Sometimes upgrades aren't the best...
I'm sitting in my cubicle at work, enjoying the blessed silence since it's 8:30 PM and everyone else has gone home. I'm here simply because I am far too lazy to go running out into the wet weather to catch the bus from work to home. It's raining water and sleet, and I'm seriously not mentally prepared. So rather than read the papers I'm supposed to, or rather than running any experiments that may once again redeem myself in the eyes of my employer, I've decided to give this blog an update and maybe try something new (more specifically, this new format). After this, I'll probably catch the bus and go straight to the bar, and then attempt to work when I have a cold beer in my sights.
I often wonder if I'd get more traffic on this site if I purchased a blogging platform (like Wordpress) and created my own "dotcom" site. Often times, when I mention blogspot, I get things like "amateur" and "not your own," which are words that I will admit seem...not so great. Nevertheless, I remind myself that no one probably reads this, as there are no fool-proof excellent recipes, nor are there any beautiful pictures. In conclusion, blogspot has served me well, so I'll continue to use it until I'm ready to move...which may be never. We'll see.
Life has been pretty quiet lately, and by quiet I mean boring and stressful for a lot of reasons I'd rather not get into right now. On another note, I made meat pies. They turned out really well, especially the pastry (nice and flaky), but I really do need to work on my final pastry shaping techniques; as you can see, the meat pies look like uncomfortable pillows. Also, the filling could have turned out a lot better...I precooked the meat, thinking that browning the ground beef would give it more flavor, but I think it took away the cohesiveness so the filling crumbled out (instead of being juicy and gravy-like) when cutting the pastries open (a.k.a. eating them). Next time around (which will probably be soon), I think I'm going to not precook the ground beef, and instead just let it marinate longer, as well as add something gravy-like to the mix. I also had way too much filling in relation to pastry. I used two packages of ground beef, so I believe next time I will only use one. This pastry recipe makes about six meat pies (can roll out two sheets) of the size in the picture (two per person and some veg on the side makes a filling meal).
Mushroom Meat Pies
Pastry
4 oz. cold butter
8 oz. flour
cold water
So for shortcrust pastries, the general rule is that the fat or lard used is half the amount of the flour used. I used a food processor to quickly pulse, just a couple of times, the butter and flour together, but you can rub the butter into the flour with your hands as well. The goal is to get as much flour in contact with the butter as possible and aerate the mixture before the butter gets greasy (hence why a food processor is great for this). After you've pulsed the two ingredients together, pour it into a large mixing bowl and then sprinkle a tablespoon of water over the mixture. Using your hands (no food processor this time because you need to feel the shortcrust come together to get the right texture and know when you're overworking it too much; overworked crust means tough crust, I think), knead it together so that the dough sticks together, eventually forming into a ball. If it's not coming together because there's too much flour, dip your fingers in water and add to the mix. The mixing bowl should be clean when you're done, meaning that no dough should be sticking. Be careful though, don't add too much water or it'll be sticky and then you'll never get the bowl clean. Once it's in a ball, ziplock it in a bag and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes or even overnight; the gluten needs to activate so that you'll get that slightly chewy texture, but more importantly, so that when you roll out the pastry, it'll stick together and not just fall apart.
Filling
1 package ground beef, or any kind of minced meat
5 king oyster mushrooms (any mushroom is probably fine)
1 large onion
1/2 a leek stem
soy sauce
oyster sauce
sugar
S&P
2 eggs, one for the mixture, and the other for brushing the pastry
Dice or lightly food process the mushrooms, onions and leeks. Mix it all together and taste, adjusting your seasonings accordingly. I'm going to leave it raw next time (and yes, I do taste my raw meat to make sure it's not over-seasoned. I know, I'm gross). OR, next time, I'm going to use a mixture that looks like that picture to the right because it was delicious spicy shrimpy mushroomy chivey mess, courtesy of Pinky. After all that, roll out your dough until it's thin (use flour accordingly so that the dough doesn't stick to your rolling pin or board) and assemble your pies. Then brush your pastries with egg wash and bake at 390 degrees F until done, about 30 minutes.
I often wonder if I'd get more traffic on this site if I purchased a blogging platform (like Wordpress) and created my own "dotcom" site. Often times, when I mention blogspot, I get things like "amateur" and "not your own," which are words that I will admit seem...not so great. Nevertheless, I remind myself that no one probably reads this, as there are no fool-proof excellent recipes, nor are there any beautiful pictures. In conclusion, blogspot has served me well, so I'll continue to use it until I'm ready to move...which may be never. We'll see.
Life has been pretty quiet lately, and by quiet I mean boring and stressful for a lot of reasons I'd rather not get into right now. On another note, I made meat pies. They turned out really well, especially the pastry (nice and flaky), but I really do need to work on my final pastry shaping techniques; as you can see, the meat pies look like uncomfortable pillows. Also, the filling could have turned out a lot better...I precooked the meat, thinking that browning the ground beef would give it more flavor, but I think it took away the cohesiveness so the filling crumbled out (instead of being juicy and gravy-like) when cutting the pastries open (a.k.a. eating them). Next time around (which will probably be soon), I think I'm going to not precook the ground beef, and instead just let it marinate longer, as well as add something gravy-like to the mix. I also had way too much filling in relation to pastry. I used two packages of ground beef, so I believe next time I will only use one. This pastry recipe makes about six meat pies (can roll out two sheets) of the size in the picture (two per person and some veg on the side makes a filling meal).
Mushroom Meat Pies
Pastry
4 oz. cold butter
8 oz. flour
cold water
So for shortcrust pastries, the general rule is that the fat or lard used is half the amount of the flour used. I used a food processor to quickly pulse, just a couple of times, the butter and flour together, but you can rub the butter into the flour with your hands as well. The goal is to get as much flour in contact with the butter as possible and aerate the mixture before the butter gets greasy (hence why a food processor is great for this). After you've pulsed the two ingredients together, pour it into a large mixing bowl and then sprinkle a tablespoon of water over the mixture. Using your hands (no food processor this time because you need to feel the shortcrust come together to get the right texture and know when you're overworking it too much; overworked crust means tough crust, I think), knead it together so that the dough sticks together, eventually forming into a ball. If it's not coming together because there's too much flour, dip your fingers in water and add to the mix. The mixing bowl should be clean when you're done, meaning that no dough should be sticking. Be careful though, don't add too much water or it'll be sticky and then you'll never get the bowl clean. Once it's in a ball, ziplock it in a bag and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes or even overnight; the gluten needs to activate so that you'll get that slightly chewy texture, but more importantly, so that when you roll out the pastry, it'll stick together and not just fall apart.
Filling
1 package ground beef, or any kind of minced meat
5 king oyster mushrooms (any mushroom is probably fine)1 large onion
1/2 a leek stem
soy sauce
oyster sauce
sugar
S&P
2 eggs, one for the mixture, and the other for brushing the pastry
Dice or lightly food process the mushrooms, onions and leeks. Mix it all together and taste, adjusting your seasonings accordingly. I'm going to leave it raw next time (and yes, I do taste my raw meat to make sure it's not over-seasoned. I know, I'm gross). OR, next time, I'm going to use a mixture that looks like that picture to the right because it was delicious spicy shrimpy mushroomy chivey mess, courtesy of Pinky. After all that, roll out your dough until it's thin (use flour accordingly so that the dough doesn't stick to your rolling pin or board) and assemble your pies. Then brush your pastries with egg wash and bake at 390 degrees F until done, about 30 minutes.
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