The Teaspoon: Traditional British Pasties

By Diana

I believe every country have its very particular style of pastries that define somehow the character of their people. In Venezuela for example, we have our empanadas, made out of pre-cooked white cornmeal that we fill in with a variety of possibilities: from fresh hand-made white cheese, to cooked meat or even black beans for the vegan taste. We even have one with our whole national dish inside that people usually eat very early in the morning before heading to the beach. Unlike other countries' pastries, ours are not baked for hours but are fried quickly in deep quantities of vegetable oil. I will share of course the recipe with you guys one day -it's on my list of promises for the blog- but not today.

In Britain, as most of you are aware, they eat a slightly more elegant kind of pastries. They take their time to make what they call a Cornish Pasty: a well elaborated pastry made with uncooked beef, onion, potatoes and swede that they bake for one hour in the oven. Cornish is referred to the region of Cornwall, which is the most decent part of the British coast, with apparently lovely beaches that I am planning to visit before the summer ends. My point is that coincidentally, like in Venezuela, British people eat empanadas in the beach too!

So here is the recipe, extracted from Borough Market's recipe index. I hope you all enjoy it!

Ingredients
Yield: 6 pasties

500g all-purpose flour

150g lard

100g unsalted butter

150 ml cold water

350 g potatoes (about 1 unit)

200g swede (about 2 units)

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

500g beef skirt, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon of sea salt

Ground pepper to taste

1 egg whisked with 1 teaspoon of milk

Preparation Method

In a large bowl place the flour, lard, butter and a 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Knead gently using your hands until all the ingredients come together and you get a soft dough. You will have no need of adding any more water or flour. Then place the dough into a slightly floured surface and knead for about 1-2 minutes until smooth. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

Now peel the potato and the swede. Cut them finely - I cut them in fine strips of about 2 x 1/2 cm- and mix them together in a bowl. Season with the rest of the sea salt and black pepper. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180°C /gas mark 4. Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 5 equal pieces. Roll each piece in a floured surface using a rolling pin. You should get a round disc of about 20cm diameter. Bring together all of the scraps and roll out again. You should obtain a total of 6 discs. Brush the edges with the eggwash.

Now the fun bit. On each disc lay down some of the potato and swede mixture set aside. Then add some slices of the beef, a few onion slices and finish with potato and swede mixture again. Now layer the filling ingredients on to the centre of the pastry, starting with swede and potato, then some beef and onions, and lastly a little more swede and potato. Careful, do not over fill the pasty, otherwise it might break when you fold it.

To fold each pasty, bring together both sides of the disc, forming a crescent. Press the edges with your fingers tips first and then press them using a fork, which will give your pasties a nice shape.