Planet Veggie

I made a plaited thing. It’s actually called a coulibiac but I don’t know how to pronounce that, so I’m sticking with ‘plaited thing’.

The plaited thing came from Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Supercook which I haven’t used for a while. Everything I’ve made from it in the past has come out well , so I was expecting this to be good. I wasn’t expecting much from my plaiting skills though, but this isn’t too shabby, is it?

And yes, I know they were doing plaited things on Great British Bake Off the other day but I had planned since last week to make this, so they copied me, not the other way round.

It still looked pretty after it was cut.

But, prettiness aside, what did it taste like? It tasted fine. It’s an incredibly heavy dish though, as it contains pastry and rice. I served it with potatoes and it was too much – I couldn’t move afterwards. I did have a problem deciding what to serve it with. Vegetables didn’t seem enough but potatoes, pastry and rice seemed sort of wrong, and it was. Next time, I’ll just serve it with vegetables.

Coulibiac with soured cream sauce (serves 4)

125g basmati rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
25g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
175g green cabbage, shredded
250g baby button mushrooms, halved
3 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons chopped dill
2 x 350g sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten, for glazing
Maldon sea salt flakes
salt and pepper

Sauce
4 tablespoons chopped chives
300ml soured cream

1. Cook the rice in plenty of fast-boiling water for about 10 minutes, or until tender, then drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the onion, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and mushrooms, stir, cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the drained rice, the eggs and dill to the onion mixture and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool a little.
4. Put the two sheets of puff pastry side by side on a large baking sheet and press them lightly together where they meet, to make one large piece. Trim 4cm off the sides of the pastry.
5. Spoon the rice mixture along the centre of the piece of pastry, on top of the join. Make diagonal cuts in the pastry on each side of the rice filling and fold them alternately over the filling to create a plaited effect; trim off any excess pastry. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with the sea salt. Bake in a preheated oven, 200C/gas mark 6 for 40 minutes, or until the coulibiac is puffy and golden brown.
6. To make the sauce, stir the chives into the soured cream and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the coulibiac.