Pâté Chaud (Vietnamese Meat Pies)

I apologize for my recent disappearance from the blog. After returning from Vietnam I had back-to-back wedding weekends that kept me away and also left me too tired to do much cooking. I'm returning now with one of my favorite comfort snacks that always reminds me of home...

It'd been a while since I'd enjoyed my last Pâté Chaud, which is essentially a buttery puff pastry filled with pork and vegetables. I'm usually able to fulfill my cravings by making a quick visit to my parents' house -- my Mom is known in our family for having the best pâté chaud -- but she just left town for a little over a week, so it was a good chance for me to try to make my own delicious batch at home.

While every family, restaurant or café has their own version of pâté chaud that includes different techniques and ingredients, I'm going to share the version I grew up with and love the most.

Let's start with the ingredients*:

• ground pork (about a pound)
• peas & carrots (I used about half of a frozen 16 oz. bag, thawed)
• one small yellow onion (or half of a medium-sized one), diced
• puff pastry sheets (I use one box of Pepperidge Farm brand, which includes 2 big sheets)
• salt & pepper
• Maggi seasoning (this is a household staple ingredient and is essentially like liquid salt - it makes everything taste better)
• one egg, beaten for egg wash

Start by taking your puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw. The box says this takes about 40 minutes, so prepare accordingly -- apparently the secret to delicious pâté chaud is allowing the pastry to fully thaw so that it bakes to crispy and flaky perfection.



While the pastry thaws, prepare the meat filling. Add the peas, carrots and onion to the ground pork. Season generously with salt, pepper and Maggi.



Once the pastry is thawed, it's time to build your pâté chaud. This is the part I got to participate in as a kid, so I always enjoy it. Use a pizza slicer to cut the pastry into even rectangles, about 3.5" x 4" in size. You can also make circles, triangles, or whatever shape you like, but Momma My Chau always made rectangles for us. Just remember whatever size or shape you cut, you need to allow some extra pastry on the outside edge in order to seal down the filling.

Scoop out a little ball of meat onto the center of your base pastry, then cover it with a pastry on top. Use a fork to mash down the edges of the two pastries so that they close and seals tightly over the meat. Once you have all your pâté chaud prepared, it's time for one last important step. Brush the tops of each pastry with your beaten egg, careful not to make a drippy mess everywhere.



Finally, stick your baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the tops are a beautiful golden brown. Try to resist the temptation to eat these as soon as they come out of the oven, because they will be H-O-T. (I've burned the roof of my mouth a few times in my life when I just couldn't wait.)



Growing up, this was always a breakfast snack or appetizer treat. Since I was making it for dinner this week to fulfill my craving, I made a side salad of roasted asparagus, tomato and corn, served cold. Kinda random, but I thought I needed some veggies to balance my 2 (3? 4? I'll never tell!) pâté chaud meal.



*The listed ingredients ended up making 9 meat pies, with a decent amount of meat filling left after I ran out of pastry. I ended up cooking the leftover meat and turning it into a tasty tomato-based pasta sauce. Quite delicious!


More images available on Flickr.