Tag: pasties

Cornish Pasties – on a budget?

Post author By julesprichards
Post date June 30, 2012
1 Comment on Cornish Pasties – on a budget?

Being 300+ miles from the homeland can cause a fading Cornishman to suffer from Pasty Withdrawal, and this is not a good thing.

We have been known to send for emergency supplies from Warrrens, which I have to say are good. Even ‘ansome’ when the withdrawal is severe.

But this time, with budgets an issue more than ever, I was forced to think how much our usual homemade pasties cost?
It’s easy to click click from the smartphone and order 10 Medium Steaks for £26, that’s what it was on the last time we weakened. But now 10MSP from Warrens is £31!

16 Homemade Pasties

1.15kg Cubed Beef – 6.95/kg Gamble & Hollis Syston: £8.00
Pastry – OK, I could make it myself, yeah yeah, but I’ve 2 kids pulling at my trouser legs so this is easier!
So, 4 packs of Jus Rol Pastry (I re-bash Puff cos I like Puff!), that’s 8 rolls: £8.00
8 potatoes, half per pasty: 50p
5 Onions: 40p
One Swede (which the Cornish call Turnips): £1
’bout 20 Mushrooms, 1/3 Kg: £1 (Oh yes! Mushrooms!)
Eggs: we occasionally get ours fresh from the friendly hen lovers up the road. (Thanks A&K)
Pepper and Salt

So, that’s £18.90 for 16 Pasties: £1.18 each
Warrens by Post £31 for 10 Pastes: £3 each

So here’s our simple Cornish*Pasty Recipe again:

A JusRol ‘roll’ will do 2 medium pasties, cut the roll in half, screw the bugger up and roll it out to a circle and put on:

A handful of chopped potato,
A handful of chopped onion,
A handful of chopped swede,
A handful of chopped mushroom,
A handful of cubed beef (1cm sqs),
Shake a pinch of salt,
Shake a good dash of pepper,
Eggwash around the edge.

Fold the top edge forward to the bottom edge and crimp.

Make the other one. One is never enough!

In a greased baking tin, eggwash (or milk, or egg & milk) the pasties.

Cook on high 220° for 30mins and then lower to medium 170° for 30mins.

If it’s burning (cover with tinfoil).

Eat!

And don’t let any northerners mention gravy!

(*I’m Cornish, I was brought up on these things, so I’m calling ‘um Cornish – even with the personal touch of mushrooms!)

Tags bake, cook, cornish, cornish pasty recipe, cornwall, eat, food, gamble and hollis, pasties, recipe, warrens

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A method in the madness?

Methodism and the Cornish Miner: a worthwhile read of you have 30mins.

I was given this pamphlet recently by a friend of a friend. It was produced in 1960. It’s the type of thing that could easily Have been lost! I found it a worthwhile short read -but then again I can identify with being brought up in the 70s in the pews of Cornish Methodism.

This account details how at a certain point in history, the church and its activities had a great effect… (?)

Even if you have no spiritual life/faith, Christian ideas have always given practical advice about how to handle failure, dejection and loss… etc.

It may be no accident that the huge increase in the incidence of common mental health issues seems to coincide with the decline of religion in the West and the loss of a whole tradition experienced in dealing with, if not answering, life’s unanswerable questions. There might be extreme misdirection but there might be also valuable insights offered by Christian teaching if you can fend off the theological language and hoopla in which it’s dressed.
Download a scanned copy here – GDRIVE link: Methodism and the Cornish Miner

Download a scanned copy here – DROPBOX link: Methodism and the Cornish Miner

Tags christian, cornish, cornwall, God, Methodism, Miner, Mining, nature, pasties, sing

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Pilgrimage, going outside for some time…

Post author By julesprichards
Post date February 14, 2012
3 Comments on Pilgrimage, going outside for some time…

Gotta make it positive! (says the little sprite on my right shoulder). Awwh *!£#@!##%! !*#&*! (says the little !*#&* on t’other)…

It must have been 15 years or so ago that I wrote “We’re going outside, I may be sometime…”

