The Cornish Pasty has a load of hilarious (sorry Cornish folk!) dialectal names, it’s also known as a tiddy, teddy, oggy, hoggan or oggin. There is even a chant Oggy Oggy Oggy - Oi Oi Oi!   that goes hand in hand with pasties. Pasty sellers or tin miners wives would should down the mines Oggy, Oggy, Oggy and the miners would shout back Oi, Oi, Oi! That way the miners would know there was someone with a nice hot pasty at the surface. It’s turned into a sports chant of late though - someone should really tell them they are shouting about pasties.

Since those of us that live outside Cornwall are most likely not going to be able to call them Cornish Pasties much longer,  I’m going to call mine Vege Oggins. The Cornish Pasty Association (who knew there was one??!) has applied for protected status for the Cornish pasty and only pasties from Cornwall will be able to be truly called a Cornish Pasty. I wonder if they sit around and eat pasties at their monthly meetings?

The Cornish Pasty has a rich and interesting history and folklore that surrounds it. Who would have thought that so many stories could have built up around a little bit of pastry? Wikipedia has a rather large page all about the Cornish Pasty.

They originated as a kind of lunch for the working folk and tin miners made by their wives; they were a two course meal all in one. They often had something sweet like apple or jam at one end and the savoury filling (normally steak, potatoes, swede and onions) at the other. The pasties were marked with the miners initials so there would be no chance of eating the wrong pasty by mistake! They would stay warm for hours if popped in a pocket and kept close to the miners body, so they were still able to have a warm lunch.

The Pasty was held by the crimp so as not to contaminate the food with dirty hands. The miners were mining for tin, copper and arsenic so you really didn’t want to get that in your lunch! The crust was discarded for the Knockers - the  spirits that lived in the mines. If you didn’t give it to them, no doubt you would have bad luck. They were thought to be the spirits of miners that died in the mines, and it was important to respect them. Pasties were also considered bad luck on a boat, so don’t bother offering them to a Cornish sailor - they won’t want one. The ones that were brave enough to take a pasty on their boat would throw the crusts to the seagulls - they were thought to be the spirits of dead mariners.

Pasties have become popular all around the world, often with different countries adding their own local flavours. Cornish miners brought them to the US and to Mexico. In Australia and New Zealand they are pretty commonly seen sitting next to the meat pies and the sausage rolls in many bakeries and lunch bars. I have to say though that a store bought pasty here is just a shadow of a homebaked-with extra-love version. If there is a Kiwi shop out there that would like to prove me wrong and send me their pasties, I’ll be happy to taste test!

I made a traditional Pasty for the omnivores in the family. The Cornish Pasty Association are generous enough to provide a traditional recipe and a video. I also wanted to make a vegetarian version, so a little improvisation was in order. It’s an easy meal all in one and the fillings are really flexible. Although the traditional filling of meat and veges is the most common, there were also other fillings that were eaten, egg and currant, bacon and egg, or what ever the miners’ wives had on hand to pop inside a substantial piece of pastry. So a vegetarian pasty is not complete blasphemy. This one is made with a mixture of sweet potato and mushrooms. Use this recipe as a base to try out your own flavour combinations.

Vege Oggins - Vegetarian Cornish Pasties

Makes 4 Oggins

Pastry

• 400g plain flour
• 200g butter or margarine, chilled and cubed (or you can substitute half with lard)
• A pinch of salt to season
• cold water to mix

You can make this by hand or in the food processor. I made this by hand since it generally gives a lighter flakier pastry. It does not take much longer than in the processor.

Place your flour, salt and butter in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add in your water a tablespoon at a time and mix until it comes together into a flexible pastry. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.

While your pastry is chilling prepare your filling.

Sweet Potato and Mushroom Filling

• One medium sweet potato ( Kumara) peeled and diced into 1cm dice - about 600-700g
  
• 2 medium potatoes peeled & diced into 1 cm dice - about 500-600g
• 1 medium brown onion finely diced
• 1 large leek finely diced
• 200g of button mushrooms finely chopped
• 1 large shallot finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 3/4 tspn of salt
• 1 tspn of cajun seasoning
• good grinding of fresh black pepper
• 1 egg beaten for brushing on your Oggins

Mix all your veges and seasonings together in a large bowl - do not pre-cook.

