Pâté de pommes de terre a la façon galloise….

This dish is a twist on the fabulous Limousin dish that appears to be vegetarian already. This is not pasta or pâté, the origin of the name is unknown to me and the name itself is misleading, even to the French. It is a lovely pototo pie. This is comfort food at its best and can be eaten hot with a huge green salad, or cold in picnics with a cold glass of Chablis.

2 packets of puff pastry (round, ready rolled here in France, or buy a block, cut in half and roll into two same sized rectangles, the shape and size doesn’t matter)

500g potatoes, sliced and boiled until just soft, allowed to cool.

1 med onion, sliced

1 med leek, sliced

½ tsp mixed herbs

100ml crème fraiche

1 tsp veg bouillon powder

Freshly ground black pepper

Don’t start handling the pastry til you need it otherwise it goes floppy and useless…..Heat the oven to 200°C. Thoroughly drain the potatoes. Place half of the pastry on a baking tray and plonk half of the potato slices on it, leaving about 2 inches of pastry free all around,

followed by half the onion, then the leeks. Grind pepper over, sprinkle some of the veg boillon powder, the mixed herbs then the rest of the onions, then potatoes, more pepper and veg boillon. Spoon the crème fraiche onto the potato layer, spreading roughly over them, not in a particularly scientific way…

Take the second piece of pastry and plonk it on the top.

Now this bit is a bit tricky: join the two pieces pastry around the edges just squishing it round to make pasty type edges. The rougher this is the better it will be as you will have nice thick bits.

Humpbuckle Hint:

In the neighbouring Auvergne they substitute some of the crème fraiche for blue cheese. Vegetarians beware: all AOC (appellation d’origine controllee) cheeses are made with animal rennet or ‘presure animale’ or ‘coagulant animale’ as it is called here.

You can brush the pastry with egg or milk before putting it in the oven. Cook for about 30-40mins, reducing the temperature to 180 degrees after about 20 mins, cook until golden brown (adjust timing dependent on your oven but always start with a hot oven)

Vegetarianandveganfrance.com & 3placedesarbres.com. Vegetarian & Vegan recipes from the kitchen of a vegetarian chambres d’hotes in the heart of France