Cornish Pasty

 

Cornish Pasty
 
Author: 
Recipe type: Basic
Cuisine: English
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
The perfect portable meal.
Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
  • 12 oz plain flour
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt, ground
  • 6 oz lard
  • Water
Glaze
  • Beaten egg
Filling
  • 12 oz top round steak
  • 5 oz roughly chopped onion
  • 3 oz roughly chopped turnip
  • 8 oz thinly sliced potato
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • Salt, pepper to taste
  • Pinch of thyme
Instructions
Shortcrust Pastry
  1. Place the flour, lard and salt into a large clean bowl
  2. Rub the lard into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm
  3. Add the water to the mixture and using a cold knife stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.
  4. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Filling
  1. Chop the meat into bite size chunks
  2. Mix the meat with the vegetables and seasoning
Assembly and Cooking
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°
  2. Roll out the pastry and cut it into two large dinner-plate sized circles
  3. Divide the steak mixture between the two, putting it down the middle
  4. Brush the rim of the pastry with beaten egg
  5. Bring up the sides of the pastry and pinch them together to form a scalloped ridge right over the top of the pasty
  6. Make two holes on the top to allow steam to escape
  7. Place the pasties on a baking sheet and brush them over with beaten egg
  8. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350° for another 40 minutes.
Notes
Serve hot or cold.
This will feed two hungry people - you may want to modify the construction process to make three pasties.

Based on a recipe in "English Food" by Jane Grigson, Penguin Books, 1983