Alden Amos' Cornish Pasties, or Devonshire "Letters from Home"
From: Alden Amos
Date: 12/99
This is a Welsh coal-mining version of pasty from the Cardiff area, along the Bristol Channel. Recipe makes 4 nice big pasties, plus little 'dibbles' left over to treat the apron rats that hang out in the kitchen.. the dibbles (little bits of pasty dough) were rolled in sugar & tossed into the oven while the pasties were being made. They came out (amidst squealing & cheering) when the pasties went in.
Warning: this recipe is neither politically correct nor non-fattening but goddam is it good...
Pasty crust:
3 cups of unbleached flour (all-purpose works fine)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 cup of shortening.. lard, vegtable,bacon fat, unsalted butter..
Ice cold water to work..(not much!)
Cut the shortening into the flour/salt until as fine as cornmeal; drool in just enough ice water to make a stiff dough; knead as little as possible, but enough to work into a dough (Hint: the more you flog the dough, the tougher it will be as a crust). Put in covered bowl & age in fridge for a couple of hours, or at least until you make the filling, etc..
The Pasty Filling ("the meat of the matter"..): You will need about 1/2 cup of filling per pasty, so adjust accordingly. Two rules to remember - the filling needs to be finished cooking when the crust is golden done; & real juicy is out (unless, as gramma put it, you are making them for someone you don't like..). So here's a basic filling for 4 nice pasties:
Pasty filling:
1/2 cup finely chopped beef
1/2 cup finely chopped pork
1/4 cup grated/finely chopped onion - the stronger the onion, the better.
3/4 cup grated or finely chopped potato
Salt, pepper & butter
Meat Variations: Turkey & oysters; ham & chopped liver; ham & cheese; beef & mutton, bacon & chicken, & so forth. Just keep the same basic proportions, including the veggies.
Veggie Variations: Bear in mind Gramma's "juicy" rule, above. Good combos are onions & drained kraut; apples & walnuts; apples & garlic; carrots & cauliflower; mushrooms & green peas ... but for a Welshman, there must be onions. Ok, leeks if you wanna be authentic. But always onions.
Assembling an original Welsh/Cornish Pasty:
Step 1: Drink a pint of best bitters. Light the oven, set for 350F, or as Gramma would say, 'moderate'.
Step 2: Draw another pint for future reference.
Step 3: Retrieve the dough from the coldbox.
Step 4: Roll it out to make four flats, each one about 6" by 10", roughly rectangular, & 1/4+-inch thick. The odd little bits are the dibbles, & now is the time to process those.
Step 4.5: Make the dibbles about the size of silver dollars.. press each into a saucer/plate covered with brown sugar & cinnamon/ginger mix, your choice. Do both sides. Stick on greased cookiesheet, stick in oven, & in 10 minutes or so you may treat the famished horde about your feet.
Step 5: Keeping fair proportions in mind, arrange the filling across the middle of each pasty blank. Work across the 6-inch way. For each pasty: put a layer of meat, a layer of veggie stuff, a layer of meat, a layer of veggie stuff, until you have used up about 1/4 of your filling. Salt & pepper each layer, & put a pat of butter on the top.
Step 6: Consult your pint of bitter.
Step 7: Now, fold, pinch & otherwise seal up your pasties.. Actually try to make them look like nice thick letters such as you would get in the mail. Place on a (very lightly greased) baking pan, on foil if you are so inclined (Sometimes they do leak!), wait for the oven to catch up a little, then stick 'em in there.
Step 8: Get another pint of best bitter. Set your timer for 45 minutes. If all goes well, even before the timer goes off, perfect strangers will come to your door, wanting to know what that wonderful aroma is.
Step 9: Serve 'em up, with potato/corn chowder, or tomato soup.. follow up with yohgurt(*) and apple sauce, mixed 1/2 and 1/2.
Condiments: the default is strong mustard, with horse-radish being favored to the north. Wasabi or Japanese horse-radish (that green explosive powdered stuff) is great with the saltier versions of filling. My favorite wasabi is Strangling Samurai Death & Thunder brand.
Modern stuff: If you want to freeze them for later use, partially or mostly pre-cook the fillings before making up the pasties. Also, only bake for 30 minutes. Chill as soon as possible, like straight into the freezer? When ready to use, go from freezer to 450F oven for 20+ minutes, or until edible. Microwave? I have no idea.
Enjoy! Rupert the Round and Jolly
(*) How many spellings do YOU know for yogurt?