Helen Graham's Chestnut, Tamarind and Shiitake Borek

Another incredible festive showstopper from guest chef, Helen Graham.

Done in 2 hours

Serves 5

Dish by Guest Contributor

Ingredients

For the Borek filling

600gchestnut mushrooms

120gshiitake mushrooms

180gcooked chestnuts

4 tbspolive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3garlic cloves, finely minced

1.5 tbsptamarind paste

1 tbspbaharat

2 tspsoy sauce

1 tspsalt

For the Borek

8filo pastry sheets

5 tbspolive oil

1 tbspwhite sesame

1 tbspblack sesame

For the glaze

140gcaster sugar

10gfresh rosemary

2 tspsoy sauce

You can't get more festive than chestnuts, pastry and fragrant rosemary. But move aside mushroom wellington, there's a new gal in town. This umami, mushroom, tamarind and chestnut borek is FULL to the brim with flavour – perfect if you love a salty, slightly sweet combo. Add this recipe to your Christmas shopping list, it's cracking.

Method

Preheat oven to 180C fan. In batches, blitz the mushrooms in a blender until coarsely chopped and then set aside. Do the same with the chestnuts and add to the mushrooms.

Heat your oil in a medium pan on a medium heat, and add the shallots and salt and saute until completely soft, before adding the minced garlic and cooking out for a further minute. Add the mushrooms and chestnuts, raising the heat to high. Cook these until all moisture has completely evaporated - about 15 minutes whilst stirring regularly. At this point, season with the tamarind, baharat and soy and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Place the caster sugar and rosemary in a saucepan with 300ml of water and reduce to a syrup - you can test this by adding a small drop to a plate and seeing if the syrup is able to hold its shape. Season with the soy.

Take a sheet of filo, place on a clean work surface and brush with oil. Lay another on top. Then, on one side of the pastry, brush a little more oil and lay a fresh sheet of filo on top, so that it overlaps slightly with the two sheets already there (the idea is to make one long strip of filo). In the end you will have four pieces of double layered filo, overlapping in a line.

On the bottom edge of the filo, begin to lay out your filling in a long snake, continuing right to the other end of the pastry. Then, carefully roll the pastry up and around the filling until you have one long snake of pastry. The snake can then be curled around and placed in a lined baking tray. Don’t worry if your tin isn’t the right size or shape.

Brush with a little oil, sprinkle with the sesame and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Take out the oven and brush with the soy and rosemary infused syrup..