A lovely snack or side dish enjoyed by all the family are these mini pasties. I like to use the ready made pastry circles to save time and I know it is naughty but I also like to shallow fry in a little olive oil as it really fluffs up the pastry nicely. Of course you can bake them in the oven, but be careful not to overbake or the pastry can end up resembling cardboard, they are however more healthy than fried.
Finely chopped onion, carrot and potato along with a bit of chili powder, S&P, turmeric powder and Garam Masala powder, add an interesting kick to them. I also use a small 295g jar of ready cooked lentils, which I rinse and drain before adding to the pan.
A small splash of olive oil is needed to fry of the onions first and then I just add everything else to the pan along with a dash of water. Cover the pan and cook off for about 10 -15 minutes on a low heat to soften off the potatoes, stir a few times as they cook to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. The carrots tend to still have a little crisp to them, but we quite them like that.
After allowing the cooked filling to cool, add a teaspoon or so to each pastry circle, fold over in half, seal and then either pan fry in olive oil or bake on a baking sheet at around 200 deg C for about 12 mins until golden. If you are baking them you can brush the pastry with a little beaten egg.
As I was cooking Gambon (Giant Prawns) at the same time as making these, I also included a little grated garlic and fresh ginger, but there is no need to do this especially, I was just adding what I had to hand.
The amount of filling made should fill around 32 pastry circles depending on size. I freeze any that is left for another day.
Spicy Mini Pasties
Equipment
- Oven – Set to 200 deg C
- Vegetable Knife
- Chopping board
- Frying pan
- Baking Paper
- Baking tray
- Pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 Large potato (no need to peel) Chopped into tiny chunks
- 1 Carrot, peeled and chopped into tiny chunks
- 1 Medium white onion chopped into tiny chunks
- Half tsp Hot chili powder
- Half tsp Ground Turmeric
- 1 tsp Ground Garam Masala
- 1 295 g Jar of ready cooked lentils – Rinse and drain
- Salt and Pepper
- Splash of water
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- Optional – A little grated Ginger and garlic
Pastry
- 1 pack Buitoni pastry circles (16 in a pack) – Or a sheet of puff pastry cut into circles
- 1 Egg, beaten
- A little water for sealing
Instructions
- Prepare all your filling ingredients, add 2 tbsp olive to a hot frying pan, add the filling ingredients, cover the pan and soften off the veg on a medium/low heat – About 10 mins. Stir every couple of minutes.
- When the filling is cooked leave it to cool for a few minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper
- Lay circles of pastry on the sheet and add your filling to one half of each circle, about 1-1 and1/2 tsp of filling per circle – Dont over fill them.
- Add a little to water to the outside edge of the pastry circle. Fold over the pastry to form a half moon shapes and press to seal.
- Brush each pasty with a little beaten egg.
- Bake for around 12 – 15 minutes in the centre of the oven, if after 8-10 mins they are looking to be browning too fast, move the tray to the bottom of the oven to finish baking them.
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