Pack a Pasty for a Picnic!
Pasties are great things – they were designed for labourers to take for lunch, whether out in the fields or down mines. The idea is that you hold on to the rolled crust with your possibly dirty hands, keeping the remainder clean to eat. Once you’re finished, the crust, which is bio degradable, can be thrown away.
Pasties can be made with all sorts of ingredients, the ones below are made with shortcrust pastry because it was what I had, but they could be made with puff pastry. They can even be made with a main course at one end and a pudding at the other. Your imagination is your limit.
Make your pasties large if you have to satisfy a rugby player or small for little ones. I used a 19cm side plate, to make my rounds and it’s a good medium size, but have also used pot lids or dinner plates in the past. Hungry eaters can always have two!
I made the ones below to take out on a Mother’s Day picnic instead of sandwiches. They made a delicious alternative, didn’t go soggy and I just used up what happened to be in the fridge.
Sausage & Bacon Pasties
Makes 6
Pastry
300g flour (I used ½ & ½ plain and wholemeal)
150g butter
Salt & pepper
Water to bind
- Rub the butter into the flour with a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper.
- Add cold water a little at a time, mixing with a knife until the pastry comes together and forms a dough.
- Form into a flat disk and refrigerate for 20 mins.
Filling
4 pork sausages
2 rashers streaky bacon
1 onion
1 potato
½ small fennel bulb
2 small carrots
½ stick celery
Handful of mixed herbs (I used parsley & thyme), chopped
2 tbsp milk
Sprinkle of sesame seeds (optional)
- Pre heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6
- Chop the onion, potato, fennel, carrots & celery into approx. 5mm dice
- Chop the bacon into small pieces, remove the skins from the sausages and pinch into small pieces
- Mix everything together with a goo grinding of black pepper and a little salt.
- Divide the pastry into 6 pieces and roll out thinly. Cut into 19cm rounds & re roll the scraps into the next circle.
- Divide the filling between each piece of pastry, use a little water to dab around the edges of the circles, then fold the pastry over the filling to make a half moon parcel. Press the edges of the pastry together, then fold the edge over to make a rope like seam.
- Brush with milk and sprinkle over the sesame seeds if using.
- Bake in the oven for 15 mins at 200C, then reduce the oven to 180C/350F/Gas4 and cook for a further 40 mins.
- Eat warm or cold.
