Pasties

I think I'm finally overcoming my phobia of crust-like things!  First, I made my last quiche (a quiche lorraine, in case you care) with a homemade pie crust, the first one I've ever successfully made.  Then, I just made a large batch of pasties!  These have long been a favorite of mine, but I've always been too afraid to make them before, so this is quite an accomplishment.  Apparently, you can also buy them some places in Michigan, but I don't think I've ever been to such an establishment and have only had homemade ones.  Now that I've successfully made these, I'm seriously considering growing some rutabagas, so I only have to buy the butter, flour, and salt to make these, since the veggies can all be homegrown and venison works well for the meat.

These are a bit time consuming to make, since there is a lot of cutting things into little pieces, but they do freeze well, so it is possible to make a huge batch that you'll get at least a couple family meals out of the deal.  And they are so yummy that it is totally worth it!  This is a base recipe as well, so you may want to play with seasonings, especially chicken ones (my mom makes super awesome chicken pasties.  I really need to find out what she uses to make them taste so good!  And I just looked at the recipe she gave me and it says "for chicken, garlic, chopped parsley, paprika, salt, thyme, rosemary to taste," so I guess that answers that question!), but even without seasoning, they are fantastic.  I always like them with ketchup on them, but my mom seems to think this is an atrocity and possibly an insult to the chef.  I just see it as the finishing brushstrokes on a culinary work of art!

My mom, who I got this recipe from, says this should yield 13 pasties, but I made most of mine smaller, so I ended up getting about 20 out of this today.  I like to make smaller ones so the kids have some their sizes and it also allows me and my husband more flexibility on portion size, depending on how hungry we are.

Pasties

2 cups rutabaga, diced

3 cups carrots, diced

1 cup onions, diced

4 cups potatoes, diced

4 cups meat, diced

4 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup butter

up to 1 1/2 cups water

Mix together meat and vegetables in an enormous bowl and set aside.  Combine flour and salt in a separate bowl.  Cut in butter until it resembles fine crumbs.  Slowly add water until the dough becomes right texture.  Sprinkle flour onto the work surface and rolling pin and roll dough out into pieces about 6"x9".  Fill with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the meat and vegetable mixture.  Pull dough over the mixture and pinch the edges to seal.  

Place on ungreased baking trays.  To eat immediately, bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.  To freeze, bake at 350 for 35 minutes and reheat the frozen pasties by baking at 350 for 40 minutes.

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I want to know what you think:

Is it okay to put ketchup on pasties?