Post 9; Cornish Pasties

 

"Mum-- Bill!" said Ron, looking stunned, as he joined the Gryffindor table. "What're you doing here?" 
"Come to watch Harry in the last task!" said Mrs. Weasley brightly. "I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook."How was your exam?"
"Oh . . . okay," said Ron. "Couldn't remember all the goblin rebels' names, so I invented a few. It's all right," he said, helping himself to a Cornish pasty, while Mrs.Weasley looked stern, " they're all called stuff like Bodrod and Urg the Unclean; it wasn't hard." 
Fred, George, and Ginny came to sit next to them too, and Harry was having such a good time he felt almost as though he were back at the Burrow; he had forgotten to worry about the evening's task, and not until Hermione turned up, halfway though lunch, did he remember that she had had a brainwave about Rita Skeeter.

 I grew up in a small copper mining town, by the time I was born most of the mines had closed down or were on their way but one thing this area is known for is it's pasties. When the Cornish came to the copper mines in Northern Michigan they brought with them a lot of mining knowledge which the other ethnic groups didn't have.  They were looked up to for this reason and many of their practices were adopted by fellow miners including pasties as the standard miner lunch. And why not it's portable, filling and stays warm for hours! Each group added their own twist to filling and spices arguing theirs was best,  but the one thing they all agreed on was the inclusion of potatoes and onions.  Pasties were never eaten with a fork but rather like a burrito held in hand eaten from end to end. IN many families all members worked in the mine even very young children so the wife would stamp the bottom with an initial, that way should any be left over it could be finished by it's rightful owner. They also had a superstition about eating the initial corner, and that it should not be eaten but dropped on the ground for the mining gremlins to eat. The gremlins caused mischief, accidents and collapses, feeding them was supposed to keep them from causing such things to happen. 

This is a veganized version of my own families Prussian-Cornish-French take on it. I've added spices and ingredients of my own that would make them roll in their graves but  times change I'll include the  original ingredient list at the end if anyone is interested I'm sure meat analogues could be used but  I like it this way.  

Cornish Pasty

Ingredients:

2.5c rutabaga cubed the size of a sugar cube or smaller

2c carrots quartered and sliced not too thin

3c onion diced

One heaping quart measuring cup of cubed potatoes cut about twice the size of the rutabaga

One heaping quart measuring cup shredded/finely sliced cabbage. This is optional we liked it but we made some without just in case the pickier eaters  had a problem with it.

One quart measuring cup full of quartered and sliced mushrooms. 




3/4c frozen peas
2tsp salt
2tsp pepper
1-2 Tbsp fresh thyme


Dough:
9c flour
3c shortening
1.25c water (more if needed)
6Tbsp vinegar
You can cut into thirds for smaller batches.

Method: 

Start with the dough as it need to be refrigerated.  Mix flour and shortening until it beads I suggest using your hands its worlds faster than a fork etc. 

See the beading though I did already add liquid it wasn't mixed through yet.

Add water and vinegar and mix through with as little fussing as possible as long as it looks like it will roll out it's perfect. In fact if you have never made this I suggest making your crust in small batches(1/3rds). If you over working it will be crumbly tough and hard to roll. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate 30 plus minutes.  Preheat oven 350F

Filling:

Dice, chop and add everything to a large mixing bowl aside from mushrooms and some onions if you wish though they can all be mixed into the bowl with spices. In large skillet saute mushrooms when starting to brown add cabbage and cook till translucent/ cabbage is tender:

All mixed up and ready to roll.  Pull out your dough and divide into 18 pieces, the filling made  14 pasties for me last night any left over dough can be used to make pumpkin pasties. recipe coming soon. 

Between two sheets of parchment paper roll out dough  into a 8-10 inch round

Add one heaping cup (1c measuring cup)of filling wet edge with water and fold over:

Crimp and seal edges:

Place on parchment lined  baking sheet I suggest having two sheets made up you can fit 5 on each and bake for 60 min mid way through rotate and swap trays on oven racks to keep cooking even.

The dough at the filling can be made the day before as it is a lot of work for one day but they freeze beautiful and are worth the effort!  

Hope you enjoyed!

 Original filling :
7c. potato
3c. rutabaga or turnip
4c. onion
2lbs lean beef steak or roast not ground
4c. lean pork steak or roast not ground (I use chicken)
1tbs salt
1tbs pepper
Preheat to 375-350 depending on your oven