Cornish Pasties - this time with suet pastry

For some reason, I had been hankering after making some Cornish Pasties for the longest time.  However, as hubby is always somewhat dubious about my pastry I hadn't broached the thorny subject.  What made the difference in this instance, was the advent of the suet pastry recipe from Jamie Oliver that I used in the making of the Kate & Will's Wedding Pie.  This pastry has been so successful that it has become both my menfolk's casing of choice for all savoury pies and pasties.

So when I suggested home made Cornish Pasties - for "English baking week" on one of my favourite Facebook pages - but made with the gold star of pastry recipes, hubby was won over and agreed.

Ready for the oven

Now I will admit that as regards the other Cornish Pasty recipe on Rhubarb & Ginger, it doesn't differ a very great deal.  However, I thought it was good to make a whole new blog posting about these pasties as opposed to simply making a note on the original recipe.  Clarity, and all that.  *wink*

All baked and ready for their paper bags and adventure!

Aside from the issue of the pastry, the only other significant differences between the two recipes are that this one uses chopped steak (rather than steak mince) and this one also utilises a half a crumbled Oxo cube by way of seasoning, to just up the flavour profile a wee bit.  Oh - and I paired mine with some healthy stir fried vegetables, whereas the menfolk had the ubiquitous man food of hash browns and baked beans with theirs.

The pasties turned out to be so very successful, as the pastry really is tasty and firm enough to easily cope with the filling.  Hubby felt that there still wasn't enough black pepper in them (even with my including it in the pastry!) for his liking and I do have to agree.  I think another half a teaspoonful would have done the trick, so feel free to add extra to the filling if you're a fan of peppery Cornish pasties.

I ate the one leftover pasty the following day for my lunch.  It was just as good, if not better, cold - and with some tasty pickle or relish would not be out of place on the lunch menu of any good Cornish pub.

Now I have a few Cook's Tips for you :

1.  It really is very important that the pastry is handled and worked as little as possible.  The longer it is handled or worked, the tougher it will bake.  As regards the water, I have found that carbonated mineral water adds a little lift, but if you don't have carbonated just ordinary very cold tap water will be sufficient.

2.  I roll the pastry out between two pieces of cling film rather than on a floured surface, which is by far the cleanest way I know of it do it.  Now this has the added benefit, once you've cut out your circle, of providing you with some cling film to close over the top of the pastry and prevent it from drying out while you make the other three!  I found it was worth turning the pastry over before adding the filling, as it was easier to pick it up from the cling film, that way.

3.  If you are using steak, rather than steak mince, you should ensure that the meat has a little bit of fat marbling it, for flavour.  Too lean and your pasties won't have that lovely beefy flavour.

4.  The black pepper is an essential - and more rather than less.

5.  A simple but most effective tip is always to egg wash before you cut the slits or holes in the pastry.  Do it the other way around and the holes will fill with egg which will seal as it cooks - and your pasties will unzip themselves in order to let the steam out.  It is also worth taking care to not let the egg drip off onto the paper lining or it will burn as the pasties cook.

There.  Who'd have thought making pasties could be so complicated?  *chuckle*  It isn't complicated at all really - it's just a matter of avoiding some of the little things that could so easily spoil what would otherwise be a perfect bake.

So now all you need is to find some brown paper bags in which to put your hot pasties, then off you go to somewhere suitably rural in which to eat them, along with lashings of ginger beer and some slabs of fruit cake.  Oh - that would be Dorset pasties then, not Cornish.  *wink*

Either way, in front of the t.v. or on a windswept hillside - enjoy them!

CORNISH PASTIES (suet pastry version)

Ingredients :

For the pastry ...
-  300g all purpose (plain) flour
-  100g vegetable suet
-  100g salted butter
-  pinch of sea salt
-  pinch of fresh ground black pepper
-  120ml very cold water (I use refrigerated and carbonated mineral water).

For the filling ...
-  300g lean beef steak, cut into strips, then diced finely
-  a medium onion, diced
-  1 medium sized potato, peeled and diced finely
-  one quarter (or less) of a swede (rutabaga), peeled and diced finely
-  a good pinch of sea salt
-  1 heaped tsp of freshly ground black pepper (more if you like it!)
-  half a beef Oxo cube, crumbled.

Optional : 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley.

1 egg, for egg wash.

Method :

1.  Firstly make the pastry, by placing all the ingredients but the water into a bowl.  Rub the butter into the flour (doesn't matter if some suet comes along for the ride) until you have small cornflake shapes.

2.  Add the water, mixing through with a knife until the dough begins to come together.  You may need a little more water, or a little less, so add it in a couple of instalments to be on the safe side.  Do not knead the dough at all.  Just pat and push it until it comes together in a ball.

