Cornish Pasty (Chebe)

[ItsaDollThang]

I got the idea of trying to make Cornish style pasties when I was looking at the back of the Chebe all-purpose mix yesterday and noticed the calzone/fruit turnovers suggestions. I thought they'd be perfect as a lunch food. Pasties are easy, portable, and will usually keep sans refrigeration okay for several hours so long as you wrap them in foil.

(Anything over 4 hours I usually will put them in the fridge, but that does zap the crust a bit, so does the microwave unfortunately. They do warm up well in a toaster over though.)

Anyway I made chicken ones and beef ones, 2 of each.

I made the Chebe mix as directed, but I used real butter (softened) and whole milk. I'm a stickler for that when it comes to pasties, using the real deal. They can be made low-fat I suppose, but low-fat versions of pasties just never taste good to me.

With a fork I mixed the chebe mix, the softened butter, the eggs till I had a crumbly dough starting. Then slowly I started adding milk in small dribbles, mixing as I went until the dough was pretty firm but just a very little bit sticky. I actually never go by what the chebe mix says on that one. I find I have to just keep adding the milk till I get the right consistency in terms of the dough for what I happen to be making. For bread I tend to use a bit more, for these I believe I actually used a bit less.

For this you want the dough to be a lot like play dough in terms of texture and moistness. Just wet enough to be pliable, but not to stick to a cutting board. Drier than say cookie dough, but not as dry as some bread doughs.

When it was done I spread it out in rounds then flattened them with my hands. I could have used the rolling pin here too, but pasties are supposed to be a bit rustic and I like them to look that way, not so professional.

I them filled them with a mix of meat, potatoes, onions, and some garlic. Chicken in the first 2, ground beef in the other two. Seasoning-wise I kept it simple. Just some kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and some rosemary.

Lastly, I brushed them with some melted butter and then baked them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Verdict: They came out very nice indeed! I'm scarfing down one now as I type for dinner. I'll probably do one for lunch tomorrow too. I think I will likely revisit the pasties idea quite a bit in future, maybe vary the fillings a bit to make them more gourmet. I do want to try it with real steak like the traditional pasties of Cornwall. I also want to try making a Peruvian version, maybe a Mexican one with pork.

I'm really enjoying playing with the Chebe mixes but I am also looking for the tapioca flour locally as I want to try working on my own version of that kind of dough soon.

Anyway, enjoy!

[kareng]

I would love to try this. Do you cook the meat, potatoes, etc first?