Preheat your oven to 200C/392F

Take your pastry out of the fridge and divide into 4 evenly sized pieces.

(if you would like to see a video of how to assemble a Pasty there is a very good one here on the Cornish Pasty Association site)

Roll one piece out thickly and cut a circle roughly 20cm/ 8 inches in diameter. I used a bread and butter plate as my template - these are about the right size.

Spoon your filling into the centre of the pastry in a line leaving about an inch on each end with no filling. Mound up your filling a little. Brush around the diameter of the circle with a little water to help the edges stick. Don’t be mean with the filling, make sure your Oggin is well filled, but that you can still get the edges together to close it.

Bring the sides of your pastry circle together in the centre and squeeze the edges together.

Place your Oggin on it’s side with the open side facing away from you and squeeze the edge together all the way along. You will have a half moon shape.

Crimp the edges together ensuring there are no holes for the filling to leak out of. Cut a small slit in the top for steam to release.

Brush with the beaten egg.

Place on a lightly greased baking tray.

Make your remaining Oggins.You might find that if you gather up the pastry scraps that you have enough for a fifth Oggin. They reheat well and are also very tasty cold.

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Turn down the oven to 180C/350F and bake for roughly a further 25-30 minutes. They should be golden brown and smell absolutely delicious!

Serve with a green vegetable or salad on the side and you have a complete meal. If you are superstitious you might want to leave a crust somewhere for the Knockers….

My husband and I laughed over naming this post. I was not that fond of the word “spread” although that’s exactly what it is. I was looking for a more elegant word like pate, or melange or something fancy, but of course they were not really quite true nor accurate.

Despite the un-fancy (I don’t think that’s a word but I am going to use it anyway) title of this dish it’s quite delicious in a very garlicky way. People who generally do not like broad beans will eat this and love it, that is as long as they like garlic.

It’s a recipe that I’ve had in my recipe book for so long now I’ve forgotten where it came from. It’s one I’ve always loved but do not make often because it’s a little more time consuming than most of the spreads and dips I make. Usually I am in a huge hurry just to get something on the table. This is the last week of my holidays and I thought I would spend the little extra time to make it for you.

It also had the added benefit of giving Isaac something to do, he loved shelling the beans. He counted every single bean in the pods, remarked on all the over and undersized ones. Tasted them, chewed on the pods and the beans, squeezed them until they jumped out of the pods and then asked me if they were jumping beans. Who knew it could be such fun?

Summer Broad Bean Spread

You can use frozen broad beans for this if there are none fresh, fresh is certainly better though.

• 900 grams of broad beans (in the pod) 300 grams out of the pod
• 1 slice of good white bread crusts removed
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 1/4 cup of good olive oil
• basil to taste
• a little milk
• salt and pepper

Pod your broad beans and cook until tender.

This is the fiddly bit - make a small slit in each bean and squeeze the emerald green part of the bean out of it’s little grey jacket like this.

If the beans are very small and tender you can leave them on. But it does take away the bitterness that broad beans sometimes have.

Soak your bread in a little milk for 5 minutes and squeeze out any excess.

Put all your ingredients in the food processor and give a short blitz. You want to make sure that your spread is still a little chunky.

Cover in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

I like to serve this on plain bread or as crostini with a small slice of tomato on the top and drizzled with a fruity olive oil- yum!

This Thai influenced salad is a vegetarian variation on yam dtaeng gwa, Cucumber and Prawn salad.

Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes host a monthly blogging event called No Croutons Required where a vegetarian salad or soup is submitted. My oldest child Leah is a vegetarian so I am always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes and variations for her.

I really needed some salads this week after making all those Lamingtons and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to create something. This month the theme for No Croutons Required is Thai, one of my absolute favourite cuisines with it’s exotic flavours and bright colours.

I’m lucky enough to have in my cookbook library the most beautiful book, Thai food by David Thompson. It’s touted as the most comprehensive book on Thai recipes and culinary skills. It’s even covered in gorgeous Thai pink silk. The recipes are amazing and I just love to cook with it and from it. Some of the ingredients can be hard to source, but many are readily available and he offers substitutions for some of the more difficult to find items.

This is an adaptation of one of his recipes.

