Cooking Thursday - Meat Pastries

Good morning everyone :)

Well, Cooking Thursday is back. I decided back in May to give it a break while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with it, whether I wanted to keep just the Cooking Thursday or go back to the original Slow Cooking Thursday. Then all the moving came into play and I never got around to deciding anything, and frankly, I've been missing this feature so I think it's time to bring it back and leave things as they are.

Cooking, Slow Cooking, whatever you wish, as long as it's cooking related, you can share. So, let's get right into it, and I'm going to share a recipe that I made for dinner last night, it's a Portuguese recipe and one that I have very fond memories of because it reminds me of my childhood and my grandmother.

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Pasteis de Massa Tenra - Meat Pastries

250 grams of flour (about 1 cups)
225 ml of water (little less than a cup), lukewarm
35 grams of butter (3 and half tablespoons), melted
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt




Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and the melted butter, the olive oil and the lukewarm water.  Beat the mixture rapidly and well.

Dump the dough onto a floured bowl, then cover the bowl with a warm bowl (just take a bowl bigger than the one you're using for the dough, run it under boiling water, quickly wipe down and place it over the dough as quickly as possible).

Let the dough rest for an hour and a half.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface, cut with a biscuit cutter or a glass into circles. 

Add the meat filling (little more than a teaspoon), fold the dough over and seal the edges using a fork.  Place the pastries on a floured surface.

Fry in hot oil until golden brown and then transfer onto paper towels to absorb oil.  Serve immediately.

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For the meat filling, I make a very basic one.

Meat Filling

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely diced
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
bay leaf
paprika
nutmeg
white sauce (bechamel)
parsley

In a skillet, add the butter, the onion and the garlic.  Cook over medium heat until onion is transparent, don't let the garlic burn.

Add the ground beef and continue cooking until browned.  Season with salt and pepper, bay leaf, paprika and a dash of nutmeg.  Stir well and simmer for a minute or two.

For the white sauce, I just make a simple bechamel, this recipe makes about a cup.


White Sauce (Bechamel)

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk, heated
Salt and pepper


Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, don't let it brown — about 2 minutes. Add the milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, usually I add nutmeg, but since I've already added some in the meat filling I'm omitting it from here.

Cook for a minute more, then remove from heat.