Another Bookclub Saturday, the book that was chosen was supposed be to be an “action” theme – so we selected  The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel. I can’t say its the best read. But the historical information was interesting. The constant list of “who’s who” got tiring  after the first chapter, yet the discussion bid yield some interesting insight on the book.

That aside – it provided a great day for a food theme. I opted to bring an Isreali Meat Pie recipe I found on the NYT Cooking site. Which is in itself an adaption.

For my version, I omitted the dill (a few folks around here don’t like it) and added more cinnamon but thats to taste I think.  This version was super simple and can be prepped the night before or over the course of an afternoon. Depending on your time. My edits to this variation are in red. Now having made and eaten it – it was a win – great taste, simple and clean flavor. I definitely could serve as a base for adapting; by adding ginger, garlic, cheese etc. It traveled well – but seems to taste best while still warm and crisp.

According to NYT’s Melissa Clark ; this was featured in: In ‘Zahav,’ Michael Solomonov Explores Israeli Food.

Full Recipe Here

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped ( I cheated and used pre chopped onion and shredded carrots and chopped from there – about a 1/2 bag)
• 2 pounds ground beef (If you use pre packages beef – no stress, its forgiving if you use more than  2lbs – but I did split mine between lower fat ration and regular ratio)
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon ( I ended up using about a 1/2 teaspoon more)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• ½ tablespoon black pepper
• 1 pound puff pastry, defrosted (see note)
• 3 large eggs ( I used 4 since the batch I had was small)
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped dill (omitted – in the future I will play with more combinations of herbs as well)
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

PREPARATION

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and sauté until vegetables have softened, but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add beef, cinnamon, salt and pepper, stirring to combine. Cook until beef begins to brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Let mixture cool completely.
   1. Note – I found that if I precooked the veg, then removed them while starting the meat – I got a better brown. Adding the veg about 1/2 way into the meat browning.
   2. I set this aside, cooled and stored overnight since I wanted to bake this the next day.
2. While beef is cooking, split puff pastry in half if it’s in one piece. Roll out each piece with a floured rolling pin to roughly 9 x 11 inches. Line an 8- or 9- x 11-inch baking dish, or a shallow 2-quart gratin dish, with 1 piece of pastry, pulling up the dough to cover the sides of baking dish.
3. Whisk 2 (or three) eggs and add to cooled beef mixture. (Mix well. I also added some extra parsley here since I wasn’t using the dill) Spoon mixture over pastry and top with chopped parsley and dill. Top with remaining piece of pastry, pinching together the sides of both pieces of pastry. Chill in fridge for at least 1 hour (and up to 4 hours) or freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk remaining egg and brush over pastry. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
   1. Note: I added some cinnamon to the sesame seeds and mixed them before topping just to add some kick.
5. Bake until golden on top, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool 15 to 20 minutes before cutting. Pastel may appear wet when removed from oven, but pastry will absorb the moisture as it sits.