We didn’t really plan it this way but this guestpost from Rosa  from Rosa’s Yummy Yums could not have come at a better time. We’re wrapped up in our kitchen renovations and the last thing I can do at this point is to actually bake or cook anything, so to keep you entertained Rosa has provided a gorgeous recipe here for Cornish Pasties, that I’m sure you’re gonna love.
I’ve followed Rosa for quite some time now and if you haven’t visited her blog yet then you really should. She is a gifted photographer and her images have that airy kind of quality about them. She’s also pretty good with words as you will be able to see for yourself below!
I’m really happy she agreed to do a guestpost here on Junglefrog Cooking so I’m giving it over to Rosa!

In life, there are some beings who enlighten your days, inspire you greatly and are refreshing. The same can be said about certain blogs or bloggers, and both Simone and her excellent site definitely belong to that category. Everytime I visit  Junglefrog, you can be sure that I’ll be delighted by her magazine-like pictures, marvelous sense of humor and lovely recipes. It is indubitably far from being mundane or soulless!

This zesty Dutch lady is a skilled professional photographer whose work never to fails to wow me. I really appreciate her very European way of immortalizing dishes and I wish I could have half of her talent with my Nikon. Yet not only is she an ace behind the camera, but she is also a masterful cook and baker who wizzes up amazing cakes, colorful salads, comforting casseroles, delectable appetizers, balanced main courses, luscious desserts, etc…

I discovered Junglefrog through The Daring Bakers and have been following her online journal regularly since at least three years, thus I have been lucky to witness its evolution and see how the pretty caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly over the years. So, the day Simone asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest post for her, I felt overwhelmed with joy and excitement and immediately said “yes” without needing to meditate over her generous proposition. It is an honor for me to have been given that opportunity and I am truly thankful that she thought of me!

When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it’s not, mmmmmmmm, boy.

- Jack Handy

As Simone is currently trying to focuse on healthy eating and as I love speaking about British grub, I thought that it would be wonderful if I shared my take on “Cornish Pasties” with her readers and spoke a bit about its origins.

I got the idea and urge to bake my own pasties while watching Saturday Kitchen on BBC1. On this program animated by celebrity chef James Martin I heard Rick Stein relate a sad event that happened in 1999 (read what the BBC has written on that subject) when a eminent New York Times journalist shamelessly declared that “Cornish Pasties” were bland, like doorstops and “generally God awful”. He also blantantly stated that Cornwall “probably offers more bad food per square mile than anywhere else in the civilised world”. Furthermore, according to him, a hamburger can be disguised with relish, but a with this pie, “you’ve got this five pound football-shape thing sitting in your hand and there’s nothing you can do with it”…

Pasties are not just something we eat, it’s something we love. Pasties are everything to us.

- Ann Muller, owner of the award-winning Lizard Pasty Shop

 Mr. Grimes‘ declaration stirred a lot of ill feelings in the peninsula and that is very understandable. Coming out of a magazine writer and restaurant critic’s mouth, such harsh words are quite disgraceful, irresponsible and intolerable, especially when they are not true, defamatory and are a direct attack to the Cornish folks as well as to their traditions.

I await for intelligent adults not to make stupid generalizations. In life, nothing is black and white; it’s all shades of grey. The judgements we carry out are strictly personal/subjective and depend on specific situations. For instance, in this gentleman’s case, I believe that he just simply didn’t taste the real stuff (made artisanally by someone who puts all is heart and soul into the fabrication of this product) and that this type of sustenance is not entirely to his liking or up to his American standards (in the US highly seasoned food is customary). 

Having eaten my share of that speciality and being a fervent defender of British cuisine (read my articles here and here), I cannot disagree more with his stigmatizing review of Cornwall’s most cherished delicacy. Of course, I am not saying that all “Cornish Pasties” are delicious or even eatable, but in no case does that mean that the majority of them are inedible, disgusting and nasty. I agree that too many bad “tiddy oggins” are sold all around the UK, but there are some very good ones out there too (this rule applies to any chow no matter where it comes from – horrid and fabulous eats exist in every country) and an experienced as well as serious reporter has the responsability of searching for an artisan butcher, old woman/granny or master baker who will prove him wrong. Maybe he should have investigated on the terrain in a more in-depth manner and let go of his restricting preconceptions.

