Curried Beef Tartlets
BBC2 made these and a mushroom tartlet in an experiment a couple of weeks ago. Whilst the mushroom ones were “OK” these were extremely more-ish and I have been nagging him to do them again because I enjoyed them so much. He finally got around to doing them again today and even remembered to write up the recipe! I wholeheartedly recommend these little gems, they are really tasty and great finger food.

Ingredients:

Pastry
6 oz/175g plain flour
1 ½ oz/45g unsalted butter
1 ½ oz/45g lard
2 table spoons ice cold water

Filling
9 oz/275g minced beef
½ an onion finely chopped
3 oz frozen peas
1 beef stock cube
3 tablespoons red wine
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1 teaspoon corn flour
½ cup water
½ tablespoon oil
Salt & pepper

Method:

Filling
Place a small saucepan on a medium heat, add the oil and fry off the minced beef using a wooden spoon to break up the mice, when the mince is browned and cooked, about five minutes or so, then add the onion and sweat down moving the mixture to get an even colour and until the onions are translucent, add the curry powder and the stock cube stirring all the time as the mixture should be dry, then add red wine cook off the alcohol just a minute or two. Mix the corn flour with the water and stir into the mixture and after two to three minutes the mixture should be a thick creamy texture then add salt & pepper to taste then add the peas and remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Pastry
Place the flour in a food processor and pulse for a moment; add the cold butter and lard cubed and blend until you have fine bread crumbs, with the processor running add the ice cold water until the mixture comes together in a ball, place the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven 170 fan and butter your tart tin.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry to about an 1/8 inch, using a larger round pastry cutter to cut out discs to fill the bottom of each tartlet, then spoon in the cold curry mixture until it almost reaches the top, then you need to re-roll the remains of the pastry and cut out discs to cover the tops of the tarts, gently press them down to seal the pies and with a shape knife make two slits in the top to let out any steam, brush with a little milk and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin then loosen with a knife and place on a wire cooling rack. Eat hot or cold and they can be frozen.