Mrs Maduro's Pie for Vegetarians # July Challenge for Baking Eggless

This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the Baking Eggless group to make a vegetarian version of Mrs Maduro's Meat Pies.

The original recipe is from Saveur. The two ingredients in the recipe that we had to deal with were the eggs that are used for glazing the pies and lean ground chunk that is used in the filling. frankly speaking this wasn't much of a challenge since most Indians make such substitutions all the time. for the glaze i decided on a solution of milk and melted butter and for the filling, i substituted the meat with soy chunks and paneer. the substitutions worked well and even my soy-­hating­ husband liked them. he however commented that these pies would taste even better with a meat filling and i kind of agree with him. all that said i still think that these pies will make a great appetizer in any party. these taste particularly good when served with mint or coriander chutney.

Mrs Maduro's Pie for Vegetarians (makes 9) Recipe Source: Saveur

ingredients    for the dough 1 cup all­-purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 5 tbsp cold butter, cut into bits 1/4 cup ice­-cold water 2 tbsp milk+ 1 tsp melted butter, for glazing for the filling 1 1/4 cup cooked soy chunks, minced (I used  Nutrela) 1 tbsp butter 1 medium sized onion, chopped 1 clove of garlic, grated 1 tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1/4 cup chopped coriander 1 tsp dried thyme 6 pimiento stuffed green olives, minced 3/4 cup grated paneer 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard 1 tbsp sherry -   what i did for the dough, 1 hour prior to baking, i sifted the flour and salt into a big bowl, added the bits of cold butter to the flour mixture and mixed it until it became somewhat crumbly. i then drizzled the water over the flour and using my hand kneaded the it till the dough came together. then gathering it into a ball, i flattened it with the heel of my palm to form a disc, wrapped it with a plastic cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for an hour. in the meantime i prepared the filling for the pies. as I have mentioned I used Nutrela soy chunks which I cooked according to the instructions on the box and kept aside. next i melted the butter in a saucepan, added the onions and garlic to it and sauteed them until the onions became tender. i then added the tomatoes, vinegar, pepper flakes, coriander, thyme and olives and cooked until the raw smell of the tomatoes was somewhat gone. once the tomatoes looked well­-cooked, i stirred in the minced soy chunks and the panner and cooked them with all the spices for a few minutes, i.e., until the soy chunks absorbed the flavors of the spices and stopped tasting bland. at this point I added in the mustard and sherry and cooked for a few minutes more till all  the liquid from the saucepan evaporated. then switching off the heat i let the mixture cool down completely before starting to work on the pies. Assembling the pies. once the filling cooled down, i preheated the oven to 400 degrees F. i then took out the dough from the refrigerator and placing it between sheets of parchment paper rolled it into a 1/4 inch thick sheet. next using a 3 inch round cookie cutter i first cut out 18 circles from the dough, fitted half  of them into the molds of the muffin tray, filled each of the dough cups with 11/2-­2 tablespoons of the filling, then covered them with the remaining dough circles. once all that was done, i sealed the edges of the cups with the back of the spoon, brushed the pies with the milk and butter solution, pricked the top with a frock and then transferred the muffin tray into the preheated oven. I baked the pies for 30 minutes until the surface surface looked golden. then removing  them from the oven i let them cool completely before serving with some chutney.

Do not ignore this recipe even if you do not like soy. they actually taste pretty good cooked this way. With all the additions that i made along the way I had some extra filling in hand which I mixed with mashed potatoes and turned into soy-paneer patties. just in case you were curious... those tasted good as well.

So much for today... Happy baking and happy snacking !

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