In The Kitchen: MINI BEEF CURRY PIES

Ingredients:

1/2 Tbsp Pepper
1/2 Tbsp Salt
1/2 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp Ketchup
1 Tbsp Oil
3/4 lbs. Ground Beef
1 Onion
2 Small or 1 Large Potato
3 Tbsp Curry
1 Cup Peas
Cooking Spray
1/4 cup Milk

Forgot to include the following items in the picture above!!  I'm so sorry.. I tend to cook as I go along and not according to recipes really. So I don't always remember everything to include in the beginning and it only occurs to me while I'm ACTUALLY cooking.

2 Boxes of Puff Pastry (4 sheets total - forgot to include the 2nd box)
1 Tbsp Garlic
1 Tbsp Ginger

Defrost your two boxes of puff pastry for about 15 mins.

While your puff pastry is defrosting wash, peel and dice your potato and onions.

Add your oil, garlic and ginger into a pan and turn on to med high heat.

Combine your beef, sugar, salt, pepper, soy sauce, ketchup and mix together.

After mixing the beef together add it to your hot pan and fry with the ginger and garlic.

When your beef is almost done cooking add your onions and cook until the onions are clear. Then take the entire beef & onion mixture off the pan and put to the side.

Drain the oil but keep some of it.. just enough for your potatoes.

Add your potato to the pan. 

(BTW Don't wash the pan!  You want all the yummy beef fat lol!)

Add your curry powder.

Stir until your potatoes are evenly coated with the curry powder.

Add about 1/4 cup water to your potatoes.  

Just enough to "steam" your potatoes so they will cook and become soft - add more water if your potatoes are still hard.. the amount of water tend to change depending on the type of potato you use.

Once your potatoes are soft you can add your peas and your beef mixture from earlier.

Combine and then put on a separate plate to cool.  

You'll want the filling to be at room temperature before you start filling the pastry dough otherwise it can "melt" the dough.

Pre-Heat oven 400 Degrees F.

By now your puff pastry should be defrosted so you can pinch together all of the seams.

While you are waiting for your filling to cool you can start to make your pastry shells. Use a cookie cutter if you have one because it's obviously easier or if you're like me and don't have one that's a round shape you can use a container/bowl ect and a knife.

Simply place your container down and press down (mine is about 3.5 inches) and run a knife around the ring of the container.

The crust should come right out in a round shape :)

Repeat until you've made round pastry shells out of the entire sheet of dough.

Peel all of the remaining leftover dough, roll into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer.

Spray cooking spray onto a baking pan lined w/parchment paper.

And line your pastry shells in a row on the sheet - allow some space in between so they have room to puff and expand.

Add your filling to the center of each circle.

                            I usually do about 2 heaping Tbsp of filling in each pocket.

Once all of your fillings are done take a bit of water and wet the outer "ring" of your puff pastry right around the filling.  This will help seal the top shell to the bottom part of the pie.

Take another pastry shell and put on top of the filling and press down on the edges to seal the outer ring.

Once you've added "tops" to each of your pastry pies and sealed them.  You can do a quick milk wash.  This helps it brown up nicely in the oven.  I know egg is more traditional.. but I just prefer using milk because I don't really think any extra Cholesterol needs to be added to the dish lol!!  And the result is the same with milk :)

If you don't have a brush don't worry!!  

Use a clean paper towel dip it into your milk and pat on your pie pockets.

Now to make your pies look prettier you can use a fork and press down on the pie pockets around the outer edge.

Once you are done you can pop it in the oven for 30 min!

While you are waiting for the 1st batch to bake you can take the leftover pastry dough from earlier out of the freezer.  Add some cornstarch to parchment paper to work with your leftover dough.

You want to put the dough in the freezer to make it cold because otherwise the dough is really hard to work with - it will stick to the rolling pin.  Roll out until you've made a large enough sheet.

And repeat the cutting out process from earlier.

Peel off the remaining dough and return wrapped to the freezer.

Can't help but sneak a peek while they are baking tehehe!

And then repeat assembling your pie pockets - by the time you are done you can take the LAST and final leftover pastry dough out of the freezer.  Roll out and assemble.

There should be EXACTLY the right amount of filling to use up ALL of the pastry dough :)

And your done!

:)

They are the Hubs absolute favorite thing to eat. :)

I like to add a dollop of ketchup on top! :p

If you're being extra naughty serve along side some buttered mashed potatoes!