The Ham in this recipe is a third of the small smoked Ham joint we opened the other day for the Ham & Egg salad from the local Continently shop. To be fair this isn’t the most photogenic Pastry gig we’ve ever created. Party because the Gluten free pastry was left overs we’d frozen and possibly because we jammed too much filling in it! But it was really tasty regardless of looks.
Ingredients:-
Pasty ( Pre rolled will do just fine )
2 medium Potatoes
1 medium Onion, chopped
Ham, cut into fine strips
Cheese, grated
Margarine
Salt & Pepper to season
Method:-
(1) Peal and quarter the Potatoes.
(2) Boil until reasonably soft, drain, mash and set aside to cool.
(3) Fry the Onion in a little Margarine until softened, season with Salt & Pepper.
(4) Add the Ham strips to the Onion and simmer gently for 5 minutes than set aside to cool.
(5) Roll out the Pastry on a floored surface.
(6) Once the filling components hard reasonably cool mix the Ham & Onions with the grated Cheese and add the mashed Potatoes.
(7) In the middle of your rolled Pastry add the filling in a sort of flattened heap.
(8) Fold the edges and sides of the Pastry to create an open parcel.
(9) Move the parcel to a foil lined oven tray and fold the foil around the edges of the parcel to prevent if from spreading in the oven.
(10) Place in the oven at 180c for 30 to 45 minutes until the pastry is browned and slightly crispy.
We served ours with home made chips, Peas and Brown Sauce. It looked a bit like an open Pastry after all!
I appreciate that the Job Centre Plus staff have a very difficult job to do. I also appreciate that they have internal rules and guidance to follow.
However if they have information and documents which might assist those looking for work I would have thought that it was their duty to share these with their clients. It would seem this is not the case. Here is an example:-
“Having had several appointments over the last few months and also having made it clear that I was happy to do anything in my power to find employment, I asked on the off-chance if they had a list of Employment Agencies in the York area. Strangely the agent reached into a desk tidy to her left and plucked a copy from a stack in the top shelf which contains names and contact details for 25 Agencies which are active in the area. Many of these are not easily located using Google as they have head offices in other locations.”
Not a great service from a failing system really is it?
If you are willing to work for an Employment Agency in the York area here is the list as a .PDF. (11.46Mb) You can also click on the picture above in you are using a mobile phone, because we like our services and articles to be accessible to all! It's possibly not the greatest quality but if you call in and ask they are more than willing to give you a copy.
But which should you have to ask in the first place?