I'm keen to ensure Jemima is getting a healthy, balanced diet and I'm particualry conscious of ensuring her diet has plenty of foods rich in Iron. There are loads of good plant sources of iron such as green vegetables, squash and sweet potatoes but I'm keen for Jemima to get plenty of meat sources as well. I found this particularly difficult early on, she struggled a bit with chewing strips of meat. Other parents may feel more confident giving large pieces of meat however I was a little nervous so felt this recipie enabled her to try meat in a tasty, easy to chew way and gave me something quick and easy to get out of the freezer for lunch.
Baking tray - size isn't improtant but the bigger it is the less batches you'll have to put in the oven
Measuring jug
Stick blender (optional see instruction 7 of method)
10 cm Circular biscuit/pastry cutter (either smooth of sereted edge; can be slightly larger if that's what you happen to have)
Pastry brush
Rolling pin
Cling film
Plain Flour 375g
Butter 165g
Water to mix (aprox 6-9 tablespoons)
Aprox 2 tablespoons of milk for coating pastry before cooking
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
1 stick celery
1 clove garlic
2 medium carrots
1 medium parsnip
1 medium potato
200g stewing beef
250 mls low salt stock
Black pepper (optional)
1. Finely chop the onion, celery and garlic. Heat the oil on a medium in a wide based metal caserole or saucepan (one that can later go in the oven, if you don't have this prepare it in a saucepan then transfer to a casserole dish when putting it in the oven), add the onion and celery and fry gently on a medium heat until softened, aprox 5-10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile dice the beef, potato carrot and parsnip.
3. In a bowl coat the beef with the flour. When the onion has softened add the garlic, beef, fry for a further 2 minutes until the meat has browned. Add the vegetables and stock. Add pepper if desired.
4. Cover and put into the oven.
5. After one 1 1/2 hours take out of the oven and check, add a little water to loosen mixture if it's looking dry. This is what mine looked like after a couple of hours and it turned out just right.
6. Put back into the oven for a further 1 1/2 hours (3 hours total cooking time). Take out of oven and allow to cool.
Optional
7. Particularly early on I was very cautious about how Jemima would manage lumps of meat. How you feel about this is personal choice and it's up to you and your child, however I was cautious about it so once the pasty mix had cooled I gave it a quick whiz with a stick blender to break the meat apart. This obviously also breaks the veg apart but I found just as long as I only gave it a quick blitz it was still a really nice appertising texture but a lot easier for my little one to manage - see picture. How you you feel your baby will cope with this is up to you.
1. Rub the flour and butter together until you have an even, fine bread crumb texture.
2. Add the water gradually until you have a firm dough.
3. Wrap the pastry in cling film to stop it drying out and place in the fridge to rest.
2. Working with half the pastry roll it out to aproximatley 4mm thick
3. Cut out circles of pastry aproximately 10cm
4. Place aproximatley 2 teaspoons of mixture into the centre of the circle of pastry (The pastry won't look that full but don't be tempted to overfill otherwise they may burst when cooking)
5. Brush round the edges of the pastry with milk, fold pastry
over and gently press edges together.
Time
The filling only takes about 20 minutes to prepare but then needs 3 hrs in the oven so while they don't take that long in terms of actual cooking time you need to make them on a day where you're at home so leave the filling in the oven.
Equpiment
Ovenproof casserole dish - I have a metal casserole I used to fry the ingredients then put in the oven, if you don't then use a saucepan and transfer to the casserole dish when putting into the oven.
Baking tray - size isn't improtant but the bigger it is the less batches you'll have to put in the oven
Measuring jug
Stick blender (optional see instruction 7 of method)
10 cm Circular biscuit/pastry cutter (either smooth of sereted edge; can be slightly larger if that's what you happen to have)
Pastry brush
Rolling pin
Cling film
Ingredients
For the Pastry
Plain Flour 375gButter 165g
Water to mix (aprox 6-9 tablespoons)
Aprox 2 tablespoons of milk for coating pastry before cooking
For the Filling
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
1 stick celery
1 clove garlic
2 medium carrots
1 medium parsnip
1 medium potato
200g stewing beef
250 mls low salt stock
Black pepper (optional)
Method
For the filling
The filling will need to stew for a few hours so this needs to go on first. Preheat the oven at 180c (160c fan)
1. Finely chop the onion, celery and garlic. Heat the oil on a medium in a wide based metal caserole or saucepan (one that can later go in the oven, if you don't have this prepare it in a saucepan then transfer to a casserole dish when putting it in the oven), add the onion and celery and fry gently on a medium heat until softened, aprox 5-10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile dice the beef, potato carrot and parsnip.
3. In a bowl coat the beef with the flour. When the onion has softened add the garlic, beef, fry for a further 2 minutes until the meat has browned. Add the vegetables and stock. Add pepper if desired. 4. Cover and put into the oven.
5. After one 1 1/2 hours take out of the oven and check, add a little water to loosen mixture if it's looking dry. This is what mine looked like after a couple of hours and it turned out just right.
6. Put back into the oven for a further 1 1/2 hours (3 hours total cooking time). Take out of oven and allow to cool.
Optional
7. Particularly early on I was very cautious about how Jemima would manage lumps of meat. How you feel about this is personal choice and it's up to you and your child, however I was cautious about it so once the pasty mix had cooled I gave it a quick whiz with a stick blender to break the meat apart. This obviously also breaks the veg apart but I found just as long as I only gave it a quick blitz it was still a really nice appertising texture but a lot easier for my little one to manage - see picture. How you you feel your baby will cope with this is up to you. For the pastry
Once the meat is cooking you can prepare the pastry and leave it to rest in the fridge.
1. Rub the flour and butter together until you have an even, fine bread crumb texture.
2. Add the water gradually until you have a firm dough. 
3. Wrap the pastry in cling film to stop it drying out and place in the fridge to rest.
Assembling the Pasties
1. Sprinkle the work surface with flour
2. Working with half the pastry roll it out to aproximatley 4mm thick
3. Cut out circles of pastry aproximately 10cm
4. Place aproximatley 2 teaspoons of mixture into the centre of the circle of pastry (The pastry won't look that full but don't be tempted to overfill otherwise they may burst when cooking)
5. Brush round the edges of the pastry with milk, fold pastry
over and gently press edges together.
6. To get the crimped edge fold pastry back over itself like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PutVw_SbKV0 7. Gently transfer pasties to a greased baking tray
8. Brush generously with milk
9. Place in the oven for 18-20 minutes until lightly brown.
Storage
These pasties will keep for 2 days in the fridge and can be served cold or reheated in the oven for aproximately 10 minutes at 180c. Alternatively they can be kept in the freezer for up to 6 months, to cook from frozen heat in oven at 180c and cook for 20 minutes
(Always ensure that they are fully heated all the way through and piping hot then allow to cool to a safe temperature for your baby).
Enjoy!
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