Spicy Prawn and celeriac pasties

Canape / Party food Starter

13 small pasties

Hot sauces are a fast-track way to inject savoury complexity and heat into a dish; for those who travel a lot and eat out all the time, they also offer a safety net for flavour. In this recipe, we use Tabasco - adding heat and an underlying funk. This is our take on the Brazilian pastel. To take down the spice levels (slightly), serve with lemon.

Ingredients

FOR THE DOUGH
250g	plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp	salt
2 tbsp	olive oil
2 tbsp	white-wine vinegar
100 ml	warm water
50g	celeriac peeled and roughly grated
1	green pepper finely diced
200g	peeled raw king prawns, half roughly blitzed, the rest roughly chopped
½ tsp	sweet smoked paprika
½ tsp	onion powder
1	green chilli, finely chopped (deseeded, if you don’t like too much heat)
1 tsp	coriander seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
2	lemons finely grated zest
1 tsp	salt
1 tsp	tabasco (or other good hot sauce), plus extra to serve
1	egg beaten
about 800ml	vegetable oil, for frying
FOR THE FILLING
2 tbsp	olive oil
1	onion peeled and finely diced
1	garlic clove, peeled and crushed

Method

Start with the dough. In a large bowl, mix the flour with a teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil. Mix the vinegar and water in a small bowl, pour into the well, then stir until you have a soft, smooth but not wet dough. Tip out on to a lightly floured worktop and knead for a few minutes, until smooth and silky, then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least two hours (and up to 12).
For the filling, heat the oil in a large nonstick pan on a medium-high flame, then saute the onion, garlic and celeriac for six minutes, until soft and golden. Add the chopped pepper, cook for four minutes, still stirring, then tip into a large bowl. Add the other filling ingredients and half a teaspoon of salt, and mix well.
Take the pastry out of the fridge 15 minutes before you’re ready to roll. On a lightly floured worktop, roll out the dough to 2-3mm thick. Using a 10cm-wide cookie cutter, cut out circles of pastry: you should get about 10 at the first go, but after gathering together the trimmings, re-rolling and cutting again, you should end up with 15. Spoon just over a tablespoon of filling into the centre of each pastry circle, then brush around the edges with the egg wash. Fold over the pastry to make half-moons, then press together the edges with the back of a fork, to seal.
Half-fill a medium pot with the vegetable oil (depending on the size of your pot, you may end up with more or less than 800ml). Gently heat up the oil on a medium flame until very hot, then lower in the pasties five at a time (they should sizzle if the oil’s hot enough). Fry for two minutes on each side, until crisp and golden, then scoop out with a slotted spoon and put on a tray lined with kitchen paper. Serve hot with extra Tabasco on the side.