Puff Pastry Pasty

My version of the puff pastry pasty is simple to make, moist inside and totally delicious. It freezes well and reheats beautifully. I used shop-bought puff pastry because I wanted to come up with a recipe that is quick and simple to prepare. The reason the pasty is a rectangular shape is due to my resistance to wastage – for the sake of having a curved pasty edge, I prefer to use all the pasty and simply folded over the edges of the square sheets of pastry. Each sheet I cut into two equal sizes which gave me two pasties per sheet of puff pastry.

I soaked the beef in port overnight before cooking it slowly before adding to the pasty. I added the vegetables raw, but wanted the meat to be super soft, hence cooking it beforehand.

Puff Pastry Pasty

Makes 4 large pasties

1 pack of Jus-rol Puff Pastry Sheets 2 x 320G

400g minced beef

2 glasses of port / red wine

½ swede, peeled and finely chopped

2 large potatoes, rinsed and finely chopped (I leave skins on)

2 red onions, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper

2 egg yolks, beaten

How to prepare puff pastry pasty

In a large frying pan, add the minced beef, port and onions and cook on a medium / high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1½ hours with the lid on. Next remove the lid, turn up the heat and reduce the port and juices until they have nearly completed evaporated. This should take approximately 10 minutes, but make sure you keep moving the mince around so it doesn’t catch the bottom of the pan and burn. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

Unwrap the two sheets of puff pastry and slice each one into two sections. Lay the sections out side by side and divide the mince equally between each sheet. (Make sure to place the mince on one side of each sheet so that you can easily fold the second half over). Next scatter equal portions of the potato and swede on top of the mince mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Next spread the egg yolk around the inside edge of each sheet of pastry then fold over the empty half and crimp the edges together to form a secure parcel full of delicious, gooey ingredients. Stab each pasty with a sharp knife to create a hole to allow the steam to escape. Brush the outside of each pasty with beaten egg yolk and place on a baking tray.

Put the pasties in the oven and bake for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 160°C/320°F/Gas 3 and bake for a further 30 minutes.

Leave them to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before eating.