 I dearly love a pasty, a ‘ot leaky one;
With mayt, turmit and taty, h’onyon and parsley in ‘un
The crus’ be made weth suet, shaped like ‘alf a moon;
Crinkly h’edges, freshly baked ‘e es alway gone too soon!
- Poem by Walter F. Gries of Marquette

The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in the hand, and begin to bite it from the opposite end to the initial, so that should any of it

be uneaten it may be consumed later by its rightful owner.  And woe betide anyone who take’s another person’s “corner”!

- Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern 23rd edition with supplement by the Cornwall  Federation of Women’s Institutes

 At least, in response to all the angry criticism he received, Williams Grimes wrote an article in which he tried to explain the reason for his rather tactless statements. I am glad he had the decency and honesty to declared that he is “willing to give it another try” and that he still nourishes hope. After all, it seems that the man is not a lost cause…

It must be pointed out that if assembled by a competent culinarian and if it encloses quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients, then that humble thick-crusted handpie hailing from South West England can only be excellent and incredibly toothsome. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them provided that they are baked by expert hands.

“Next Guivret opened a chest and took out two pasties.
My friend,’ said he, ‘Now try a little of these cold pastis …”
- Excerpt from “Erec and Enide” by Chrétien de Troyes

The earliest literary reference to “Cornish Pasties” appears in an Arthurian romance by a French poet called Chrétien de Troyes and dates back to the 12th century, but they became more established in the 16th and 17th centuries. In those times, these rolls were associated to the nobility. By the 18th century, it was a cheap collation which poor families could afford (beef was added later).

In more modern times, this hearty, easy to hold and portable lunchtime meal which is comparable to empanadas was prepared for school children, farm labourers and primarly for miners who did not have the possibility to sit down at a table and eat with a knife and fork. Thanks to its practical shape the pasty could be held without difficulty. No plate or cutlery were needed. Still, not all “oggies” were reasonably sized and certain of them were often too big to consume at one single one sitting, therefore, in order to avoid anyone eating the wrong leftover pie, housewives marked each of them with the initials of the intended recipient.

The pastry kept the contents warm and protected them from any possible contamination. Since the fingers of men who slaved down in the tunnels were dirty and covered in poisonous arsenic the crimpling could not be eaten, so it was a custom to leave the untouched and empty shell for the mischievous “knockers” or malevolent spirits who caused cave-ins or played tricks on the diggers. This offering was supposed to appease them.

Apparently, the original pasties were often packed with both sweet as well as savory fillings and were a complete meal in themselves. It was not rare to find meat at one end and sweet cooked apple or jam at the other. In hard times, the quantity of meat used was drastically reduced and they mostly contained vegetables and seasonings. Nowadays, the most popular variant of this treat consists of flank or chuck steak cut into small pieces, chopped onions, thinly sliced potatoes and shredded turnips. However, it is important to note that the Cornish will put almost anything into their pasty whether it be eggs, fish, veggies, meat, cheese or even fruits.

In the mid 1800s, the Cornish tin mining industry collapsed and as a consequence large numbers of miners, artisans and merchants were forced to seek work abroad. This led to the spreading of pasties overseas. Variations of this snack can be found throughout the UK and the world. It is then no surprise if it is particularly popular in parts of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico (there it is celebrated, revered and eaten in great quantities), Argentina and Australia…

Alright, I guess that’s enough history for now. Let’s talk about my recipe!

As I said before, the “Sauerkraut, Potato & Cheddar Pasties” I am presenting today are not of the classic kind. They are a pure product of my imagination and not a 100% British. In fact they represent my Swiss and English heritage and show my deep appreciation of fusion food.

I adore being adventurous in the kitchen and breaking borders, hence I experiment a lot with diverse products and more particularly with sauerkraut. You see, I am not a fan of conventions and rarely stick to the obvious or follow established standards (for ex. by utilising sauerkraut in “Choucroute Garnie” only). The rebel that I am enjoys baking with it, serving it raw, incorporating it to omelets, pairing it with pasta, tossing it into stir-fries, etc…

 This unique ingredient is extremely versatile and gives an interesting twist to any fare. When combined with mature cheddar full of character, the earthiness of potatoes, the tanginess of onions and the pungent aroma of thyme, this consitutes the perfect stuffing for my flaky and divinely lardy pastry cases.