3.  Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes.

4.  Take the filling ingredients and mix together in a bowl, making sure to crumble the half Oxo cube finely and mix it in well.

5.  Cut the pastry into four even sized pieces and roll each one out into a 4-5 inch circle.

6.  Egg wash around the edge of half of each circle.

7.  Divide the filling evenly between the four pastry circles, placing it on the opposite side to the egg wash.

8.  Fold the free edge gently over the top of the filling, pressing down lightly around the edges to seal.

9.  Crimp the edge in whichever manner you feel most confident, the important thing being that the edges are very well sealed.

10.  Place onto a parchment or non-stick silver foil lined baking tray.

11.  Egg wash the four pasties.

12.  Cut a couple of slits (or make holes) in the top of each pasty.

13.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200degC/400degF/Gas 6 for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for another 40 minutes.  Remember to turn the baking tray half way through the cooking, to achieve an even bake.

Serve either hot from the oven, or cold the following day with a pickle such as my Rhubarb & Apple Relish.  Gorgeous!

Printable version

Jamie Oliver's Minced Beef Wellington - my version thereof!

I have been promising you all that I'd blog this one - and since all the excitement of the photograph being shown to Jamie on Zoe Ball's programme on BBC Radio 2 today, I thought there might never be a better time!

It had been a while since I'd made this recipe and I'd forgotten the finer details.  However, just a quick look at the blog post from the last time (which is here) and it all came back to me.  So I put the mince back in the fridge, as I wouldn't be needing that until later!

Just the sheer fact that this is, quite probably, around the fourth or fifth time I've made this one should tell you that it is well worth doing.  In the last couple of days, with all the Radio 2 thing going on, I've received a couple of comments along the lines of "it just looks like a big pastie".  Well, I suppose you could think of it in that way, but in truth, it is a lot more than that.

For starters, there's an awful lot more meat than vegetable (which in your average pastie, is exactly the opposite), there's an awful lot more filling than pastry (which again, in your average pastie is exactly the opposite) and I've yet to find a pastie that can feed 3 people for a main course dinner, then three people for lunch the day after!


Yes, it does involve two cooking instalments - one to make the vegetables for the filling, then another to finish the Wellington and cook it - but neither of those instalments are particularly taxing.  As a great mid-week dinner, you just can't beat it.

With this particular incarnation, I made a couple of changes from a) Jamie's original and b) my last blogged version.  I added some leftover Celeriac that had been diced finely, used mushroom ketchup instead of Worcester Sauce and had run out of frozen peas, so substituted sweetcorn instead.

The end result was just as good, just as tasty - and well worth doing!.

MINCED BEEF WELLINGTON (serves 4 with leftovers)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 medium onion, chopped finely

1 carrot, peeled & cut into fine dice

1 stick of celery, washed, trimmed and cut into fine dice

1 potato, peeled & cut into fine dice

a large chunk of celeriac, peeled and cut into fine dice

1 clove of garlic, minced or grated

2 large chestnut mushrooms, chopped finely

4 sprigs fresh rosemary, removed from the stalks and chopped finely

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce or Mushroom Ketchup

a big handful of peas or sweetcorn niblets (frozen is fine)

500g good quality minced beef

sea salt & black pepper

500g puff pastry

1 large egg, lightly whisked.

Method :

1.  In a frying pan, heat the rapeseed oil over a medium heat and add the onion. Fry until light golden brown, then add the remainder of the vegetables and the garlic and continue to fry until the veggies are showing signs of softening.

2.  Add the rosemary and the Worcester sauce or Mushroom ketchup and stir to combine.

3.  Add the frozen peas or sweetcorn and cook for another couple of minutes until thoroughly defrosted and mixed in.

4.  Decant the vegetables into a large bowl to cool completely.  I find that if I smooth them as far up the sides of the bowl as possible, it allows them to cool more quickly than leaving them in a lump.

5.  When cool, preheat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

6.  Add the minced beef to the bowl with salt and pepper and half the egg.  With your hands, scrunch everything together until thoroughly mixed.

7.  On a clean worktop, roll out the pastry to the size of small tea towel and place the mince mix along one long side, in a sausage shape, but leaving a small area of pastry, so that you have something to start the rolling with.

 

8.  Brush edges of pastry with egg and roll pastry to cover mince completely.  Tuck any escapees into either end, then fold the ends together and squeeze the joins so that they hold.

 

9.  Flip the Wellington over so that the pastry join is underneath and transfer to a baking tray that has been lined with either non-stick silver foil or baking parchment.  

 

10.  Use a knife to cut a couple of holes in the top to let any steam escape, then brush with egg.

 

11.  Bake for approximately one hour (I'd check it after 30 minutes and turn it to ensure an even bake) until golden.

 

Serve with steamed vegetables and gravy.

