Comfort food

Comfort food, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

I'm sick. Again. Another cold. And to top it off, it's freezing outside. And windy.
I endured a couple of hours earlier today hanging around the footy field, watching my favourite son play my least favourite sport. Football. Needless to say, I sat in the car and read my book, thinking about being home curled up in bed.
At the end of the match we trundled back home and I set to making some comfort food.

I only make Pasties a couple of times a year as they are pretty time consuming, and I'm sure too much pastry can't be good for me. I use this recipe:

Lightning Mix Pastry
145g plain flour 145g butter, melted
145g s.r. flour 5 tbspn iced water
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk together butter, water and 2tbspn of the flour until well combined. Add remaining flour and salt and stir to make a stiff dough. Roll and use as needed.


It's a very basic recipe from a 1965 Home Economics manual and I've used it for many years. The pasties themselves can be filled with just about any sort of filling, but my preference is lamb and swede.
They take about 30 minutes in a 180c oven. Served with some homemade sauce they are just about perfect for a wild and woolly day like today.