Good old traditional Cornish Pasty

GOOD OLD TRADITIONAL CORNISH PASTY –

While staying with our friend Steve whos from the Chanel Islands in the UK , we decided to have a Cornish night at his place. So this was a project for us all this time and not just Lola !  we made some homemade pasties and stave’s  chutney and amazing homebrew cider while watching Doc Martine – a really cosey Cornish night in.

For those of you that don’t know about the good old traditionally hearty Cornish Pasty, well it obviously originates from Cornwall. It goes back to the mining times when the miners would take these pasties to work to keep them going through the hard days in the mines. So dense they would stay hot until lunchtime giving much needed energy and warmth. Half the pasty would be a savory filling of meat and veg and the other half would be sweet, filled with an apple pie mix, or a seasonal fruit filling. The crust which would have been handled while eating and now contaminated from their very dirty hands with arsenic would be discarded to the spirits of the mine to help keep them safe.

MAKING THE PASTIES –

We didn’t follow a recipe but did the usual shot crust pastry mix of half fat to flour. We used some lard that Steve had saved from a bone broth he’d made to give extra flavor the pastry, and butter to make up the difference. We also chose half and half  white and whole meal flour.

First make the pastry ( Lola crumbed it by hand ) then let it rest, ready to roll later.

Then chop all the veg – Potatoes , swede, carrots and onions ( in order of amounts, but it really doesn’t matter).

Dice the beef ( we also used half minced beef  for even meat and flavor through the pasty ) and then mix it together with the chopped veg and season well with salt and pepper.

Next find your desired size circles to cut out of the sizes of pasties that your wanting. Roll the pastry and cut out a few circles at a time and fill with the chopped veg and meat mix. Use some milk for crimping the pastry together along the tops and egg wash when finished. Note not to overfill or crimping is harder and there more likely to split while cooking. Make a  tinny whole on-top of each one to stop them exploding.

Put them in the preheated oven of 200 Celsius for 10 min  to seal the  pastry then turn it down to allow them to cook through for a further 40 min  – just depends on your oven too – until there cooked through and golden brown. When cooked allow to stand and cool a little before tucking in – warning might be hard to resist !