Published July 26, 2020

As a home cook, it’s fun to make family recipes or those that are inspired by dishes from restaurants. But sometimes, it’s great to try recipes from talented chefs, which is what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks.

Inspired by cooking shows and magazines, I’ve tried Gordon Ramsay and EatingWell recipes. I’ve loved the challenge of working with new ingredients and techniques. Plus, y’all seem to love these well-known recipes, which I’m happy to share my thoughts on.

So for this week’s blog, I pulled a recipe that I saved from EatingWell Magazine, and decided to make curried beef hand pies.

Ingredients for EatingWell’s Curried Beef Hand Pies

Since I bought a bunch of new spices for last week’s meatball recipe with coconut broth, I also purchased the curry and garam masala for these curried beef pies.

You can make your own pizza dough, but I elected to buy some from the grocery store. Some pizzerias sell their own dough, so you could pop into your favorite local restaurant and buy some as well.

I had the rest of the ingredients on hand for this dish. I recommend you prep a few hours before you make this, as the original EatingWell recipe recommends that you thaw the peas and let the pizza dough sit at room temperature before using.

How to Make EatingWell’s Curried Beef Hand Pies

Tools for this Dish

• Cutting board, knife, measuring spoons/cups

• Large skillet and spoon

• 2 cookies sheets with spatula

• Brush (for oil-spice mixture)

• Fork (for crimping the hand pies closed)

Cooking Notes

Hand Pie Filling

I wouldn’t change anything about the filling for this recipe.

At first, I thought it was strange to combine ingredients like curry powder and garam masala with peas and tomato sauce, but it works. The curry and garam masala flavor reminds me of the curry puff filling from my favorite Thai restaurant.

There’s only a small amount of tomato sauce and cheese in this dish. I can’t tell you that it adds its own distinct flavor, but it worked having the ingredients in the hand pies. I served my hand pies with a side of sauce, so the dish felt a little more Italian (like calzones), vs empanadas.

Hand Pie Pizza Dough

The original EatingWell recipe also said to cut the dough into 6 pieces. I’m not sure how that’s possible, since I had a hard enough time splitting it into 4 pieces.

I found that I couldn’t get the dough to be an 8-inch circle (for an even ratio of dough-to-filling). I made some fun shapes, but would’ve preferred a way to add more filling and cheese.

Next time, I’ll test this recipe by using halves of pizza dough, and making larger “hand pies” that could hold more filling.

Baking the Hand Pies

The EatingWell recipe specified using Pam to grease the cookie sheets. The only Pam I had was for grilling, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to use.

Well…

I would not recommend doing that — Pam for grilling is for higher temperatures. So when used in the oven at 475-degrees, it starts to smoke.

My hand pies were golden and crunchy — like true pizza crust — but the panic of having a smoky oven and the fire alarms going off was not worth it. Use butter or olive oil instead, don’t bother with Pam.

Recipe Score

I would give EatingWell’s Curried Beef Hand Pies a 8/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Easy: Pre-made pizza dough, thawed peas, and finely chopped garlic and onions provides a one-pot filling for these hand pies.
    
    You don’t have to make perfect triangles for your hand pies. Be sure not to fold too much dough together (for example, if you braid your dough closed), since the thicker sections will be harder to cook.

• Ingredients

  • Depending on your favorite seasonings, you may or may not need a trip to the store. If you really want to be fancy, make your own pizza dough from scratch. Otherwise, you may already have everything you need to make these curried beef hand pies.

• Prep

  • Thaw your peas and let your pizza dough sit at room temperature before starting.

• Flavor

  • 8/10: The curry and garam masala make these hand pies special. I would’ve loved to have more filling and a cheesy pull for these hand pies, so next time I will add more and see how they adjust the bake time. Overall, this curried hand pie is a satisfying meal filled with tasty flavors.
    

K. Martinelli Makes EatingWell’s Curried Beef Hand Pies

Thanks for Watching

If you liked the flavors in this dish, try my Vegetarian Pitas with Roasted Cauliflower recipe.