Vegetable jalousie recipe

What on earth is a jalousie? It’s one of our best vegetarian Christmas recipes this summer, and it’s as fun to say as it is easy to make.

 
Everyone can relax! There might come a time in your life where you need to Google ‘vegetarian meatloaf recipe’, but it is not this day. A jalousie is essentially a pie who has been on a roadtrip through Europe and returned with a very sudden accent and a few good stories. If you leave the puff pastry to defrost somewhere warm (which isn’t difficult, in a South African summer) you can be serving it al fresco before you’ve finished your second glass of wine.

It’s named after a French style of wooden slatted doors, but also literally means ‘jealousy’, which is exactly what the vegetarians facing an endless buffet of salad will think. Here’s the recipe for the absolutely delicious one that we made, but it is almost infinitely customisable: if you have enough veggies in your bottom drawer to make a sad stirfry, you could probably make a filling for this.

Ingredients

• 1 roll puff pastry
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp butter and a good splash of oil
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• A bunch of baby leeks
• 250g mushrooms
• 250g zucchini, sliced into strips
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper

For the gravy:

• One red onion
• 1 tsp garlic
• t tablespoon butter
• 1 tsp cornflour
• Half a cup of milk
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup of vegetable stock
• 1 tsp garlic

Cooking method

1. Melt the butter and olive oil, and saute the mushrooms at a ferocious heat. After a few minutes, turn heat down to medium and add the leeks and garlic.
2. .When the mushrooms are done, remove them to a bowl and keep aside.
3. In the same pan, saute the peppers, herbs, and other vegetables in a little more oil. It’s alright to let them stick to the bottom of the pan a bit – those sticky brown bits will add depth to the flavour later.
4. Add them to the same bowl as the mushrooms.
5. In the same pan, add your red onion in the remaining butter, and saute. Add the rest of the garlic, then deglaze the pan with white wine. Let that simmer for a while, then add the milk and stock. Let the stock reduce for about ten minutes, then add your cornflour (usually it’s better to mix it with a bit of water first) and add it to the pan, stir continuously as it thickens.
6. When it’s reached a pie-filling texture, add the veggies back to the pan and mix to combine.
7. Roll half of the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to form a rectangle about 40 centimetres wide and 20 centimetres> Roll out the other half to the same shape, but slightly smaller. Place the smaller piece on baking sheet, lined with tinfoil.
8. Spoon the veggies onto the smaller piece, leaving a margin of around 1cm around the edges.
9. Cut parallel slits across the larger rectangle to within 2.5 cm of each edge.
10. Brush the edge of the smaller piece with egg wash, then carefully, carefully, lay the bigger piece over it (with the new slits it will want to fall apart) and seal the edges well.
11. Brush the whole jalousie with egg and cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 20-30 minutes until risen and golden. Serve immediately.