Chef Thomas
A Proper Ploughman's Board
A board of good cheddar, thick ham, proper pickle, hard-boiled eggs, and crusty bread. Not cooking so much as assembling with conviction, and one of the finest lunches the English kitchen has ever produced.
Culinary Explorer
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Welsh Oggies
Created by Chef Thomas
Lamb, leeks, potato, and onion folded into sturdy shortcrust pastry: the Welsh miners' answer to a proper meal, held in one hand and eaten without apology.
Appetizers & Snacks
British
Picnic
Comfort Food
45 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
Yield6 oggies
The first leeks of autumn are at the market this morning, pale and tight, with that clean, sharp smell that softens into something sweet and almost buttery the moment they meet heat. This is when I start thinking about oggies.
A Welsh oggie is, at its simplest, a pasty. Lamb instead of beef. Leeks instead of swede. The pastry is thick and sturdy because it was built for purpose: carried down a mine in a coat pocket, eaten in the dark with filthy hands, the crimped edge held and then thrown away. Practical food, made with care, for people who needed it. There's nothing romantic about coal dust and twelve-hour shifts, but there is something worth respecting in a meal designed to travel into the earth and still taste good when it got there.
I make mine on weekends in late autumn, when the leeks are firm and the lamb is good and the house needs something in the oven. The filling goes in raw, which is the point. As the pastry bakes, everything inside renders and softens and steams into a pocket of savoury warmth. The leek does the quiet work, turning sweet and silky against the lamb. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract, so adjust the filling to what you've got and what you like. More leek, less potato. A handful of chopped parsley if the garden still has some. Your kitchen, your rules.
I wrote it down in the notebook last October: lamb, leeks, thyme, rain on the window, the oven doing all the work. That's the kind of evening this is for.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plain flour
Quantity
350g
cold unsalted butter
Quantity
175g
cubed
fine sea salt (for pastry)
Quantity
pinch
cold water
Quantity
3-4 tablespoons
lamb neck fillet or shoulder
Quantity
300g
cut into small dice
leeks
Quantity
2 medium
halved, washed, and sliced
potatoes
Quantity
2 medium
peeled and cut into small dice
onion
Quantity
1
finely chopped
fresh thyme
Quantity
a few sprigs
leaves picked
fine sea salt and black pepper
Quantity
to taste
egg
Quantity
1
beaten, for glazing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plain flour | 350g |
| cold unsalted buttercubed | 175g |
| fine sea salt (for pastry) | pinch |
| cold water | 3-4 tablespoons |
| lamb neck fillet or shouldercut into small dice | 300g |
| leekshalved, washed, and sliced | 2 medium |
| potatoespeeled and cut into small dice | 2 medium |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 |
| fresh thymeleaves picked | a few sprigs |
| fine sea salt and black pepper | to taste |
| eggbeaten, for glazing | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Rolling pin
- •Side plate or 18cm round cutter for sizing
- •Baking tray lined with parchment
- •Pastry brush
Instructions
- 1
Make the pastry
Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like rough breadcrumbs. Some pieces of butter should still be visible, flat little shards the size of oat flakes. That's what gives the pastry its short, flaky character. Add the cold water a tablespoon at a time, bringing it together with a knife and then your hands. Stop the moment it holds. Overwork it and you'll lose the crumble. Wrap it in cling film, press it into a flat disc, and rest it in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.
Cold hands, cold butter, cold water. Everything cold. If the kitchen is warm, put the flour in the fridge for twenty minutes before you start. Pastry rewards the patient and punishes the heavy-handed. - 2
Prepare the filling
While the pastry rests, combine the diced lamb, sliced leeks, potato, onion, and thyme leaves in a bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper and toss everything together with your hands. The filling goes in raw, which matters. As the oggies bake, the lamb renders its fat into the vegetables, the leeks soften and go sweet, and the potato absorbs the juices. The filling cooks itself inside the pastry. That's the whole principle.
Cut the lamb and potato to roughly the same size, no bigger than your thumbnail. They need to cook through in the time the pastry takes to go golden. Uneven dice means uneven cooking, and a bite of raw potato ruins the thing. - 3
Shape the oggies
Set the oven to 190C/170C fan. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut six circles, roughly the size of a side plate. Pile the filling onto one half of each circle, leaving a border. Don't be timid with the filling, but don't overstuff either. You need room to fold and seal. Brush the edges with beaten egg, fold the pastry over to make a half-moon, and press the edges firmly with a fork. Each one should feel solid in your hand, a proper parcel.
- 4
Glaze and bake
Set the oggies on a lined baking tray. Brush the tops with the remaining beaten egg and cut a small slit in each to let the steam escape. Bake for forty to forty-five minutes, until the pastry is deep golden and the kitchen smells of butter and lamb and thyme. When you tap the base of one, it should sound hollow and feel firm. Let them cool for ten minutes before eating. The filling inside is fierce.
The steam slit is not decoration. Without it, the filling builds pressure and the pastry splits where it pleases rather than where you've chosen. One clean cut on top. That's all it needs.
Chef Tips
- •Lamb neck fillet is my first choice here. It has enough fat to keep the filling moist but not so much that the pastry turns soggy. Shoulder works too, but trim away any thick seams of fat. You want marbling, not chunks.
- •The leeks carry this dish. Don't treat them as filler. They should make up at least a third of the filling, maybe more. When they cook inside the pastry, they collapse into something sweet and almost creamy. That's the flavour that makes an oggie Welsh rather than Cornish.
- •These travel beautifully. Wrap them in a tea towel once they've cooled and they'll stay warm for a good hour. They're almost better at room temperature the next day, which makes them ideal picnic food, the kind of thing you eat sitting on a wall with a flask of tea.
- •If you have any Caerphilly cheese, crumble a little into the filling before you seal them. It's not traditional, strictly speaking, but it melts into the lamb and leek in a way that feels like it should always have been there.
Advance Preparation
- •The pastry can be made a day ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge. It actually rolls better after a longer rest.
- •Assembled but unbaked oggies freeze well for up to two months. Freeze them on a tray until solid, then wrap individually. Bake from frozen, adding ten to fifteen minutes to the cooking time.
- •Baked oggies keep in the fridge for three days. Reheat in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes to crisp the pastry. The microwave will do in a pinch, but the pastry won't forgive you for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 230g)
Calories
625 calories
Total Fat
35 g
Saturated Fat
19 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
12 g
Cholesterol
130 mg
Sodium
500 mg
Total Carbohydrates
60 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
17 g
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