Our family roast of choice has always been roast beef. My family are originally from South Africa and our roasts are not your average traditional roast – we have ours with roasted butternut, onion, cauliflower cheese (the list goes on). Growing up not much could beat a Sunday roast, but I do have such a soft spot for a left over roast beef pasty.
The beauty of a roast beef pasty is that it can be made with any leftovers. Just combine left over meat, root vegetables, green vegetables and some gravy, encase it in pasty and bake until golden – it is comfort food at it’s finest.
I’m not from South Africa. I’m from Plymouth, Devon and grew up eating scones and pasties – but always my family’s quirky homemade variety. We once put rice in the pasties, it sort of worked, had a friend over for dinner that night who never came back. Whilst I don’t think that the Cornish would approve, Ferguson pasties taste beautiful nonetheless.
Legend has it that Cornish miners created the pasty 500 yeas ago. The shape enabled them to hold onto the crust with their dirty hands whilst they ate the filling. They’d discard the crust after which is a shame as I personally think the crust is one of the best parts! I hope you like this recipe, it is meant as a guide as the best recipes have a bit of your own family influence.
The pastry recipe is adapted slightly from my new Bread Ahead baking book which is becoming a new favorite of mine.
Ferguson pasties
Yield 4 pasties
Ingredients
Leftovers
- Potatoes
- Roast beef
- Butternut
- Parsnips
- Broccoli
- Green beans
- Roasted onion (we roast a whole onions with our beef joint)
- About 100ml of gravy
Homemade Pastry (adapted slightly from the Bread Ahead baking book)
You can use shop bought pastry if you like.
- 150g white bread flour
- 100g wholemeal flour
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 150g cold unsalted butter - diced.
- 50ml full fat milk
- 2 egg yolks beaten
- 1 egg beaten
Instructions
Filling
- Dice and mix the filling ingredients in a bowel
- Add enough gravy to the bowl to bind everything together. This is normally 100-200ml but depends on the amount of leftovers that you have
- Set the bowl to one side whilst you make the pastry
Pastry
- Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl
- Add the butter and rub together with your fingers until you get breadcrumbs
- Add the milk, followed by the yolks and mix until you have a dough
- Rap the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight)
- Take the chilled pasty out of the fridge to warm so it can be rolled out
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line tray with baking paper
- Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out until it is about 2mm thick
- Use a saucer to measure out the size of a pasty
- Spoon some filling into one half of the pasty and use the egg wash to brush the edges
- Fold the pastry over and use a fork to crimp the edges together to seal everything together
- Chill the pasties in the fridge for 10-15mins
- Take the pasties out of the fridge and brush again with the egg wash
- Once chilled bake the pasties for 40mins until golden
Enjoy hot, or these also make a great cold lunch the following day.