Leek and Mushroom Pie

Hard-boil 4 eggs. Melt a good lump of butter in a pan and add chopped up leeks, mushrooms and onion, with a sprinkling of thyme, cover and cook over medium heat until tender. Beat an egg into 1/4 pint of cream and 1 tblspn flour, and stir this into leeks. Season to taste, with a little nutmeg as well as salt and pepper. Heat the oven to 230C/Gas Mk 7, and place a metal baking sheet on the rack to heat through. Line a deep pie tin with pastry or to lessen the pastry, put the filling straight into the pie dish, place half the hard-boiled egg slices on the base. Cover with vegetables and put rest of egg on top. Cover with pastry (you can use puff or some layers of filo for this). Make a hole in the middle, using a pie bird if liked, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until pastry is golden brown, then turn down heat to 180C/Gas 4 and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Leek Puree

Wash, trim and steam your leeks, and process until smooth and the colour of very valuable Chinese jade. Season to taste, with a little lemon juice if liked. You can also cut it with Greek yoghurt and use as a mild sauce for steamed vegetables, fish, chicken etc. If you want to serve it as a vegetable, make some croutons and sprinkle over the top.