This recipe is good but I'm only giving it 3 stars because its not really Jamaican. Its more of a curried empanada rather than the spicy beef patties that Jamaica & the Bahamas are known for.
Reduce the curry in the dough and add a bit of saffron. In the meat filling, use the red curry, not the yellow. The red curry is the hotter curry and that is what gives the patties the 'bite' that island food is known for. Add a bit of finely chopped onion to the meat when cooking. Also, cooking the meat with a bit of jalapeño is done sometimes as well and then when thoroughly cooked, the jalapeño is discarded or pulsed with the meat before being sealed within the pastry.
Lastly, the pastry recipe definitely needs to be doubled to yield 10 normal sized patties.
This is a great starter recipe and one worthy of being in your box as it leaves all kinds of filling experiemntations open to the imagination.
I come from Toronto, where there is a lot of Jamaican influence in the cultural mosaic. I now live in Japan, so naturally, the one thing I missed the most are beef patties ( especially the spicy ones ). This recipe is EXCEPTIONAL! However, I made some changes :
- I doubled the amount of spice in the meat mix. I also added Allspice, CLOVES ( very important in Jamaican cooking ), nutmeg to it.
- I froze the margarine and shortening before cutting it in the flour. I also put very cold water in the dough. I then put the dough in the fridge for a good 30 mins before handling it ( which I made sure, to handle as little as possible ).
- I added turmeric ( saffron ) to the dough, to give the pastry that yellow, buttery colour.
- I also made sure that I cooled the meat, so as not to steam or change the pastry in any way, when I am stuffing them.
I was looking for an authentic recipe to surprise my husband with, as he misses these from when we lived in London. I knew the meat mixture would need some additions to suit our tastes - so I added the following:
1 large diced yukon gold potato
1 diced green bell pepper
1 large carrot - shredded
As for spice - I found it pretty vital to add 1/8 tsp of ground cloves and 1 tsp of sugar. This gave them the warmth aromatic flavor that makes Jamaican cuisine so distinctive.
I also doubled the dough recipe as many others suggested - which yeilded 10 traditional sized patties.
I love this because I can make half spicy for my husband and leave the rest for the kids and I.
Great recipe!!
My fiance made the Jamacian beef paties for dinner tonight. He said that if you cut dough into 10 pieces in the original recipe, the patties will be really small. He made 5 patties and they were delicious. He said that you should not use pie crust because it is too flaky and it has too much shortening in it. It is best to make from scratch. He is a professional cook so he knows what he is talking about. He also added crushed red pepper. West Indian peolpe love patties with coco bread and cheese, it is very good.
This is a good recipe that strangely enough I found ingredient for ingredient on a copycat website for the Bahama Breeze restaraunt chain. I made a few additions: Add a little sautee'd habanero or jalepeno pepper to the mixture. Also I made the pastry in the food processor. Add the fats to the flour/salt mix and pulse for a minute or two until crumbly. Then add the cold water and pulse until a dough forms. Then you can roll it out. To go with it I mix a tad bit of premade salsa into about a cupful of sour cream. I also make a mango/apple salsa with mango apple orange juice cilantro bell pepper and red onion. My husband goes crazy over this...
I was hungry for curry and looking for a recipe that didn't require the apple or coconut milk I didn't have, and I decided to try these. I'm so glad I did! They're really good, and not that difficult to make. Since some other reviewers complained about dryness, I just eyeballed the amount of broth and bread crumbs until it seemed like the meat mixture was moist enough. I was concerned that the pastries might stick to the baking sheet since it didn't say to grease it, but they did not. I loved the flakiness of the pastry and the curry in it, and I would not advise substituting store bought pie crust for it as others have suggested. I also found the pastry to be easy to handle. I halved the recipe because there are only two of us, and I wish I hadn't.
I must have lost some spice as I had to drain the fat but that made them all the better for my kids and I to eat - I also only used 1 tsp of curry in crust for my benefit - other than the lack of hot my husband said they are exactly like the ones he had in Jamaica and can't wait for me to make them again but wants all the spice and will take the extras to work. Thanks for a quick supper and easy lunches!!
I have rated this recipe before and only gave it 4 stars. However I tried the recipe again with a few changes and I just had to go back and give it 5 stars! I used prepackaged pie crust instead of making the crust in the recipe. I sprinkled some curry on the crust too. I also added some extra water and hot peppers to the filling. So yummy and just like in Jamaica.
I grew up eating Jamacian Patties and in recent years have moved to an area where I unable to find them. These are amazing and bring back alot of memories...my tastebuds thank you
