Rick Stein’s Cornish pasties recipe

“I like to use butter and lard for the pastry as this does create a great texture. Grating the lard and butter means that the pastry is flecked with streaks of the fat, giving a lovely flaky result,” says renowned chef and author Rick Stein. “Traditionally, Cornish pastries don’t contain any stock – the juiciness in them derives from the connective tissue slow-cooking beef skirt or chuck provides. In fact, though one might be tempted to give pasties more gravy by adding stock, they don’t taste like the real thing. I say this because I had a Cornish pasty in Australia recently and it tasted like an Aussie meat pie, albeit in a pasty shape. And the beef was minced.”

Rick Stein’s Cornish pasties

Ingredients:
(Makes 4)

450g beef skirt or chuck steak
225-350g swede (known in Cornwall as turnip)
750g potatoes, peeled
225g onion or shallot
1 beaten egg, or milk to glaze
Salt and black pepper

Pastry:
100g lard
100g butter
450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
A good pinch of salt
175ml very cold water

Method:

1. Put the lard and butter for the pastry in the freezer and leave until they are very hard.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Trim any gristle off the meat. Cut the meat and any fat into 5mm pieces. Peel and chop the swede into similar-sized pieces. Slice the potatoes and chop the onion or shallot, then mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

3. For the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, then grate the lard and butter straight from the freezer into the bowl. Gently mix the fat through the flour, then using a table knife, stir in the water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and briefly knead into a ball. Put it back into the bowl, cover and chill for an hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C. Cut the pastry into 4 even pieces and shape each into a ball. Roll them out, one at a time, on a floured surface into circles 20-23cm in diameter. The pastry should now be the right thickness, about 3-4mm. Place an upturned plate of that size on each circle and trim into neat rounds.

5. Divide the filling between the rounds, then seal and crimp. Grease and flour a large baking sheet. Brush the pasties with beaten egg and place them on the baking sheet, leaving 5cm between each one. Bake for 1 hour.

Extracted from Rick Stein’s Cookery Course: Recipes and techniques from a lifetime in the kitchen. Published in hardback by BBC Books, priced £30.  Available October 29