I had a post about this on the old site, I love Cornish pasties and I make pretty good ones.  Now a lot of people will argue that it’s not a Cornish pastie the way I make them, because they have carrot in them which is a cardinal sin of making pasties.  Well screw those people, because I make them the way I like and they are absolutely delicious.

I tried something new with them last night, I don’t know if it was Australia Day motivated or if I just wanted to be different but instead of the beef mince I usually use, I went half-half with beef and lamb mince.  I think the result was pretty special because it really picked up the flavour of the herbs a little more than is normal.  Either way, these are delicious, here’s the recipe, make them, eat them, they are awesome the next day for lunch too.

Ingredients

Makes 3 quite large pasties that serve six moderately hungry people or three utter pigs.

  • 3 sheets of puff pastry
  • 2 large carrots
  • 1 very large onion
  • 1 head of shallot
  • 3 medium potatoes
  • 2 medium swedes
  • 200g beef mince
  • 200g lamb mince
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsely
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 tsp each of chopped fresh thyme and powdered tarragon
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 2 tbsp pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 200.  This is messy as hell but you’ll get over it.  Grate all the root vegetables with a grater and put in a large mixing bowl, being sure to squeeze the grated potato in handfuls over a sink to get rid of the excess juice.  If you don’t do this the pasties will be soggy.  Do the same thing with the onion if it’s particularly juicy, although if you grate a particularly juicy onion you will be unlikely to be able to find the sink.

Break the mince up into small pieces as you would if you were going to brown it, and rub all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl until the make-up of it is consistent (no large chunks of mince or obvious carrot-heavy bits in the bowl).  Place a third of the mixture each in the middle of the sheets of puff pastry in an oval shape, pull the long sides into the middle and pinch closed, fold the ends like an envelope or Christmas present.  Place them on a greased baking tray leaving 1 – 2 cm between them to expand, and put holes in the top of each with the tines of a fork to stop them splitting or bursting.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until browned and making the entire house smell like a farmer’s kitchen at tea time.