Tuesday, April 5, 2011

MMMmmm makeovers

I was supposed to post on Monday, but since Ramen Queen obliged with her post, I'm taking her day today. 

Last week I pulled out some leftover beef stew that I had stuck in the freezer after St. Patrick's Day, and I decided to turn it into little pasties or turnovers.  You can call them what you like, but they were essentially handheld meat pies. 
Pasties/Turnovers/Meat Pies
Ingredients:
Leftover stew
Pastry/Pie dough--this can be store bought dough or homemade.  See my post from Feb. 28 for a great recipe to work with.
 Gravy--you can use homemade or store bought gravy mixes.

To start off, give your stew a quick analysis.  Is it thick or thin?  If your stew is real juicy you can do a couple of things--
1.You can drain it off and heat up and thicken it to make a gravy to be served with your pasties; 
2.You can add a few spoonfuls of flour to your stew to thicken it up so it doesn't run all over your dough; 
3. You can work with your stew as is.  

I chose to add a bit of flour to my stew to thicken it up a bit.  

I rolled out my pastry dough on a floured surface, so it was pretty thin-about 1/8 inch thick, but I could move it around without it breaking or tearing.  I used a clean large yogurt container to cut out my circles--anything about 4 or 5 inches in diameter would work as well.  

I spooned two tablespoons of stew onto the circle, moistened the edge with water to create a seal, and folded over the dough.  

I then used a fork to crimp the edge and complete the seal.  

I poked it a couple of times to vent my turnover a little and then put it onto my cookie sheet.  

I baked them for about 20-25 minutes or so, at 400 degrees until the edges got nice and golden brown.  Instead of making homemade gravy, which I could have done with the gravy from the stew, I opted to use a couple of packets of gravy mix that I had in my pantry.  Some of my family members like to dip these in ketchup instead of gravy.  

Serve with a green salad and you're set for a delicious meal.  Happy baking!

-Baker

No comments: