by Billy Deakin
Of course, we're more interested in home made pasties anyway, which is why I've decided to offer a selection of different pastries so you can mix and match. I've even done my best, at the request of several people, to develop a gluten free recipe so those with a wheat allergy don't have to miss out!
The following recipes each make enough for 4 medium(ish) sized pasties, so feel free to adjust as necessary. If you only want to make 2, just half the quantities (or stop being silly, make 4, and eat the others tomorrow!) If you want to make 8 then double it...
Another note to the veggies – to make vegetarian/vegan friendly versions, simply replace lard with a suitable vegetable shortening, and butter with a suitable margarine.
Shortcrust
This is the standard pastry recipe I use for making pasties, and for pie tops, and is the pastry I used for my award winning pasties. This is a simple to make, great textured, and great tasting pastry which works just as well for sweet as for savoury (you can use this pastry for something like apple pasties, no need to use a specific sweet pastry)
525g (18½oz) plain flour
225g (8oz) vegetable shortening
2 tsp salt (only use ½ tsp if using with a sweet filling)
Cold water
Place the flour (no need to sift!) into a large mixing bowl, add the salt and the fat and chop the fat into the flour with a knife. Then switch to using your hands, and rub the fat in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. When all the fat has been rubbed in, slowly add water a little at a time and bring the mixture together into a dough. When a dough has formed, lightly knead for just a minute then form into a ball, wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before use.
Flakey
450g (16oz) plain flour
160g (5½oz) lard
160g (5½oz) butter
2 tsp salt
Cold water
Place the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, and rub in half of the lard. Add just enough water to form a dough. Flour a worktop and roll the dough out to form a rectangle about ½cm thick. Mix together the remaining lard and butter. Dot a third of the lard and butter over two thirds of the dough. Fold the third without any fat on it into the middle, covering half of the fat. Then fold the other third on top. Press down on the edges to seal and turn the dough 90 degrees. Chill for ten minutes.
Repeat that last stage 2 more times, using the rest of the lard and butter, chilling again after each folding. Finally roll and fold one final time without adding any fat, and chill for 30 minutes before using.
Wholemeal
225g (8oz) wholemeal flour
225g (8oz) strong white flour (bread flour)
100g (3½oz) butter
100g (3½oz) lard
2 tsp salt
Cold water
Place both flours into the bowl. We combine the wholemeal flour with strong flour since wholemeal doesn't have enough gluten to make a pliable pastry. Adding the strong flour which has a higher gluten content makes it much easier to crimp!
As for the shortcrust, chop the fats into the flour and salt, then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. When all the fat has been rubbed in, slowly add water a little at a time (you'll need slightly more water than for shortcrust) and bring the mixture together into a dough. When a dough has formed, lightly knead for just a minute then form into a ball, wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before use.
Gluten-free
I feel rather sorry for anyone with a wheat allergy. I love bread, and crumpets, and muffins... and buns, baps, baguettes and bagels... not to mention cakes and scones, pasta, pies, and of course pasties! There are of course gluten free versions of most of those, but they aren't nearly as readily available and so I have no doubt that anyone with a wheat allergy misses out on a lot of fantastic food. In fact, I think it's probably one of the worst food allergies to have – with the possible exception of chocolate, chillies, oysters, or beer (not necessarily in that order!)
With that in mind, and knowing several people who are wheat intolerant I really wanted to include a gluten free pasty recipe. Little did I know how difficult working with gluten free pastry could be. As my friend Jon put it “If you can get the pastry somewhere between 'falls apart immediately' and 'sets so hard you can stab people with shards of it', you're doing quite well.”
After a lot of research and experimenting, I can say that I have developed a recipe which just about avoids those two extremes, and so I guess I'm doing OK. I have to be honest, this is not the tastiest pastry in the world, the texture doesn't even come close to a nice shortcrust, and it's a real pain to work with. However, if you can put up with with those annoyances, and are willing to put in a bit of time and effort, then this is a way for anyone who is wheat intolerant to enjoy something approaching a “proper pasty”!
Unlike the other pastry recipes, this one is enough for one single pasty since often you'll be only making a single gluten-free pasty for one member of the family and using a different pastry for everyone else. If you want to make more, just multiply the quantities.
150g (5oz) Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
1 tsp Xanthan gum (available in health food shops)
75g (2½oz) Butter
Pinch of salt
Cold water
Mix the flour, xanthan gum and salt together well, then rub in the butter and form into a dough with the water in the usual way (gluten free flour will absorb a little more water than regular plain flour).
