Courgette & Carrot En Croute

Once I start thinking of recipes I can't stop........

Ingredients

• Pkt frozen puff pastry
• 1 small onion
• 3 carrots
• 3 courgettes
• Bag of Basil
• 100g Cheddar cheese
• breadcrumbs (optional)
• thin slices of fish of choice/thin fillets of chicken (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200oC
2. When the pastry is defrosted Roll it into a rectangular shape (similar to a flat baking tray)
3. Place the pastry onto a flat baking tray, so that the long right-hand edge is more or less down the center of the tray and the left-hand edge is hanging off of the tray
4. Cut the onion into thin slices and place in a bowl.
5. Wash and peel the carrots, then grate them and place in the same bowl.
6. Wash and grate the courgettes and add to the bowl
7. Grate the cheese and add to the bowl
8. Season the ingredients in the bowl to your taste with Salt & Pepper and mix everything well together.
9. Take the basil off the stalks and cut into small pieces add to the bowl and mix well.
10. The ingredients are now going to be packaged up in the pastry. To do this:-
11. Place the breadcrumbs along the length of one half of the pastry eg. the right-hand side of it, but leave about 3cm from the edge at the top and along the side without anything on it.(Optional:- the breadcrumbs are to absorb any moisture the ingredients let out during the cooking and stop the pastry from being too soggy, but if you don't mind this there's no need to use them) 
12. Place the fish/chicken on top of this (Optional:- this can make the package a bit bulky to handle until you get used to doing this with the pastry)
13. Place the vegetable & cheese contents of the bowl along the length of one half of the pastry eg. the right-hand side of it, but leave about 3cm from the edge at the top and along the side without anything on it. 
14. Check that the left-hand edge of the pastry can reach over easily to the edge of the right-hand side, If it  doesn't you may need to shove the contents around a bit, or take some out. If it goes easily past the edge you can add some more of the veg mix.
15. Rub some water along all the inside edges of the rectangle of pastry (this is to make the edges of the 'parcel' stick together) Then press all around the edges with a fork in the same way as you do with an apple tart, the technical term for this is to flute the edges.
16. Glaze the top, by rubbing with a beaten egg, also make some air holes with a fork or knife to let out the steam.
17. Place in the oven for 10mins and then lower the heat to 180oC for another 20mins. (If the fish/chicken is in it and thick it may need an extra 10mins)

Don't worry this is not as complicated as the explanations seem, once you have the mixture made, you'll manage the pastry easily enough.

You can cook the chicken/fish separately in the oven until you get used to making the dish and then add them to the parcel to have an all in one dinner......