Sunday 6 September 2015

Cheese, Onion and Potato Pasties (Tiddly Oggies) and Father's Day Quicklinks

I just looked on Buzzfeed at a list of foods dad's want to eat on Father's Day and it is almost all meat.  So this Father's Day I will share a recipe that seems perfect for dads but is vegetarian.  I made them a few weeks back for a school picnic with puff pastry and then tried them again with home made shortcrust pastry.  Both are wonderful.

The recipe is fairly simple.  I have never mashed onions with potatoes before but it was a revelation.  So easy and so yummy.  I saved some of the cooking water for a soup and it was very flavoursome.

Above is my step by step photos of making the pasties with puff pastry.  The only problem I had with them were that the filling oozed out.  Perhaps I added too much.  I only made a few before I had to run out the door to the picnic.

It was at 4pm.  Right between 3.30 when kids are starving straight after school and later when we have dinner.  So I didn't take that much.  As always there are parents whose amazing feasts put mine to shame!  But my pasties were a fine offering. And hearty enough to provide energy for the bush dancing that came after the picnic.

When we got home Sylvia was most displeased that I would not let her watch any television.  It didn't take me too long to bake more pasties.  Meanwhile Sylvia organised paper and pens for us all to sit at the table and draw while we waited.  It was one of those evenings when life seemed right.  The three of us sitting around the table peacefully sharing and enjoying being a family.

I still had heaps of filling over so a few days later I made some shortcrust pastry and made more pasties. (See above photos.)  I was amazed at how light and crisp the pastry was.  I used Karen's recipe on Lavender and Lovage on the same post as the pasties.  She uses vegetable fat but I just used vegan margarine.

Karen says that these pasties are one of her most requested recipes.  I can see why.  They are delicious, albeit not the healthiest of meals.  They were brilliant at the picnic and Sylvia had one in her lunchbox the next day.  They reminded me both of the Cheese and Onion Pasty that Greggs sells in the UK and of the Cheese and Onion Tiddly Oggie that Ferguson Plarre sells locally in Melbourne.

Apparently Tiddly Oggie means 'proper pastie' and to read the guidelines of the Cornish Pasty Association, I am not sure they would approve of cheese and onion.  I, on the other hand, like it very much.  In fact next time I make these with puff pastry I think I might try them square like Greggs does so I don't end up with a bag of scraps of puff pastry in the freezer.  (What do I do with it?  I've considered topping some vegies with scraps to make a spiky pie.)

So there you have it.  Just the sort of comfort food that fathers everywhere would love.  And because it is Father's Day, I have some quicklinks for you to make you think about how great dads are, while I also remember those whose dads are not about and those dads whose children are not with them.


I am sending these pasties to The Pastry Challenge at the United Cakedown (run with Jen's Food).

More pasty recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Creamy pasties with peas or pumpkin
Haggis neeps and tatties pasties (v)
Lentil and root vegetable pasties
Spinach and potato pasties

Cheese Onion and Potato Pasties (Tiddly Oggies)
From Lavender and Lovage
Serves 6-8
  • 2 large or 4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 2 onions, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 280g vintage cheddar cheese, grated (I used some vintage, some cheddar and some parmesan)
  • Seasoning (I used 1/2 to 1 tsp salt and a good grind of black pepper)
  • 2 batches of short crust recipe (below) or about 6-8 sheets of ready rolled 25x25cm puff pastry
  • milk (or beaten egg) for glazing

Preheat oven to 220 C.  Line a few oven trays with baking paper.

Bring to boil then simmer potatoes and onions with a pinch of salt for about 15 - 20 minutes or until potato is soft.  Drain.  (Keep the water to flavour stews and soups.)  Mash and stir well with mustard powder and cheese.  Season to taste.  Set aside.  This can be prepared ahead of time and kept in the fridge for a few days.

Roll out pastry on a floured surface.  I divided one batch of the shortcrust pastry into eight and made an approximate circle or cut four circles our of each sheet of puff pastry (or the puff pastry could be cut into squares to avoid leftover scraps).

