These intensely flavoured spicy pies are packed with roasted capsicum and a chilli-rich spice paste of your choosing in the filling. Thai red curry paste and tandoori curry paste both work well here. Brush the top of the puff pastry with a teaspoon of the paste whisked with the beaten egg for an extra flavour boost. For the filling I pot-roast 500g chopped pork shoulder with four chopped onions for a couple of hours in the oven at 150C but you can use leftover cooked pork.
Ingredients
300g cooked sweet potato, skinned
about 50g red curry paste, like Thai or tandoori, to taste
200g tinned coconut milk
300g cooked and chopped cold pork, ideally shoulder
150g soft-cooked onions
150g roasted red capsicum, deseeded, peeled and chopped
100g grilled sliced eggplant, chopped
about 2-3 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry (375g)
about 2-3 sheets frozen puff pastry (375g)
melted butter
1 egg
salt to taste
sesame seeds to finish
Method
1. Mash the sweet potato with the curry paste and coconut milk to taste: go for a slightly intense flavour, as the pastry seems to dampen the spices. Stir in the pork, onion, capsicum and eggplant then add salt to taste. Chill this while you line the tins.
2. Butter the inside of six pie tins, about 10 to 12 centimetres in diameter, with melted butter. Line the tins with discs of shortcrust pastry, letting about one centimetre of pastry hang over the edge. Then divide the mixture between the tins, heaping it up if you need to.
3. Cut six discs of puff pastry large enough to cover the tops of the tins, and brush each lightly with beaten egg.
4. Place the discs egg-side down onto the pastry, so they stick, and crimp the edges together. Beat a teaspoon of curry paste with the remaining beaten egg wash and brush this over the top, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
5. Chill the pies for an hour. This helps seal the edges.
6. Bake at 180C for about 30-40 minutes until deep golden brown and piping hot inside.
Love your leftovers: Dan Lepard's pumpernickel pork patties with gherkin mayo.