Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

I'm on the constant quest for delicious hand pies, cornish pasty, or whatever you want to call them. Chicken Hand Pies (Adapted from Cooking Light ) 14 oz white whole-wheat flour + 2T salt/pepper 1 t baking powder 10 T ice cold water 2/3 c olive oil + 2T 1 1/2 lb ground chicken or turkey 4oz haricot verts, cut into 1/4" pieces 3/4 c carrot, finely chopped 1 T thyme 1T minced garlic 1 1/2 c chicken stock 1/2 c thawed peas salt/pepper 1 egg, beaten with 1t water Place flour,  1t salt, and baking powder in a food processor. Pulse until combined. Stir together ice water and flour. With food processor running, slowly pour oil/water mixture down the chute. Mix until combined. Turn dough out onto board, knead 1 minute. Place in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes. Heat 1T oil in skillet add chicken, breaking up and cook until no longer pink. Remove from skillet. Wipe skillet clean with paper towel. Heat oil add, haricot verts, carrot and thyme. Saute unti...

So I've committed yet another sacrilege. After previously posting a vegetarian version of Cornish Pasty (remember pronounced Pahs-Tee), I've now gone and used minced (ground beef to you AMER-i-cans).  I used the same dough recipe but a slightly different filling. The only minor correction is divide the dough in half before you roll it out (DUH otherwise you don't have a lid that I talk about later on). Filling: 1 onion, chopped  1T olive oil 1 clove garlic, chopped 1/2 lb ground beef (or turkey)  1/2 c red wine 1 t fresh thyme 1 T Worcestershire sauce 1 medium potato, large dice salt/pepper Saute onion and salt in skillet in olive oil until it starts to turn brown. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add beef until it starts to brown. Raise the flame and add the wine and thyme. Cook until the wine cooks off. Add the Worcestershire sauce and potato. Stir in and let cool while you roll out the dough. I was sloppy this time a...

Since I've already offended a bunch of people with my entry on Irish Soda Bread, I figured why not offend some people from Cornwall too. Be careful how you pronounce Pasty-it's Pahs-TEE not pastey - that's another blog not mine. Cornish Pasties were supposedly created as lunches for miners.  They needed something that would fit in their lunch boxes and be easy to eat - guess they got tired of sandwiches. The first Cornish Pasty I ate was a few years ago at the West Cornwall Pasty Co in Covent Gardens in London. I know it's a chain and I generally don't like chain restaurants (if you can even call chain restaurants-restaurants) but in Europe they seem to have some good chain restaurants. After I came home, I was craving Cornish Pasties. I tried to find a recipe and could not find one that got the pastry right. I finally found one in Nigella Lawson's book . She doesn't call it a pasty, but that's what it tasted like to me. Here is where the off...