PASTRIES & VARIATIONS: These curry-flavoured puff pastry treats have been a family favourite for many years. They'd never failed to be a crowd-pleaser at tea parties either.

CURRY BEEF PUFFS:

 

 

 

1 quantity of prepared puff pastry, see basic recipe                                                      

filling:

    1 lb minced beef                                                     

    1 tsp. salt

    5 to 6 shallot, finely chopped                                             

    ½ tsp. sugar

    3 cloves garlic, finely chopped                               

    2 tbsp. cornstarch  +  1/3 cup water

    1 onion, finely chopped                                         

    1 tbsp. cooking wine                                                           

    2 tbsp. curry powder

3 tbsp. cooking oil                                                                  

egg wash

 

 

 

Mix cornstarch with water into cornstarch solution and add it, together with salt, sugar and cooking wine, into the ground beef.  Mix well and set aside.

 

Heat oil in saucepan until very hot; then add garlic, shallots and onion and cook 1-2 minutes. Add curry powder and cook another minute, stirring constantly. Add in beef and cook until it is no longer pink. Transfer mixture, with a slotted spoon, to a bowl to cool completely.

 

Roll out puff pastry to ¼-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch diameter cookie cutter; cut out rounds of pastry. Gather up the scrapes, wrap well and freeze for use in another recipe, such as cheese straws later. Put pastry rounds on baking tray and transfer to refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes

 

Take pastry out from refrigerator. Put filling on one half of pastry round and moisten edges with egg wash. Fold the other half over to form a crescent, sealing edges firmly together. Repeat until all the pastry rounds are used up. Transfer filled pastries to baking trays and refrigerate 30 minutes before baking.

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Brush pastries with egg wash and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, or until puffed and golden brown.  Cool on racks and serve warm.

 

Pastries may be baked in advance. Cool pastries completely, wrap well and store in freezer. Frozen pastries keep well for up to 1 month.