225g cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm cubes
175g cashew nuts or pine nuts, toasted
350g frozen filo pastry, defrosted
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method :
Preheat the oven to 180C, Gas 4.
Heat 40g of the butter in a large pan and cook the leeks and carrots, covered, over a medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, sprouts and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
Turn into a bowl and leave to cool.
Whisk the cheeses, cream, eggs and seasoning together in a bowl.
Pour over the vegetables.
Add the apples and cashew or pine nuts.
Melt the remaining butter.
Grease a 23cm loose based spring form cake tin with melted butter.
Brush two thirds of the filo pastry sheets with butter on one side, and use them to cover the base and sides of the tin completely, overlapping the pastry layers so that there are no gaps.
Spoon in the vegetable mixture and fold over the excess filo pastry to cover the filling.
Brush the remaining filo sheets with melted butter and cut them into 2.5cm strips.
Cover the top of the pie with these strips, arranging them in a rough mound on top of the filling.
Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown all over.
Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then remove the cake tin and serve the pie.
This stunning pie makes a delicious main course of vegetarians or an excellent accompaniment to cold sliced turkey or other meat dishes.