 

Printable version

 

 

Kebabs to Pork Loin - the menu plan

Last week's menu plan finished in style.

The pot-roast gammon was, as always, succulent, juicy and totally delicious.  In fact, we ate almost all of it in the one meal - that's how good it was.  I enjoyed it alongside the Baked Gnocchi and thought it made a very nice Sunday dinner.  Made a pleasant change to have a Sunday Dinner that didn't leave me feeling like a limp rag once I'd cooked it!

I poached the gammon in a stock that included onion, garlic, carrot, parsley, celery, apple and some mustard seeds.  The piece we had weighed around 1kg and I poached it for around 2 hours or so, taking it out to rest for 20 minutes prior to carving.  The meat just fell apart and melted on the tongue.

I made use of the remains of the meat for breakfast the next day, pairing it up with a lovely egg and some sauteed mushrooms.  Glorious, but not good at being anti-inflammatory, unfortunately.


The following day, we had pork steaks that I was trying the butcher's BBQ Glaze with.  It was a bit underwhelming in colour and impression, but had good flavour once cooked and I think we might try that again.  I served the pork with beautiful baked sweet potatoes with chilli cream - which is always so good, plus a few green peas for colour and interest.  Far better for being anti-inflammatory, racking up a very positive value of 478 per person.

For some reason - probably trying to keep within the guidelines for anti-inflammatory food - trying to put together a menu plan for this week was "twisting my melon, man!".  I must have changed the list a good three or four times and still couldn't think of anything to have on Tuesday evening.  It's ridiculous, really, as Tuesday is supposed to be the day when hubby and I are free to have whatever we want, as son & heir is happily occupied with a pizza.

However, between the astronomical price of fish and trying to stay anti-inflammatory, it all got terribly complicated and we wound up having a Doner Kebab!  Well, it could have been worse from an inflammation point of view, plus I did have salad with it and left the pitta bread, but the fat content was probably astronomical.  Still, it was nice - and provided hubby with a naughty lunch for the following day.


So here's how this week is looking :

Tues : Pizza/Doner Kebab

Weds : Kate & Wills' Wedding Pie (Jamie Oliver) with carrots, peas & tenderstem broccoli

Thurs : Sausage, creamy lentils & rice

Fri : Bipins Chicken Machi Masala curry with rice & minty raita

Sat : Chicken Supreme with rice & roasted butternut squash

Sun : Roast Loin of Pork, roast parsnips, sweetcorn, green beans, brussels sprouts

& apple sauce

Mon : Fish in batter with hash browns (baked sweet potato for me), baked beans & peas.

Wednesday's Kate & Wills' Wedding Pie came about through Jamie Oliver's PR peeps getting in touch and asking whether I'd be interested in joining in the "Snap and Share" promotion they had going over on their "Jamie's Great Britain" Facebook page.  It basically meant cooking one of the recipes from the show and posting up a photograph of same to the page.

I liked the look of the Pie because it involved the use of beef shin and sounded like it could be a lovely rich pie.  Perfect autumnal food!

Thursday's Sausage with creamy lentils is a recipe that I have done before and blogged about.  Although there were some doubts amongst the audience that lentils would ever be nice involved in any dish, I reminded them that they had liked it the first time around.  In fact, they had given it a 9 out of 10 and demanded it be done again.  As it helped to reduce the chipolata mountain that we find ourselves with (they really are nice chipolatas!), it was worth doing just for that.  Hubby wasn't mad about it, but enjoyed it all the same.  Son & heir absolutely raved about it and declared it "the one lentil dish that you've ever come up with, that I absolutely adore".  Wow!  Praise indeed!

The inflammation factor in this dish is one of those balancing acts between the positive values of the onion, garlic, carrots & celery -v- the negative values of the sausage, lentils & cream.  Ultimately, it would seem as though it comes out in favour of the positive - which was a relief, even if it did mean I had to leave 90% of my rice on the plate, uneaten!

Bipin's Machi Tikka - yum!

Friday's Chicken Curry is just an anti-inflammation fest.  There's absolutely no doubt that (even with the rice & chicken) this will come up on the positive side.  Bipin's Masala paste contains three types of chilli, one of which is Serrano - which carries a positive score of +3019 for a half a cupful.

I'm a bit leery of how hot the Masala paste will turn out to be (leery in a good way, you understand!), so am planning on making a minty raita to accompany it - just in case!

Now then!  Excitement!  I've just come back from shopping for the weekend and lo and behold, after all my whining about not being able to buy Celery Soup - what did we find?  Campbells have brought back a Condensed Cream of Celery Soup!  Am I a trendsetter, or what?

