Jamaican Me Hungry Patties
makes 10–15 patties
1–1.5 hours cooking time
I created this recipes back in 2013 after an extensive amount of research. I am not Jamaican, so I had to make sure that I studied the websites and blog pages of Jamaican cooks so I could create authentic patties. I also had to make sure I created a shortcrust pastry that was light, crisp, and flavourful. We all remember making shortcrust pastry in school, which felt like an absolute disaster at the time. But I have learnt that you should never be afraid of making pastry. However, I am giving you guys the opportunity to buy it ready made in the shops. But promise me this: you will sprinkle curry powder over it before you roll it out and still use an egg wash of egg, water, and turmeric so they can come out golden. If you want to be brave and make the pastry, make sure you always have your flour to hand. Spread it on your surface, spread it on your rolling pin, spread it on your hands, because the stickier things get, the more stressed you’ll get. As for the filling, it is a very spicy mix of beef mince and sweet peppers, however combined with the pastry, you get very moreish parcels of fun. A nice chilled drink of your choice and you’re on an island in the sun.
Ingredients:
For the Filling:
□ 1 onion, diced
□ 1 garlic clove, sliced
□ 1 red or yellow or orange pepper, diced
□ 500g beef mince
□ 100ml beef stock
□ 1tsp dried thyme
□ ½ tsp all-spice
□ 1tsp chilli flakes
□ ½ tsp dried rosemary
□ ½ tsp cumin
□ ½ tsp paprika
□ ½ tsp turmeric
□ 1tsp cayenne pepper
□ ½ mild curry powder
□ Worcestershire sauce
□ Salt and pepper
□ Breadcrumbs
For the Pastry:
□ 250g plain flour
□ 1tsp mild curry powder
□ Two pinches of salt
□ 110g salted butter, slightly softened
□ Warm water
□ Or you can just buy ready to roll out shortcrust pastry!
For the Egg Wash:
□ 1 egg
□ 1tsp turmeric
□ 1tbsp water
Method:
- Begin by chopping up the onions, garlic, and pepper. Dice the onions and peppers into small chunks, trying to make them as square as possible. You don’t want them largely cut otherwise when biting into a patty, you might bite into a giant piece of onion or pepper. You want everything in consistent little sizes. Just slice the garlic. I usually make these in batches of 30+ using three colours of peppers. I think it all looks rather pretty on the chopping board.
2. The next thing to do is to fry the mince. Add the mince into a pan with no oil, and let it fry in its own juices. Make sure to stir the mince so it doesn’t clump together.
3. When you notice that there is quite a significant amount of beef fat at the bottom, add in the chopped onions, garlic and pepper so they can fry in it for five minutes.
4. Once the onions have gone slightly translucent, the peppers softened, and the mince completely browned, pour in 100ml of beef stock and stir. You make the stock by adding a beef stock cube to freshly boiled water.
5. Next, the exciting part: the melody of spices and herbs. In goes 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, ½ a teaspoon of all-spice, 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes, ½ a teaspoon of dried rosemary, ½ a teaspoon cumin, ½ a teaspoon of paprika, ½ a teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and ½ a teaspoon of mild curry powder. A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste and there you go. If you don’t like food that is spicy, you are more than welcome to cut it down and if you feel the need for more, add more.
6. Let this all simmer on medium-low for 15 minutes, making sure to taste beforehand to see if you are happy with all the flavours.
7. The next stage is to add breadcrumbs to absorb any excess liquid. You may find that you don’t have to add any. Every time I make this, I add different amounts of breadcrumbs. You may return to the pan and see that the beef and peppers have soaked up all the liquid. You may return and it’ll all still be there. So what you need to do if you see any liquid is add your breadcrumbs one tablespoon at a time. You want a filling that is still moist, but not wet and drowning. Stir in the breadcrumbs after each addition to see how the filling reacts to them.
8. To test that you are happy with the consistency, draw the filling to one side of the pan. If you can see the bottom of the pan, you know you have enough breadcrumbs. And that’s the filling finished. Turn off the heat, leave it to cool and focus on the pastry.
9. If you have bought your pastry, skip down to step 14. If you are making your own pastry, weigh out your 250g of plain flour and put it in a bowl along with 1 teaspoon of curry powder, 2 pinches of salt, and 110g of butter cut into cubes. The butter needs to be soft, but not too soft. Firm enough to be cut into cubes. It should be cold to ensure a flaky pastry.
10. Next rub the butter into the flour. This requires you to use the pads of your fingers and thumbs to mix the butter into the flour. It’s a bit like sprinkling fairy dust, you use the same action to break down the butter into the flour. Do not use the palm of your hands. You want the mixture to resemble bread crumbs. If your thumbs start to ache, you’re doing it right. To make sure you have broken down all the bits of butter, you can shake the bowl a bit and the big pieces will come to the surface.
11. Now you need to add your warm water one tablespoon at a time, stirring as you do this to encourage the dough to stick together. You will know it’s enough water once it clumps together.
12. When clumped, it’s time to be done with the cutlery and to use your hands. It should all come together to form a nice clean ball. If the mixture is too sticky, simply sprinkle in more flour into the bowl to remove some of the wetness. If it is too dry, it won’t stick together and the mixture will need some drops of water.
13. Wrap your ball in clingfilm and then leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
14. After the 20 minutes are done, sprinkle flour all over a clean work surface and on your rolling pin. You can always use a bottle to act as your rolling pin! Plop the pastry into the middle of the floured surface. As you roll out your pastry, make sure to rotate it, but do not turn it over! The rotation makes sure it doesn’t stick to the surface and helps you roll out a large piece. If things get sticky again, sprinkle more flour. Roll out the pastry until it’s around half a centimetre thick and using a bowl, cut out a circle. You can make these patties any size you want.
15. Using a little pressure, cut out all the circles by rotating the bowl. Remove the uncut pastry around the edges and roll this into a ball ready to be rolled flat and cut again.
16. Your filling, now cooled, is spooned into the middle of the circle. Add around a tablespoon of the filling, depending on the size of your pastry circle, lining it in the centre.
17. Then what you need to do is bring the left side of the pastry over to the right side to close it. Then using the pads of your fingers, seal the edges with a slight rubbing action so the pastry can stick together.
18. And then using a fork, press down the edges to crimp them. This will also guarantee a sealed edge.
19. This sealed patty is then placed onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. On there you brush on the egg wash so they can be shiny and golden when they come out the oven.
20. Prick the top twice with a fork so steam can escape and they don’t explode.
21. These beauties go into a pre-heated oven set to 180 degrees to bake for 20 minutes. You know the pastry is ready when it has a hard bottom and the edges are golden.
This recipe may seem long winded but you really taste the quality and the effort that has gone into them. But thus is the life of a student. You put in so much love, care and attention to detail in your work, whether they be essays, stories, or photographs in order to make yourself successful and happy. So why not add to your happiness with these sunshine golden pies.