Drop a dessertspoon of mixture into the lower half, leaving a good centimetre around it for pinching edges together.

Using a brush or your finger dampen the edges with milk (or egg).  Fold over and pinch edges together.  Now fold the edges over and pinch together again.  Brush with milk (or egg) and slash three times with a knife.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Shortcrust pastry
Adapted from Lavender and Lovage
  • 340g plain flour
  • 160g butter or margarine
  • pinch of salt
  • 1-3 tbsp cold water

Rub the butter into the flour and salt.  Gently mix in the water and lightly knead until you have a ball of smooth dough.  This can be done in the food processor and is an excellent way to make sure the dough is handled lightly so it doesn't get tough.

On the Stereo:
God Bless Tiny Tim (deluxe expanded mono edition)

21 comments:

  1. The pasties look delicious! I actually love it when the cheese ooze out, looks so tempting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jasline - I am all in favour of cheese ooze but just hoped it didn't mean the pasties had emptied out :-)

      Delete
  2. cheese and onion pasties are one of my favourite english foods, these look delish! Mine are always so unevenly sized, they look shameful compared to your neat ones...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Cate - I ate many when I lived in the UK - it was such a common flavour there! I firstly rolled out the shortcrust pastry and it looked hard to cut out so I balled it out, cut it into 8 pieces and rolled each ball out which I think helped them be even.

      Delete
  3. Oh yum. These sound delicious. I think they'd be perfect for little people learning to feed themselves too. I think I know what I'm making this weekend. Thank you for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lisa - yes these are plain enough for young and elderly palates but tasty enough for everyone - perfect family food - Enjoy!

      Delete
  4. Hehe when I asked friends what Father's Day food was good they all suggested beer and meat! Although my father eats meat he doesn't drink beer at all. He'd like these I think!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Lorraine - meat and beer just about sums it up - you don't see many vegetarian suggestions for father's day

      Delete
  5. I'm very impressed that there's a Cornish Pasty Association! I feel like joining.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry Faye - I am not sure they take vegans - you should see their guidelines for a proper pastie :-)

      Delete
  6. I love a good cheese an onion pastie, many in the UK inc. those from Greggs are mush - no sign of onion at all. I've had oggies on my list to make, perhaps I will do so next month, when it starts to get proper autumnal here. I am most impressed with your pastry. For vegan mofo prompt tomorrow its retro - I was going to do a vegan jelly, but think it may be time for pastry based pie instead - so 1960s.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Shaheen - I haven't had a Gregg's cheese and onion pastie for ages - I was surprised how the onion mashed up quite well so you couldn't tell it was there - actually I didn't mention it to Sylvia who dislikes the idea of onion. Will look forward to your vegan mofo retro post

      Delete
  7. I think these look really good and can understand them being very popular at the picnic. That's a great idea to use the cooking water to make a soup xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Charlie - the cooking water tasted really good - surprisingly so - and I just wished I had made more pasties before I left for the picnic because they would have been lovely to share more (sylvia had one for her bushdancing partner)

      Delete
  8. Just love the name and the shape - gorgeous. The photo of Sylvia all in red is also lovely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Cakelaw - tiddly oggie is such a cute name isn't it (and yes sylvia is cute too)

      Delete
  9. These pasties look so delicious! I think that you can never go wrong with a cheese and onion pasty, and the addition of potato is just lovely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks VegHog - yes pastry, potato, onion and cheese is a pretty surefire combination of vegies

      Delete
  10. Happy father's day to E and I do love that last photo of him with Sylvia. I also love the look of these as a father's day treat and know Mr Bite would love them (even if he isn't a father) - thanks for the idea :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kari - I really love that photo of him and Sylvia - she loves to walk part of the way to school with him when he is going to the train at the same time. I have no doubt these appeal to lots of people who aren't fathers as well as fathers!

      Delete
  11. Oh.My.GOODness!!!!! Wow! These sound fantastic! I wish you could mail them LOL

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)