Cornish Pasties

AS long as I've known Dave, he has kvetched about a lack of decent Cornish Pasties to be found in the country. The frozen ones bought in specilty shops just don't cut it, says he! As a matter of fact, the only decent ones we've found to date are in EPCOT at Disney, but we can't really afford to 1. drive to Orlando, 2. pay the $60+ admission to get into EPCOT, 3. then pay the $12 they charge for it.. every time he has a craving for them! So as you can imagine I was pretty giddy when I found a recipe in this months Saveur for them.

Much to my delight, I made a massive mess in the kitchen making the dough.. which called for lard... alas... meat sales people look at you like youre speaking another language when you ask for lard... all I could get was suet... it had to do. Apparently, its IMPOSSIBLE to get lard in this country. Go figure. I could get a deep fried candy bar I'm sure no problem. With fries too if I wanted... but I digress... MASSIVE mess in the kitchen, flour... everywhere. Dave even found some on the windowsill this morning... dont ask.

We thought they turned out alright... now I'm not the Cornish Pastie connoisseur that Dave is... but he seemed to enjoy them, although he did say the pastry seemed a bit overcooked.... maybe it was a texture thing... replacing lard with suet... who knows. But next time I wont cook them as long and see if it makes a difference.

So here is the recipe, modified a little from Saveur this month...

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups flour
9 tbsp cold lard cut into small pieces (I had to use suet)
9 tbsp cold margering cut into small pieces
1 cup peeled grated rutabaga
1 large russet potato, peeled, cut into small cubes
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1lb ground chuck steak
1 egg lightly beaten
salt & pepper

Mix flour, lard, margarine and 1 cup water in a large bowl, using your hands, gently forming into a dough ball.. trying not to mix the fats into the flour. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll into a 8x10" rectangle, and fold as you would a letter. Repeat this process 8 times, and refrigerate dough, wrapped in plastic, for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces, shape into balls, then into discs. Working with 1 disc at a time, and rewrap and refrigerate others. Roll out disc into a 9" round.

Combine potato, rutabaga, onion, and beef, and take a quarter of it into the round of dough. Brush egg along one side, and fold the dough over the meat mixture to form a half moon. Pinch edges to form a seam. Transfer pastry to a8x12" piece of parchemt paper. Repeat process for remaining 3. Brush tops of pasties with remaining egg. Arrange pasties on a baking sheet, with edges of parchment paper folded up between them.

Bake the pasties until light golden, about 15 mins, reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake until deep golden, about 50 minutes.

Let them cool a bit before eating. Dave likes his with HP. I liked them as they were... yum!