Cornish pasties and chutney

Each year a huge team of us makes over 250 of these for the Anglican Church Bazaar in Basel – 18 kg beef, 10 kg each of carrots, onions and potatoes and about 36 kg of pastry. Here’s the original recipe, on a slightly smaller scale. The pasties freeze beautifully. Glaze them with egg and bake from frozen for a wonderful supper or lunch dish, with chutney and salad.

Makes 8 Cornish pasties
Pastry (about 900g)
500g flour
1 level tsp salt
125g margarine
125g butter
1 egg
135ml iced water
Filling
500g trimmed stewing beef
250g potatoes
250g carrots
250g onions
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 level tsp salt
lots of freshly ground pepper
Glaze
1 egg

• Make the pastry as usual and chill it
• Cut the beef in small pieces and put in a large mixing bowl
• Peel the potatoes and carrots and dice finely
• Chop the onions finely
• Add all vegetables to the meat with the parsley, salt and pepper and mix well
• Cut the pastry into 8 equal-sized pieces and roll each one out on a well floured board to a circle roughly 20cm in diameter
• Use a 20cm plate as a template, cut away any excess
• Put a mound of 150g meat and vegetables in the centre, brush some water all round the edge of the pastry, fold it up into a pasty shape, press the edges together to seal
• Brush a band of water over one side of the sealed edge, fold it over on itself and crimp decoratively
• Open-freeze the pasties if not to be baked immediately
• Once frozen hard they can be put in a bag and sealed
• Heat the oven to 200C
• Glaze the pasties with beaten egg and put on a baking sheet lined with non-stick paper
• Bake the pasties for 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the filling cooked
• Serve with chutney and salad

PEPPER, APPLE AND TOMATO CHUTNEY

With the pasties we serve this brilliant brick-red, sweetish chutney. A food processor makes light work of the chopping.

Makes about 8 x 450g jars
1 kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 kg apples, quartered, cored and chopped
4 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, mashed
4 red peppers (or green, but the colour will be dreary), seeded and chopped
4 fresh green or red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
a walnut-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
750g sugar
200g sultanas
2 tbsp salt
1 litre wine vinegar or Melfor

• Put the prepared tomatoes, apples, onions, garlic, peppers, chillies and ginger in a preserving pan
• Add the sugar, sultanas, salt and vinegar and stir well to mix and dissolved the sugar a bit
• Close the kitchen doors, switch on the extractor, bring the chutney to a rolling boil and simmer it steadily for about 45 minutes - it should reduce by about one-third. Be careful towards the end that it doesn’t catch and burn on the bottom
• Tip into jars, cover tightly and keep for a month before using