In online recipes of cheese & onion pasties, they call for raw potato and onion mixed with grated cheddar cheese. I am wondering if the chopped potatoes and onions cook properly in the oven, don't we need to use sauteed onions and boiled potatoes?
-
Great. Now I want a pasty. – T.J. Crowder Oct 06 '14 at 15:41
2 Answers
The raw potato will definitely cook through. If you cooked the potatoes first, they would be almost devoid of texture by the time they cooked a second time in the oven - you'd have something more akin to mashed-potato pastries on your hands.
You might want to think about sweating the onions first, though. Sweating them would drive-off some of their moisture and would mellow the taste of your pastry filling. Definitely not a requirement, but I think you'd prevent soggy pastry bottoms and serve-up a better tasting treat.
Also, your recipe throws-out the notion of brushing the pastry tops with milk or egg like they are interchangeable. Milk is traditionally used to soften the the crusts of breads - an egg wash will give your pastries a rich brown top. I have never seen a puff pastry recipe that called for a milk wash. Stick with the egg wash - beat a large egg with 1 Tbsp. water and brush the tops of your pastries lightly before parking them in the oven.

- 2,419
- 1
- 15
- 19
-
Very good answer, I agree on both points. Milk-wash on a pasty isn't going to give a good looking result. – GdD Oct 06 '14 at 11:39
-
For a sweeter more interesting taste I would recommend that instead of raw onions you could add a teaspoon (each for each pasty) of caramelised onion relish. The other thing I use for things like this is red onions – Martin Jevon Oct 13 '14 at 19:41
both can cook properly if baked long enough. For example, when preparing fried potato pancakes, they contain raw potatoes and onions as well.

- 43
- 4