Picnic Lamb Pasties

Shetland lamb, neeps, carrots and taaties - seasoned and enclosed in shortcrust pastry.
Not as fast as making sandwiches, but so very tasty to have on a really good long walk or as part of a beach picnic.
Experience shows me that the vegetables should be parboiled but the lamb uncooked. Other suitable vegetables are parsnip and celeriac. It is of course easy to make these without meat - and to make vegan pastry substitute the butter for a vegan spread or oil.

Picnic Lamb Pasties

Ingredients

Makes 6 Pasties

For the pastry:

150g plain flour
75g unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper
5-6 teaspoons cold water

For the filling:

1 medium sized taatie - peeled quartered and parboiled for 5 minutes
1 piece neep (swede) approx 100g - peeled and parboiled for 5 minutes
1 medium sized carrot - peeled and parboiled for 5 minutes
150g lamb - leg or shoulder - cut into small dice
1 level teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
1 level tablespoon finely chopped fresh herbs - rosemary or thyme. Dried is also fine.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Beaten egg to glaze

Method

Firstly make the shortcrust pastry - rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, add the water, mix well, knead lightly.

Roll out thinly and cut 6 circles approx 15cm in diameter. Place them on a baking tray spread out and layered with baking paper and put into the fridge to rest while you get on with the filling.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

In a bowl - mix together the part-cooked vegetables and cubed meat. Add salt and pepper, herbs and the cumin if using. Mix well and divide between the 6 pastry circles.

Wet the edges with cold water and press firmly into the traditional pastie shape.

Brush with beaten egg and bake for a total of 45 minutes - turning the oven down to 150ºC after 20 minutes.

Eat warm.

This recipe has been taken from Food Made in Shetland by Marian Armitage, which is available to purchase from our Shop.

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Picnic Lamb Pasties