Homity Pasties

I’ve been thinking about picnic food; (that'll be the kiss of death, of course, in terms of the weather; it'll do nothing but rain solidly for the next three months, now!) in particular, I’ve been trying to think of a pasty filling that wouldn’t fall out all over me as soon as I took a bite and it also had to taste good eaten cold and be easily transportable. Well, it was so obvious, it was staring me in the face....Homity Pasties! Brainwave! 

I used shortcrust pastry to wrap up almost the same filling I use for Homity Pies and that was all there was to it. If I’m honest I should have sealed the edges a bit better or maybe I should have put a bit less filling in; you can see a bit of leakage on one or two of them, but I think it adds to the nice rustic feel of them and anyway, who expects perfect food on a picnic?

225gm potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks

2 large onions, peeled and chopped

1 cloves garlic, crushed

1tbsp olive oil

small handful of parsley, chopped.

75gm grated mature cheddar

ground black pepper

450g block of shortcrust pastry

1 egg, beaten

Boil or steam the potatoes until tender. Chop onions finely and saute in the olive oil with the garlic until lightly browned. In a large bowl combine the cooked potatoes and onions; add the parsley and the cheese. Mix well, season with black pepper and leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry to a large rectangle and, using a large saucer or small plate, cut out six circles. Put a heaped tablespoon of the cooled filling on one half of each of the circles then fold the pastry over and crimp the edges together with a fork.

Make three slashes in the top of each pasty then brush well with beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 200C until golden.

Makes 6.