Canada Food Day: A tray full of sunshine: Jamaican Beef Patties

I know there are those who complain this summer is too cold.  We've only had one heat wave, the lawns are still green and relatively few people have collapsed of heat exhaustion.

And they think this is a bad thing.

Me, I LOVE this year's summer.  It's been a comfortable temp, I don't really have to have my air conditioner on, my little front garden is plumptious with blossoms and well...I'm still on my first bottle of sunblock.  The sun is shining and the birds are singing.  What more can I ask?

This past weekend was the August long weekend and it was gorgeous (again). Perfect to celebrate Canada Food Day.

What I really like about this day of food is that whatever you decide to make is perfectly okay. As far as I can tell, there aren't any real rules, except it must be food and part of the Canadian fabric.  And really...with a country that's embraced multiculturalism, that means every cuisine is welcome.

I'll admit this year, I decided to satisfy a bit of a craving I've had for a while: Jamaican patties. A friend made some last month, and I realised it's been a couple of years since I last had good Jamaican patties. Almost every patty has come from the freezer aisle of the decidedly non Jamaican market.  Having my friend's version sort of set off a lightbulb...I could make my own.

Jamaican patties were never something I'd contemplated making...and gosh...they're just savoury handpies.  I've had some good ones--flavourful and zingy...and I've had some bad ones--bland, tough...I even had ones that were decidedly sour.

So after some research, I came across this 2005 recipe from the New York Times and decided to give it a go.  It's pretty easy--no curveballs thrown.  But then I tasted it during the simmering stage.  Hrmm...it was decidedly lacking, if not a little boring--don't get me wrong.  It was hot, but that's all it really was. It needed a bit more sweet, a bit more sour and some deeper flavours.  Out came three bottles: nam pla, HP sauce and Worcestershire.  Et voila...my first Jamaican patties.

A relatively quick trip into the oven and out popped trays full of spice sunshine.  Nummy, nummy spicy sunshine. A friend who's favourite snack are these zesty little handpies tried one.  His opinion: definitely better than the grocers and he preferred my pastry because the others are too flaky for his liking.  I'll take that victory

Jamaican Beef Patties
adapted from Jamaican Beef Patties by the New York Times.  

Yield 12

Ingredients:

Pastry
500g (860ml/3.5c, less 1Tbsp) ap flour
1.5tsp (10ml) salt
1dsp (10ml/2tsp) turmeric
1tsp (5ml) curry powder
250g (320ml/1.25c plus half tablespoon) lard (see notes)
100ml ice water

Filling
500g (1lb+ 2oz) lean ground beef (see notes)
15g (1Tbsp) butter, melted and cooled (see notes)
1dspn (10ml/2tsp) dried thyme
vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Scotch bonnet pepper, seeded and finely chopped, divided
0.5tsp (2.5ml) paprika
0.5tsp (2.5ml) ground allspice
0.75tsp (3.75ml) salt
1tsp (5ml) black pepper
1tsp (5ml) sugar
1tsp (5ml) nam pla
1Tbsp (15ml) HP sauce
1dspn (10ml/2tsp) Worcestershire sauce
375ml (1.5c) water

Instructions

Pour the melted butter over the meat and sprinkle with thyme. Lightly mix and set in refrigerator for at least five minutes or until the butter is solid

For the pastry:
Mix flour, salt, turmeric and curry powder in a large bowl.

Grate in fat and rub together with flour, until the mixuture looks like fine rubble, with some pieces the size of peas, and others smaller.

Pour in iced water and lightly mix with your hands or a couple of forks, adding more ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a slightly sticky dough.

Knead dough for two minutes, form into two disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate while you make filling.

For the filling

Slick the bottom of a large pan with oil and heat over a medium flame. Add onion, garlic and half the chili pepper. Sweat the ingredients, stirring often.

Add paprika and allspice and stir to coat. Add beef mixture, breaking up any lumps.

Add enough water water to cover meat. Mix in salt, pepper and sugar. Bring mixture to a boil and set to simmer for 30 minutes.

At the 15 minute point, stir in the nam pla, HP and Worcestershire sauces, and chilli. Adjust flavours to taste--it should be slightly sweet, earthy, hot with a hint of acid. Simmer until the meat is soft and the gravy reduces to a clingy sauce-- about another 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool.

To make the patties

Heat oven to 190C/375F/moderately hot oven/ Line two cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Pour some water into a small bowl and have a fork on hand.

Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator and divide in half.

Lightly flour the board and quickly roll out the pastry to about 2mm thick or large enough to cut three 15cm/6" circles (approximately the size or a teacup's saucer).

Divide the filling into 12 equal portions (approximately two generous tablespoons). Place one portion of filling on the lower half of one circle.

Damp your finger with the water and run it around the edge of the circle. Fold over the pastry, so you have a half moon (or rising sun!). Crimp the edge with a fork and transfer to a prepared pan.

Repeat with remaining dough and filling to produce 12 patties.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is firm and slightly tinged with brown.

Serve warm, or in a soft potato or hamburger bun.

Notes:

• The Jamaican patties I've had have had a flaky pastry. This pastry is more like a shortcrust, than a flaky crust--to add flake, use half lard and half butter.
• If you have a flaky pastry crust you like, make enough for 1kg/2lbs of pastry, adding the salt, turmeric and curry powders to the mix. 
• If you are using regular minced beef, do not add butter.

My Darling One: Six Years Later

Six years ago today the man I loved passed away.

I was at my stylist's the other day and mentioned the anniversary. She stopped primping.

"Wow.  Has it been that long?"

Yup.  It has.  

Six years is a long time...but at the same time it's not.  

As I mentioned last year, so many things have happened in the first five years--new home, new job, new opportunities, new romances--with more in the last year--my three feline companions, Hagia, Zeus and Bean, passed away, but two kittens entered my life (more on them later); after my job was squooshed in a global resizing I hung out my shingle and started Peacock Blue Communications, my own PR and Communications consultancy and through it I've met and worked with some great people, and heck...I've even become a wee bit more adventurous in my gardening.   Yup.  Life is still good....although I could be posting recipes and other foodish things here more often.

Yes, I do miss Michael, but I know he's not coming back and some things end sooner than we'd like, and in ways that we never really thought of.  That said, I know he's watching over me...and I swear I could feel him recoil at the retro-inspired paint colours for the kitchen (he wasn't a fan of blue, and really...that particular shade of teal would have been met with some great opposition).  He's still cheering me on and offering encouragement.  I still find pennies in the oddest places in the house.

I've often said that I believe people leave us when they have learnt all they have to learn and they have taught all they have to teach. As long as we continue to pass on those lessons we've received, those who have passed on have never truly left any of us.

jasmine

Happy Canada Day! Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, where-ever you are.  Hope you'e doing something special today, whether it's watching fireworks, getting together with friends or simply raising a glass or lifting a fork.

A few weeks ago, Jen, my friend who's half the team behind The Smile Epidemic put together the #CanadaSmiles Twitter Campaign, to highlight what distinctly Canadian things make people smile.  I turned it into a 30-day mission, looking at innovation, music, people, writers, and of course, food, and posting my thoughts onto my @PckBlue account, and retweeting to @cardamomaddict.

All in all, it was a great little exercise.  Half the fun was winnowing down my list to 30 tweets--no small feat, I tell you.

One of the more interesting things I found out was the process to make modern peanut butter was patented by a Canadian, Marcellus Gilmore Edson.   He was a chemist (pharmacist) who developed this as a way to feed people who had problems eating solid or hard food.

Good gravy.  That's simply awesome.

Quite honestly, this put a little spring in my step.  I can't explain why.  I do like peanut butter, but I don't really eat a lot of it.  Regardless, this little find got my brain thinking about my Canada Day post (yes I've been remiss in keeping this space regularly updated).

One of my favourite ice creams is peanut butter ice cream but I never thought of making my own.  Until I learned the above tidbit.  After a little research, I found this Saveur recipe.  The only modification I made was to not do the swirl--I'm just not a swirly person.  Oh...and I didn't include chopped nuts in the final product--mostly because I find most of the nuts available are old and beginning to think of possibly turning.  Apparently I've got great set of tastebuds...

The recipe is custard-based and super easy to make.  The final product is good, but a little rich for me...not that it's a bad thing.  When I make this again I probably won't use heavy cream, but instead 18%.

My favourite way of having peanut butter ice cream is with fudge and salted caramels sauces...it kind of makes like a Wunderbar (Starbar, for those in the UK and in Scandinavia)...but without the crunchy bits.   Maybe that will be my next stage of peanut butter ice cream making...Wunderbar ice cream...hmmmm

Regardless...Happy Canada Day!

Recipe link: Saveur.com ~ Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream


cheers!
jasmine
  I'm a quill for hire!