Thursday, April 1, 2010

Cheeseburger "Hot Pockets"



You ever find something in the freezer you forgot you had in there? Sometimes it's like finding treasure, other times it's like that episode of Cowboy Bebop with the mold-covered fridge. I keep my fridge pretty clean, partly because I'm always hungry and partly because I don't like messes, but with the freezer you can just put things in there and forget about it.

Long story short, I found some puff pastry from 2001. That's... a long time ago... but it's just dough, right? If I develop some weird disease I'll let you know, but it worked and tasted fine to me.

So what to do with this puff? Well, Alton Brown had a recipe in Good Eats: The Early Years for a chicken pot pie with curry powder. He said to bake it in a baking dish, and place small circles of puff on top, as a sort of crust. So I made that, and it was good.

But there was still one more sheet! Luckily my man AB had me covered; he did an entire episode on puff pastry! The salmon turnovers sounded good, but there were a lot of ingredients. A note to the side of the recipe held my answer: "My favorite puff filling? Manwich mix and cheddar cheese." Yes.



Homemade Cheeseburger Hot Pockets

1 lb ground beef, or anything else would work, too
1 can Manwich/Sloppy Joe sauce
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsp (for egg wash)
grated cheddar cheese

Thaw the puff on a towel for 30-40 minutes, and heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

1) Brown the meat in oil.
2) Drain the meat if you want, then add the mix to the meat.
3) Place 1 tablespoon of meat filling in the center of each square. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese as desired.
4) Brush inside edges of puff pastry with egg wash and fold over to make a triangle. Seal the edges by pressing down with the tines of a fork. Poke a slit or two in the top of each turnover. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
5) Cool for 10 minutes before eating, they're hot!

Easy, no? Here's some tips:
-You don't want to overfill the puff pastry. Make sure you leave enough room around the edges to seal it. 
-You'll have LOTS of sloppy joe meat left over, so buy some rolls or more puff or something.
-Monitor the puffs in the oven to make sure they don't burn. Mine only took 20 minutes to cook.

The only problem I found working with puff pastry that's 9 years old is that it's very hard to work with. Maybe if I let it thaw longer it would have gotten more flexible, but after 45 minutes it was still stiff as a board. So instead of making triangular turnovers, I just cut each third of the sheet in half, and made three turnovers from that by making "sandwiches" with rectangles of puff and meat filling. Bam, instant Hot Pockets!

Mmmmmm, so good. Flaky and moist puff, savory ground beef, and sharp cheddar cheese. Not healthy at all, but 10 times better than Hot Pockets. Thank you, Alton Brown.