WALNUT AND MUSHROOM BOREK A what? A Borek. A pastry made with flaky pastry su

???????? WALNUT AND MUSHROOM BOREK ????????

A what? A Borek. A pastry made with flaky pastry such as filo, and filled with tasty fillings like; cheese, spinach and meat. I based mine on a minced meat Borek that usually contains spices, nuts and dried fruit.

My mystery bag of goodies from justfootprintschester contained walnuts – which is one of my favourite mince substitutes. Simply soak the walnuts in cold water for at least an hour, drain, blitz them a little in a food processor until they resemble the texture of meat and toast them in a frying pan until golden. When you mix the walnut mince with chopped oven roasted mushrooms it’s a perfect mixture of bite, earthy and fatty flavours.

???? Prep your walnut and mushroom mince ahead of time, as described above. I normally use about a cup of walnuts to one punnet of mushrooms.
???? Heat a frying pan and toast 1 tsp caraway seeds, add vegan butter or oil, one fine diced onion and one garlic clove with a pinch of salt. Cook until caramelised.
???? Add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp sumac, 1 tsp cumin, and a pinch of chilli flakes or powder. Cook out the spices for a few minutes before adding the walnut and mushroom mince. Mix well to combine, season with the juice of 1/2 a lemon, a little agave syrup (or pomegranate molasses instead of the lemon and agave), and salt if needed. Finally add the dried cranberries (normally sultanas, but I was making the most of my mystery bags goodies, the cranberries were so good!), leave to cool.
???? Brush a rectangle of filo with melted vegan butter, add another layer on top, brush again. Spoon the cold filling onto one half, leaving space at the edges of the pastry, fold over the remaining pastry and press the edges down loosely. This is a dry filling so nothings going to leak out as it cooks.
???? Brush the top with melted butter and cook in a hot oven (190c) until golden.

I hope you guys enjoyed the ready, steady, cook series this week. What would you have made with the ingredients in Just Footprints mystery bag?

Walnuts/bulgar wheat/dried apricots/dried cranberries/garlic granules/caraway seeds/salt/sun dried tomatoes