No need to knead as there is no gluten to release, so wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
When you come to make the pasty, first remember to flour your surface using the gluten free flour not wheat flour! Work slowly – I find that you need to use less pressure with the rolling pin and keep rolling for longer to avoid it cracking. You need to roll it fairly thin otherwise it will be very tough, so take your time and if necessary form the dough back into a ball and start again.
When you've folded the pastry over the filling (being very gentle!) you'll need to modify the crimp. Regular crimping won't work as the pastry isn't pliable enough, so either seal the edges with the tines of a fork like you might do with a turnover, or else press the edges down firmly with your fingers and then simply 'pinch' a crimp into the pastry along the edge. I prefer the second method as it gives a result that looks more like a proper pasty, but you do need to be firm to create a good seal.
Finally, if you struggle with folding and crimping with this pastry, there's no shame in cheating and simply using this to make a pasty pie. Just add the filling to an individual pie dish, roll the pastry out and lay over the top. It will still taste just as good, but is a lot easier to make!
These gluten free pasties won't win any awards for looks,
but 'tis better than no pasty at all!
Other Pasty Recipes
The earliest commercial recipe book which deals with pasties, Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern first published in 1929, lists 17 different pasty recipes including such delicacies as broccoli pasty, mackerel pasty, sour sauce pasty, herby pasty, rabitty pasty and windy pasty!
I decided not to call this section “Non-traditional Pasty Recipes” because the idea that a “traditional Cornish pasty” would only contain beef, potato, swede and onion seems to be somewhat of a modern invention. Certainly that combination of ingredients has been massively popular over the centuries and is now firmly rooted as the definitive Cornish pasty, but most sources suggest that historically, Cornish pasties would have been filled with whatever was to hand. In fact, there's an old legend which is also mentioned in the same book:
“It is said that the Devil never crossed the Tamar into Cornwall, on account of the well-known habit of Cornishwomen of putting everything into a pasty, and that he was not sufficiently courageous to risk such a fate!”
Clearly there is precedent for different fillings, and in the coming pages you'll find a collec
tion of recipes to suit any palate. These recipes are inspired from multiple sources: some are quite traditional and some are more contemporary, while some are entirely my own creations. Many of the original sources were extremely lacking in details (for example, one traditional recipe for a lamb and parsley pasty simply reads, “Parsley, and lamb or mutton” - that was the entire recipe!) and so I've tested, tweaked, expanded and modified. I've had a lot of fun testing and experimenting with these, and I hope you'll have fun trying them yourselves, and also making your own adjustments. After all, food should be fun, and everyone's tastes are different so don't be afraid of altering the recipes and making these your own.
Oh, and if you're wondering what a “windy pasty” is, it's a bit of left over pastry, rolled out into a round and folded over, crimped, and baked. Then it's split open while still hot, and filled with jam. And I can confirm it's rather tasty too!
“I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and say to myself "well
that's not going to happen"”
- Rita Rudner
“Mawther used to get a herring, clean 'un, and put same stuffin' as what yow do have in mabiers (chicken); sew 'en up with a niddle and cotton, put 'un in some daugh made of suet and flour; pinch the daugh up in the middle and lave the heid sticking out one end, and tail t'other. They was some nice pasties too, cooked in a fringle fire with crock and brandis and old furzy tobs”
- Star Gazing Pasties recipe from Cornish Pasties Ancient and Modern, 1929
Other Pasty Recipes
Steak and Blue
Steak and Ale
Chilli Beef
Spiced Oxtail and Sweet Potato
Lamb and Mint
Pork and Sage
Cheese and Bacon
English Breakfast
Chicken and Mushroom
Chicken and Chorizo
Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable
Roasted Squash, Ricotta and Sage
Mushroom and Blue Cheese
Mushroom and Blue Cheese
Cheese, Leek and Onion
Cheese and Marmite
2 Course Pasties
Apple Pasties
Mince Pie Pasties
Steak and Blue Pasties
Makes 4
Your choice of pastry for 4 pasties (See pastry section)
500g (18oz) beef skirt
2 medium potatoes
2 medium onion
½ small swede
100g (3½oz) blue cheese (Cornish blue works well, as does Stilton)
Salt and pepper
1 Egg
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Make and bake these using the same method as for traditional Cornish pasties but instead of adding a knob of butter, crumble a quarter of the blue cheese over the top of the filling. The cheese will melt down in with the beef and vegetables and create a lovely rich filling which smells amazing when it comes out of the oven!
Steak and Ale Pasties
Makes 4
Your choice of pastry for 4 pasties (See pastry section)
500g (18oz) braising steak
100g (3½oz) mushrooms
2 medium onions
½ small swede
1 bottle Cornish ale (Doombar is my current favourite!)
