There is something comforting about pie and gravy. These vegetarian puff pastry turnovers and mushroom gravy made meat irrelevant. Big rich complex flavours. Truly delicious.
Rinse the lentils and remove any stones or other debris.
Add to a saucepan with the 3 cups of water, one of the onions (halved), 4 cloves garlic (crushed with the side of a knife but still in one piece), and the bay leaves.
Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are edible but still quite firm. They will cook some more in the next step. Strain, removing the onions, garlic, and bay leaves.
Finely dice the other onion and remaining garlic cloves if using raw garlic as opposed to black garlic.
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the onions and garlic until soft.
Add the finely diced mushrooms and sauté until softening.
Add the lentils, stout, tomato paste, diced black garlic (if using), salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 40 minutes. The liquid should reduce and thicken a bit.
Combine cornflour with a Tbsp of water and add to the saucepan, stirring to combine well, cooking for 10 more minutes.
Allow to cool. The mixture should further thicken as it cools.
Pre heat your oven to 180 degC.
Roll and cut the pastry into circles about 15-18cm in diameter.
Apply some whisked egg around the edge of the circle then.
Add a good dollop of the lentil mixture to one side of the centre line of the pastry round, then fold it over and press the edges together. Apply more whisked egg to the top off the turnover.
Bake the turnovers for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Cooking time will depend on your oven. I needed to put the tray in the lower third shelf so that the bottoms were cooked as the tops browned.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so.
Mushroom marmite gravy
Finely dice the onion, garlic, and the red pepper.
Sauté the onion, garlic, and red pepper in 20 g butter until soft.
Add the chopped mushrooms and sauté until soft and starting to brown.
Add the vegetable stock, salt, pepper, and dried porcini.
Add in the trimmings from the greens (ie the asparagus and broccoli stalks)
Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Dissolve the Vegemite in a few tablespoons of the mushroom stock, then add back to the pot.
Strain the mushroom Vegemite stock through a fine strainer (the dried porcini mushrooms would likely have deposited some grit).
Rinse and dry the pan, then melt the 30 g butter for the roux.
Whisk in the flour.
Slowly add the mushroom Vegemite stock, whisking all the time.
Bring back to a simmer and check for a gravy consistency. If it is too thick, add some water or more veggie stock. If it is too thin, dissolve 1 tsp cornflour in a Tbsp water and stir that into the gravy.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Truffled mash and greens
Peel and dice the sweet potato
Remove the cauliflower leaves and coarsely chop the cauliflower.
Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the sweet potato, cauliflower, and salt.
Boil until the vegetables are sufficiently tender to mash.
Drain the vegetables and mash together with the truffle oil or butter.
Stir in the finely diced shaved truffle (if using).
When serving, drizzle with a little more truffle oil or dab with a little truffle butter.