Maria's pasties

It's hard to beat a pastie with sauce for lunch on Saturday. This recipe is one from Maria's mum that has become a favourite, partly because it's so easy. At home, we usually make a large batch and have a stock in the freezer.

The pasties are smallish (we do 4 per pastry sheet), so the hardest, or at least the tedious bit is chopping the veggies nice and small so the consistency of the filling.

Ingredients

• packet of puff pastry

Filling

• beef mince - 500g
• short cut bacon - 6 rashes, chopped tiny
• potatoes - x2 medium, diced very small
• carrot - x2, diced very small
• peas - 1 cup or more if you like peas
• swede - 1 small, diced very small
• (We also add whatever is in the fridge or garden that is suitable. This time it was finely chopped kale)

• pepper and salt (be generous)
• mixed herbs (be generous, and use fresh if available)
• eggs - x2 to bind

Method

construct the pasties

• lay the pastry sheets out on a bench to thaw
• mix all the filling ingredients in a large bowl
• cut a sheet of pastry into (square) quarters
• moisten the edge of a pastry square with water and spoon filling onto it, pressing two edges together to make a cone
• pick up the 'cone', press the filling into the bottom and fill with more mixture until full, then close the pastie by pressing the remaining edge together (see images below)
• stand upright on a baking tray
• pierce pastry in a few spots to allow hot air to escape and brush with milk

cooking

•  once the tray is full, bake in oven (180°) for 20-25 mins until golden
• stand them on cooling rack and eat as many as you can