This is one of our favourite mid-week dishes. It morphed over time.  The inspiration was a vegetable roly poly recipe that came with an enamel baking dish we bought many, many years ago.

Maus, who is not an adventurous cook, retired before me so, for a number of years, she was in charge of the cooking.  She regularly made these.  I think for two reasons:  one she really likes them and two, they are simple to make.  Maus did get a little adventurous with her vegetable combinations.  I never complained but, sometimes, the combos didn’t work too well.  One that I was happy with was substituting broccoli for the celery, otherwise, I recommend sticking generally to the recipe.

I can honestly say these pasties taste better than they sound.  The bacon and chicken stock cube really lift the flavours, they take very little time to prepare and kids will love them.

Of course, you can make your own pastry but I am classifying this dish as ‘Something Simple’ so commercial puff it is.   The best thing to eat this with is a nice spicy tomato sauce or spicy chutney.  I like Mrs HS Ball’s Original Recipe Chutney.  Maus likes hers with home-made tomato sauce.

Serves 4 or 2 hearty eaters.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 rashers bacon, cut into 1cm pieces
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1 cm pieces
• 1 large or 2 small chicken stock cubes, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 sheets of commercial puff pastry

Method:

1. Heat some olive oil (about 2 tablespoons) in a sauté pan.
2. Add the chopped onion.  Gently cook the onion until transparent.
3. Add the bacon and cook a few minutes. Stir it to ensure the onion does not brown.
4. Add the potatoes, celery and carrot.  Stir to combine.
5. Add the chicken stock cube and salt and pepper.  Add a little bit of water to ensure nothing sticks.
6. Cover, and cook over low heat, for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are just about cooked. If there is any moisture left in the pan, leave the lid off until it has evaporated.  Set aside until cool.
7. Heat your oven to 200°C.
8. Put half the mixture in the centre of each piece of pastry.  Bring the sides of the pastry up to join in the centre.  Moisten the edges of the pastry and crimp to join.  Crimp the ends together.
9. Brush the pastry with a little milk.
10. Bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.