One of the lovely things about Street Food in England is that you can eat your way around the world in the space of 100m. From Asia to America, around the Med and back to Blighty – it’s all there for you to enjoy.
A dish which has been cooked for hundreds of years in England is the Cornish Pasty, and whilst purists will tell you exactly what should and should not go into one, I think most people agree that when made well, they are delicious, filling and portable. Great picnic or street food.
This is by no means a Cornish Pasty – it was made from the leftovers of some spiced ham. And as we move further into January, I am sure many of you will have cooked a ham for the Christmas table so it’s great for using up leftovers. This recipe is a great one to prepare to take with you on a winter walk to burn off some of the excesses of the festive season. God forbid you should get hungry! If you don’t have ham, this would be great with leftover vegetables or any roasted meats.
This was my first ever attempt at making Rough Puff Pastry and I’m so glad I went for it. It was easy to make and the flavour was far superior to shop bought puff pastry. Do give it a go!
This makes about 8 medium (but filling) pasties
Rough Puff Pastry
- 300g room temperature (but not soft) butter
- 300g plain flour
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt
- Up to about 200ml cold water
Mix the salt into the sieved flour and cut the butter into small chunks (about 1cm) and into the flour. Rub the flour and butter together gently but not to a fine texture – you still want to see chunks of butter. Gradually add the water (how much you need will depend on your flour), mixing with your hands as you go until it comes together to form a dough.
Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 20 mins. After this time (when you can be getting on with the filling), take it out and roll it gently into a long rectangle. Fold it into thirds, roll again, fold again and put it back (wrapped) into the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Pasty Filling
- 400ml of your boiling stock from the ham (or any stock, or milk)
- 3tbs plain flour
- 1 tbs olive oil
- About a cup of grated hard cheese (I used a strong cheddar)
- 1 tbs English mustard
- Black pepper
- 200g approx. of chopped cold ham
- About a cup of finely chopped left over cooked vegetables
- A beaten egg
Put the stock (or milk) into a pan with the flour and oil and heat gently whilst whisking. It will start to thicken to the texture of a pouring custard. Continue to cook for a couple of minutes then add the cheese, mustard and pepper and then stir in the meat and vegetables. Put into the fridge to chill and thicken slightly.
When you are ready to assemble the pasties, heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, divide the dough into about 8 pieces (or less if you want bigger pasties), and roll each piece into a circle. Fill one side with the filling (do not over fill), fold over the pastry and press both sides together. You can either crimp the edges or press with the tines of a fork. I have a handy Empanada maker that I use.
Brush the tops of the pasties with beaten egg and place them on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 20 minutes and enjoy when then are golden brown. These are great both hot and cold – take care not to burn yourself if you can’t resist sampling them straight out of the oven!
Chica Andaluza 
I snaffled a few of these – absolutely delicious!! xx
I need to make more soon!
I’ll be round!
Yum – I’m quite convinced that there’s a connection with Cornwall, pasties, Galicia and the empanada… Celtic peoples with the atlantic in between.
Very good looking pastry and filling 😉
I think you’re right – and don’t forget the bagpipes!
Yes those too!
I’m fairly sure the Romans brought and grew saffron in England, but there’s an awful lot of saffron used in Cornish baking that’s not evident in England…
I think you’re right…think of Saffron Waldon…. wonder why it didn’t trickle through to our cooking nowadays?
It is weird – the town Saffron Walden actually changed its name from Chipping Walden as it was a centre of saffron growing in the UK.
I remembered something about it but was a bit vague on the detail – it’s good to learn something new (and how to spell it properly too)!
Chica, they look and sound delicious – wish I had one for breakfast right now! I love that you’ve used homemade pastry and cooked a filling, rather than just putting ham and cheese in!
It was a first for me with this kind of pastry but I was so pleased with it!
Amazing recipes,REALLY! Being Italian I already knew ossobuco ,but the other two fascinated me…
Thank you , feliz año!
You’re welcome!
Hat’s off to you for making puff pastry! I’m still in frozen mode….well my puff pastry is ) They look splendid, and I now want to make pies (plural!!)
Well, it was only rough puff so a bit quicker but it seemed “puffy” to me when it was cooked and I’d definitely make it again!
If I made these id have a seriously burnt roof of the mouth. Wouldn’t be able to wait for them to cool! They sound delicious. Good on you for making the pastry!
I ate some hot and some cold so I also had burnt fingers and mouth!
I have been looking for a cornish pasty pastry recipe. I am thrilled it is so easy! these pasty’s look great.. love them. i will try something like this very soon now that i have the pastry recipe… c
With your amazing butter they would be the best ever!
Can’t wait to start milking again! Miss all that home made dairy stuff.. c
And we can but dream of it. Stay warm!!
Yum! pasties. Love cheese and onion pasties or pies….meat and potatoe. These are the things that I miss. Thanks for the reminder 🙂 Happy New Year to you all!!!
Florence xx
If I could get butter to stay unmelted in Spain ‘d make them for you!
Well done on making your own rough puff. It is so worth it 🙂
I surprised myself at how uncomplicated it was and then at how good it tasted!
Well, now you’ve gone and done it! It’s late here and I’m imagining biting into hot puff pastry, lol! I’ve been afraid to try making it, but you’re giving me the courage to try.. your photos show that they turned out just lovely!! xx
I was a bot wary too but it was surprisingly easy (and much quicker than I had anticipated)….go for it!
I will:D
newest follower saying hi 🙂 You had me at cheese…
Welcome on board – and yes, I’m a huge cheese fan too!
