The pie on the website
The recipe I based the pie on was a Hairy Biker’s recipe called Vegetarian Chestnut and Mushroom Pie. It is available here on the BBC website. I followed the recipe almost to the letter, but substituted white wine for the marsala (it had been hanging round since Christmas) and used English mustard instead of Dijon. I always like to follow the recipe first time round, then you know if i works or not. It did. Everyone liked it and when I discussed making it simpler and cheaper Julia has suggested trying it without chestnuts but keeping the rest of it the same. Time for a costing and an evaluation.
The filling
The dried mushrooms cost £100 a kilo, which sounds a lot. However, the recipe only calls for 15g, which is £1.50. I used fewer chestnuts than recommended but there will still plenty and I have enough to sir-fry some with brussels at the end of the week. Call that £1.50 too. Wine? We usually have something around that will do, so by the time you add pastry (60p), leeks and mushrooms you have a pie which cost us around £5 and served three.
A “good” supermarket pie will cost about £4 and serve two, and won’t be a patch on this one, so I’m going to stop worrying about cost.
My version, showing contents
I still need to try a cheaper version as an alternative for when I want something and don’t have dried mushrooms and chestnuts in the cupboard but I’m not going to mess around just to reduce costs.
Cocaine costs about £30,000 a kilo (according to a website I found whilst researching prices) and Chinese meals, even when divided into two in a frugal manner, still cost more than this pie so I really need to take a look at my attitude to food and life in conjunction with the cost of pies. I don’t, in case you are wondering, advocate cocaine, or any illegal drug, as a substitute for a good wholesome pie, but just thought (having been horrified by the cost of dried mushrooms per kilo) that it would make an interesting comparison.
Once again my vision is not quite borne out by the photo
Rhino Horn is about £44,500 per kilo in China and has no proven scientific value, in case you were wondering how it compared.
The internet is a wonderful thing, as I have said before. A very tasty pie recipe, a quick look at illicit drug prices and an overview of rhino poaching countermeasures – where else can you get all that? Even modern TV doesn’t have that variety to offer within 20 minutes.
I am going to resist putting “”cocaine” and “rhino horn” in the tags, as I don’t want to attract unwanted attention.
The pie before cutting
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My husband could eat pie twice a week and my daughter is an enthusiastic pie-eater too. My problem is the amount of time it takes to prepare a pie – I am a lazy cook! Your recipe looks good and can be adapted quite easily to suit whatever you have in the cupboard – which is a good thing!
Buying pastry in ready- rolled sheets is a time saver too. 🙂
I spent quite a lot of my time wondering about the price of did rhino horn and how it compares to a nice cup of coffee so this has been a very useful post. Thank you.
Price does matter though. The fact that I can buy 250 g of really quite good coffee beans for £10 and make endless cups of coffee out of them, makes paying £3 for a single cup of inferior coffee when I’m out seem very unattractive.
Coffee at £40 a kilo – what a bargain! Completely agree about he comparison between cups of coffee at home and those bought out, particularly when a quick look at a Starbucks on-line menu reveals a nightmare experience of flavours, complications and prices. It’s a shame that diesel is so unpalatable, as it would be cheaper to drink than Starbucks.
I am of the view that it might take an expert to distinguish between a cup of diesel and a cup of Starbucks coffee but I am prejudiced on this matter.
🙂 This is a prejudice we share. Three days a week I go to the surgery. Three days a week I pass a drive-through Starbucks and think, would it be nice to surprise Julia with a cup of expensive froth and nonsense and an even more expensive biscuit wrapped in cellophane? Three days a week I go home and put the kettle on. 🙂
Mushrooms, chestnuts, leeks sounds like a winning combination. I think I might do without the cocaine and the rhino horn.
It is an excellent recipe and I recommend it. I’m less enthusiastic about the Woolton Pie Experiment but I need the photos for an article I am writing.
Oh, that pie looks good, and unless you are really strapped for cash—and I know sometimes that’s how it is—then I wouldn’t worry about the mushrooms or chestnuts.
I think the best thing to do is to make it a few times a year with good ingredients and when we are feeling less flush we can make something cheaper. I must look for more pie recipes. 🙂
Good plan! That’s exactly what we would do.
🙂
The filling looks like it could be a good topping over potato gnocchi, or even forbidden rice. Sounds like you dinner came out alright to me. I looked around the BBC page and noted many other things that can be done with chestnuts, too. Using chestnut flour in breads sounds interesting! I know a local who grows chestnuts.
Yes, I need to get more interested in food again.
I had an aunt who used to say “food is medicine”.
She was clearly a clever woman. The right food is medicine, so I need to work on that aspect.
your last sentence made me laugh. I do the same with recipe ingredients ..wonder about the cost, but forget it’s still cheaper than some alternatives
Easy done, isn’t it. It’s the price per kilo tha puts me off. but I forget you only need a few.
So funny, my friend. I do love a pie, but i’ve got to stop reading these one hour before dinner time, now i’m starving! I like the connection with cocaine. Someone told me once that models keep slim with a diet of cocaine and champagne as there are no calories and stems hunger needs. Think I’ll just hold on until my dinner is ready though. I daren’t comment on the Rhino horn.
After reading some of the side-effects of weight loss drugs cocaine and champagne sounds a reasonable. At my age heroin and Horlicks are nearer to the mark.
😉
A splendid pie
Loved this one. I’m laughing out loud. Thanks! XOXO
Thank you. 🙂