Cornish Pasty

I have been asked by some to throw in a recipe for a real Cornish pasty. Now this is a dangerous venture because A) I'm not Cornish and B) everyone in Cornwall thinks they have the best recipe. Mine is simple and I believe it should be because it was a workmans meal and not 'posh nosh' rubbish - it was meant to feed a working man.

It was probably the first complete take-away meal originally designed for the Cornish miner and farmer who was away working all day and needed a meal but had no facilities to prepare one. The reason the filling was contained in a pastry case with a thick crust along one side was to hold on to, especially as their hands were dirty or tainted with tin, copper or iron. Often in previous times this was discarded or fed to "The Cornish Knockers" (ghosts of dead colleagues said to haunt the mines). The traditional filling was meat or fish, potato, onion, turnip and a little butter or cream.The housewife prepared these daily for the man of the house and for the children who took them to work or school. It was the staple diet of the Cornish for many years. As the mines in Cornwall declined and "Cousin Jack" travelled extensively to find work this recipe went with him and still today one can still find small outcrops of societies all over the world producing the Cornish pasty, especially in Australia, South Africa, Canada and America.

Here is the recipe I have used and it works.

Pastry

You need:

500 gms strong bread flour
120 gms white shortening
25 gms cake margarine
5 gms salt
175 gms cold water

Mix fat lightly into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.Add water and beat in a food mixer until pastry clears and becomes elastic. This will take longer than normal pastry but it gives the pastry the strength that is needed to hold the filling and retain a good shape.Leave to rest for 3 hours in a refrigerator, this is a very important stage as it is almost impossible to roll and shape the pastry when fresh

FILLING

You need:
450 gms good quality beef skirt
450 gms potato
250 gms Swede
200 gms onion
Salt & pepper to taste( 2/1 ratio)
Clotted cream or butter

Chop the above finely then add to the rolled out circles of pastry raw. Layer the vegetables and meat adding plenty o f seasoning. Put the dollop of cream or a knob of butter on top. Then bring the pastry around and crimp together. The crimping bit takes practice.

Fan assisted 165 approx 40 min (bit hotter and longer in an ordinary oven I guess)

Swede or Turnip?

People get these either way around - here in Scotland they call them the other way they do in Devon. In Cornwall I believe the round yellow one is the Turnip.

Do not use carrots - ever - it is never never used in a true pasty.

a little scrap of life and death

Its amazing how a little scrap of life can find their way into your life and your heart and yet you don't realise just how much until they've gone.
This was Rooney the Love Bird who is no more.
I put his cage outside on a sunny Sunday and somehow he managed to escape. The last we saw of him he was loudly shrieking at passing birds and promising severe times if he caught up with them.
Sad though - he was such a part of our daily life - we talked to him when we went by him - he whistled to us and he was a real character that bought so much happiness and enjoyment into our home.
He will not have lasted long outside - he was born a cage bird and would not be able to feed or defend against wild birds.
I take a bit of comfort from thinking that at least he went out free and flying even if only for a short time - rather than quietly going on the cage floor. How you do get attached to wee scraps of life though.