I am now torn as to whether to use the Celery soup in the Chicken Supreme on Saturday, or stick with the traditional Mushroom.  If I use the Mushroom, then we could have the Celery for lunch one day - but would it be as nice as my home-made, or disappointing?  Oooh, the indecision!

Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to do roast dinners again on Sunday - yet what do we have on the menu plan for Sunday?  Roast Pork Loin.  Well, I was press-ganged into it by a special offer in Asda - plus they looked so yummy, I had visions of pork & apple sauce floating past my eyes.  So sue me for breach of promise, but another roast dinner is hoving into view.  I've tried to make this one as simple as possible, so fingers crossed I won't suffer too greatly.  Yeah, right.

You remember my saying what a problem I had putting this week's menu list together?  Well Monday's dinner is a product of that difficulty.  If all else fails, fall back on crunchy fish or cornish pasties.  In the hope that I'll be able to shuck the fish from its batter coating, I went for fish.  The boys will be happy with their battered fish, hash browns & baked beans, while hopefully the fish, a baked sweet potato and some peas will do the job for me, without inflicting too much damage.

This "eating for a reduction in inflammation" malarky is requiring a fair amount of forethought, but appears (trying not to speak too soon) to be having a positive effect.  Yes, I still get the intense, sharp pain of arthitis in my knees (particularly when rising from being seated plus in the evenings), however, I have noticed a lessening in the grinding, low-down, nagging, dull aching pain from the arthritis - which is a total blessing.

Where the Polymyalgia Rheumatica is concerned, again, if I were to do a task that requires repeated actions (such as brushing my hair, or hanging out washing), then I would experience the muscle burn that PMR brings.  However, driving the car has become more comfortable (traffic queues used to become excruciating), plus I don't ache so much from sitting at the computer here.

It's all good - and very worth persevering.  If this is what happens after nearly two weeks, it will be interesting to see how I'm feeling after a month!

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Minced Beef Wellington - a Jamie Oliver favourite.

You can see my gravy boat that I got for Christmas!
Is it cute, or what?

It seems like aeons since I last broke out this Jamie Oliver recipe.  (I think it came from his "Ministry of Food" cook book).  I'm not really sure why, because it is absolutely scrumptious and a complete family favourite.  There aren't many recipes that result in clean plates all round - but this one is almost guaranteed, so long as I cook the vegetables right!

I'd love to be able to afford a nice piece of beef with which to make your classic Beef Wellington, but I doubt that's ever going to happen.  As such, this recipe isn't the "poor man's version", because apart from the fact that it's cooked in puff pastry and the end product looks similar, there the similarity ends.  In fact, it's more like a cross between a Cornish Pasty and a Minced Meat Pie, but whatever it is - it's really satisfying to make and to eat.

The vegetables softening.

I usually leave it until a Saturday to make it, because of the time involved in cooking the melange of vegetables and leaving them to cool, before mixing the mince in and getting it in the oven.  It just fits better on a Saturday.

I had a pack of frozen puff pastry sheets in the freezer and this recipe was included as a way of using them up.  I had originally thought I'd make two small Wellingtons, but then when I looked at how tiddly each sheet was, I decided to make one big monster Wellington by joining the two together.  I did so by brushing the pastry with beaten egg and it stuck together perfectly.  As you can see, it only just fitted onto the tray!

With some lovely tasty gravy, green beans, carrots and baby potatoes, it made a great meal.

Jamie Oliver’s MINCED BEEF WELLINGTON (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 medium onion

1 carrot

1 stick of celery

1 potato

2 cloves of garlic

2 large field mushrooms

olive oil

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

a big handful of frozen peas

1 large egg

500g good quality minced beef

sea salt & black pepper

500g puff pastry

Method :

Peel and chop the onion, carrot, celery and potato into 1cm sized dice and finely chop the garlic.

Clean and roughly chop the mushrooms so they’re about 1cm dice and place all vegetables into a frying pan with olive oil.

Pick the rosemary leaves off the woody stalks, chop and add to the pan with the Worcestershire sauce.  Fry and stir for about 8 mins or until the vegetables soften and colour.

Ready for cooling

 Add frozen peas and cook for another minute, then put vegetables into large bowl to cool completely.

When cool, preheat oven to 180 deg C/Gas 4.  Whisk the egg lightly in a cup.

All combined and ready to go into pastry.

 Add the minced beef to the bowl with salt and pepper and half the egg.  Scrunch together.

Roll out pastry to size of small tea towel and place mince mix along one long side, in a sausage shape.

Well, it LOOKS like a Beef Wellington!

Brush edges of pastry with egg and roll pastry to cover mince completely.  Squeeze ends together.  Put onto baking tray, brush with egg.  Bake for 1hr until golden.

Delicious!

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