Wednesday 25 April 2012

Vegetable Pasties

Lest We Forget. Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand and we remember all those who gave their lives and possibly their physical and or mental health in defence of our countries.


This recipe is for me as much as you, too often I make a really nice dinner and then forget about it or what was in it so I shall strike while the iron is hot and get this recipe down.

Last week Rhonda challenged us to eat 50% less meat for a month and there have been some lovely recipes posted at the forum. I've adapted Madge's recipe for Vegetable Pasties and made my own wholemeal pastry(flour, butter and salt...what could be simpler?) I made the filling in the morning as it really must be cold when you wrap it in the pastry.

You 'll need
400 grams of potato
2 carrots
200 grams of cauliflower or broccoli

Wash the potatoes and carrots, chop coarsely and put them on to steam or boil.
Add the broccoli/cauli after about 10-15 minutes.
Drain and mash together and set aside while you do the next step.

onion
celery
tomato
mushroom
herbs
curry powder
frozen peas/corn
salt and pepper

Heat a tablespoon of oil and lightly fry a finely chopped onion, a little garlic and two thinly sliced sticks of celery. Stir in 2 chopped tomatoes, 2-3 chopped mushrooms and then (at least) 3 teaspoons of curry powder(I also added some tabasco sauce), keep stirring until the tomato is quite soft and the curry powder is cooked(5 mins?) Stir in half a cup of frozen peas or corn and a handful of chopped herbs(chives were good) and season really well.

Mix this thoroughly into the mashed potato and then leave it to cool completely.

Make pastry....I use my food processor these days and leave it to rest in a plastic bag for about 30 minutes.

400gms wholemeal plain flour
200gms butter
3/4 teaspoon of salt
cold water

Roll out the pastry next...I tore off lumps measuring about 2 inches across, rolled them into circles and then into flat discs...this way I didn't have to cut out the circles and re-roll the pastry which makes it go very hard. Place 2 tablespoons of filling onto one half of the circle and fold it over, pressing the edges together and brush with a beaten egg(or just milk for thrift).
Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. I made 7 big(shop-size) pasties from this recipe and saved a fortune, they are sooo very delicious and we know exactly what is in them. What do you think of these?


You could always use frozen shortcrust pastry but then you won't be quite sure of what sort of fats and additives you're consuming, pastry-making really is a wonderful skill to have.

It's a public holiday here today for Anzac Day so we'll have a quiet day at home, do you have any plans? Have you attended a Dawn Service or March in your home town?
Take care,
Love from Sue
xx

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