Pasty!
Saw the Hairy Bikers make a cornish pasty yesterday, so I made one for dinner tonight, based on their recipe, but messed about with by me.
This is enough for 1 big pasty, good for 2 hungry people
1) You need about 200g of beef, uncooked weight. For a veggie version of this, you could *happily* substitute a good, slow-melting cheese like halloumi; you want a cut that will benefit from some slow cooking. Some raw ribeye or skirt steak will be good if you're not going to do the vac-pac cooking thing, but I used some cubes of shin, vac-packed and cooked at 60C in the waterbath for about 2 hours. I then cooled it down in some iced water, opened the bag, and poured off the juices into a small pan. Setting the meat aside for the time being, I reduced the liquid to a gravy and set that aside too.
(If you're using the uncooked meat, then also add a couple of teaspoons of water when you fill the pasty, so that you get some gravy in the pasty)
2) Make a shortcrust pastry. I did this in the food processor. Added 225g plain flour, a pinch of salt, 1tsp baking powder, 60g cold butter (unsalted) and an egg yolk. Blitzed to crumbs, then pulsed in about 60g very cold water, a drizzle at a time. It took all of it today, despite being pretty humid! Ball it up and wrap it in clingy, and stick in the fridge for an hour.
3) I then very finely sliced and chopped about 1/2 a potato (~100g worth), plus 1/2 an onion (about 50g worth) and a bit of swede/turnip (about 50g worth again). Very finely. Less than 1mm thick, 1-2mm wide and 3mm long max, and mixed all of that up with the meat (about 100g - 150g), seasoning with a bit of salt, and plenty of coarsely ground black pepper.
You might like to turn the oven on to about 170C right about now. Then, when the hour of pastry-resting has passed...
4) Flour your favourite pastry-rolling surface, and roll the dough out to accomodate a dinner plate. Cut round the dinner plate. Bingo! Pasty pastry.
5) Whisk another egg up for an egg wash, then mound the filling into the centre of the disk, and brush some egg round the outside of the disk (from the edge to about 2cm in) then...
5) Either
a) bring the edges up to the centre, pinch together and crimp tight (for your top-crust-pasty), or
b) bring one edge right over the top, and crimp to the other edge on the table (for your edge-crust pasty)
I find a) to be easier
6) Liberally cover with the rest of the egg wash, and make a couple of steam-vents in the top; transfer to an oiled baking tray, and slam in the oven.
It needs about an hour, maybe a little longer.
When you're ready to serve, and it is a glorious golden, crusty brown, take it out of the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes while you...
1) Slice up some cabbage, melt some butter in a pan, cook the cabbage in the butter, and season
2) Warm the gravy through, season, take off the heat and swirl in a knob of butter
3) Cut the pasty in half, plate up with the cabbage, and then pour the gravy on the cut side.
If you double up, you could make this for 4 people for less than a fiver. For one, I wouldn't reduce the amounts, but you could have half hot like this, and save the other half to have cold for lunch. Mmmm.
This is enough for 1 big pasty, good for 2 hungry people
1) You need about 200g of beef, uncooked weight. For a veggie version of this, you could *happily* substitute a good, slow-melting cheese like halloumi; you want a cut that will benefit from some slow cooking. Some raw ribeye or skirt steak will be good if you're not going to do the vac-pac cooking thing, but I used some cubes of shin, vac-packed and cooked at 60C in the waterbath for about 2 hours. I then cooled it down in some iced water, opened the bag, and poured off the juices into a small pan. Setting the meat aside for the time being, I reduced the liquid to a gravy and set that aside too.
(If you're using the uncooked meat, then also add a couple of teaspoons of water when you fill the pasty, so that you get some gravy in the pasty)
2) Make a shortcrust pastry. I did this in the food processor. Added 225g plain flour, a pinch of salt, 1tsp baking powder, 60g cold butter (unsalted) and an egg yolk. Blitzed to crumbs, then pulsed in about 60g very cold water, a drizzle at a time. It took all of it today, despite being pretty humid! Ball it up and wrap it in clingy, and stick in the fridge for an hour.
3) I then very finely sliced and chopped about 1/2 a potato (~100g worth), plus 1/2 an onion (about 50g worth) and a bit of swede/turnip (about 50g worth again). Very finely. Less than 1mm thick, 1-2mm wide and 3mm long max, and mixed all of that up with the meat (about 100g - 150g), seasoning with a bit of salt, and plenty of coarsely ground black pepper.
You might like to turn the oven on to about 170C right about now. Then, when the hour of pastry-resting has passed...
4) Flour your favourite pastry-rolling surface, and roll the dough out to accomodate a dinner plate. Cut round the dinner plate. Bingo! Pasty pastry.
5) Whisk another egg up for an egg wash, then mound the filling into the centre of the disk, and brush some egg round the outside of the disk (from the edge to about 2cm in) then...
5) Either
a) bring the edges up to the centre, pinch together and crimp tight (for your top-crust-pasty), or
b) bring one edge right over the top, and crimp to the other edge on the table (for your edge-crust pasty)
I find a) to be easier
6) Liberally cover with the rest of the egg wash, and make a couple of steam-vents in the top; transfer to an oiled baking tray, and slam in the oven.
It needs about an hour, maybe a little longer.
When you're ready to serve, and it is a glorious golden, crusty brown, take it out of the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes while you...
1) Slice up some cabbage, melt some butter in a pan, cook the cabbage in the butter, and season
2) Warm the gravy through, season, take off the heat and swirl in a knob of butter
3) Cut the pasty in half, plate up with the cabbage, and then pour the gravy on the cut side.
If you double up, you could make this for 4 people for less than a fiver. For one, I wouldn't reduce the amounts, but you could have half hot like this, and save the other half to have cold for lunch. Mmmm.