This is a fairly simple recipe and one that can be adapted in a number of ways. It starts off as a vegetarian meal but you can easily add fish or meat, or you could go for the vegan option and just substitute non-dairy spread for the butter.
I have deliberately not always added exact amounts of ingredients as it is so easy to personalise!
Preparation time 30 minutes, baking one hour.
Ingredients (for two people)
One leek
A handful of mushrooms
Potatoes (for the topping)
Butter
For the white sauce
570 ml milk
50g butter
25g plain flour
Salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg
Method
Peel (or not) the potatoes, chop and add to a pan with water. The potatoes can boil whilst you are working on the rest of the recipe. They normally take wound 20 minutes.
Chop the leeks and mushrooms and fry gently in oil.
Make the white sauce
I only discovered recently that you didn’t actually need to make a roux for a white sauce. Here is a quick and easy method, based on none other than Delia’s recipe.
Pour all of the milk into a pan and add the butter and flour to the cold liquid. Yes really!
Using a whisk gradually mix the ingredients together on a gentle, lowish heat. It does thicken.
Assembly
Add the leek and mushroom mix to an ovenproof dish.
Pour the sauce over it. Add salt and pepper as desired.
Wait till the potatoes are cooked. It shouldn’t be long.
Drain the potatoes and mash with salt and butter as desired.
Spread the potatoes over the top and garnish with tomatoes (or whatever you like).
At this point you can leave till you are ready to bake.
Baking
Bake at 200 degrees for 50 minutes or a bit longer.
Enjoy!