Since moving here, I’ve become addicted to these.
Big Man too!
Really? That’s all you did to make the pastry? Wow…even I have time for that!
I should go rummage through the leftovers and see what can be stuffed into a pocket! 🙂
I know – how easy was that?! And I’m all about the easy route….!
Wow, they look so good!
Thanks Rosemary!
Your pasties sound terrific. For some reason, I thought it was much more complicated to make puff pastry…I’m sure your homemade dough was delicious.
I think the full version of proper puff pastry takes a lot longer – but to me this rough puff was just as good and oh so easy!
While I won’t be cooking up a spiced ham in order to make these babies (one “ham” on Serendipity Farm is enough methinks 😉 ), I love the look of this pastry. I need something quick to rustle up last minute for Stevie-boy and his cheese fetish. The man would eat cheese for every meal if I didn’t inject a few vegetables into the equation occasionally. Never seen anything like it. We buy 2kg of the stuff a fortnight and he is the only one that eats it…and he has been known to snarf it as a late night snack straight from the fridge in a large chunk ;). I wonder if this is like my Gran’s rough puff pastry? She made the most delicious things out of it. Now I am excited! Good flaky pastry in under an hour? You are ON! 🙂
Nothing warms the cockles like a hand full of pasty…you can be wandering around the garden gesticulating (like someone who is just about to do all kinds of things but really is only going to scoff that pasty as soon as the object of their hand wafting approach has buggered off and let them eat it) or you can be beavering away studying or you can be tap dancing if you like, it can all be done with a pasty in the other hand because unlike pies, they don’t drip! They are portable happiness in pastry and they are my favourite way of getting some good pastry into my pie hole. No pies for me. Might have to call it a “pasty hole” from now on :).
I wonder if I could approximate this with buckwheat flour and coconut oil…a step too far methinks 😦 Oh well, I can look at your images and imagine the heaven that is butter :). Might even stick it on as a desktop! I can drool vicariously through your efforts. “Try these folks, they won’t let you down!” (And you can fix the plumbing, pat small children on the head, fondle your husband WHATEVER you want to do while you are holding them and be sure that they won’t let you down by spattering the antimacassars 😉 )
Now you’ve got me thinking about how else this could be made, I think the puffy thing happens as the water in the butter evaporates and makes steam but I am guessing other fats contain water too? And I’vr made veggie ones since with mushrooms and a cheesy béchamel (not vegan though). I was not tap dancing at the time but I did have a bit of a jiggle round the kitchen though to a selection of disco songs (I think Boney M and Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing – were amongst the selection)!
I tend to dance around the kitchen (note to self… try VERY hard not to use any words containing the letter that comes after “O” and before “Q” as Earl ate that keyboard note when I was outside decorating the deck…sigh…) but usually to Queen or Led err…some other good 70’s band 😉 I am going to give it the old college try with buckwheat and some olive oil and then with some coconut butter. I recon the coconut butter would work the best as it would react the same way as butter would. I will let you know if it works out. If I remain silent, it didn’t and shall remain hushed (er…looking for a substitute word…hushed in an elevated way 😉 ). “BOLLOCKS EARL!” sigh…lucky we are going to town today and can get a new keyboard… mutter…mutter…
Reminds me of the programme Countdown “I’ll have a P please Bob”!
Early bypasses Bob and went straight to the source! I have a nice new Keyboard that is nice and quick on the upclick (no toast crumbs in between the keys…yet…) so narf7 is flying along with all the PPPPPpppp action she wants :). My girls send a “Hi” your way. They liked your comment 😉
PPPPPPerfect 🙂
🙂
Good for you! I have never tried puff or even rough puff, but keep intending to. Happy new year!
To you too Michelle!
Lovely! And educational comments to boot! What more do you need? 🙂
Stupid purists – I had some really angry people raging at me on my YouTube channel over my “Cornish Pasties” and “Eccles Cakes”. Nitpicking… seriously, get over it I think to myself! Do love a ham and cheese slice or pasty – never had it with mustard in before. Must be a nice addition to help lift up the flavour a bit!
Ooh cheese and mustard is a big favourite of mine!
I think the only time I’ve had an English pastie was when I was nine and we were in England. I remember loving them. Love this…and particularly the fact that the pastry is so simple, and also that the pastie has cheese and mustard in it. And guess what? I have leftover ham in the freezer. Yum!
I think there’s a pasty waiting to be made in your kitchen!
Pasties, chica style! I love it!
😉
We saw these all over when we were in Ireland and Scotland. We never got them though. I know shame on us. But now our regrets are gone, we can make them at home.
Yes, they’re very popular! Hope you ejoy them if you make them (In your new kitchen) 🙂
Una fantástica receta, Tanya! Puff pastry es hojaldre, no? Yo siempre lo compro ya hecho y estirado, pero tu lo haces parecer tan sencillo que me parece que me animare a hacerla muy pronto. 😉
Sí, es hojaldre con muchísimo mantequilla! Pero. Merece la pena hacerlo, por lo menos una vez 🙂
I’ll take two, please. Or ten. 😀
xoxo
Coming right up!
My other half is Cornish and I’m not allowed to call anything I make a Cornish Pastie – it’s always just pastry with a filling unless it’s made and eaten in Cornwall apparently. Whatever…..ham, cheese, mustard and home made pastry is heaven on a plate.
Makes me even more relieved I didn’t call it a Cornish Pasty – isn’t there something about whether they have carrots or not (not, methinks)?!
Saved as a favorite, I really likee your site!
they look and sound delicious , wish I had one for breakfast right now! xixi