OCTOBER RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Pastry rolled out like a plate
Piled with turmut, tates, and mate,*
Doubled up, and baked like fate;
That's a Cornish pasty. - Anon.
CORNISH PASTIES
Makes 6 pasties . . .
Your favorite short pastry - enough for 2 pie crusts
6 - 8 oz extra lean stewing steak, cut very small
small onion (4 - 5 oz), chopped
small turnip, swede or rutabagas, chopped - OPTIONAL
small potato (4 -5 oz), cubed the same size as the meat
salt, pepper and thyme
1 egg, beaten with a little water
Preheat the oven to 400F
Make your favorite short pastry - if you don't often make pastry, use a pastry mix or frozen pastry. Make the pastry and put in frig to chill, while mixing the filling.
Chop the meat and vegetables into very small pieces and put in a bowl. Season well with salt, pepper and thyme.
Divide the pastry into 6 equal pieces, rolled into balls. Roll out each ball into a round (doesn't have to be perfectly round!) about 6"-7" in diameter. Don't roll the pastry too thin, or stretch it.
Spoon 1/6 of the filling into the middle of each pastry round. Spread the filling so that it stretches almost completely across (left to right) the diameter of each round. Brush around the pastry edges with beaten egg.
Pull the edges of the pastry together (top to bottom), doubling it over at the top if necessary. Press the edges together to make a tight seal. A tight seal makes juicy pasties. Twist the edges to give a rope effect, or crimp them with a knife. Brush over the outside with egg.
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350F for a further 40 minutes.
* That is, turnips, potatoes and meat.
PASTY LORE
There's a lot of interesting background to Cornish pasties, which originated as a takealong lunch for Cornish tin miners and farmers.
In some cases, the inside of the pasty was a dual mixture - meat at one end and apple, or other fruit at the other.
Sometimes the crust was extended at each end, to allow miners to eat the pasty with dirty hands, and throw away the crust ends.
Cornish cooks were known to carve the initials of their miner into the crust to identify his pasty.
The Cornish have a great sense of humor. It is said that some housewives would mark one end of the pasty "T.M." for "'tis meat" and the other end of the pastry"T.M." for "'tisn't meat"
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Last Updated: September 14, 2003
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