Cornish Pastie

A Handful of Delight



Pulled from the oven, the golden, pregnant crescents glisten with butter. The pastry is so flakey while hot it can barely maintain its shape. Savory steam escapes from vents filling the kitchen with the smell of onions and beef. I break a pie in half, engendering a new burst of steam and revealing pearly bits of onion, orange shreds of carrots, golden smudges of potato, and juicy browned beef. It's too hot to eat but, unable to resist any longer, I tear off a bite and blow on it before popping it in my mouth. Still too hot, but delicious anyway.

In "Sidewalk Meals" I wrote about my introduction to Cornish Pasties. I was addicted from my first bite and ate them frequently while I was in England. In fact, if I had pictures of my time in England you would probably have a shot of me at Buckingham Palace, pastie in hand; wandering up the lane at Windsor Palace, brushing pastie crumbs off my shirt; surveying Stonehenge, mouth full of pastie.

If the English can survive their food, they can survive anything. ~ Geroge Bernard Shaw

I did eat and enjoy other things. The fish and chips were good except for the chips (chips shouldn't be soggy, so dousing them with vinegar is just a bad idea). I liked Bangers and Mash. Spotted Dick isn't bad — once you get past the mental image. I ate lots of cheese, though I was seriously underwhelmed by the bread (having reached England from France). For the most part I ate pub food and for the most part it was fine, if not great — except for the pasties. They were superb.

Returning to the states, I attempted to duplicate my favorite English meal and eventually largely succeeded, if not in duplicating, then in producing something as good. But when it came to the crust I liked mine both more and less. What I had in England was usually tough and heavy, an industrial strength pastry suitable for carrying down into a mine, but not ideal under less stressful circumstances. I made a more typical American piecrust, something light and flakey. The texture was a genuine improvement in my book, but the flavor wasn't quite right.

Over the years I played with the crust, adding herbs (a good move), using just vegetable shortening without butter (a bad move), but there was always something missing. Then at a Cooks Bash I was discussing my efforts with an English friend and he said, "Lard. You've got to use lard." I tried lard (for the first time in my life) and he was right, that was the flavor I was missing. At long last I had a pastie recipe I was completely happy with.

So, in honor of St. George's Day (April 23) and dedicated to my two favorite English bloggers (Sam of Becks and Posh and Andrew of Spittoon Extra), I offer below my recipe for Cornish Pasties as part of Sam's Fish & Quips event.

Cornish Pasty
Pastry — click here
Filling:
1/2 lb ground chuck roast
1 c potatoes — 1/2" dice
1 lg carrot — shredded
1 c yellow onions — diced fine
1 1/2 tsps dried thyme
1 tsp mustard powder
1 1/2 tsps dried sage
3 good splashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c beef broth
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Egg Wash:
1 ea egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

Heat oven to 375F.

Put diced potatoes and 1/2 inch of water in a covered microwave dish and cook in microwave until potatoes are just tender - seven to eight minutes. Drain potatoes and dump into a large bowl. Mash coarsely with a fork.

Add ground beef and all remaining ingredients to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.

Roll the pastry out to a 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured board. Using a five inch round plate as a template, cut as many circles as you can. The scraps can be combined and rolled out one more time. You should have nine to ten rounds.

Moisten half the edge of a pastry round and place about 1/3 cup of the filling in the center. Fold the round over the filling and press the edges to seal. Repeat for remaining pastry and filling. Arrange pasties on a pair of foil covered baking sheets.

Mix egg yolk and milk together and brush glaze over pasties. Cut two one inch slits in the top of each pastie and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until golden.

These are wonderful for supper on a cold winter night served with potato chowder, boiled cabbage, and beer. If you're going to eat them hot then place a slice of cheddar cheese on top of each pastie that will be eaten that night about ten minutes before the pasties are done.

They're as good at room temperature as they are hot, so they also make great picnic fare. Cold hard cider is a great beverage for washing them down.

Technorati: Food | recipe | pastie | cornish pastie | england | fish and quips

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Steak & Mushroom Pie

Pie Happens



I pictured a mound of overlapping circles of golden-brown potatoes strewn with sprigs of green. Instead, I ended up with a single circle of potatoes surrounding a bird's nest of potato strips. Such are the uncertainties of creation.

This month Jeanne at CookSister is playing the role of hostess for the online event, Waiter, there's something in my... Pie!. WTSIM is an online event being conducted by Jeanne, Johanna of The Passionate Cook and Andrew at Spittoon Extra. Each month they pick a theme and invite bloggers to submit recipes — this month the theme is pies, either sweet or savory.

Four and twenty black birds, baked in a pie...

I have a deep-seated fondness for pies in almost any form, and recently published an article at Kitchen Window on NPR's Web site about pot pies. It was while reading about this version of WTSIM that I had my vision. I imagined a steak and mushroom pie, flavored with juniper and rosemary, and encased in a "pastry" of sliced potaoes — a twist on the English cottage pie.

I checked the rules and the only real restriction was that the pie had to be enclosed. No problem, I thought. I jotted down my ideas — a proto-recipe — and got to work.

In general the pie came together smoothly and much as I'd envisioned, with one exception. I underestimated the number of potatoes I'd need and at the end found I didn't have enough potato slices to cover the top. My solution was to rinse the peelings and cover the center with them. I knew they were thin enough to cook completely in the oven, but I didn't anticipate them curling up into light delicious potato chips — hence the birds nest in the center.

Steak and Mushroom Pie

3 ea md. Yukon gold potatoes
2 ea sm. carrots — cut into 1/2” dice
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lb sirloin — sliced very thin and seasoned with salt and pepper
1/2 lb baby portabella mushrooms — sliced
1/2 ea lg. onion — diced
1/2 c cut, frozen Italian beans
1 tbsp juniper berries — crushed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp fresh rosemary — minced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 1/2 c beef stock
1/2 c red wine
3 tbsp butter — melted

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel (reserving peelings) and slice potatoes into 1/8 inch thick rounds. Add potatoes to water and cook until just tender — about 5 minutes. Scoop out potatoes and drain, reserving water. Bring pot back to a boil and toss in diced carrots. Cook until tender — about 10 minutes. Drain.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Brown sliced meat in two batches and save in the pot you cooked the potatoes and carrots in.

Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and reduce heat to medium. Add mushrooms, onion, thyme, juniper, and minced rosemary to the skillet and cook until mushrooms have given up most of their liquid. Add mixture to steak.

Heat oven to 400F.

Pick the end pieces from the potatoes and mash — You need about 1/3 cup of mashed potatoes.

Deglaze skillet with wine and reduce by half. Add stock and reduce by 1/3. Stir in mashed potatoes. Add to meat mixture along with carrots and frozen beans. Mix thoroughly.

Line a pie plate with overlapping slices of potato. Add meat mixture to pie. Cover outside edge of the pie with overlapping slices of potatoes. Rinse and dry about hlf the potatoe peelings and layer those over the center. Drizzle potatoes and peelings with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Strip the leaves from the sprig of rosemary and sprinkle over the top.

Cook on the middle rack of the oven for 35 - 45 minutes until lightly browned.

Technorati: Food | recipe | pot pie | savory pie | | wtsim | waiter there's something in my

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