Welsh pasties

Despite the name, we found our first sample of this marvelous "pocket sandwich" in Reading, England. It is sold in the railway station there, to be exact. But there is a restaurant in town that serves nothing but pasties of every imaginable flavor and combination of ingredients. Whoever said that the English don't know how to cook was wrong.

I recently received a couple of requests for my recipe. I tried to post it on Facebook (where the requests were made) but I guess it exceeded their size limit so it never appeared. That recipe is below. You can use ground meat or meat that is diced into pieces about a half inch (1 cm) or less in size.

WELSH PASTIES

Ingredients:

crust --

1 1/2 cups flour

4 Tbs shortening or lard (not butter)

1/2 tsp salt

a little cold water

filling--

1 Lb ground beef

1/2 Lb ground pork

1 Lb ground lamb or mutton (even venison can be used)

2 cups diced potatoes

1 cup diced carrots

1 small turnip

1 medium onion

1 Tbs flour

salt and pepper

optional --

1 egg

1 Tbs water

Directions:

Begin with the crust. Cut the shortening into the mixed flour and salt. I usually mix them be sifting them together. Mix in cold water a tablespoon full at a time until the dough is barely workable. Drier is better than wet.

Roll the dough out to about a quarter inch (5 mm) thick on a floured surface. Don't forget to dust the roller with flour to keep the dough from sticking. Cut the dough into circles about six inches (15 mm) in diameter. When you have cut out as many circles as you can, roll the leftover dough again and repeat until there isn't enough dough left to make another circle.

Now the filling; peel and dice the onion and turnip (potato and carrot too if you haven't already). In a large bowl, mix together with meat, flour, salt and pepper. I use the "meatloaf" method for mixing. That is, I dump the ingredients into the bowl and mix them with my hands, squeezing until I'm either tired or convinced that everything is pretty well blended.

To put the pastie together, spoon a couple of tablespoons of filling into the center of each dough circle. Moisten the perimeter of the circle with water and fold the circle in half. Use your fingers to crimp the edge of the now half circle together.

Place the raw pasties on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Here's the optional; mix the egg and water together. Brush the top of each pastie with the mixture. This will make the finished product a little browner and give a shinier appearance to the crust.

Bake pasties at 450 degrees Fahrenheit (230 C) for fifteen minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 350 F (175 C) and continue baking for 45 minutes, until the pasties are a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool before eating.

Seriously! Even though they smell wonderful, oven temperature will burn your mouth if you try to eat them right away. Be strong. Resist temptation. Remember, "Hunger is the best pickle." Benjamin Franklin