Fungaloo Vegan Country Pie

It was the Isotoma Bake Off a couple of weeks ago. I entered the Hot Water Crust pastry category, with the added complication of wanting to make my entry vegan. So a mildly curried potato and mushroom pie was born.

• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 medium white onion
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 finger chillies
• 1 scotch bonnet chilli
• 2" thumb ginger
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp groundnut oil
• 1 tsp mild chilli powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 250g chestnut mushrooms
• 4 medium sized new potatoes
• 30g fresh coriander
• 575g of plain flour
• 200g of solid vegetable fat (Cookeen or Trex)
• 220ml of water
• 2tbsp of Mango chutney (make sure it's vegan!)
• 1tbsp of almond milk or soya milk for the glaze (optional)

Preheat the oven to 140C.

Open the 4 cardamom pods and take the seeds out. Discard the husks. Put the cardamom seeds, the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fennel seeds into a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast the seeds for a couple of minutes. A lovely smell should start to come off the pan when they're ready. Once done, tip them in to a pestle and mortar and lightly crush them; not too much though, just a quick bash.

Peel and finely chop both the onions. Spread the result out over a large plate and sprinkle evenly with the teaspoon of salt. Next, chop the finger chillies (seeds in) into thin rings and add to the onions. Carefully take the seeds out of the scotch bonnet and throw them away, finely chop the flesh of the pepper and add that to the onions too (you might want to wear gloves here; if you don't, make sure you wash your hands carefully and keep your fingers away from your eyes). Peel the ginger and grate it, and peel and grate the garlic. Add them both to the onions as well.

Put the kettle on to boil.

Take a large, lidded oven proof casserole dish and heat the oil over a low heat. After a minute or so add the onions, chillies, ginger and garlic, as well as the lightly crushed toasted seeds from the pestle and mortar. Stir gently while the mixture comes up to heat. After a few minutes put the lid on the pan and put the pan into the preheated oven.

Fill a saucepan from the now boiled kettle, and get the water boiling again on the hob. Once it's up to a good boil add the potatoes and boil them for 10 minutes. While you're waiting peel and chop the mushrooms into largish chunks, and roughly chop the coriander leaves.

When the potatoes are boiled take them off the heat and drain them, and put them to one side to cool. Take the casserole dish out of the oven and put it back on the hob on a low heat. Take the lid off and add the ground spices (mild chilli powder, sugar, garam masala, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and ground cinnamon) to the now sweated onion mixture and give it a good stir. Add the mushrooms to the pan and give it another good stir.

Chop the cooled potatoes into roughly 1cm cubes and add them to the pan along with the chopped coriander. Stir everything well over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, before putting on the lid and putting the dish back in the oven.

Sit back for 20 minutes. Clean up. Make a Mojito. Relax for a moment.

Now make the pastry.

Hot water crust pastry requires you to work quickly and be brave, so read these instructions carefully and make sure you know what you're doing before you start.

Take a 20cm deep sided cake tin (preferably with both a removable base and spring sides, but just a removable base will do) and grease it liberally with the vegetable fat.

Put the kettle on to boil again, with at least 300ml of water in it. Take the solid vegetable fat and roughly chop it into small pieces. Put it to one side while you wait for the kettle to boil.

While you wait weigh out 575g of plain flour and put it in to a large mixing bowl.

Take the casserole of pie filling out of the oven. Turn the oven up to 160C.

Once the kettle has boiled measure out 220ml into a medium saucepan and bring it back up to boil on a high heat on the hob. Once it's boiling add the chopped fat and stir vigorously until the fat has melted into the water, forming a smooth emulsion.

From this point on you need to move fast! As the dough cools it will become stiff and crumbly, so it's important to get to the stage of lining your tin and making the lid as quickly as you can.

Pour the emulsion into the flour in the mixing bowl and mix it in. This is hard work, and you need to move quickly. As soon as it's cooled down enough so that you can only just bear to get your hands in, get your hands in and bring everything together into a ball of dough, incorporating the loose flour as you go. Take the ball out of the bowl and kneed it vigorously (you shouldn't need to flour the surface) for about 30 seconds. Take about a quarter of the dough and set to one side for the lid. Roll the remainder out to about 5mm thick, or large enough to comfortably line your tin.

Carefully lift the rolled out dough into your tin and press it carefully into the edges to form a complete lining. Roughly trim any excess from around the top (if you've got time - I didn't - you can use this to make decorations for the lid).

Spread the mango chutney across the bottom of the pie case, before quickly filling the pie with the pie filling, pressing down gently at the edges to make sure you get a good even fill.

Next roll out the dough you kept aside for the lid and place it over the top of the tin. Pinch the edges where the lid and base meet to seal the pie. Poke a hole in the middle of the lid with the handle of a wooden spoon.

Put the pie in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn the oven down to 140C and cook for another 60 minutes.

If you have it, take the pie out of the oven 20 minutes before the end and brush the top with the almond/soya milk before returning it to the oven for the last 20 minutes to get a healthy glaze.