Recipe: Festive Mushroom and Chestnut Filo Parcels

I am the biggest lover of Christmas but I really try to keep celebrations to December only. As a big fan of Christmas, the festivities and fact that it just puts everybody in a much nicer mood than the rest of the year, I've found that the shine is taken off if I celebrate too early.

I am the first to complain about premature-Christmas appearing in the supermarkets and can confirm that it is happening earlier year on year. My birthday is in early September and I often use this as a measure; Christmas used to happen a week or so after my birthday, but now the first signs appear the week before.

So, as Christmas 2019 approached, I felt that I should try and keep Christmas posts to a minimum until December 1st - when by the way I completely endorse full-blown Christmas, like knock yourself out. I have dipped my toes into Winter and somewhat festive food on the run up to December, although not as single mince pie or mulled wine has passed these lips I'll have you know.

Whenever I go to a Christmas market, I will hunt down freshly roasted chestnuts from a vendor if I can. I love holding them in the cold, like little edible hand warmers, then cracking them open and enjoying the soft chestnut inside. It's the taste of Christmas for me, but I rarely but them at home. That was until this year.

I have never cooked my own chestnuts, although we have done it at home on the occasional Christmas, but this meant I was really happy to find some pre-cooked ones in Homebargains of all places. I have never seen them in any of the supermarkets, but according to google you can order them from Tesco, Waitrose and more - so I'm sure you can find them if you put your mind to it.

They come in a 200g pack and are already soft and ready to be used. You can puree them, turn them into a dessert or chop them into a dish like I did. When I spotted them I thought they would be great with mushrooms - a classic combination - so I thought about what I could do. I had some leftover filo pastry in the fridge from when I gave another recipe a go, along with a leek and some leftover double cream.

As you come up to Christmas it's the perfect time for entertaining friends and creating moreish and wholesome comfort food, and I thought parcels were ideal. You could make big ones for a main meal, or miniature bite-size versions for a festive buffet or starter dish. So low and behold my festive mushroom and chestnut filo parcel recipe. I'll give you my recipe as I made it, but feel free to change it up. This is a completely vegetarian recipe but you could easily add some meat if you wanted to, as I'll explain below.

I use pre-made filo pastry because who has the time or can be bothered to make filo themselves? Even good ol' Mary Berry tells you to get shop-bought pastry these days as it can reduce the time and effort to make a dish, and is often great these days.

What you will need:

1tsp oil

1 leek, chopped

200g punnet of chestnut mushrooms or mixed wild mushrooms, chopped

150ml vegetable stock

100ml double cream

1 x 180g pack of cooked and peeled chestnuts, chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1 x pack of pre-rolled filo pastry

Butter

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan on a medium heat and add the chopped leeks and mushrooms. Cook on a medium heat until soft.

2. Add your vegetable stock and let it reduce until it is a third of the amount. You could use white wine instead of stock if you wanted to make these a little more indulgent.

3. Stir in the chopped chestnuts and cream and let the mixture simmer until it is thick and not too watery (if it's too watery it won't hold well in the pastry).

4. Stir in your dried thyme and set aside the pan to cool to room temperature or for as long as you can.

5. To make big parcels, take two sheets of filo and lay them on top of each other. Brush where the pastry sheets join with some oil to make them stick together.

6. Add large spoonfuls of the mixture to the middle of the pastry then wrap the sides up to make a parcel and twist the top to make a scrunchy sealed top.

7. Do this until all of the mixture is used up.

8. Grease some grease-proof paper with butter and lay the parcels onto the paper. Place into the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

You can make mini parcels by cutting your filo sheets into smaller squares and use them as bite-size treats, or you can serve a large parcel on a bed of wilted spinach for a main meal, like I did.

If you know this blog you'll know that I am all for adapting recipes, so you could also add bacon to these by frying it with the leeks and mushrooms at the start of the recipe.

These are deliciously hearty and nutty - a great treat for vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. The thyme gives that festive touch but you could also add other herbs, swap the leeks for shallots or even add some butternut squash.