Potato Turnsip Pasties

Generously seasoned root vegetables make a hearty pasty filling. These are delicious served hot, but are great cold too – in packed lunches or as a sustaining snack. You can use ordinary shortcrust or a shop-bought puff pastry, but the pasties are particularly good with the easy-to-make rough puff suggested below. The cheese is optional.   SERVES 4
 
FOR THE ROUGH PUFF PASTRY
300g plain flour
A pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter,
cut into small cubes
 
FOR THE FILLING
2 cups potato  
1 cup rutabaga
1/2 cup carrot
1 small onion, grated
A handful of parsley, finely chopped
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves only, chopped
1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon
powder
½ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup strong Cheddar, grated
(optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted
 
TO FINISH
1 egg, lightly beaten with
1 teaspoon milk, to glaze
To make the pastry, mix the flour with the salt, then add the cubed butter and toss until the pieces are coated in the flour. Add just enough iced water (about 150ml) to bring the mixture together into
a fairly firm dough.

On a well-floured surface, shape the dough into a rectangle with your hands and then roll it out in one direction, away from you, so you end up with a rectangle about 1cm thick. Fold the far third towards you, then fold the nearest third over that (rather like folding a business letter), so that you now have a rectangle made up of 3 equal layers.
Give the pastry a quarter turn, then repeat the rolling, folding and turning process 5 more times. Wrap the pastry in cling film and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes, up to an hour.
Preheat the oven to  374F ( or 190°C). For the filling, peel the potato, rutabaga (swede) and carrot and cut into 3–4mm dice. Mix together with all the other ingredients in a bowl, adding the butter last of all to bind.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to approximately a 3mm thickness. Using a 19cm plate as a template, cut out 4 circles; you may have to gather up the trimmings then re-roll them to get your fourth circle.

Spoon the vegetable mixture on to one half of each circle. Brush the pastry edges with a little water, fold the other half of the pastry over the filling to form a half-moon shape and crimp the edges well to seal.

Place the pasties on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and brush with the egg glaze.
Bake for about 35–40 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Eat hot or cold.

 
This recipe is taken from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book, River Cottage Veg Every Day!