This is from Allison Pirrie’s wonderful Pease Pudding website. I saw the pic and was instantly craving its heartiness. Unfortunately I didn’t have fennel on hand, so I used celery and added a few more fennel seeds.

Ingredients for Scones
200g self raising flour
80g butter
pinch of salt
Pinch of cracked black pepper
100g grated cheddar cheese
150ml of milk
1 tblsp Dijon mustard
Handful of thyme

Ingredients for Ragout
800g white or brown button mushrooms, washed and halved (I used large field mushrooms)
1 large fennel bulb (I used 3 sticks celery)
(I also added 3 red capsicums that I had on hand)
Olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp Dijon mustard
150ml sour cream
100ml water

Method for Scones
Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
Remove the fennel fronds from the bulb and chop finely.
Whisk the mustard into the milk.
Place flour, butter, pepper and salt into a bowl.
Rub butter and flour together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Or use a food processor.
Add half the grated cheese, thyme and fennel fronds and mix through.
Form a well in the centre of breadcrumb mix and add the milk kneed gently to form a soft dough.
Transfer dough onto a floured board and press the dough out with hands (rather than using a rolling pin) until it is about 2cm thick.
Use a round cookie cutter to cut out the scones or slice the scones, it should make 8.
Put scones aside till ragout is done.

Method for Ragout
Quarter the fennel bulb, remove core and thinly slice.
Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large heavy based flying pan, that can go in the oven, over a medium to high heat.
Add the halved mushrooms (and capsicums) and fry till they go brown and caramelized on the edges. You may need to do this in two batches if your pan isn’t big enough.
Lower the heat to medium and add the garlic, sliced fennel and fennel seeds and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring several times.
Add the sour cream, water and mustard, stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
Plop the scones on top of the ragout, sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
If your frying pan can’t be put into the over transfer ragout to a casserole dish before putting the scones on top.
Serve with some steam green beans.