Cooking with Tallyrand
RECIPE MAIN - pasty
pasty taxes and who sells the best; a lot has been spoken of lately about the humble oggy. easy to make, cheap to shop for and a delight to smell as the baking aroma wafts through the whole household, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
what makes a great pasty? for me the answer is simple - a good pastry (I prefer a full butter puff pastry or a reall good short pastry) and the proportion of onion to meat to potato. The ratio I prefer is 1 to 4 to 8, in other words four times the amount of meat to onion and twice the amount of potato to meat (with swede added to taste, if preferred)
try these pasty rolls for something a little different. Why rolls? Simply because it is easier than crimping
for a brief history, the facts, the fiction, the legend that is a tiddy oggy click on the link below
http://www.dawlish.com/article/details/110
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| puff pastry - frozen commercial | 500 | gm |
| potato | 400 | gm |
| mince | 200 | gm |
| onion | 1 | pc |
- pre-heat oven to 200C
- peel the washed potatoes, cut into 1/2 cm slices, cut slices into 1/2 cm strips and cut these into 1/2 cm dice, place into a bowl
- add the mince to the potato
- roughly chop the peeled onion and add to the bowl
- season well with salt and lots of pepper
- combine well with hands (making sure they have been scrubbed clean)
- roll the pastry out on a lightloy floured surface until is a rectangle approx. 3mm thick. Too thin and they will be difficult to handle, too thick and the pastry might not cook fully
- cut into four rectangles (making one vertical cut, one horizontal cut, like the St George Cross)
- distribute the mixture evenly, laying it across the middle of each rectangle, leaving a 3-5 cm gap around the edges
- brush these edges with milk
- fold over the side edges of each to seal in the mix, then lift the closest edge over the mix and roll over to form a sausage roll / spring roll shape
- place onto a lightly greased baking tray and cut a small slit in the pastry top (to allow excess steam to escape and prevent soggy pastry)
- place into the pre-heated oven and turn the heat down to 170C
- bake for approx 30 minutes
- brush the pastry with some milk and continue to bake for approx another 15 to 20 minutes
- remove from oven, allow to cool slightly and serve
chef notes
- I prefer them as per the recipe, but diced carrot or swede may also be added
- if a short pastry is your preferred choice, preheat oven to 180C only
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I've had a go at this pasty recipe and I got great results. |
The bench mark pasty |
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While I was at Sainsbury's buying the ingredients for the pasty recipe I thought I'd buy a standard Sainsbury's pasty as a benchmark to compare my creations against.  |
Ingredients |
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Ready for baking |
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My first attempt at creating the pasty shape was awful but by the fourth I was getting better. With more practice anyone could create a nicely shaped pasty.  |
Ready for eating |
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OK so it doesn't look the best but it honestly tasted delicious and much better than the tasteless benchmark pasty.
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I got my pasty recipe from an Australian and it included turnips and carrots as well. Is that unusual? It's a great hand-held pie and can be made either small (3" rounds) for an appetizer or large (6" rounds) for a main course. May have to bake up a batch this weekend - this has made my mouth water!
@Indy Ruth - i have started a new article about the facts and fiction in regards to the pasty, that will answer the above and all the other questions you might have :-)
