My Trip to England

Last summer, I went to England.  We had lots of fun there, and did a lot of cool stuff.  My favorite food I ate there was called a cornish pasty.  I got this recipe from cooks.com.  

Ingredients for pastry part:

4 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups lard, chilled (3/4 lb I know it sounds gross but it's not)  cut into 1/4 inch cubes

8-10 tablespoons ice water

1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

Ingredients for filling part:

1 cup coarsely chopped white, yellow, or Swede (Rutabaga) turnips

2 cups finely diced lean boneless beef, top round or skirt steak (Flank would be good too)

1 cup coarsely chopped onions

2 cups finely diced potatoes

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  

To make pastry, rub together flour and fat to make a coarse meal.  Add 8 tablespoons ice water all at once.  If dough crumbles, add more water.  Refrigerate to rest one hour before rolling out.  Roll dough to a circle 1/4 inch thick and cut into six inch rounds.  Re-roll and scraps and cut into additional circles.  

To prepare filling, cut ingredients into uniformly small pieces.  It's important to have the potatoes and the meat cooked during the same time period since they will be cooking together, so cut to appropriately sized cubes to effect that end result.  

Combine ingredients in a bowl to mix evenly.  Put 1/4 cup of the mixture into the center of a rolled out pastry.  

Moisten pasty edges, fold in half, and crimp to seal.  Place on a buttered baking sheet and brush lightly with egg wash.  make 2 slits in each pasty to allow steam to escape.  

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes, reduce heat and continue at 350 degrees F until golden.  

Serve hot or cold.  

I know this recipe sounds kind of gross, but it is delicious!  Give a good comment if you like it!