Fewer photo opportunities than an impaled chicken

Take:

• 400g mushrooms
  
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 onion
• as many cloves of garlic as you're comfortable with
  
• 40g flour
• paprika
• thyme
• 1/2 pint milk
• 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice (or just juice the half a lemon that's hanging around in your fridge)
  
• 750g potatoes (though we actually went a couple of spuds over this and it was still a bit thin)
• 6 tablespoons milk
• more paprika

1. Find a dark, wet, windy November evening requiring warm spicy comfort food.
   
2. Simmer spuds for 20 minutes to make tender
3. Fry chopped onion, celery and garlic for five minutes in butter, then add mushrooms and cook for a further 2 minutes
4. Sprinkle flour over mushroom mixture, stir, add paprika and thyme. Remove from heat, stir in milk, return to heat until sauce thickens. Remove again and stir in lemon juice. Season to taste and set aside.
5. Mash potatoes with milk and butter.
6. Pour mushroom mixture into oven dish, cover with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with paprika, bake for 20 minutes.
7. Accompany with red wine and follow up with chocolate-intensive dessert.

And that's how we spent Friday evening.