Curried Sweet Potato Pasties from Molly MacRae

 

I ate my first pasty (pronounced with a short a as in cat) in Cornwall in 1975. So good! Pasties are sturdy meat and potato hand pies and the traditional lunch for Cornish miners. They’re now considered the national dish of Cornwall and, since 2011, the name is fiercely guarded. To earn the name Cornish pasty, it must be made in Cornwall, and made of beef, potato, rutabaga, onion, salt, and pepper. No other meat allowed and no other vegetables or seasonings. The ingredients must be raw when tucked into their shortcrust pastry and the pasty baked slowly to develop the traditional flavor and flaky crust. Again, so good!

My recipe for curried sweet potato pasties breaks all the rules. I should probably call them hand pies but I came up with the recipe to fill a hole in our lives when my family became vegetarian, and well before 2011. By no stretch do these pasties taste like Cornish pasties. But, with apologies to Cornwall, they are so, so, so good.

Notes:

Because vegetables vary so much in size, my proportions are somewhat approximate. I often end up with more filling than will fit into my crusts. In that case I freeze the extra for another time.

If you don’t like the flavor of curry, leave it out. 

You’ll find a free, downloadable, printable pdf of the recipe below the cooking directions.

 

Curried Sweet Potato Pasties

 

Ingredients

Pie crust for 3 single shell pies

1/4 cup minced onion

2 tablespoons oil or butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/4  tsp black pepper

1/4  tsp dry mustard

1/8 tsp white pepper

1 Tb curry powder

1/2 to 3/4 cup water

vegetable bouillon concentrate or a cube for making 1 cup bouillon (but keep it as concentrate or cube)

1 medium sweet potato cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 parsnips cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 medium white potato cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup raisins

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, sauté the minced onion in oil (or butter) until beginning to brown. Mix in the seasonings, including the bouillon concentrate or cube. Stir in the flour. Gradually add the water to make a thick sauce. Remove from heat.

Add the chopped vegetables and raisins to the sauce and stir to coat.

Divide the crust into 6 or 8 balls (I make 8 so each of us can have a leftover pasty for lunch the next day). Roll each ball into a circle about 1/8 inch thick. Divide the filling between the circles, placing in a line down the center of the circle. Bring the dough up over the filling and crimp the edges together to seal.

Bake the pasties on a rimmed cookie sheet for 30 to 45 minutes, until the crust is beginning to turn golden.

Cool slightly before eating.

 

click here for a free, downloadable, printable pdf of this recipe

 

 Out now!

All Shell Breaks Loose

Book 3 in the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries!

 

On North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Maureen Nash sells exquisite seashells to locals and tourists—with Bonny the shop cat and the ghost of a Welsh pirate for company. And when needed, she steps in to help the police solve a murder . . .

Dr. Irving Allred is boasting around town that he’s about to get his hands on an authentic haunted sword. But minutes after Maureen hears the story, a woman walks into the Moon Shell, sword in hand. She found it while walking her bulldog on the beach—and its blade is stained with what looks like blood. Looks like it’s time to call the sheriff’s department.

Allred is furious that his prize is now in police custody—and even more agitated that an unknown buyer was trying to outbid him. He’s convinced the sword will lead him straight to the ghosts he’s been hunting. He’s not the only one on the Outer Banks who’s been searching for spirits, though. An odd visitor also showed up at Maureen’s shop claiming the ability to sense them . . . though somehow she didn’t seem to notice Maureen’s spectral friend hanging about.

When a man who’d been camping nearby is found cut down along the shore, Maureen starts providing some unofficial assistance to Captain Rob Tate by digging into the island’s maritime history. But it’s not the only mystery she’s facing—because the shop’s resident ghost is seeing ghosts himself . . .

 

Writing as Margaret Welch

 Happy reading!

 

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.