250ml (½ pint) good beef stock
Spring of thyme
Salt and pepper
2 tsp cornflour
Butter
1 Egg
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
I love a good steak and ale pie – the ultra-tender beef, and the really rich gravy along with the crumbly pastry is a real winning combination. Getting that taste in a pasty however poses a problem, because the gravy is too wet and will make for a soggy pastry!
The key is to cook the meat and then allow it to cool. If the gravy is thick enough it will be almost solid when chilled, giving just enough time for the pastry to start to cook before it melts.
Start by softening a knob of butter in a casserole dish on the stove. Add the diced beef, and allow it to colour on all sides. When the beef is nicely browned on all sides, remove it and set aside, and add the chopped mushrooms, and half of the chopped onions to the same pan. Cook on a medium heat for a few minutes to soften, and then remove them from the pan and set aside with the beef.
Return the pan to the heat, add the ale and deglaze. Add the stock, then return the beef, onions and vegetables to the pan, along with the thyme, and season with salt and lots of black pepper. Place a lid on and put the casserole into the oven for 40 minutes.
Remove the casserole from the oven, remove the thyme sprig and discard, and stir in the cornflour. If the mixture is still quite wet, cook for a few minutes over a low heat with the lid off. Set aside, and when cool enough chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
When you're ready to make the pasties, roll out the pastry in the usual way, and fill with the chopped swede and remaining onion, and the beef mixture which should be quite thick. No need to add a knob of butter, just fold and crimp in the usual way. I cook these in a slightly higher oven than normal at 220°C/425°F/gas 7 for the first 10 minutes to give the pastry a chance to start firming up, then drop the temperature back to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for another 30 – 35 minutes.
Chilli Beef Pasties
Makes 4
Your choice of pastry for 4 pasties (See pastry section)
500g (18oz) braising steak
1 can kidney beans
1 can plum tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
250ml (½ pint) good beef stock
1 tsp dried thyme
1tsp chilli powder
½ tsp cumin
Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Butter
1 Egg
Tip – making the filling the day before, and then allowing it to chill in the fridge over night works really well for this recipe, and helps to firm up the filling before making the pasties!
Add the oil to a large, heavy based pan over a medium-high heat. Trim and dice the beef, and brown off in the pan, turning until it's coloured on all sides. Remove the beef from the pan and set aside.
Chop the onion and soften in the pan, adding the garlic clove (crushed) after 2 – 3 minutes. When the onion is soft, add the thyme, cumin, and chilli powder and cook for 30 seconds, then add the stock, tomatoes, and tomato puree to the pan, along with the beef that had been set to one side. Season with salt and pepper, turn down to a low heat and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the beans, stir well and taste. At this stage you want to adjust the seasoning and the heat (tip – I like to add some Tabasco sauce at this stage until I'm happy with it, but then I like it nice and hot!). If the mixture is still quite wet, leave it to cook a little longer (with the lid off!) until the mixture is thick and there is no excess liquid. Then remove from the heat, and allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
Now proceed to roll out your pastry, and make, crimp and egg wash the pasties in the normal way. Bake them for around 35 – 40 minutes until the pastry is a nice golden brown and, if you have the willpower, allow them to cool a little before tucking in!
Spiced Oxtail and Sweet Potato Pasties
Makes 4
Your choice of pastry for 4 pasties (See pastry section)
750g (1½ lbs) oxtail
2 large onions
1 large sweet potato
250ml (½ pint) beef stock
2 cloves garlic
1 red or orange capsicum pepper
1 Scotch bonnet pepper (or habanero)
1 lime
½ tsp cumin
½ tin plum tomatoes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Butter
1 Egg
Preheat the oven to 150C/300°F/gas 2.
Place a large, heavy based casserole dish over a high heat, add the oil, brown the oxtail on all sides in batches so as not to over crowd the pan. When the oxtail is nicely browned, set aside. Chop one of the onions and add to the pan, cook for 2 – 3 minutes until starting to soften, then add the cumin, garlic (leave the cloves whole), and chopped peppers (leave the seeds in the Scotch bonnet if, like me, you like a bit of heat!) and stir for a minute before adding the tomatoes and the stock, then return the oxtail to the pan. Halve the lime and add that to the pan, then bring it up to a simmer, cover the pan, and then place in a low oven for 2 hours, turning the oxtail half way through.
Remove the pan from the oven, take out the oxtail and set aside to cool. Pour off any excess fat from the pan, and use a wooden spoon to squash the 2 garlic cloves which will now be very soft. Squeeze the lime halves, and discard the peel. Place the pan over a medium heat, and reduce the liquid until it's nice and thick, scraping the sides and bottom of the pan to get all the sticky brown bits (which add a lot of flavour).
