Pasty Pie - a reimagined classic
My take on a traditional Cornish Pasty has the same wonderful flavours, but helps cut down on the time and effort to put this hearty dish on the family table
Servings: 6 People
Calories: 602kcal
Equipment
- Large round pie dish
Ingredients
- 500 g turnip (aka swede) Turnip = Swede in Cornwall!
- 500 g potatoes
- 1 onion large
- 500 g skirt beef or chuck steak
- 250 g plain flour
- 165 g butter very cold - popping the butter in the freezer for 30 minutes helps
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Make your pastry by weighing out your flour into a large bowl. You want to slice/peel 150g of the very cold butter into the flour using a vegetable peeler or a sharp knife. You're aiming for a rough-puff pastry which keeps the layers of the butter in the pastry. Put 10g butter aside for the end.
- Add 1 tsp of salt, 100ml of cold water, and gently start to bring the mixture together. You don't want to achieve a breadcrumb texture, as with shortcrust pastry, but keep visible slices of butter. So don't rub the flour and butter, simply push it together. It should need around 150ml cold water in total, but add sparingly after the initial 100ml until it binds into a ball. Wrap and pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, to prepare the vegetables for the filling, peel the turnip (swede) and the potatoes. Cut the turnip into quarters. You now want to use a sharp pairing knife and carefully shave them into small, thin chunks. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, you can dice the veg - see notes below.
- Dice the onion and stir this into the turnip and potato mix along with 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper, and 6 tbsp of water. Give everything a good mix, cover, and set aside for the flavours to develop.
- Heat the oven to 170 °C
- Meanwhile, take your skirt beef/chuck steak and dice into small pieces (approximately 1/2 cm dice).
- By now, your pastry should have had 30 minutes in the fridge and have firmed up a little. Dust some flour on your worktop and your rolling pin, and roll out to around 3mm thick (about the thickness of a £1 coin) to slightly wider than the shape of your dish. You'll use the overlap to crimp the edges.
- Pour the turnip, potato and onion mix into your pie dish and roughly flatten out. Top evenly with the diced chopped beef, taking it almost to the edge but not quite. Give the top of the beef another good seasoning (remaining 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper) and dot over the final 10g of butter.
- Transfer your pastry to the pie dish by rolling it around the rolling pin and then gently unrolling over the dish. You should have a slight overhang all around the dish. You then want to crimp the edges of the pie in a 'pasty' style. Pushing it into the edge of the dish with your thumbs and first fingers. Finally, put a small hole in the centre of the pie to allow some of the steam to escape, and brush all over with milk.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 1hr 30 minutes at 170 °C
- If the pastry starts to brown too quickly, loosely lay a sheet of foil over the top.
- Remove from the oven after 1hr 30 minutes and allow to stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- It's not traditional to dice the vegetables. It is preferable to shave them - but not everyone is comfortable doing this with a knife in their hands and peeling off small slivers/chunks. If you do decide to dice the veg, it will need to be relatively small - around 1/2cm
- Before the pastry topping goes on you can sprinkle the meat with some fresh chopped parsley if you wish. I'm just a pasty purist and only add seasoning!
- I always find it's easier to roll pastry out to a rough circle, hence I choose to bake this pie in a round baking dish.
Nutrition
Calories: 602kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 116mg | Sodium: 1210mg | Potassium: 721mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 709IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 45mg | Iron: 3mg