Tomorrow is our church’s Bazaar. Bazaar’s are still done here in the country and in a small church like our’s everyone pitches in….making, baking and helping out in all sorts of ways. The sign up lists are an impressive sight and I am often humbled by the willingness I see in others to serve. Someone might have sort of signed up their Loving Spouse to make Cornish Pasties, like he did last year. This works out pretty well, as he likes to practice first, so we’ve been eating a lot of pasties and sausage rolls for dinner this week.
Last year his pasties never made it out to the selling table, insider information and private purchasing is legal at Bazaar’s as long as the goods make full price. While most of the set up crew was trying to figure out what the pasties were, they’d been bought and paid for by the one Yankee who had an English grandmother and couldn’t wait to eat them.
This year My Loving Spouse has made twice as many. I doubt these will make the official selling floor either, as many people now have had a year to try out some of his cooking and are a tad better informed as to what a Cornish pastie is.
…and dinner for us? We’ve been invited out to The Palace (our favorite family restaurant, with wonderful food and old Trivial pursuit cards on the table) for dinner by Our Friend the Farmer. This is really nice because,
…we are sort of full of pasties
…we love The Palace
…we love Our Friend the Farmer
…we love to go out to dinner, and this is our first invite out since we moved here….
If you’re in the area, here is my shameless plug for the Bazaar…go, it is tomorrow, Saturday Nov. 16 at Ellensburg Presbyterian.
If you’re working setting up today and looking for ‘insider information’… the pasties will be delivered about noon (wink).
My Loving Souse’s Cornish Pastie Recipe
Meat Mixture –
1 pound gr. beef
1 cup finely chopped carrot
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped potato
2 tea spoons salt
2 tea-spoon coarse ground pepper
Pastry –
1 pound flour, sifted
1/4 pound butter
1/4 pound lard
table-spoon salt
sufficient water to make into a workable pastry,
after fat has been rubbed into flour
roll out thinly,
cut a round circle using a mid-sized plate
add meat mixture to middle, brush edge with an egg wash
fold together and crimp
Brush with egg wash
Bake 10 minutes at 425, reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 40 minutes
Delicious served with gravy!
A small note to a faithful reader,
who has kept her humor, spirit and optimism through years of chemo, chemicals, pills and procedures
be at peace, be free from pain
you have loved, been loved and will be missed
ZL
The bazaar sounds grand — and the pasties fabulous! I’ve printed out the recipe, and hope to honor my Welsh heritage by making them one of these days. (It’s getting chilly here, too: today’s high was only 62! 🙂 )
I remember when that was cold!
Hi Ellen,
My parents were English and my father was born in St. Ives,Cornwall. I used to make him a shoebox full of cornish pasties every year for Christmas. He was not a tin miner, but from a long line of lighthouse keepers.
He told me the miners kept their meat pasty in their top pocket of their shirt while they worked and the top corner had a bit of jam baked into it, for ‘afters’.
Jacky Fausset
Jackie,
How neat. It is amazing the different connections we all have. Thanks for sharing.
For a bit more of the history visit http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/food/pastie.htm
Those look great!
@Richard – you’re right that these days commercially produced Cornish pasties are generally crimped on the side. That’s largely due to PGI legislation brought in back in 2011 which made it a legal requirements that products labelled and sold as “Cornish Pasties” anywhere in Europe had to be crimped on the side, and made here in Cornwall. Traditionally though, it was really a matter of taste with people generally using whatever crimping method they were taught by their mother or grandmother!
I’m actually the current Amateur Cornish Pasty World Champion (2 times – 2012, and 2013) and have recently written a book about pasty history and packed with recipes. If anyone is interested, it’s available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Proper-Pasties-Award-Winning-Cornish/dp/1492704954/
Billy
Billy,
Thank you for your comments, nice to have you join us!
Marcia has long made Cornish pasties, but in a casserole pan rather than individually. Does your spouse ever share recipes? Hers uses both beef and pork steak, onions, potatoes, rutabaga and beef gravy (and possibly more things I’ve forgotten). Both of our families are British, but I can’t vouch for Cornwall.
David,
I’ve updated the post to include how Pat makes them, if you want to check the recipe against Marcia’s!
I really hate to say this but real Cornish pasties are crimped on the SIDE – not on the top – those look delicious but just sayin’! My late wife was Cornish and made them the size of a large dinner plate and her ingredients (apart from pastry) were thinly sliced strips of beef (skirt she said- whatever cut that is but certainly cheap) thinly sliced potato and swede/turnip, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of beef dripping. No mince or carrots etc.
My sister (who I visit pretty much every year) lives a bit further East in Belgrade near Bozeman is a Hospice nurse and originally a Yorkshire lass but still can’t make Yorkshire puds as good as mine!
Oh, Richard, we do love our Yorkshire puds and whenever My Loving Spouse makes them, he always sends a picture of them to his sister!!
You need to include some of The Loving Spouse’s recipes for the Family cookbook!
Shelba,
I will have him do so!
Thank you!!
Wish I could go to your Bazaar. It sounds loads of fun! And the pasties look incredible!