Tasty Tuesday: Pasties Pie

This Tasty Tuesday is brought to you by a travel loving Crafty Cat.  Destination:  Michigan.  Dinner:  Pasties.

Whenever I visit a new place, I love to soak up local color with local treats.  I had never heard of pasties until I visited Michigan.  Before your mind runs amok...it is a food....pasties, the meal.  I'm not talking about any other kind of pasties.  The writer in me feels compelled to tell you that it is pronounced past-ee...NOT paste-ee.  They are a meat, onion, and potato filled pastry.  There are numerous restaurants in Michigan that serve them.  The examples you see here are actually made in a small take-out shop called "Jean Kay's Pasties". 

They actually are tasty, but simple.  A sophisticated palette may long for something more spicey.  But, they are perfect for the meat and potato type of person and kids.  I'm told some people add ketchup, others add gravy.  I had mine plain in order to really experience the taste.  The meat in my take-out meal is tiny steak strips, the potatoes are diced very small, and the onions are hardly visible, but infused into the pastry pocket.  Hungry?  Come to Michigan...you'll find plenty of them.  Until you make it there, a local offered me his own recipe to share.  He grew up eating pasties in a community with lots of Norwegian settlers.  Keep in mind, his version won't produce exactly what the restaurant version did, but it is still tasty and you can adapt it to your own taste.  My father made it with sausage and loved it.

Pasties Pie Recipe:
1 pound of hamburger, or sausage, or a half pound of both
3 large potatoes
1 medium onion
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 box of Pillsbury Pie Crusts
Several slices of REAL butter

Cube the potatoes very small, about the size of your pinky nail (that's my measurement). Dice up your onion. Mix the meat, pototoes and onions all together in a bowl with the salt and pepper adjusted to your level of taste.

Line the bottom of a glass pie plate with dough to make a bottom crust. Pour the meat, potato, and onion mix into the pie plate. Put pads of real butter on top of the mixture...and be generous with that butter, so it isn't too dry. Cover with pie dough.

Make a few slits on the top of the crust. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. If your potatoes are diced larger, it will take longer to cook. Check to see if potatoes are done and serve.

*Note: This will look more like a pie.  But, if you would like to make individual servings, as seen in the pictures here, simply wrap the meat mixture in the pie dough, rather than lining a bowl, and bake the pastry pockets. Make sure you add slivers of butter to each pocket before you wrap them to add moisture and flavor...and only use REAL butter.  Bon Appetite!