Cornish Pasties

The Cornish pasty is a very traditional English pastry dish – coming from Cornwall in Western England.

Historically they were prepared as a lunch for workers in Cornwall’s tin mines.  The edges of pasties in those days were made much thicker to be used as a “handle” so that the mine workers could hold the pasty with their dirty fingers, eating the pasty and throwing away the edge of the crust.

Traditional recipes suggest to wrap uncooked meat and vegetables in the pastry - cooking everything at one time.  I cook the filling first to allow its taste to be more intense.

Serve with a green salad for dinner, or enjoy by themselves as a snack.

Ingredients for 6 pasties

(Pastry)

10oz all-purpose flour + extra for dusting
1 teaspoon mustard powder

pinch of salt

5oz chilled butter, cubed

(Filling)

8 to 10oz steak beef, remove extra fat and finely chopped (do not mince!)

salad or olive oil to cook

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

medium potato, skinned, chopped into small cubes, washed and drained

1 teaspoon English mustard powder

1 teaspoon hot horseradish

1 round tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 beef (stock) cube, combined with 1/4 cup hot water

salt and black pepper to taste

MSG to taste, optional

1 heaped tablespoon chopped parsley

1 egg beaten with a pinch of salt to glaze

Instructions

Sift the flour, mustard powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.  With your fingertips or using a pastry blender, rub the butter into the flour lightly until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the water (1 tbs at a time) into the flour mixture and mix the pastry until it becomes smooth.  Wrap the pastry in aluminium foil and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime, heat a non-stick frying pan and cook the chopped steak until any excess water come out of the beef (2 to 3 minutes).  Drain the water and remove the beef from the frying pan. Set the beef aside.

Wipe down the frying pan and re-heat with a little oil.  Fry the onion for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook further 1 minute (this is just to soften the onion, you don’t want to brown it).  Add the potato and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes.

Return the cooked beef into the frying pan.  Add the mustard and horseradish and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more.

Add the flour into the frying pan and stir well to ensure the filling is covered evenly with the flour.  Add the beef stock mixture and the parsley.  Stir until the filling thickens slightly.  Remove from the heat and spread on a wide plate to cool it completely.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to about 1/6” thickness.  Using a round cereal bowl (about 6 inch diameter) cut out the pastry to six round wrappers.

Spoon 1/6 of filling into the centre of each round wrapper.  Moisten the edge of the wrapper with a little egg.  Fold over and pinch the edges to make a frill.  Repeat for the rest.

Glaze the pasties with the beaten egg and cook in the preheated oven (at 350F) for 25 to 30 minutes or until they become golden brown.

 

Mini Cornish Pasties are everyone's favourite at party.

 

British enjoy Cornish Pasties with HP brown sauce.

If you would like to read this recipe in Japanese, please click HERE.

Bon appetit!