"Cobbler" is a British kind of casserole made with a topping that looks like cobblestones. It can be savoury or sweet. I grew up with savoury cobbler as a school dinner. And the topping, is, basically... scones! Stew and scones, what's not to like?
Here's my vegan version, a delicious mushroom and chestnut cobbler. The combination of mushroom and chestnut is a classic. The herby scones make a great complement to it, their dry scone texture soaking up the moist stew.
For the topping, I derived my version from domestic gothess' excellent vegan scone recipe. The coconut oil and butter make good "lumpy" fats to achieve the crumbly texture. In my version, the herbs and nutritional yeast make a lovely savoury complement to the stew. You don't need to serve this with bread, since the topping basically fulfils that role.
Serves 2. Takes 75 minutes.
Ingredients:
For the stew:
For the scone topping:
Method:
Turn the oven on at 200 C (for a fan oven), to preheat.
For the stew:
Peel and finely dice the onions. Clean the mushrooms and chop them into nice bite-sized pieces. Chop the chestnuts to the same size (probably chopping them in halves).
In a stew pan, heat up some flavourless oil and fry the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes to give them some colour, then take them out and put them to one side for a moment. Heat up some more oil in the same pan, and fry the onions for about 5 minutes until they become soft and golden.
Add the 1.5 tsp flour and mix it through the onions. Then put the mushrooms back in, as well as the chestnuts, and stir.
Add the white wine to this pan, bring it to the boil, and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Turn the heat down to medium, add the miso, herbs, and veg stock. Boil a kettle, and add enough boiling water to cover the stew contents, then let it bubble gently while you prepare the topping. Don't cook it too hard, and try to keep it quite a "wet" stew - it's going to thicken up more in the oven.
For the topping:
In a mixing bowl, place the flour and baking powder and mix together.
The coconut oil and the butter - both of these, you want to add them in small chunks or small blocks to the flour. Keep them cold so they don't melt too quickly.
With the tips of your fingers, rub the flour into the cubes of fat, squishing the pieces of fat into the mixture. Keep doing this until the mixture turns into a "breadcrumb" texture.
Next sprinkle over the nutritional yeast, herbs and salt. Using the back of a knife, mix these through. Don't over-mix.
Gradually stir in the milk, again using the back of a knife, trying to bring the mixture together without over-mixing it (that's how you keep the crumbly texture). Bring the dough together into a loose shaggy ball.
To assemble:
Put the stew into a casserole dish - ours was about 15cm x 20cm rectangle.
Using your hands, shape the dough into 6 small "scones" and place them on top of the stew. They should be not too thick, maybe 2cm thick. When you place them onto the stew, try to keep them separate and not touching. Of course it's not a crisis if they're touching, you can separate them after it's cooked - but you do want there to be at least some space between the cobbles.
Put this into the oven, uncovered, and bake for 15-18 minutes until the top of the cobbles is golden. Remove and serve in dishes, making sure to keep the cobbles on top when you spoon everything out, with a big spoon or ladle.