It is probably fairly well known that I…don’t really cook. I bake fairly well, and I am *learning* to cook, but a star-rated chef? Nope, definitely not. Not like my Mum, whom I dearly wish I had paid more attention to when she tried to teach me when I was small…
But I digress..
Like so many others in the world right now, my little family is on an ever changing situation, and – also like everyone else – our bank account has been hit sideways by the cuts and changes and craziness that is a worldwide pandemic. I wasn’t home for the “great worldwide bread bake-off” that apparently happened in March (Mum says you couldn’t find yeast for love nor money), and I am a little to nervous to take part in the canning craze that seems to be going on right now (seriously, the store where I work is basically out of canning supplies, that *never* happens)…but dammit , I can stretch my comfort zone enough to figure out how to cook on a budget. So I’ve been poking about, trying to find recipes that are healthy but substantial and easy to freeze, and going homemade as opposed to store bought wherever possible.
This is one of the reasons we are now the proud owners of a yogurt maker; because the amount of milk and starter used to make yogurt at home? Is about half the cost of buying the store bought stuff every couple of weeks. I currently have a pot of mixed berry compote simmering on the stove to finish off my first batch of homemade “fruit on the bottom” yogurt. I am pleased.
But yogurt was only going to get us so far. So I needed something else, anything else, that would be an actual meal that fit into the borders of what I’m trying to work with.
I was sitting browsing recipes trying to put together a grocery list when I was suddenly hit by a moment of nostalgic inspiration. When I was living in the UK, I developed a love for Cornish Pasties. These little yummy hot pockets were originally created for miners and field workers so that they could take a complete hot meal with them to the fields or the depths. Supposedly the ‘true’ version had savoury at one end and dessert at the other! (I’ve since found out these are called “Bedforshire Clangers).
Why hadn’t I thought of this before?
Small, cheap to make, apparently *easy* to make and freezable? And you can fill them with anything?
This is ideal. This is…potentially perfect!
So this evening I tied on my apron and took a very deep breath. I had never attempted anything even close to this; and I didn’t even have the skirt steak that most of the recipes called for, so I pretty much got to make the filling up on my own…it’s a long recipe, especially since the dough has to chill for at least two hours…
Side note about me and anything that requires homemade dough: I am rather short and kneading dough takes a certain amount of leverage. No matter how hard I try, I find that I have the same difficulty as other women in my family – I can’t get the right angle to the counter. Yup, I have to stand on a stool to kneed bread.
You may now laugh if you really must.
but I powered through, and the first batch is now in the oven.
It smells right…
I certainly hope it tastes right!
It will…be a little while before I tackle trying to make Bedfordshire Clangers…