Gluten-free cornish pasties

Use up the leftovers from your roast dinner to make these hearty gluten-free cornish pasties

A nod to my Cornish heritage

Approximately one quarter of me is Cornish. Of all the different heritages that I have (English, Irish, Scottish, German, Swedish), I’m more Cornish than anything else. It probably explains why I don’t have legs like a thoroughbred racehorse.

My maternal Grandfather was a full-blooded Cornishman. He was born in Australia to parents who carried on the great Cornish tradition of working in the mines. They didn’t work in the tin and iron mines in Cornwall, but rather the copper mines in Moonta in regional South Australia.

My Mum did her best to instil a bit of Cornish knowledge into my brothers and me as children. I remember taking day trips to Moonta to check out the mines and the tiny miners’ cottages with the low ceilings and door frames. The Cornish weren’t known for being very tall, which explains how they were able to get around their homes without too many head injuries!

So in a nod to my heritage, and because I was opportunistic the other night when it came to roast dinner leftovers, I decided to create a gluten-free cornish pasty. Of course it’s only loosely based on the great original, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea.

The origins of the humble cornish pasty

And now the history lesson.

According to the Cornish Pasty Association of the United Kingdom, the cornish pasty was created as an easy way of allowing the Cornish miners to take their lunches down into the mines. It dates back to 1800s, coinciding with the rise of mining in Cornwall.

Basically, the leftovers from the previous night’s meal were cooked into pastry. The miners could pretty much just carry the pasties in their pockets into the mines and whip them out for the daily “croust” (that’s a “bite to eat” for the uninitiated). The thick, crimped pastry seam was perhaps developed as a handle because the miners had dirty hands (especially those who had been working with arsenic). The seam allowed them to hold onto the pasty without actually touching the part they wanted to eat. The seam was then thrown away.

So basically, the Cornish didn’t have lunchboxes or handwashing facilities back then. Crikey!

The pasty was usually filled with vegetables that were cheap and in abundance. Swedes, potato and onion were commmon. Beef was added later.

My version uses leftover roast lamb and vegetables, so that’s not exactly in keeping with the fine Cornish tradition. But because the pasties were also made from whatever food was available, in my book that means that lamb roast leftovers are just fine.

Making gluten-free cornish pasties

So, to make this recipe, use the cold leftovers from a roast meal. Cook some extra vegetables so that you have plenty to put into the pasties. And look forward to freezing them for future lunchboxes. My husband and kids thought these were great, and I thought it was great to have empty lunchboxes at the end of the day. Everyone’s a winner.

If you don’t have a recipe for roast lamb, try this one. I’ve been getting into slow cooked roast lamb lately – I use a lamb shoulder and brown it in a pan before putting it onto a rack in my slow cooker. I put about one cup of water in the bottom, throw in a few sprigs of rosemary, set it to low and then go off and enjoy my weekend for at least 6 hours. It’s amazing – the meat just falls off the bone. I then toss some vegetables (potatoes, pumpkin, parsnip) in oil and salt and roast them in the oven for about one hour before serving.

I’m not good at making gravy. In fact, I’m really hopeless at it. So – confession time – I use a bought gravy of the “just add hot water” variety. If you’re a gravy maker, go right ahead and use your own recipe. It should work just fine.

Enjoy!

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