I know, I know. These are TOTALLY the wrong shape! Cornish pasties should be half circles. You get this shape by spooning the filling onto a flat circle of pastry and then folding over and crimping with a fork. But my puff pastry came in a large circle shape and I had so little time last night that I just sliced that puff pastry into fourths and voila! Triangular, samosa-shaped pasties

So my kids would never touch a rutabaga (swede in England, turnip in Cornwall) or a turnip if they could help it. How about yours? But the taste of these is so mild and easy that picky kids won’t be daunted. My daughter ate two of these and my son ate almost a whole one. Ha ha, kids. Got you. The rutabaga in these adds an umami flavor that is a little unusual to some Americans. I’ve been asked, ‘These are really good. What’s in these?’ But no need to stop there. These can be filled with anything, such as curried vegetables, squash and goat cheese, spinach and pine nut and ricotta. Whatever you like.

Cornish pasties. That comforting Autumnal root vegetable deliciousness baked in flaky, buttery puff pastry. Kind of considered the national dish of Cornwall. Frequent pub food item. Something to fill up on after a night of drinking, waiting for a train at London Bridge. For the Americans out there, the ‘a’ in ‘pasty’ is pronounced the same as in ‘crafty’, not a long ‘a’ as in ‘paste’ or ‘waste’. They usually have a thick braided edge of buttery crust and are made with fillings such as beef and vegetables, steak and stilton or cheese and mushroom.

By all means make your own puff pastry (if you have a bucket of butter and a million hours available). I prefer to buy mine and keep it in the freezer. Shortcrust pastry can be used too, and it is much easier to make from scratch than the endless layering of puff pastry. But I like these with puff pastry. Make mini ones for a party plate.

This recipe is adapted from Veg, by Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall

Ingredients for 8 medium-sized cornish pasties

2 sheets puff pastry dough, or 500g puff pastry dough, defrosted

1 medium potato, diced
1/2 large rutabaga or turnip, peeled and diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 small onion, grated or chopped as finely as possible
50g grated mature or sharp cheddar, grated
about a tsp of fresh thyme leaves, chopped
handful of parsley chopped
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder (I omitted!)
1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp salt
fresh black pepper
beaten egg for glazing

1) Combine all the ingredients together and mix thoroughly.
2) Roll out the pastry–if it hasn’t been pre-rolled already–to 3mm thickness. Use a small saucer plate to help cut out the circle shapes for the pasties.
3) Spoon 1 or 2 tbs of filling onto the lower half of each pastry circle and fold the top half over to make a half circle shape. Crimp the edges with a fork. You can make 8 medium-sized pasties or about 16 small ones (use less filling).
4) Brush each pasty with egg wash.
9) Bake on parchment on a baking tray in the oven for 35 minutes at 375F, or until golden brown.