Nonetheless, it might occur to you that those “Sauerkraut, Potato & Cheddar Pasties” sound simple and boring as they aren’t ladden with condiments. Well, let me tell you that this is deliberate. I didn’t want to cover the savor of my vegetables and cheese with overpowering spices or herbs. My aim was to let their natural flavor take over and express themselves. This resulted in something exceptional.  As you can imagine, my pastry pockets were a blazing success and disappeared as fast as they arrived on the plate and were accompanied by “ahhs” and “mhhs”. A complete success!

Hopefully, you’ll find them as pleasurable as we did…

Sauerkraut, potato, cheddar and onion pasties

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Serves	5
Meal type	Main Dish, Snack
By author	Rosa May

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry

• 200g all purpose flour
• 100g whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 80g unsalted butter
• 70g lard

Filling

• 200g drained raw sauerkraut (chopped coarsely)
• 100g mature cheddar cheese (cut into small cubes)
• 1 medium potato (peeled and cut into thin pieces)
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 3/4 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 pinch nutmet
• Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• Sea Salt (to taste)

Glaze

• 1 egg (beaten)

Directions

Shortcrust Pastry

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl/bassin. 2. Add butter, lard and rub between the fingers until the mixture is flaky. 3. Pour in water, gradually, while continuously cutting and stirring with a knife. Stop adding water when the dough binds together (it should not be sticky or wet). Gather up into a soft ball and place it in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling

4. In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the filling. Set aside.

5. Heat the oven to 200° C (400° F). 6. Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces. 7. On a floured surface, roll out one of the pieces into a circle of about 18-19cm. 8. Firmly pack a fifth of the filling along the centre of each round, leaving a small gap at the edges. 9. Brush the pastry all the way round the edge with beaten egg. 10. Carefully draw up both sides so that they meet at the top, then pinch them together to seal and crimp the edges (see remarks). 11. Place on a baking tray covered with baking paper and brush each of the pasties with the remaining egg to glaze 12. Bake in the middle of the oven for abozt 35-40 minutes or until crisp and golden. 13. Serve warm.

Note

Remarks:

The pasties should always be firm, full and never wet or too juicy (the pastry would not be dry and crispy).

If you have a problem with the shaping of your pasties, video 1 and video 2 might come in handy.

 

Serving suggestions:

Serve for lunch or supper and accompany with a seasonal salad and a beer.

Pasties are also perfect for taking on a picnic or bringing to a potluck

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Lemon meringue pie

Last week I was out for dinner with my friend Hermin and we got to eat at a restaurant called “Entrecote et les dames”.  Now the funny thing is that this is a restaurant were you can only get two dishes. I guess it will come as no surprise that one of those dishes is entrecote. The other being fish; if you really cannot eat meat. The concept is fairly simple; you choose fish or meat and that’s it. Starter was a salad. Again delicious in it’s total simplicity (saladleaves with dressing and walnuts. Delicious!) and then you get served the entrecote. Initially we were a little shocked at the small piece of meat on our plate, but as it turns out they do that on purpose to prevent the meat going cold. The serve it in parts. Once you finish part 1, you get part 2. And since they have all the time to perfect their meat… it was absolutely delicious. As were the fries that went along with it.

Now we also had a quick peak at the dessert card and both felt like having a dessert. Hermin picked the chocolate mousse and on recommendation of the waitress I picked the lemon meringue pie… And o my god, that was soooo incredibly good that we were both tempted to have a second serving (my friend had some of my pie wishing she had taken the same) We didn’t go for the second serving since we had had enough to eat already and also discarded the idea to take one home in a doggy bag… Instead I promised her I would try and recreate the dish to the best of my ability.

I also had some ready made dough in my fridge which I needed to use so this weekend was the perfect time to try and make the lemon meringue. Our friends in Belgium had been kind enough to get us three packages of ready made, rolled out dough of the kind that we cannot get here (or I haven’t been able to find it) and while my search was mostly for puff pastry in a larger piece she got me two other kinds as well. Crumble dough was the one I picked for the meringue.

Since I didn’t have to worry about making the dough I could concentrate my efforts on finding a good recipe for the filling. Obviously there are many lemon fillings to be found, but I wanted the one closest to our dessert at the restaurant. Basically the filling was very strong in lemon flavor so a lemon curd type of filling would do the trick. To counterbalance the sour taste of the curd it was topped with a meringue and then quickly baked in the oven to get a brown color on the meringue.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE (for one large pie or several smaller ones)

Lemon filling

• 6 eggs
• 100 gr butter
• Juice of 4 lemons
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 170 gr sugar

Meringue

• 4 eggwhites
• 110 gr fine sugar

Since I already had the dough I didn’t make that but you can use any recipe of your own that would be for a sweet pie. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter the form well and dust with icing sugar. Tap on the form to remove any excess sugar. Put the dough into your form, add a piece of baking paper and some form of weights. I always use dried beans for baking blind, but rice or something else would work too. Bake for about 10 minutes, check how it is doing and continue baking if necessary. Mine took about 20 minutes (but then my oven has been known to need longer then most) at which point I removed the baking paper and beans and continued to bake for another 5-8 minutes or until golden brown.

