Cornish pasties

This is a tasty and filling meal for a winter's day.

For the filling, blanch some finely-diced carrots, potatoes and swede, and drain. The veggies should be cut into small pieces - about 1/2" or 1cm in size.

Fry a finely-chopped onion and garlic until golden, and add ground beef (or turkey, or lamb) and fry until browned. Overall, you want roughly the same amount of meat as you have veggies. Stir in the cooked veg, and a good dollop of brown sauce, and leave to cool.

Mix some shortcrust pastry dough, roll it out fairly thin and cut into circles (using a side plate as a template will give you a good size.)

Brush the edge of each circle with milk, spoon some of the filling into the centre, fold over to make a parcel and crimp the edge. Brush the outside with milk and pop into the oven on a baking tray for about 40 minutes, until the pastry has browned.

Shortcrust pastry

This is needed for a number of dishes, so I'm adding it separately rather than keep repeating the recipe.

In a mixing bowl, rub flour and a spoonful of salt into a mixture of butter and lard until it forms a crumbly mix. The proportions aren't too fussy, but you want roughly twice as much flour as fat, and the fat content we use is half-and-half butter and lard. Many recipes just use butter and that's OK.

Add a small amount of cold water until you have a stiff dough - soft enough to work, but not sticky. Adding a dash of lemon juice along with the water will help make the dough more pliable.

And your pastry is ready to roll and use.