Cucumber & Papaya Thai Salad

Salad

• 1/2 a small papaya chopped
• 3/4  of a small cucumber thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 3 red shallots sliced
• handful of mixed coriander and mint leaves

Dressing

• one garlic clove peeled
• good pinch of salt
• pinch of white sugar
• 2 birds eye chillies
• 1 1/2 Tblspns lime juice
• 2 tspns water

In a mortar and pestle add and crush to a smooth paste in the following order, salt, garlic, chillies, sugar, lime juice and water.

If you are scared of chillies you could reduce the amount in the dressing to your taste and de-seed them.

If you have access to Mangosteens I would definitely add some segments to this. Unfortunately there are none available here.

The dressing should be sour, hot and salty

Toss the salad ingredients and dress.

This salad was so elegant and simple. Fresh and cleansing to the palate. I’m making it again tomorrow I enjoyed it so much.

This is one of the best and tastiest ways to use up left over potatoes that I know of. These simple little croquettes (from the french croquer which means to crunch) are leftovers in the guise of a golden crumbed cylinder that no one will turn their nose up at.

I served them with Chipotle mayonnaise for big people and tomato ketchup for little people. Paired with a salad they make a nice vegetarian meal. I pan fried this batch, but there is no reason why they could not be baked in the oven for a lighter version.

Vegetable Croquettes

• 6-8 cooked potatoes
• 4-medium cooked carrots
• 1 onion chopped
• 3-4 cups of cabbage chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of cheddar or other flavoursome cheese
• 1 tspn garlic seasoning salt (or 1 tspn crushed garlic)
• 2 Tblspns fresh parsley chopped finely
• pepper to taste
• fresh breadcrumbs to coat (roughly 3 cups)
• Oil for shallow frying

In this particular batch I also had a couple of roasted parsnips that were mashed and added in.

Lightly cook your onions and cabbage in a pan until your onions are transparent and your cabbage wilted.

Mash your potatoes and carrots (and any other leftover vegetables e.g parsnip, sweet potato) together with the garlic seasoning salt and add in your cooked onions and cabbage, parsley and cheese.Taste for seasoning and add pepper and additional salt if you wish.

Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl and set aside.

Shape the mixture into a croquette like a small sausage and dip in the beaten egg then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat.

Place in a pan and lightly pan fry over a medium heat until golden on the outside and warmed through. Or spray a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray and oven bake until golden.

For a vegan version simply omit the egg and cheese - they will still be tasty just a little more fragile. Quantities of the vegetables are flexible as long as you have enough potato to hold the mix together. If your potatoes are quite floury in texture, you might need to add some breadcrumbs into the actual mix to help bind it. Don’t be afraid to taste and add your own touches to this.

Leftovers never looked or tasted so good.

Tonight, needing a very quick meal, I turned to one of my childhood favourites, knowing that I could have it on the table in about 15 minutes time.

My mother used to make us corn fritters from time to time, and we loved them. I still enjoy them as a light vegetarian meal, or with the addition of salmon or tuna. Other vegetables are easily added or disguised (if you have children that will not eat certain things) for additional nutritional value. My oldest son has been convinced that kumara is carrot on many occasions in these little fritters. Sorry darling!

Perfect teamed up with a spicy salsa or a sweet chilli sauce, they are fast to make and also very economical. There’s always a can of creamed corn in the pantry so they can be made on short order. They reheat well the next day if there are any left.

Corn Fritters

Heat up your frying pan or hot plate while you make the batter, you can have this all done very quickly and on the table. Make the salsa while the fritters are cooking. I like to serve this with a garden salad, fat potato wedges and sour cream.

• 1 can of creamed corn
• additional whole kernel corn if you wish, frozen canned or fresh
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/2 tspn baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 3 Tblspns melted butter
• 1 green onion finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Place everything in a medium sized bowl and stir until just mixed.

Drop in large spoonfuls on a hot plate or into a frying pan that has a small amount of oil in it (just to stop them sticking)

When they start to look cooked around the edges and the underside is golden, turn carefully with a spatula and cook the other side ( 3-4 minutes)

While the fritters are cooking, make the salsa.

-serves 4

Confetti Salsa

• half a large red onion finely chopped
• two ripe tomatoes diced
• half a cup of whole kernels of corn (fresh is best)
• 1-2 tspns of hot sauce or fresh chilli to taste
• squeeze of lime juice
• finely snipped chives

Mix these all together and check for seasoning - add salt if you wish. Leave at room temperature until ready to serve, for up to 30 minutes.