Friday, April 24, 2009

Brick Oven Beef n Swiss Meat Pies

[Guess who got his camera back yesterday!]

One of the best things about the Big Green Egg is its versatility. Sure it's a smoker AND a grill. But it's also a wood fired oven that is great for making pizzas and bread, similar to the brick ovens thanks to the Egg's thick ceramic construction.

Tonight we took one of my childhood favorites (cheeseburger turnovers), put an adult spin on them, and baked them on the Egg. You can do these in a 425f oven and they'll still be great, but fresh off the Egg they were AMAZINGLY good!

Brick Oven Beef n Swiss Meat Pies


Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef (turkey or pork would work as well)
1/2 ea vidalia onion, chopped fine
1/4 ea green bell pepper, chopped fine
salt to taste (we used about 3/4 t of Kosher coarse salt)
pepper to taste (we used about 3/4 t)
2 cans of refrigerated biscuits
10 slices of baby swiss cheese

Instructions
In a preheated skillet, brown the meat, onion and bell pepper. Drain well, you don't want a soggy pie do you?
Flour a surface, take two biscuits, overlap them and then roll them out into a figure 8 kind of like this:
Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the meat mixture onto on half of the dough and top with sliced cheese like this:
Pull and stretch the empty side over and onto the mixture. We find it helps to slightly moisten the edge of the dough with water first. Then crimp the pie closed with a fork like this:
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you to preheat your oven or Big Green Egg to 425f. If you're using the Egg, set it up with the plate setter LEGS DOWN with a pizza stone on top. If you're using an oven, a pizza stone would help but you can use a baking sheet if that's what you have. If you don't preheat the stone, the bottom of the pies will be a bit doughy, so take your time and get it hot (if Michael Scott was here, that'd be a "That's what she said!" line).Bake the pies for 8-10 minutes each, until golden brown all over.Mmmmmmmmm FREAKING AWESOME COMFORT FOOD!!!
This is a great dish to get your kids to help with. You could do a "meat pie bar" at a party or event where people pick their own ingredients to go into the pie. You can do any variations you want, such as:

Cheeseburger turnover: meat, onion, & American cheese
Taco turnover: meat, onion, taco seasoning, and pepper jack cheese. Dip in taco sauce.
Gyro Turnover: gyro meat (google Alton Brown gyro), red onion, & feta cheese. Dip in tzatziki sauce.
Club Turnover: ground turkey, bacon crumbles, small diced tomato. Dip in a flavored mayo.

For printable recipe, click here:
Beef and Swiss Meat Pies