In the 1800s, miners from the English coastal town of Cornwall, migrated to Mexico to help reestablish the mining industry. They settled in small mining towns across Mexico, and one in particular is called Mineral Del Monte. Here, the Cornish miners brought with them the traditional mining food, the Cornish Pasty. To this day, the people of Mineral Del Monte make pasties (called pastes) filled with spicy chicken and pork, and even sweet ones with rice and blackberries! So here's our, Mexican Pastes, with spicy chicken Tinga, rice and mole sauce to dip!
Method
Start with the pastry. If you fancy getting your hands dirty, add the flour and butter to a mixing bowl, and push the butter through the flour until it resembles sand. Add the water slowly, until you get a rough ball of dough. The dough shouldn't be wet, but should be malleable. If this doesn't appeal to you, put the flour and butter in a food processor, blend until sandy, then add the water. Rest the dough in cling film in the fridge for an hour.For the fillings, start by making the chicken Tinga. Sear off chicken thighs, remove and in the same pan, sauté onions, garlic and fresh tomato. Cook until soft, with a pinch of salt, before adding the chipotle paste, cooking for a couple of minutes, before adding the chicken back in and placing in the oven for 45 minutes at 170°c.Once cooked, allow to cool slightly before shredding the chicken. Add some half-cooked spiced rice (cook the rice in triple the weight in water, adding paprika and turmeric, and boiling for 7 minutes), and parsley.To make the mole sauce, sear off the tomatoes until slightly charred, and then sauté the onions and garlic along with the spices, for a few minutes until soft, before adding softened dried chilli peppers and the tomatoes. Add the stock from the rehydrated peppers, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes, before removing the cinnamon sticks, and blending. Sieve and add more stock if needed, to loosen the sauce.Time to build our pasties - roll out the dough, until about 1cm thick, cut out rounds using a plate, and start by adding a spoonful of chicken Tinga, some potato, and the cheese. Wet the edges of the pastry, and fold one side over the filling, pressing the filling shut.To crimp the crust, turn the seam away from you, and fold the crust over itself, guiding it with your non-dominant hand thumb. continue to do this until you get a rope like finish.Egg wash well, and bake in a preheated oven at 190° for 25 minutes. Halfway through cooking, egg wash a second time for an extra golden finish.
