Spiced Beef & Bulgur Hand Pies

Ingredients

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup (150 g) finely chopped onion

1 cup (120 g) chopped scallions, white and most of the green parts

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 or 4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 small hot fresh chile, such as habanero, deribbed, seeded, and finely chopped

S ounces (225 g) ground beef chuck

1 teaspoon ground allspice

I teaspoon smoked paprika, hot or mild

1 teaspoon curry powder, hot or mild

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup (80 g) bulgur, any grind

1¾ cups (420 ml) beef broth or chicken broth

Whole Wheat Flaky Pastry

Dough with Turmeric (page 313)

1 egg, beaten

Directions

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, scallions, and salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion starts getting juicy and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, and chile and keep cooking until all the aromatics are quite soft and translucent, another couple of minutes.

Add the beef to the pan, breaking it up into smaller bits with a spatula or wooden spoon, and cook until no longer pink, but don't let it get brown and crusty. Add the allspice, smoked paprika, curry powder, sugar, and black pepper and cook for another minute.

Stir in the bulgur and broth. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bulgur has softened and swelled up and all the liquid has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or any of the spices-you want the filling to be zesty.

Let the filling cool completely, first on the counter and then in the fridge.

To assemble the hand pies, divide the dough into 16 pieces. Gently shape each piece into a round and flatten the round by pressing with your fingertips until you have a disk that's about 3 inches (7.5 cm) across. If the dough is sticking as you're working, dust it lightly with more flour.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll one disk of dough into a round about 7 inches (18 cm) across; it's okay if it's not perfectly round or the dough is ripping a bit; you can just press it back together.

Scoop out a couple of generous tablespoons of cooled filling (one-sixteenth of the filling, to be precise) and pile it onto the lower half of the dough, leaving a border all around.

Brush the border lightly with water using a pastry brush or your finger. Fold over the top half of the dough round, pressing it gently around the filling, and then press gently to seal the two layers of dough. Again, if the dough rips a bit, don't stress, just pinch or press to repair. These are rustic! Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling; if your kitchen is warm, pop the assembled pies in the fridge as you work. Chill for at least 30 minutes before baking. If you want to freeze some, do it now: Arrange them on a tray and put into the freezer. Freeze until they are firm, then put them into zip-top freezer bags. (If you don't think you'll be consuming these in a month or so, wrap each hand pie individually in plastic wrap before putting them into the zip-top bag.) Press out all the air and freeze, and take out only the number you need at one time.

When ready to cook the pies, heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

Brush the tops of the pies with the beaten egg, cut three little slits in the top to release steam during cooking, and arrange on a baking sheet (you can line it with parchment, but you won't need to). Bake until the pastry is a rich deep golden, the underside is lightly brown, and the filling is heated through and bubbling a bit at the seams, 18 to 25 minutes. Let the hand pies cool for a few minutes, then enjoy, plain or with a hot sauce.

Notes

Inspired by a Jamaican street food snack called beef patties, which I ate a lot of when I lived in Brooklyn, these savory hand pies-flaky turmeric-scented pastry wrapped around a spiced beef and bulgur filling (the bulgur's not traditional) — make a fine

lunch or dinner. I like using ground chuck in the filling because that cut of beef has such great beefy flavor, but what's most important is to use good meat-humanely raised and preferably local. Making and shaping these hand pies does take a bit of time, but they freeze so nicely that I suggest making a batch and freezing some before cooking, so that you have near-instant joy at hand. To cook frozen hand pies, don't thaw, just reduce the

oven temperature to 350°F (175°C) and cook about 10 minutes longer. Test by poking one with the tip of a knife to be sure

the filling is fully heated through. —Makes sixteen 5-inch (13 em)

hand pies