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| Image credited to NPR.org ..."Portable Pie with History Baked In" March 16, 2017 by Erin Wisti |
Pasty - the one that calls for feeding an entire Polish army. I was told this pasty recipe is delicious just the way it is and we were most likely not going to be adding anything of our own to this traditional family recipe, except to downsize a bit. Seriously, the original recipe called for 5 lbs of hamburger, 6 large potatoes, 4 cups of flour! There were three of us making this dish and that seemed beyond extreme.
The confusion started almost immediately with this one. My aunt kept mentioning completely different ingredient measurements than what I had in mind. First, I thought "okay, I don't math well, maybe it runs in the family, or maybe I messed up and am not calculating correctly." Turns out, confusion in general runs in the family! In our family recipe book we have a recipe page for "Pasty"; then we have a second recipe (on a completely different page) for "Granny M's Dough". "Granny M's Dough" says it can be used for Pasty. Hence the confusion.
An executive decision was made and we decided for the sake of being concise (and because Granny M's dough can also be used in other recipes we will be making) that we would stick with the dough recipe included on the Pasty page. Whew! Close one!
Additionally my OCD came out a smidgen during this recipe. The dough ingredients are listed on the top but the killer is the filler ingredients are jumbled in the middle of the recipe so we had to - what was that? READ THE WHOLE RECIPE - through a few times just to make sure we weren't missing anything. I am not afraid to admit I am a hard learner once in awhile, this repetitive necessity should just make it easier in the upcoming adventures 😜
We divided and conquered this recipe with grace, poise, ambitions, a few choice words, and lots of laughter. My aunt started on the potatoes and onion mixture. Remember hash? Well, this is similar in that you shred/grind up the potatoes and onion together - at least that's what we did. See, I wasn't sure if you were supposed to grind the spuds, onion, and meat all together, like the hash, or just the potatoes and onions and mix into the meat? We ground up the potato and onion (more like shredded) and kept the meat separate until we added to the pasty dough. (And documented the experience, of course!)
While she was grinding away at the potatoes and onions, I started on the dough. Once slight variance we made was instead of "shortening" as was called for, we used "lard" because we all felt that is how they would have made the dough in the "old days" especially farmer or rancher families.
Our family recipe says to "use two table knives to mix up the flour and shortening together using a criss cross motion" - what!? I briefly envisioned what it would look like if I were to attempt this method, my great-aunt must have sensed my tribulation as she gracefully handed over a pastry cutter. I gladly accepted the tool and got to work. I put the flour and shortening into the bowl and began to cut the shortening into the flour. Once we had the flour and lard mixed we added a beaten egg and enough warm water to make a soft dough, like a pie crust. Two things. When halving a recipe, please tell me, how does one halve an egg? Luckily my aunts came to the rescue again and produced "Eggbert" the runt egg of the litter. Small enough, we assumed it would work as half an egg. Point two - after all was said and done I felt like I could have added a little more warm water than I did, but I didn't want to make the dough too sticky. This will probably get easier to judge over time and as this is made, but I felt the lack of water added to the slight cracking of the dough we experienced later - I am getting ahead of myself. 
Time to roll out the dough! We rolled the dough out as thin as possible into a circle. Well, as close to a circle as my geometrically challenged self would allow. (Oval just makes it easier to roll and a longer pasty!)
Our family recipe says to cover the dough with butter. We literally covered it in butter but weren't sure what exactly that meant. I felt like Amelia Bedelia for a moment and used my hands to spread butter over the dough as best I could without tearing the dough.
Next step was to fill up the dough with our filling. You need to squeeze the liquid from the onion and potato mixture before spreading it on the dough to avoid a gloopy soggy mess. (Also is a fun textural experience and stress relieving exercise I highly recommend!)
Now, here is where the "ground up together" comes back into play. If the potatoes, onions, and meat were all mixed together already, it may have been easier to evenly spread the mixture. My aunt remembers breaking up the meat evenly over the dough and doing the same with the squeezed-dry potato and onions, so we "sprinkled" each ingredient as evenly over the dough as we could. (While writing this entry I realize that the recipe does say to squeeze the liquid from the potatoes and onion mixture, thereby inferring that they are indeed NOT mixed with the meat yet, so she was 100% correct with how we went about adding the filling). Even by cutting the recipe in half, this still made one huge pasty that we had leftover filling to be used for another pasty or another recipe, only time would tell. We seasoned with salt and pepper and began to roll the pasty up.
We rolled the pasty up and placed it on a baking sheet. Reverting back to my earlier statement, I think more water would have helped make this a little easier, although it also could have made the dough stick to the counter easier, who knows! Practice will have to tell me the secret to dough that doesn't crack. My aunt attempted triage by wetting her hands and working the dough back together, which is a fantastic technique!
We then baked at 350 for about an hour. Granted this definitely is not the most beautiful pasty in the world, but it was absolutely perfect to me!
We enjoyed our pasty with a quick salad and with a Polish cookie that I brought for dessert. This version of a pasty or povitica is versitile in nature from sweet to savory that I am looking forward to experimenting with this recipe in the future. My aunts were right - it was delicious exactly as it was written!
The remainder of the evening was a major hysteria fest of laughter as we worked through deciding what our next recipe would be. That story, of course, will have to wait until the next Chapter - now if only you can just turn the page, wouldn't that be nice! Until then, stay happy, find your happy place, and love fully. Keep an eye out for the next great cooking adventure!
NEXT EPISODE: POTATO SOUP AND DROZDZOWE PALUSKZKI (NEW RECIPE!)
Sneak Peek: I was given "Classic Polish Recipes" cook book by Laura & Peter Zeranski for my bridal shower from a dear cousin and are testing out one of the recipes that looks tantalizing!
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ORIGINAL RECIPE
(note - this is the original which means it will make A LOT)
FOR CRUST:
4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups of shortening
1 beaten egg
FOR FILLING:
5 lbs. of hamburger
6 large raw potatoes
1 large onion (squeeze the liquid from the onion and potato mixture before spreading it onto the dough)
Put the flour and shortening into a bowl. (It makes it easier if you use two table knives to mix up the flour and shortening together using a kind of criss cross motion). When you have the flour and shortening mixed add the beaten egg and enough warm water to make a soft dough (like a pie crust). Roll the dough out as thin as possible into a circle. Cover the dough with butter. Spread the following on your dough: 5 lbs of hamburger, 6 large raw potatoes and 1 large onion that have been ground up together. (Squeeze the liquid from the onion and potato mixture before spreading it on the dough). Salt and pepper.
Bake at 350 Deg. for about 1 to 2 hours depending on the thickness of the roll.
