Easter 2019

The weather this week has been amazing! Well, if you like very hot (hotter than Miami!!) I was planing a lad-back weekend food, family, cats and some doll time. 
Food was wonderful
Friday mum made Cornish Pasties to eat in the garden.
Now apart from the obvious they are from Cornwall, a few interesting (I hope) facts.
You can only call a Cornish pasty 'Cornish' if it comes from Cornwall. So OK, ours do not as such come from Cornwall BUT my mum was evacuated in the second world war to stay in Cornwall. She was lucky and the family she lived with were wonderful Auntie Doris and Uncle Cyril lived in a big house in St Agnes and had no children. They took in my mum and her older sister Joan. As a child I have many fond memories of staying with mum at Auntie and Uncle's home in the summer. Auntie Doris made award winning pasties and she passed on the recipe to my mum.
The pasty was a traditional dinner for tin miners. The pasty would be savoury one end and sweet the other with a pastry strip through it to stop the two from mixing. These days they are one or the other and not mixed. As the food was encased in pastry it would stay warm for many hours. Great for a picnic. 
You should never eat a pasty from a plate with a knife and fork, they are designed to be eaten from a paper bag. A grease proof bag is best as the pasty, if made properly will be running with juices.
To start with the pastry has to be right a mix of flaky shortcrust.
Then for the inside beef skirt diced and any fat removed
Potato, Swede and Onion either small diced or grated. 
Salt and pepper and a knob of butter (to help with making it beautifully moist)
Now for the secret ingredient, this I have never found in another pasty.... Parsley!  

Next up home made scones...by me. Again a traditional Cornish food. I found this recipe years ago in a magazine and it's pretty much fool proof!
These are buttermilk scones with NO fruit, why do you need fruit when you have jam?
This recipe makes 12 scones
1lb self-raising flour
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
3oz butter, cubed
3oz caster sugar
2 large beaten eggs
1 carton buttermilk

Now these are English measurements you will need to google what you don't understand.
Preheat oven 220C/200C fan/gas 7.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.  

• Measure he flour, baking powder and butter into a bowl. Rub with your fingertips until the mixture looks breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. 
• Mix the eggs and buttermilk together in a jug and pour all but 1 tablespoon into the flour bowl and lightly mix together until combined-it should be a fairly moist dough.
• Lightly sprinkle the worktop with flour and gently knead the dough until smooth and soft. Roll to about 1 inch thick. Use a 2 1/2 in round fluted scone cutter and stamp out 12 scones.
• Arrange the scones on a baking sheet and brush the tops with the reserved egg and milk mix.
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes until risen and lightly golden.

These can be frozen when cooked and if you don't eat on the day a quick whirl in the microwave will make them as soft as fresh baked.

Now for the filling.... Well any jam will do but Strawberry is the most popular (although my favourite in Raspberry).
In Cornwall you put the jam on first but in Devon it's the other way around. NO BUTTER!
The cream is clotted... Cornish clotted cream is amazing. OK, I know you can't buy real cream in America, but I do understand you can get a cream thing from UK stores or Amazon.