Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Tuesday

Irish beef hand pies (recipe in the comments)
Peas with thyme

Hot cocoa
______________________________________________________________
So this is the long-awaited end to our St. Patrick's Day season - a new recipe. I saw this before St. Patrick's and filed it away, thinking it sounded just like us. Sadly the end product wasn't as impressive as we hoped. The actual problem was that it was a bit too much like the stereotype of Irish cooking: bland. We tried to jazz it up a bit after I made the filling, but it still ended up a bit boring. Especially given that this was a pretty long and involved recipe, I think we're disinclined to reproduce it. However, it was not so tragic that I'm unwilling to post the recipe. I have annotated it with our "jazzed" version.

Prep Notes
Difficulty: Moderate
Chopping: Cabbage, potato
Time: 35 minutes to prep, 1 hour or so to cool, 15 more minutes prep, 10-15 minutes to bake
Make ahead: Yes, in fact the recipe has instructions for freezing the pies

Reaction
J: "Not worth the trouble."
M: "Only ok."

1 comment:

J said...

Irish Beef Hand Pies – Martha Stewart
Makes 8 hand pies AKA pasties

Note: Pastie rhymes with nasty, not hasty :)

1 T canola oil
¼ head green cabbage, shredded
½ lb red potato, scrubbed and diced
1 lb ground red meat (we use buffalo)
3 T tomato paste
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ t dried thyme
1 cup water
Salt
Pepper
Flour, for rolling
2 9” pie crusts, homemade or store bought

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet (with a lid) heat the oil over medium heat. Add cabbage and potatoes. Cook until they are beginning to brown, about 7-9 minutes. Add ground meat, breaking up with a spoon. Cook until no longer pink. Stir in tomato paste, Worcestershire, thyme, and water. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Lightly mash mixture with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool completely.

On a lightly floured surface, roll each crust into a 14” square and cut each into 4 equal squares. Place a ½ cup filling in one half of each square, leaving a ½” border around the filling. Brush borders with water; fold dough over filling to enclose. Crimp edges with fork to seal. Cut 3 small vents in each pie.

Transfer pies to two-foil-lined rimmed baking sheets; bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.

To freeze: Prepare through step 2. Arrange unbaked pies on a baking sheet (they should not touch); freeze until firm, about 1 hour. Wrap each pie in foil. Place in a resealable plastic bag and freeze for up to two months. When you decide to bake, bake as normal, increasing the baking time to 20-30 minutes.