Oh I love these! I could eat a lot of them if it weren’t for that look, you know the one. It is forever etched in every husband’s mind, I can almost hear her saying “really, isn’t that your third patty?!?”. Oh well, I know she’s only looking after me! But you can have as many as you like. Make a bunch. The recipe is a combination of my own concoction and an adaption of a pastry recipe. The pastry complements the filling nicely. I made it Jamaican patty style – some curry powder, some cayenne and some turmeric. I got 24 patties out of the dough, I used a 3 7/8″ round pastry cutter for the circles. I’m giving measurements below in grams – it’s how I learned it in baking school and I’ve gotten lazy about some of my pastry recipes by using teaspoons, cups etc. To convert “google” it.
The filling is flavors and tastes we like. Add anything else you like to change it. My family likes this recipe. Remember, it’s just food! I did use a Ghost pepper, now I must say, this is from a plant I purchased (pictured below) which has given me quite a yield of these peppers. I know they will never get the heat of the ones grown in the tropics, but they have heat and a very pleasant flavor. It has replaced the habanero as my “go-to” chili – well as long as my tree keeps producing them anyway.
For the dough:
450g all purpose flour
250g butter
5ml baking powder (1 tsp)
5ml salt
5ml curry powder (about 1 tsp.)
5ml turmeric (about 1 tsp.)
3 – 5ml cayenne (about 1/2 – 1 tsp.)
60 ml ice cold water
I melted half the butter (don’t ask me why, one of the sites I read through suggested melting all the butter, my experience from school has always said use cold butter, so I compromised and melted half the butter) and left the other half cold so, try this – I think it produced a nicer texture
Add the flour, salt, curry powder, cayenne and turmeric to a food processor – pulse a few times to mix well
Add the melted butter and the cold butter and pulse a few times to get a grainy texture
Add a little cold water at a time to just bring the dough together, pour onto a floured surface, bring it together to form a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
In the mean time, for the filling:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, pulsed to large crumb-like texture
1 large onion, pulsed in a processor to a fine chop (not mush, chop)
4 cloves garlic, added to the processor with the onion
2 hot chilies (or several, I used 1 ghost chili) – added to the processor with the onion
2 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 cup stock or water
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Salt and Pepper to taste
In a medium sized frying pan, brown the beef, drain the fat and remove the beef to another container – let cool
When cool, add the browned beef through the processor – pulse only – I really like doing this as it ensures my beef will be even sized and because of that, will be evenly flavored. I do this whenever I’m making a filling using ground meats. Your going to have to trust me, it makes a difference in the final product
To the same pan – without rinsing, add the mushrooms and sauté to soften, add the pulsed onion, chili and garlic
Sauté for a few minutes to cook the onion mixture
Add the pulsed beef, stir to mix
Add the flour to this mixture and stir to cook – about 2 minutes
Add the stock or water, it should thicken
Season with the Worcestershire, salt and pepper – let cool – this mixture should be moist. It should also taste great, if it doesn’t add more seasonings- Worcestershire, salt, pepper
Remove the pastry from the fridge, unwrap and roll on a floured surface, about 1/8″ thick – if this feels too thick, make it thinner, it won’t rise and you don’t want too much pastry around your patty
Cut circles, re-roll the scraps, cut circles etc.
Take 1 tbsp. or so, of the filling, place it in the lower half of the circle, wet the edges of the lower half with water, fold the top pastry over and press together/crimp to seal – repeat
Bake at 375F for 30 – 35 minutes (I did 30 minutes in my convection at 375F)
Chili Peppers Galore – Tabasco, Ghost and in the background – Jalapenos