“Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold…” You may know the subject of this nursery rhyme as “pease porridge” (depending on where you are), but even if you call it something different, that thick, hearty soup made from split peas is just the kind of healthy comfort food that’s fit for cold weather. Put it into a buttery homemade crust, and you have a hand-held delight!
First, let’s start with the “potage”: the filling for the pasty is homemade split pea soup. I make mine in one of our trusty Instant Pots, which turns the ingredients into a rich stew that cools to solid form. It’s a bit spicy with a touch of smokiness, and the depth of flavor defies stereotypes about “bland” split pea soup. This is most certainly not bland. We use a quart of homemade bone broth from our own farm-raised chickens, and all that collagen – along with the starch from the peas and pasta – helps the soup set up firmly when it has cooled.
Around here, Mr. fMf is the pastry-maker, and pasty is one of his specialties. He made a crust that incorporated two sticks (1 cup) of Kerrygold butter and placed the finished dough in the refrigerator to chill. After a few hours, he took the dough ball out and cut into pieces.
Each piece was then rolled out into a thin sheet, into which he placed a generous scoop (about 1 cup) of the potage.
He then folded the crust over to cover the potage and pinched the edges shut, à la Edwardian Farm. After making a slice in the top so that the steam can vent, the pasties were ready to go into the oven, where they baked for an hour.
After baking, we let them cool so that the filling would, once again, solidify. It didn’t take long, and we were soon enjoying what was basically a hand-held “pot pie” (with the attendant nostalgia). It was warm, flavorful, and filling, with a toothsome crust. Cold days begone.
Interested in making your own? You can find our recipe for the pasties here and the split pea filling here. You can also see traditional Cornish pasties being made in BBC’s Edwardian Farm (link above) – and, boy, those ladies are fast!