Pasties and Irish Boxty

Hello dear readers!

Welcome to the new folks! The flock and I are glad you joined us on the farm! We hope you will enjoy your visits with us!

Found that I had a pile of left-over mashed potatoes in fridge last week. Now, normally, I will just heat them up, add a dab of butter and eat them for breakfast.

But the age old question of what to make for dinner reared it’s, dare I say, ugly head?

I was defiantly in the mood for some comfort food in the past week. I did a roast chicken and rice, greasy burgers and fries, pot roast and mashed tatos, you get the idea.

The idea of an ancestral meal was ringing my heart. My ancestry is German, Scots, Irish and English.

I’m thinking pasties and something with the left over tatties.

Got the ground beef thawing and hit the internet for something to use the left-over mashed. Found a recipe for Irish Boxty and thought that would be a great addition to dinner.

For those of you not familiar with a Cornish Pasty, here is some history of it.

The pasty has been a documented part of the British diet since the 13th Century, at this time being devoured by the rich upper classes and royalty. The fillings were varied and rich; venison, beef, lamb and seafood like eels, flavoured with rich gravies and fruits. It wasn’t until the 17th and 18th centuries that the pasty was adopted by miners and farm workers in Cornwall as a means for providing themselves with easy, tasty and sustaining meals while they worked. And so the humble Cornish Pasty was born.

The wives of Cornish tin miners would lovingly prepare these all-in-one meals to provide sustenance for their spouses during their gruelling days down the dark, damp mines, working at such depths it wasn’t possible for them to surface at lunchtime. A typical pasty is simply a filling of choice sealed within a circle of pastry, one edge crimped into a thick crust . A good pasty could survive being dropped down a mine shaft! The crust served as a means of holding the pasty with dirty hands without contaminating the meal. Arsenic commonly accompanies tin within the ore that they were mining so, to avoid arsenic poisoning in particular, it was an essential part of the pasty.

The Cornish Pasty

I don’t follow any recipe for the pasty. 1 pound of ground beef, some onion, garlic, and whatever else spice I fell like tossing in. The vegetable I added this time was diced carrots. Make a thick gravy for it all. I used frozen puff pastry dough for the shell. Put all the ingredients in the crust raw, and bake it at 400 for about an hour.

I can’t roll an edge! LOL!

I admit, I am crust deficient in my skill set. I can just never get it right. Too dry and it cracks, too wet and it sticks to everything. My Rob was the crust maker, the man had the touch when it came to making a perfect pie crust. How I miss his pies.

The boxty is pretty simple to make also. And turned out super tasty, a nice crispy crust on the outside with a creamy middle.

Irish Boxty Recipe

• 1 ½ cups grated raw potatoes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoon skim milk

• salt and pepper to taste

• ¼ cup olive oil

Mix the raw potato with the flour, making sure to break up a clumps and that it is all coated evenly.

Add the mashed tatties and mix that all together well.

Whisk the egg and milk together and add that to the potato mix. Add salt and pepper to your taste. I put in a bit of onion and garlic powder also.

Instead of olive oil I used bacon grease for the frying part. Med-high heat.

I used an ice cream scoop to gather the mix up, plopped it into the pan and pressed it out sideways with my fingers.

Fry 3-4 mins on each side and serve warm.

One side got darker than the other due to the fact that Mish always decides he has to go potty when I am in the middle of cooking.

They are delicious with a splop of sour cream on top, and I bet they would pair well with applesauce.

The whole meal was delicious, and each pasty gave my son and I two meals.

OTHER FARM NEWS:

Our weather went kind of cattywampus this week. A strong spring storm came in and brought lots of rain for me, and other areas got hit with substantial snow. Plus the wind! UGH! It looks like I got about 2” of rain and everything is muddy. The rain is much needed, the area has gotten so dry.

Sadly a few towns northeast of me lost power for a substantial amount of time. They had poles and lines come down and there was some kind of issue with the local substation.

They are predicating rain for us all week. I’m glad the wind has died down though. Just can’t stand wind. I did run Misher thru the pasture today and did not see any trees that came down. I didn’t go all the way to the far back fence line yet. Just too muddy and I don’t want to dig up more ruts than needed with the side by side.

Lucy and Tally are riding the storm out in the luxury of the barn. Brandy morphed out of the trees yesterday morning shivering. It took me almost a half hour to get a rope on her and get her into the barn. Silly girl is a PITA to catch, not to mention she seemed pretty weirded out over the whole storm thing.

She is now warm and dry and bored out of her mind in there. She likes to grab buckets and fling them around the barn. It’s an adventure to see what I will find next relocated. I dont have her penned, just loose in the middle. Lucy and Tally are in a pen so there is no pushing or kicking for food by all parties involved.

Brandy’s boyfriend, Leo, was quite abject over being apart from his love. He was standing at the barn door where he could see her, but not be close to her. I knew that if I did not let him in, he would stand there all day and not go out to eat. So in he went this morning. I hope it will keep Brandy happier also.

Based on the weather report’s, I can probably let Brandy out tomorrow morning. It appears we have just one more day of really cold weather.

We did lose one of our goats over the weekend. The older lady of the two passed in her sleep early Saturday morning. Looks like she just laid down, curled up and passed peacefully. Her goatie friend misses her very much.

Off to work on fleeces!

Blessed Be!

Thank you for supporting my writing. I am grateful for all the like’s, comments, and restacks you give me!