Thread: Slimboyfat's Singapore Cornish pasty adventures

Well I bought an oven a few weeks ago so thought I would have a stab at making Cornish pasties. Not an easy task, as you can't get a decent one outside of Cornwall in my opinion. Well maybe in Plymouth.

So anyway this thread is dedicated to my Cornish pasty attempts.I think it is going to take some time to get it right.

If anyone else would like to try and have a go then that would be excellent.

So anyway, the ingredients shot for my first attempt a couple of weeks back.



So I couldnt find a swede here so have substituted it with a local turnip. The beef is about 500g of chuck tenders. I couldnt find any lard for the short crust pastry so used half margarine and half butter (a mistake as you will see later).
Purists will complain about the inclusion of a carrot but I just chucked that in because my daughter likes carrots. At least I didn't put peas in there.



So chop up all the veg and the meat. Add a teaspoon or so of salt, a liberal amount of pepper, a teaspoon of English mustard (actually I used Masters English mustard - I made a cock-up with the above pic, the powdered mustard is for the pastry) Add some stock - I used a Knorr beef stock cube because the OXO was out of stock (no pun intended) at my local supermarket.

And mix it all up with your fingers.



So far so good for the pasty filling. After this it all went NickA-woodcarving-shaped as I am sure you will be pleased to hear.

Well come on.... where's the oven

great effort so far, don't forget its in there while your browsing TD

I think I'll have that myself today. Thanks for the instructions.

I was using this recipe for the shortcrust pastry which I got from tinternet - remember i couldnt find lard though so substituted margarine.....

"Ideally the butter and lard should be at room temperature. Cut it into cubes and leave outside the refrigerator for half an hour. Put the butter and lard in a large bowl and sift the flour over them. Sift from as high as is reasonable to incorporate air into the flour. Sprinkle the dry mustard over the mix.
Take a knife to the mixture and cut the butter and lard into the flour - do this for two minutes."







The recipe continues......

"Rub the mixture together with your fingertips as gently as possible. As you rub the mixture, raise your hands and let the rubbed mixture drop back into the bowl. This will add air into the mixture.
Continue doing this until the mixture is evenly crumbly with maybe the odd few larger lumps. Don't overdo this rubbing.

Sprinkle one tablespoon of water over the mixture and use a knife to to mix and bring the dough together. Do this for a minute or so then begin to bring it all together gently with your fingertips.
If the mix doesn't come together, add a small amount of extra water. The pastry is ready when when it leaves the edges of the bowl fairly clean. Place the mix in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 30 minutes."

So I got my pastry ball and I was feeling pretty good about everything.



This is where the pictures end as I got all doughy, the pastry stuck when it was supposed to not stick, and didn't stick when I wanted it to.

I managed to make 3 pasties, all of which were a complete disaster. I only took a pic of the worst one, as I knew it would make NickA happy when I ask 'can you guess what it is yet?'



So I had a shedload of pasty filling and a load of hungry troops (who had watched my endeavours with glee - if you remember my son listed the favourite part of our CM holiday as the bit when I pushed the window out of the Anodard Hotel - so that was not a big surprise)

So on to the pot it all went, and I served it up with some mashed potato. It doesnt look anything much but so far has been the best received dish I have ever made. I have to say it tasted like the insides of a pasty so it gave me a faint glimmer of hope for the future.





So much for attempt No.1

On further research I find that using margarine for pastry makes it very difficult roll out and work with. Also you have to try and keep the dough cold which is hard at 32 degrees C........

So on to attempt no.2 which took place today.

My attempts to find lard (apart from my own personal supply) had proved fruitless, but I was at Carrefour on Saturday and it looked like I had found the answer to my pastry problem. Yes I know its a cheat but they sell ready made pastry. Didn't know which one to buy as they were both only in French so I bought both. A sales assistant told me one was shortcrust pastry (the traditional pastry for pasties) and the other was puff pastry (the choice of Ginsters and the other pretenders).

So I made the filling as per the previous attempt.



The red one is the shortcrust pastry, the blue is the puff pastry. About 90 baht a go.

First of all I tried the shortcrust.
The pastry is already rolled out and wrapped in greaseproof paper and i thought this going to be easy and I cut some circles using a plate. Unfortunately it had been rolled out for some other purpose I guess, and was a bit too thin and fragile for my pasties - so my first batch leaked the inards and when I tried to move one of them it disintegrated in my hands.


In my youth I had worked as a pasty crimper in a factory. Unfortunately this is not a particularly skilled job - the circle of pastry with a lump of mixture would come my way via a conveyor belt and I didnt really concentrate on anything apart from my 1 pound fifty an hour job.









Note I was trying first with mini-pasties



You can take a look at the terrible video of pasty crimping that my son filmed for me here.



Yes I know - 'You have a woman's hands my lord'

I think you are absolutely and totally right.... you can't get a decent Cornish pasty outside of cornwall

I remember spending a bit of time down there (Newquay I think) and having Cornish pasties instead of a kebab after the pub.

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

The taste was pretty good even if they are lacking in aesthetic value. I nicknamed the one on the bottom left 'Kingwilly'.

FUCKER !

I was just about to green you for this thread too!

For my next batch I rolled out the remainder of the shortcrust pastry a bit thicker than Carrefour had done, and made myself a bigger one from the puff pastry (again the ready made pastry was a bit too thin but I thought well why not give it a try).



An hour later and this was the result



The big one I had made from the puff pastry was good, but I hadn't put enough filling in - it was difficult due to the pastry being so thin.



The third and last batch were all made from the remainder of the puff pastry that I rolled out again a bit thicker. Seems that made it 'puff' less. I am not sure why that should be, but anyway I expect some TD culinary expert will know the reason.



Most of the last batch are in my freezer now.



But I did have one more small one first.



My ultimate aim is to make a real big pasty with my own pastry. Will have to keep trying I guess.

Hope others will have a try at this and post their results.

DD?

Looks good! Move into my new house in a couple weeks and will give it a try. Been living in an apartment without a kitchen for almost a year!!!

Originally Posted by NickA

I think you are absolutely and totally right.... you can't get a decent Cornish pasty outside of cornwall

Well I will keep on trying. It's the one thing I really miss. Apart from my parents ofcourse.

I will try and get a proper recipe when I am in St. Austell visiting the olds for a few days later this month. I may have to bring back some lard as well.

Make sure the water is ice cold when adding to the flour.

Good effort.

Do you have a good Shepard's Pie recipe? I have a version but I like to get input from people closer to the origin.

I've got a good puff pastry recipe. I'll post it in my "steal timbas recipes" thread when I get a chance.

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

Would anyone like to name the one on the top right?

Judging by the excretion, it would have to be Jizzybloke...

If anyone's interested I've posted some puff recipes on my "Steal Timba's Recipes" thread.

Homemade pasties .... mmmm. The unique shapes are all part of the fun.

May have a try myself ...

Originally Posted by Timber

Do you have a good Shepard's Pie recipe? I have a version but I like to get input from people closer to the origin.

Try this
https://teakdoor.com/the-kitchen/2124...untry-pie.html (Props Country Pie)

Not really Shephards pie as it not made with lamb, but I enjoy it.

^i thought shepards pie is lamb and cottage pie is beef?

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

i thought shepards pie is lamb and cottage pie is beef?

It is.

What is pork mince pie called?

^muslim surprise?

Can't green you for that JB - gotta pass the rep etc

I tried the pasties (in this heat !) but my pastry was not a success -- used wholewheat flour and it was far too heavy.

So I popped most of the filling into spring roll wraps - pretty good !

Eat with Worcestershire sauce or a chilli dip.