MEAT AND VEGETABLE PUFFS

When I saw this in the Modern Cookery Book of 1917 I just knew I had to make them! I love the inventive ways our forebears used up leftovers.

Rough Puff Pastry: 8 oz plain flour, Salt and pepper [a little dried mustard powder too if you wish]

2 oz butter, 2 oz lard and a little very cold water to mix. Rub the fats in half way ish then bind with the cold water. Mix and lightly knead then place in a poly bag and chill for a bit.

Pre heat your fan oven to 200C You will need a muffin tin or deep ish tart tin. This quantity makes ten large muffin size puffs [why did they call them puffs, I wonder?]

4-6 oz any cooked meats - beef and ham? Pork and something? Whatever. I had some roast beef left over from Sunday and some ham in the fridge.

2 medium sized potatoes [after peeling they weighed just over 5 oz]

1 medium carrot 

1 onion [I used red]

Seasoning

a spring each of parsley and thyme

Pastry

left over gravy

Chop the herbs finely. Peel and grate the veggies. Put the meats through a mincer. This all sounds like too much work so I bung everything in a food processor. [two batches]. Moisten with a generous tablespoon of left over gravy [I saved some]. Then mix well.  

Roll out your pastry and line the muffin holes. Fill just about to the top with the meaty mix and pop on pastry lids. Poke a little hole in the middle and bake for a 25 mins. Quickly take them out of the oven and with a little funnel, pour a spoonful of gravy into the pies [through the hole in the top]. OR if your funnel does not fit, like mine did, gently lift off the pastry lid!! Duh. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C then pop back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until nicely browned.

Cool on a rack and eat warm. Just wonderful, why had I not thought of this before??? Today if we have anything left over, we throw it out, but in the olden days they used leftovers up in the most inventive ways.

So good and tasty.