They starts out maids of honor, but they ends up tarts.

Happily for those of us living at home and trying to lose weight, it is currently pre-Christmas lent in Ortho households, which means we eat a vegan diet (until my mom gets tired of it and we go out for peruvian chicken and steak. Or until I get tired of it and go out to Bertucci's with the hobbits and eat cheese.) The fast is either four or six weeks long, I forget which. Anyway, we've been having stuff like pasta, buckwheat, bread and margarine and vegetable soup for dinners for a good while now. I enjoy most of it but yesterday I got a craving for something different.

So I sent a recipe I found online for vegan mushroom tart to my dad and asked him to make it. Being a very nice and indulgent dad, he totally did. Here's the recipe:

5 tablespoons vegan margarine
4 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed or very finely chopped
16 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 cups soy/rice milk
1 1/2 cups white wine or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste
18 ounces frozen puff pastry

Melt the margarine and saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for a few of minutes more. Add the flour and stir well. Gradually add the soy/rice milk stirring all the time. Add the wine and keep stirring over low heat until the sauce thickens. Once thick, remove from the heat and add the parsley, salt and pepper. Allow to cool slightly while you prepare the pastry.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll the pastry out into 2 circles approximately 11 inches, reserving some pastry for decoration. Place one sheet of pastry into a greased 9-inch pie plate and fill with the sauteed mushroom mixture. Place the top sheet on and seal up the edges with some soya milk or water, fold over if needed. Make some small slits on the top of the puff and decorate with the reserved pastry. Glaze with soy/rice milk and bake 45-55 minutes until puffed and golden.

Apparently we're never having it again, because it was a huge pain in the ass to make. The main problem was that the mushroom mixture didn't set as it was supposed to. However, it was very pretty before we cut into it. Then we cut into it and the filling sort of oozed out and looked kind of greyish. Again however, it was also delicious. My dad used Riesling, and it had a nice wine and mushroom flavor. He also quadrupled the garlic, because duh, that's what you do in a recipe that calls for a paltry four cloves. The filling soaked into the bottom layer of phyllo dough like gravy, yum. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Later we discussed what might make the filling set; my mom said corn starch and my dad thought tapioca thickener. Either way it's an aesthetic choice, as the filling tasted awesome but just didn't look good or hold together.

I sort of thought you didn't have to roll out frozen puff pastry. I thought it came in flat sheets, but it doesn't, it comes in squares, and you have to thaw and roll them. It's still a time-saver because if you made the pastry yourself you'd have to roll and fold, roll and fold, a million or so times. Good to know.