The pasty, pronounced "pass-tee", has a long history with working men. Originally wives made these for their husbands as a portable lunch before they went to the mines to work. My family hales from West Virginia, so making an American version of this long-time Cornish favorite has always been near and dear to my heart.
Warning though, this does take a bit of work. Also, lots of time.
First of all, you will need to make some butter crust pastry. As a rule of thumb for a family of four you want to double this recipe. This also means double the pastry. An alternative, would be to use some refrigerated dough - if you have no time. The pastry can be refrigerated for up to a week, but if you have no time please do opt out for the refrigerated stuff.
Grab one pound of ground beef, two Yukon gold potatoes, one onion, two carrots, and a small bunch of fresh parsley.
Chop onion, potatoes, and carrots and fry in olive oil a pan on medium heat for 10 minutes. A few minutes in add the parsley, and a generous tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Remove to a plate once cooked, and cook the ground beef. Add some more olive oil to the pan with the ground beef then add creole seasoning or seasoned salt, garlic salt or garlic powder, pepper, and onion powder. Cook until no longer pink.
Once the ground beef is cooked add one cup of beef broth, peas, and Colby Monterey Jack Cheese along with the cooked vegetables. Melt the cheese and simmer about ten minutes. The cheese should end up being kind of saucy not so much stringy. You can use fresh, frozen, or canned peas for this recipe.
Next we'll make our pies. Take out your pastry and cut off a small piece then make into a small disc. This makes it easier to roll into something resembling a circle. To give you an idea how big it should be, that's a salad fork in the picture below. Of course, you can make these as big or as small as you want or need.
Add a nice scoop of your filling onto the pastry in the center.
Fold over and pinch the seams together, and seal with a fork. If you have trouble getting it to seal you can use a little egg wash to help you along.
After you have your pies made stand them up on the baking sheet so the seam straight up and down. At this point make an egg wash adding salt and pepper to brush the outside of the pasties. My egg wash didn't have enough salt and pepper for my taste so I add some after the egg wash. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried my pasties were exactly picture perfect but they were delish!
Bake these in a preheated 375-degree oven for twenty minutes, turning once half way through to ensure even browning of the crust. Cool for five minutes then serve with tomato relish or brown gravy.
Ingredients
1 recipe Butter Crust Pastry
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 pound ground beef
Creole seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper to taste
½ cup peas
½ cup Colby Monterey Jack cheese
½ cup beef broth
1 egg
1 recipe Tomato Relish
Directions
- Prepare butter pie pastry according to directions. Put onions, carrots, and potatoes into pan on medium heat to cook for ten minutes. Add parsley and butter then cook an additional ten minutes. Remove from pan.
- Cook ground beef in pan. Add creole seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper to taste. When no longer pink add vegetable mixture to pan. Add peas, cheese, and beef broth to mixture. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Put egg into a bowl and beat for egg wash, salt and pepper. Roll out pastry, add filling to center. Fold over and pinch edges to seal. Place on baking sheet and brush with egg wash.
- Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through for even browning. Pies are done once pastry is browned.
- Let rest five minutes prior to serving. Serve with tomato relish or brown gravy.
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