, garam masala, salt, cinnamon powder, dry mango powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder + milk

• 1 or 2 slices sandwich cheese

• 1 bell pepper red

• 2 onions

• A bunch of spinach – blanched

• Par boiled carrot – 1 medium, finely diced

• Butter, Oil, salt and seasoning

• Optional - A handful of sprouted beans/moong/boiled sweetcorn/green peas

For tomato sauce/chutney

• 3 big ripe tomatoes – diced into small cubes

• 4-5 cloves garlic – finely chopped

• 2 green chillies– finely chopped

• 1 cm ginger – grated

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• Oil, salt, sugar

For the crust

• 1 flat cup white flour

• 1 flat cup whole wheat flour

• 1 tbsp semolina

• 75 gm butter – cold, diced

• Salt

• 1 tsp Carom seeds

• Water to knead the dough

• 1 tbsp oil

Pastry crust

1. Mix all flours with butter cubes and give a quick whiz in a mixer grinder till the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs

2. Add carom seeds, salt

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil and add to the dry flour mixture for a sizzle

4. Dry mix thoroughly before adding water

5. Adding little water as you go, knead into a tight dough, shape into a ball, cover and refrigerate for a minimum half an hour till you prepare the filling

6. Filling –

7. Filling can be made of any vegetables of your choice with usually one flavor/ingredient being the key high light

8. In this case, I choose paneer tikka as the main flavor which can easily be swapped for sautéed mushrooms or any other filling of your choice. Mix all the spices listed (or your ready to mix spices) in abt 150 ml milk. Add a small knob of butter in a pan, add cumin seeds till they splutter. Add the milk spice mix to this. After it starts slightly simmering add the paneer cubes and let the curry thicken to a dropping consistency.

9. Sautee onions, red peppers separately with seasoning as preferred.

10. Blanch spinach with a little salt

Tomato chutney –

1. Add a little oil in a pan and add cumin seeds to splutter

2. Add ginger, garlic, chillies and tomatoes

3. Let this cook for 5-6 minutes till the mixture is cooked and mushy but few tomatoes retain shape

4. Add salt to taste, half a teaspoon of sugar (optional, omit if you prefer tangy chutney)

5. Let the chutney thicken

Assembling the pie –

1. Line a 5 inch pringfoam pan with parchment paper, line the sides with butter

2. Divide the dough in two part, a one-third and a two third.

3. Roll out the two-third part into a big circle, about 3 mm thick such that the disk should cover the base of the tin, the sides and have about half to one cm hanging over

4. Lower the rolled pastry in the pan, lightly press into the sides so that you have a bowl shaped hollow for the filling

5. Start with layering the veggies alternating colours, make sure you add more layers of the primary filling eg paneer tikka or sautéed mushrooms

6. I added onions, carrots, paneer tikka, sprouts, tomato sauce, a cheese slice, spinach, paneer tikka, a cheese slice and tomato sauce again

7. Roll out the remaining one third of the dough to form a circle big enough to act as a lid and has about a cm left over

8. Cover with the smaller pastry, pinch sides of the two layer together

9. Cut off anything which is bigger than about a third of a cm

10. Pinch the sides or spiral into the traditional pastry side fashion

11. With any left over dough, shape little leaves, mark the veins of leaves with a knife

12. Poke a hole in the centre of the pie with a toothpick – this will help the steam escape as the veggies and sauces cook.

13. With the hole as centre guide, paste the leaves around in a circular flower shape with a dab of milk

14. Apply a generous coating of egg white or milk – this will help the pie get a beautiful golden colour and shine

15. Bake for 30-40 mins in middle shelf. After 30 mins if the tip appears to be browning a lot, cover with an aluminum foil and continue baking