THE PERFECT MIDWEEK SUPPER
Cornish pasties smell irresistible, are ideal to freeze and they bake brilliantly from frozen
CLUCK OINK BAA MOO isa comprehensive guide to buying and cooking beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey and game featuring 90 delicious recipes to enjoy — from flash-fried steaks to slowcooked pulled pork and everything in-between.
With the increased popularity of high-welfare meat there is a rising demand for information about sourcing meat that is farmed responsibly.
Author Miranda Ballard will help you understand the meaning of good animalhusbandry and you will feel better-equipped to ask your butcher the right questions when shopping.
Choose a delicious recipe to try from recognisable classics to tasty modern plates, fast week-night fixes to slow-cooked shared feasts in her latest cookbook.
CORNISH PASTIES
The smell of these delicious Cornish pasties coming out of the oven is irresistible. The traditional filling of diced beef, swede, carrot and onion is encased in crisp homemade pastry. They are ideal to freeze, as they bake brilliantly from frozen, making them a perfect midweek supper.
Ingredients
500g diced beef (rump/round is lovely for these) 160g swede, finely diced 160g carrot, finely diced 75g onion, finely diced a pinch of fresh thyme leaves a pinch each of salt and black pepper For the pastry 500g butter 1kg all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting cold water, to bind a pinch each of salt and black pepper 1 beaten egg, to glaze a 25cm cookie cutter
Ingredients
Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas 4.
Make the pastry first by crumbling the butter and flour, plus some salt and pepper together with your fingertips. Then add a little cold water, just a splash at a time, until the pastry comes together.
Sprinkle a little more flour over a work surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 5mm (1⁄4 inch). Use the cutter to cut out six 25cm circles. Either leave the circles out if you've space or layer them with a little baking parchment in between to keep them separate.
Put the steak, swede/rutabaga, carrot, onion, thyme and some salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Divide the filling among the pastry circles and spread it out evenly on the right side of each circle, so that you can fold over the other side.
Pull the left side over and press it together to seal 1cm (1⁄2 inch) away from the edge of the right-hand side of the pastry. This allows a little room to fold the edge back over the fold to seal in the filling nice and tightly.
Lay some baking parchment onto a baking sheet (you can grease this a little with some butter, too, to be safe), slide a palette knife or metal spatula under the pasties and lift them carefully onto the paper.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes and serve straight away or chill in the fridge for up to a week.
Pastry tip: You can also wrap the uncooked pastries and filling in plastic wrap or foil and freeze them for up to three months, as long as the meat hasn't been previously frozen. It's a really handy thing to have ready in the freezer and bakes perfectly well from frozen in a preheated oven at 160C / Gas 3 for 90 minutes.