CORNISH PASTY

Traditional Cornish pasty, I was lucky enough to have a pasty cooking lesson in Cornwall and was given the old fashioned traditional recipe for the filling and pastry, this Cornish pasty is a winner with all my friends and family, light flakey melt in the mouth pastry with succulent juicy tender filling.  It is a unwritten law that you never put carrot in your pasty, it will have the Cornish up in arms!  In order for a Cornish pasty to qualify to be called a Cornish under the DOP law all pasty ingredients must all be sourced from and the pasty made Cornwall, this is true for this pasty, Cornish skirt steak, onion, potato and turnip (this is actually swede) not unlike the Cornish for white broccoli which is actually cauliflower.  Now saying that I accidentally did add carrot to my mix 😱🙈😱 it had been a while since making this and I confused the carrot thought with add it not DON’T add it.

A true Cornish pasty can be driven 100 miles, the whole length of the road A30 from Falmouth to Exeter and still be warm ready to eat and originally two thirds of the pasty would be traditional meat and vegetables with the remaining third filled with a sweet pudding a complete meal for the miners.

Super Easy / Prep time 15 minutes / Cooking time 40 minutes

Ingredients

(Makes 6)

The Pastry

900g plain flour

220g lard diced

200g butter diced

320 ml cold water
10g sea salt

1 beaten egg for glazing

Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix together for around one minute until just coming together to form a ball, don’t over work the pastry.  Turn out onto your work surface and just gently press together, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.

The Filling

1.5 kg skirt steak finely diced

3 large potatoes peeled and finely diced

1/2 swede peeled and finely diced

1 Spanish onion finely chopped

Sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper 

Mix all the filling ingredients together and season generously with sea salt and black pepper.  Divide your pastry in to 6 equal portions and form in to balls, press the balls down flat then roll out to a large circle to the thickness of a pound coin.  Paint half of the edge with the egg wash.

Eyeball the mix into 6 portions, I do this by spooning out equally on to each pastry one spoon each at a time, place the filling just off centre and leave a good one inch rim around the edge, fold the pastry over the filling and gently press the edges together.

The Crimp

This is not essential you can crimp the edge seals with a fork or a pinch, but I like to be traditional and give my pasties their crimp.  To do this lift the sealed rim at one end then using your forefinger and thumbs, with your right hand bend the pastry over your left forefinger, remove your left finger and press the pastry to your left thumb, repeat all along the pasty.

Place the pasties on a baking tray, I prefer a stone baking tray for a crispy bottom!  Egg wash all over and bake in the oven for 34-40 minutes until golden all over and a crispy bottom, leave to cool for 10 minutes then enjoy.

Juicy tender and full of flavour with a glorious flakey melt in the mouth light flakey pastry.