MLLA Holiday Pasties

Life is busy. Sylvia was up demanding cereal at 2am last night, we have had a two day staff meeting at work, and my blog reader – Bloglines - is closing down so I am trying to organize 1.400 bookmarks and get my head around a new blog reader. I need a holiday. Oops I only just had one! When planning for our recent Port Fairy trip, I decided to make some pasties to make sure we had some decent food while away. Maybe if I tell you about them it will take me back into a holiday mood!

As is too often the case these days, I was glad to get away to Port Fairy. I needed a break! If I tell you that at midnight before leaving I was casting off the stitches of a green scarf I knitted for Sylvia, while packing our suitcases, it might given you some indication of how disorganized I was feeling. I took so long making the pasties that evening and had so much filling that we just ate filling for dinner. While we ate, I cooked the rest of it into pasties to take away.

The next morning I cut Sylvia’s fringe for the first time and then we headed off in the car. We arrived at our holiday cottage and found there was no oven but there was a microwave. Close enough for jazz! After the long drive, lots of songs for Sylvia and a walk in the park, we were glad to have an easy dinner. A couple of nights later we ate the rest of the pasties with Brussels sprouts and hot chips. Delicious!

The pasties that I made were a fusion of childhood memories of root vegetables and flavours I have come to love as an adult. I didn’t follow any recipe. These pasties were inspired by a need to clear out the fridge before going away. I used up some scraps of smoked cheese, vintage cheese and parmesan but the cheese was rather intense and I might just use plain old cheddar cheese or even leave the cheese out altogether. Not perfect pasties but a great work in progress.

It seemed a holiday of pasties. Not only home made pasties. On the way home we stopped in Colac, another familiar town from my childhood. I had a vegetable pastie for lunch at an old fashioned bakery. It had a stodgy bland filling of potatoes, carrot and parsnip. Not a patch on my pasties!

I am sending these pasties to Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook for her My Legume Love Affair blog event, celebrating recipes using bean, lentils and other legumes.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Fruit scones, yellow and uncertainty
This time two years ago: A not-so-nasty pasty

Lentil and root vegetable pasties
(NB there is far more filling than pastry if you make the quantity of pastry below but we ate some of the filling with a mug of tomato soup)

• 1 onion, diced
• 3 medium red skinned potatoes, diced
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 1 celeriac, peeled and diced
• 1 large parsnip, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• ½ tsp mixed herbs
• ¼ tsp fennel seeds
• couple of pinches of salt
• a few glugs of olive oil
• good handful of parsley, finely chopped
• 400g tin of brown lentils, rinsed and drained
• 25g vintage cheddar, grated
• 25g smoked cheddar, grated
• 25g parmesan cheese, finely grated
  

Crusty hot water pastry (makes 4)
(from this pastie recipe)

• 125g butter
• 150ml hot water
• 2 ½ cups (400g) flour (I did half white, half wholemeal)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 egg (or milk), for glazing pastry

Toss the vegetables with the garlic, mixed herbs, fennel seeds, salt and olive oil in two large roasting dishes. Roast at 200-220 C for 60-90 minutes (I have given a range because I roasted my veg at different temperatures and times and moved them about between the top and bottom shelves of the oven.) When vegetables are soft, remove from oven and stir in parsley, lentils and cheeses.

Make hot water pastry by bringing the butter and water to the boil, removing from heat and then mix in flour and salt. Bring together with your hands into a ball of pastry and cut into four pieces. Roll each piece out into about a 20cm circle.

Place 2-3 tbsp of filling to the side of the circle about 1cm from the edge. Brush the edges with milk or beaten egg. Fold the pastry over the filling. Turn edges over to seal and neaten. Press your fingers into the edges to finalise the seal.

Brush pasties with beaten egg or milk and bake for 10 minutes at 200 C. Then turn down the oven to 180 C and bake a further 30 minutes.

On the stereo:
Ashes and Diamonds: June Tabor