Curry Puffs/Savory Turnovers

Curry Puffs

Curry puffs or savory turnovers - they are puff pastry "hand pies" filled with a savory ground beef mixture.

I made them this evening with the other half of the ground beef I bought and cooked on Saturday.  I had used half of the mixture to make spaghetti sauce and kept the other half aside in the fridge.  The ground beef mixture already contained diced onions and grated carrots.  I normally also add diced celery and, sometimes, diced bell peppers, but I didn't have either on hand this time, so the mixture didn't have those vegetables added to it.

Today, I boiled some potatoes, peeled and cut them into cubes, and added  them to the ground beef, along with some curry powder, finely minced green chilies, a bit of chili powder, salt, and lemon juice to taste, and cooked it for a few minutes to blend the flavors:

Ground Beef Mixture

I had a package of frozen puff pastry squares in the freezer, which I kept out to thaw on my old Tupperware pastry sheet, which I floured to keep the puff pastry from sticking to it:

Puff Pastry Squares

I do know how to make puff pastry from scratch, but often buy the package of frozen puff pastry from the ethnic grocery store for convenience.  Each packet contains 8 squares and sells for $2.50, usually; but every so often, they go on sale for $1.99 a packet and I buy a few to keep in the freezer.

Once the puff pastry had thawed a little bit and the ground beef mixture had cooled a bit, I brushed the edges of the pastry with water and put a heaping spoonful of the ground beef mixture on one half of the pastry squares:

 


And fold them over and press the edges closed, enclosing the meat mixture:

Then, press the edges with the tines of a fork to help seal the edges:

Next, I place the pastry triangles on a baking tray (I line my baking trays with foil for easy clean up) and brush the tops with milk.  One can brush the tops with a beaten egg, too, but I was only making 8 turnovers and a whole egg would have been too much.  The milk was good enough:

I baked them in a 400F oven for...um, about 30 minutes.  I never replaced my timer after it broke and forgot to check the time when I put the curry puffs in!  Then, I got busy cooking something else and forgot to check on the curry puffs, until I got the unmistakable smell of something on the verge of getting burnt!  Oops! 

Oh, yes, they are done!  LOL.  Starting to get a little too brown on the bottom - so I quickly removed them from the baking trays and put them on the wire cooling rack (top picture). 

I had one for dinner, tonight and it was delicious.  I'll probably have a couple of them for brunch, tomorrow.  They are best when eaten on the day they are baked, when the pastry is nice and crisp, but they will keep in the fridge and can be frozen, as well, and reheated.

Have you had savory turnovers similar to these?