For the lemon filling

Mix the eggs, butter, sugar, lemonjuice and zest in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl above a pan with softly boiling water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water (au bain marie). Keep stirring while the mixture heats up (roughly 10 minutes) It needs to become thick and creamy. Ad the filling to the bottom and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Meringue

Beat the eggwhite in a clean and fatfree bowl till it forms soft peaks. Add the sugar spoon for spoon. The eggwhites are ready when all the sugar is dissolved and you have a shiny mass of eggwhite. Spoon the eggwhite on top of your lemon filling and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until you have brown peaks. Remove and cool before eating.

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Tropical fruit mousse pie

You had to wait for a while but here… finally… can you see the result of our combined efforts in producing the delicious passionfruitmousse (which turned out to be tropical mixture fruit instead but that’s a minor detail) pie… Last sunday we had our third lesson with Carle and as it turned out the fruits of our labours were plentiful indeed. I think we supplied half the neighbourhood with cake.. (Which is not entirely true, but one cake went to Tom’s parents, one cake went to my parents and one cake was brought over to Tom’s work. And then we kept the macarons ourselves ofcourse… Yes, we made macarons!! But that is for an entirely different post… Soon to come! (keeping up the suspense!)

So what did we make? We started of by finished the above masterpiece that is a combination of the joconde and tulip batter we made in lesson one, the mousse we made in lesson two and the topping that we made this lesson. I didn’t want to cut this specimen as it would be going to my folks, but still I can assure you that it was DELICIOUS!!

Making the ‘mirror’ on top of the cake is not very difficult. As for the flavor that you use; we used the same fruit as the mousse but you could use a different flavor, as long as it complements the mousse and is not too different either in color or taste.

This what you need for three cakes:

80 gr fruit puree

80 gr water

80 gr sugar

2,5 leaves of gelatine, soaked in water for 5 minutes prior to dissolving

Heat half of the water with the sugar and dissolve the soaked gelatine in this mixture. Add this to the fruitmixture. Stir softly making sure not to form airbubbles. Add the remainder of the water and make sure it is at least as cool as roomtemperature or a little colder. As long as the gelatine is not setting yet.

Using a spoon you can then pour it over the cakes. The cooled cakes will have a bit of a dent in the middle so more of the jelly will go in there, but just keep going until you have a smooth and even surface. Put this in the refrigerator until firm.

We started with coffee and a piece of the lemonpie that we made the week before too. And that too was so delicious and the sourness in the lemon made it quite fresh as well. I am definitely going to making that one again too!

Coffee with lemon pie

We made chocolate sorbet icecream (sooo good!) and we practiced a lot with how to apply icing in different shapes and forms. I did not take too many photos of that as I was sort of covered in sugar and buttercream by that time and didn’t really want to put that all over my camera, so I just have this one shot of Tom’s practice plate..

Tom practicing icing techniques

Next week will be all about sugar, chocolate and marzipan….

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Plum and almond crumble

Finally…a day for doing “nothing” which for me tends to translate in being able to bake and cook. I still had some plums that I urgently needed to use before they would go bad, so I searched the internet for a recipe using plums. Obviously this particular recipe can be used with whatever fruit you desire and since it is extremely tasty I would recommend you do just that!

I had never before made a crumble so I figured that would be a good thing to try. Since we started with our patisserie course I am also finding that I am all of a sudden very much into baking. I’ve always loved baking even though it can be a bit more restricting then cooking. (in terms of exact quantities and such) Which reminds me that when we had the class with Carle last Friday; we talked about the need to measure exact when making a batter or dough. And then – as it turns out – what happens in a lot of cases, is that you actually leave lots in the bowl when scraping it out. So that defeats the whole purpose of being so precise to measure – for instance – 116 gr of egg whites. You then beat the egg whites and when scraping you forgot to add the 5 grams that stick to the side of the bowl. Sort of silly when you think about it, so I made myself the promise that I will scrape better…

This particular recipe uses quite a large amount of ground almonds, which worked fine for me as I still had some leftover in the bag. Not enough for this recipe, so I ground a few more almonds myself. Which I have to remind myself now to buy extra ground almonds next time I get to Amsterdam!

