Pasty pie

Rog, being a Plymothian, was brought up on cornish pasties, but these days finds that eating a whole pasty is a bit too much. Its quite hard to make them smaller - the filling tends to get lost in the pastry - so instead I quite often make a pasty pie, which means more filling and less pastry for each serving, and you can have as much or as little as you like.

First start by making pastry, I tend to go for 400g flour to 200g shortening, usually a 50/50 mix of lard and marge, or lard and butter, however this time I had a small amount of butter left so I used all three. You can, of course, buy ready-to-roll pastry from the supermarket, but personally I find pastry-making very therapeutic, so I only use ready-to-roll if I know I am going to be short of time.



Leave the pastry on one side to prove, then chop 250g of beef. As it cooks long and slow you can use the cheapest cuts, if you prefer, but I usually get best stewing steak, you can cut off as much or as little of the fat as you choose, I like mine nice and lean.



Next, chop the onion, I usually use about half of a medium onion, and add to the meat.



Now add some seasoning, lots of white pepper is my choice and gives a more authentic taste than black pepper (dont add salt now, that comes later).



Next add some swede, I usually use about a quarter of a smallish swede, and mix with the beef and onions.



Place the beef, onion and swede mixture onto the pastry base and cover with a whole medium potato sliced and diced. Now is the time to add a small touch more pepper and the salt to taste.



Cover with pastry, glaze with milk or egg, and place in a pre-heated oven, 230C (or whatever the gas equivalent, probably 7 or 8) for 15 minutes to brown off the pastry. Then reduce the heat to 170C and cook for a further hour.



Eat and enjoy x x