Thursday 3 November 2011

Savoury Turnovers

I love savoury pastries... Quiche, steak&kidney pie, pot pie, pizza, petits fours... Love them all, and they make great comfort food!

Yesterday night I tried to make turnovers, based on a recipe from realsimple.com (didn't know the name, just recognized it as yummy stuff from the photo!).

So my version included (for 4 turnovers):
- 2 store-bought pie crusts (the puff pastry kind)
- 350g beef&pork mince (I used 450g, but I found that was a bit much) - it would work well with 100% beef mince as well
- 2 carrots
- 4 shallots
- 250g fresh spinach (which is really a lot nicer than the canned version imo)
- 50g parmesan (add more if you want it really cheesy, I just wanted a hint of taste)
- 1 egg
- some rosemary
- salt & pepper

So here's how you go about it:
1. Slice the carrots and soften them in a bit of olive oil. Let them color a little.
2. Slice the shallots and add them to the pan. Season with rosemary. It will start smelling very good:)
3. Add the spinach little by little, and stir well each time.
4. When the vegs are cooked but still crunchy, transfer to a big mixing bowl and put the meat in the pan.
Season with salt and pepper (skip the salt if you're going to use a lot of parmesan, as it'll get too salty otherwise), and cook through.
5. While it's cooking, preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
6. Add the cooked meat and the parmesan to the mixing bowl. Correct the seasoning if needed.
7. Cut the pie crusts in 2, spoon the meat&veg mix onto one side of each half-circle, leaving a 1cm border.
8. Wet the borders with a little water, fold the dough over to form a quarter-circle, and press firmly to seal (I crimped it with my fingers).
Cut 3 slits in each turnover.
9. Beat the egg and brush it over the turnovers (so they get nice and golden in the oven).
Transfer to a baking sheet with baking paper (I used the baking paper that came with the pie crusts) and cook for 15min (or until risen and golden brown).

There you go :)