Friday Feast - Ploughman's Pasty

Waaaaay up on the scale of yumminess:

Ploughman's Pasty:

Makes 4 or 6 pasties 

300g potatoes, boiled in their skins and cooled
150g peeled and finely chopped onion
olive oil
200g mature cheddar
3 tbsp Branston or other pickle or chutney

4 or 6 puff pastry circles
1 beaten egg, for glazing

For the filling, peel and chunk the potatoes. Soften the onion in a pan over a gentle heat in a little olive oil. Grate the cheese. Combine all the filling ingredients.

Meanwhile, have ready the pastry circles.

Spoon the filling on to half of each pastry circle, leaving a 2.5cm border. Brush the pastry border with water, then quickly fold over the flap of pastry. Press round the edge to seal. Paint the seal sparingly with water then, working from one end, quickly and neatly turn up the edge in small tucks to give a distinctive ridged pasty finish, tucking the ends. (There’s no set style of crimping; just ensure the scalloped edges go upwards, to avoid juices escaping.)

Paint with beaten egg and prick a few times with a fork. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and bake in a preheated oven (200C/180C fan/400F/gas 6) for 20-30 minutes depending on size or until the pastry is puffed and golden.

Things I do: I halved the recipe and it made two BIG pasties. Len said approvingly that they looked like golden dinosaurs when they came out of the oven :) I used Jusrol ready made frozen pastry sheets, if you're keen and have the time you could make your own puff or shortcrust pastry of course.

These are really tasty and filling - I just served with baked beans, being a lazy little pig :)

Di
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