Iron Range Pasties (Northern Minnesota)
Pasties were brought to the Iron Range country by "Cousin Jacks," miners from Cornwall and Wales. They would leave a brick in the oven/fireplace/stove overnight, put it in their lunchbox and place the cooked pasty on top of it. That way they would have a warm lunch. Miners of other ethnicities appreciated the cleverness of these hearty meat and vegetable filled pies and prevailed upon their wives to learn to make pasties too. They became a tradition in mining communities.
Although my family were Slovenian, my mother made pasties routinely. They are most excellent for supper on cold, snowy days, can be refrigerated for up to a week and then reheated.
By the way, the correct pronunciation of "pasty" uses the "a" as in "path," not the "a" as in "pay."
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Makes 2 pasties:
You will need 1 rolled out piecrust per pasty. If you make your own, make a thickish "workingman's" crust using lard rather than butter or margarine. The traditional crust was very basic and breadlike rather than being buttery and flaky.
Preheat oven to 350.
Non-mom approved alternative: Be lazy like me. Use Pillsbury premade pie crusts. They are just about exactly the right consistency and are easy to work with. Bring them to room temperature prior to unrolling.
Chop the following into smaller-than-bite-sized cubes:
2 medium sized potatoes (Unpeeled if new, peeled if mature)
2 carrots
1 medium sized onion
2 sticks celery
1 medium rutabega or turnip
1 clove crushed garlic (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste.
Non-mom approved hint: Combine the above ingredients in a microwave safe covered bowl and microwave until just soft.
Cut a pound of beef steak (or stew meat) into smaller than bite sized chunks. You can often find this precut and trimmed. Fajita strips or stir fry meat works fine and you only need to cut them in one direction.
Unroll the pie crust on a cookie sheet
Onto one half of the piecrust, spoon half of the cooked vegetables. Place half the beef chunks evenly on top of the vegetables.
Fold the remaining half piecrust over the filled half and roll/pinch the layers of crust together to make a half-moon shape. Tuck up the corners. A tight, pinched, seal is important.
Repeat with second piecrust and remaining vegetables and beef.
Using sharp knife, cut 3 or 4 2" vent slits into the top of each pasty.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes until crust is light brown.
Serve and eat with lots of catsup. This is important. Pasties without catsup are incomplete.
Non-mom approved hint: A nice glass of dark beer or ale is a perfect accompaniment.
This is such a great thread. I can't wait to try all the different recipes. Thank you again! :)
Pinto beans cooked in a broth with ham hocks. Greens (I prefer collards or kale) wilted over bacon fat (or olive oil loaded with garlic, which is my preference).
White cornbread, made from Martha White's Cornbread Mix (Just cornmeal, a little flour, and leavening) with no eggs and no sugar, and no yellow meal! Eggs and sugar make it into a Yankee muffin, which is fine, but not rural mountainous southern.
If you really want to do the cornbread right--make it in a covered cast iron skillet in the fireplace. The scent going up the chimney will attract the neighbors. I did this when the power was out this December.
This is "poverty food"--but if you're feeling rich, cut some vidalia onions and open a jar of sweet/sour chowchow, and use an extra couple of ham hocks in the pintos.
Open it up and slice it into slabs.
Cook it on a skillet or whatever you can find that gets warm and is relatively hygenic.
Get some rice, preferrably the sushi type, include the sushi liquid seasoning they put on rice.
Mold it into one block.
Put the slab of cooked Spam onto the rice. It will look like a big Spam sushi.
Wrap the block with dried seaweed.
Enjoy.
Its called Spam masubi.
INGREDIENTS
1 and 1/4 pound fresh ahi, cubed into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup yellow onion, minced
1/4 cup green onion, sliced
3 tbsp. limu kohu, chopped (a soft, reddish-brown variety of seaweed, prized for its succulent flavor.)
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. Inamona (the ground innards from roasted kukui nuts)
pinch or two of dried red chili
All ingredients are optional [except the fish]. There are tons of various recipies for this dish.
Mix well and chill. Enjoy the Hawaiian raw fish.
Hawaiian Poke'. (pronounced Po-kay)
There are ones made from swordfish, octopus, etc etc as well.
Shovel
Lava Rocks
Bannana leaves and stalks, lots of them.
One pig, preferrably dead and gutted and cleaned of hair etc.
Salt and Pepper if you have it.
Directions:
dig one big hole, big enough for your pig to lay in.
Fill hole generously with lava rocks. Start big fire in hole. Burn all day.
After rocks are nice and hot select a few smaller rocks and fill the inside of the pig with hot rocks. Make sure to get one in the throat of the pig as well.
You should still have many rocks in the hole.
Remove approximately half of the rocks from the hole leaving a layer or two of rocks in the hole. Cover with bannana leaves and stalks.
Wrap your pig generously with many bannana leaves. Put pig in hole covering again with bannana leaves and stalks.
Replace excess rocks around and on top of pig (in the hole).
Cover generously with bannana stalks and leaves.
Cover up with dirt. Cover pile of dirt with more bannana leaves. Lots of them.
Return in a few hours and remove pig from hole.
Enjoy.