Today I have a yummy little snack, beef puff pastry to share with you all. Back in Kerala, India, these puffs are legendary. You will find loads of variants of the puff with a variety of the fillings – chicken, veg, mutton etc. They are pretty easy to find, though finding a good one might not be too easy.
Here in Ireland, I was thrilled to find I could buy frozen puff pastry sheets. That meant it was now possible to enjoy these little puffs with a fraction of the effort and time involved. Now don’t get me wrong. I am all about cooking and baking from scratch, but everyone needs to be open to a few shortcuts every now and then, especially when life gets hectic. So today, we are going to use the store bought frozen version. That covers the pastry. For a tasty filling I have used beef mince. Also, you need to make sure that the liquid has cooked out so that you don’t have a runny filling. A runny filling will only result in a soggy pastry.
Now it’s just a matter of assembling the puffs. I cut up each thawed sheet of pastry into 6 portions and place the filling on one side keeping away from the edge. Run a finger dipped in water along the edges and fold over to seal. Apply an egg wash and bake. You can make these in a larger batch and refrigerate them. Just bring them to room temperature and heat them up on a pan or in the oven and you can sit down to a nice little snack. Very often, I have these with some tomato ketchup, and I can safely say, nothing beats it.
For the beef puff pastry recipe, you will need….
Ingredients
- 1 packet Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets
- 300 gms. Beef, minced
- 2 nos. Onion
- 1 no. Tomato, chopped
- 1 tsp. Garam Masala
- 2 tsps. Meat Masala
- 2 nos. Green chillies
- 1 tsp. Ginger-garlic paste
- Salt, as required
- 1 no. Egg
- 3 tbsp. Oil
Method
- Cook the beef mince in cooker or in a pan, with salt and turmeric along with as little water as possible.
- In another pan, fry the onions in oil until they are golden brown.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste, chillies and tomato and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Add meat masala and salt and stir for half a min and lower the heat.
- Let it cook, until oil separates from the mixture.
- Add the cooked meat and mix well. Let the water evaporate.
- Stir in the garam masala and keep aside to cool.
- While the meat is cooking, thaw the pastry sheets.
- Cut into 6 parts.
- Flatten each piece a little more and put 1 spoon of meat mixture into it and fold into half.
- Press sides to seal.
- Preheat oven to 375°Fahrenheit.
- Repeat with all pieces and arrange them on a greased baking sheet.
- Mix 1 teaspoon of water with the egg and beat until well- mixed.
- Brush this on the puffs and bake until golden brown, around 15 mins.
- Yummy beef puff pastry is ready to serve!!