‘We’re going outside and we may be some time’
Twenty-five years I grew, nurtured on Cornwall and the Cornish manner, the Cornishness that is now part of me. I still day-dream, of a ‘T’ shirt that announces “I’m Cornish and proud of it…” …is that all I have to cling to? (I haven’t even got this day-dream of mine).
I spent a childhood full of Cornwall’s riches: pebbles a sand, fIzzypop in cans, wind and rain, tunnels, holes, alleys & bunkers, vast sun-scorched gorse torched views, I could see both coasts from our bathroom window.
Spirits of the sea always whisper to me, the loudest whispers I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard in Leicestershire, Crewe and Nice, I saw a little red boat barely afloat.
I cried at the beauty surrounding me as the holidayers screamed and sizzled and I laughed. I sat alone at the end of the phone, I ran with the gang, at low tide, across St Ives Bay, on new years day. We drank and we sang and played in the band. Gran bought saffron buns at Sunday-school treat, and pasties and pasties and pasties. Slept in the snow on the rocks on Carn Brea, laughed at what nan a grandad would say (that’s not the grandad that died in the fishing boat accident). Ate winkles with pins and vinegar picked from Porthleven harbour, got filthy. Held on tight as the storm wind rips so hard it bites. Sat in a haystack in the sun and got covered in mites. I’ve lay for hours and been soaked up by the whole of Mounts Bay, on the clearest ever, hottest ever, hottest ever day. Walked home at midnight from to Camborne from Hayle, met a girl in Redruth and another in St Just, got drunk in Crantock, earnt a wage in St Ives ‘ saw a dream in St Austell, learnt some verbs in Fowey… grew towards man from boy in Cornwall…
…only, they’re all memories.
I return and see the most rugged of faces smile and share the day like children returning to play, waves so worn from years of scorn, skies so blue they seem brand new. A scarred town refuses to frown, yet sings and raises its glasses, everywhere I look I see me and I see pasty smiles, rugby miles, unique Cornwall style saying this is us but we do say we.
I’ve moved away now, don’t know why, but I know I can’t go back. Jane’s not there, Craig’s gone, David’s moved off, So has Jon. Matthew’s in Manchester, Lisa’s in Suffolk, Richard’s in Cardiff, Kay’s in Bath, Lee is in Luton and Mark is in Crewe, and I’m in Leicester for something to do. Cornwall, in essence, has everything, God and the Devil are surely within. but it hasn’t got what I’m looking for. . . . what am I looking for?
I’m going outside and I may be some time…

I caught a podcast recently where Ernie Rea and his guests discussed “Pilgrimage”.
‘Beyond Belief’ BBC Radio 4 : “Every year more than 100 million people around the world go ‘on pilgrimage’, the biggest mass migration of people on the planet. Two and a half million Muslims visited Mecca for last year’s Hajj and over 600,000 visited Graceland to worship at the shrine of Elvis Presley. Is there something in the human psyche which seeks fulfillment from… [pilgrimage]?”

I understand pilgrimage to be: a journey outside the norm or an escape to something significant – typically aiming for a place of importance central to or ‘at the heart of’ a person’s world view. A seeking to discover, understand or be healed? The ‘quest’ is sometimes linked with oracles and finding a source of counsel or understanding. It would seem this is a common human experience that has been specifically studied and written on widely.

To venture outside of the norm…
I read books to discover? escape? understand?
I watch films to discover? escape? understand?
I listen to music to discover? escape? understand?
I sing and play music to discover? escape? understand?
I cycle to discover? escape? understand?
I surf the web to discover? escape? understand?
I imbibe festival and celebrations to discover? escape? understand?
I wander the countryside to discover? escape? understand?
I feed the birds and talk to my pets to discover? escape? understand?
I live to discover? escape? understand?

Most weekends we have a holiday “Holy Day” where we make an effort to do something to discover, escape, understand or experience something out of the ordinary.
Are we ourselves on an ongoing macro-(micro?)-pilgrimage to the outside?

I wonder as I wander… outside for sometime…

Tags christian, cornish, cornwall, life, nature, pasties, pilgrimage, sunrise

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Don’t tell ma Cornish Cousins…

Post author By julesprichards
Post date September 16, 2011
4 Comments on Don’t tell ma Cornish Cousins…

Carrot and mushrooms?! I’ll be struck off!!To be honest we usually put Mushrooms in but our oggies but this time we also were short of turnip (or swede to you english) and so carrot it had to be! (carrot with a tad cardamom cumin & honey). Yup, I might as well be Devonian, the relies will not speak t’me for years! It’s bad enough that I live in England!Anyway…