Layer one is baked, layer two is ready to be popped in the oven

Making this crumble is certainly not difficult but it is a bit timeconsuming as you need to bake it in three separate layers. First you bake the bottom, then you add the softer layer with the plums and then you finish by adding the crumbles and almonds. So it does take a while for it all to be finished but it is definitely worth it!

Loads of cinnamon in this lovely crumble

PLUM AND ALMOND CRUMBLE (original recipe from GoodFood website)

• 250g pack butter (this must be very cold)
• 225g caster sugar
• 300g ground almonds
• 140g plain flour , plus 25g/1oz
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• approx 6 plums , stoned and cut into sixths
• 50g flaked almonds

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking paper. Put the butter, sugar and ground almonds into a food processor, then pulse until the mixture resembles very rough breadcrumbs. Spoon out half the mix into a bowl and set aside.
2. Add 140g flour into the mix in the processor and whizz until it just forms a dough. Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Leave to cool for 10 mins.
3. To make the filling, put the remaining butter and the sugar and almond mix back into the processor, saving a few tbsp for the topping. Add the eggs, the 25g flour, cinnamon and baking powder and whizz to a soft batter. Spread over the base.
4. Top with the plum pieces and a little extra caster sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 20 mins, then sprinkle with the remaining crumble mix and flaked almonds. Cook for another 20 mins or until golden. Leave to cool in the tin before slicing.

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Hmmm, maybe my plan on eating healthy is not exactly eating anything with puff pastry now is it? Lovely buttery and slightly unhealthy puff pastry… O well, on the plus side; I ate only one of these little darlings! Yesterday I finally received my brand new Macbook pro so I love new toys and I have been playing around with it, transferring files from one computer to the other etc. It’s always amazing to me how fast time flies when you’re behind the computer!! Ooo and in addition to the new laptop I also bought a Apple Cinema LED display 24″. Can I just say…. wow… what a difference!! Now my ‘old’ display is really quite old, so colors were not that vibrant anymore and it really was in need of replacement. And I totally love it. And how big is 24″ compaired to the ‘old’ 19″… VERY big!!

Anyway, I will not bore you any longer with tales of my new computer stuff, so instead I would like to share my lunch of today. After being behind the computer yesterday for most of the day I was really in need of a lovely little indulgence for lunch. Tonight is already our very last cooking lesson… so sad… The last lesson is about venison and other game, so I am little scared of what we are going to find when we enter the kookstudio. I hope that it’s not an entire deer!! There are limits to what I can take!

Anyway, for lunch I made little savoury tartelettes using storebought puff pastry. I love those little things as it is so easy and you can basically throw in whatever you want and still have a lovely little pie. In these I used (frozen) peas, ham, egg, cherry tomatoes and some leftover cheeses I had such as gorgonzola and brie. In terms of looks; the brie looked better, but in terms of taste the gorgonzola had a little more punch, so if you can’t decide and pretty looks are not important, go for the gorgonzola!

Oooo and I got to share something as well; Tom had a cooking workshop with some colleagues from work yesterday and he ate something (I can’t even remember what it was that he ate) containing gorgonzola and he actually liked it!!! Maybe I should not cheer too soon as I know that gorgonzola can loose quite some flavor when warm, but maybe there is still hope for my cheese-hating husband… (in case you didn’t know; Tom and I are not married, but we have been living together for 18 years so instead of calling him boyfriend all the time, I like to just call him my husband to make life a little simpler.. Boyfriend somehow always feel like someone you’ve only recently met… That’s probably silly but now you know!)

Ok, so what is in these little darlings:

Qty’s for 4 people

Puff pastry sheets, defrosted

150 gr of frozen peas

100 gr of hamslices

100 gr of cherry tomatoes

2 eggs

gorgonzola or another cheese to your liking

Preheat the oven to 200C. Use little tartelette forms with bottoms that can be taken out as those are easiest to use. Whisk the two eggs together in a bowl and add the peas and ham to it. Stir until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Line each pie form with a puff pastry sheet and press into the form. Once done, dock the bottom by pricking it with a fork.

Distribute the egg mixture into the four forms and put the cherry tomatoes on top (cut in half). Add little blobs of cheese in and around the tomatoes and put in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

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