Denai’s Vegan Jamaican Patties

Our friend, British-Jamaican musician and chef, Denai Moore, started her Brixton restaurant Dee’s Table after a particularly inspiring visit to Jamaica. There, patties are an easy-to-find street food, but it’s not so easy to find a vegan version, so Denai created this recipe and you can find it in our most recent cookbook “Happy Fast Food”. (You’ll also find plantain gnocchi and mango lime curd tart, when you visit her restaurant...)

They are tasty and just the thing for a Sunday picnic.

Serves: 12

Prep time: 25 mins, plus resting, cooling & chilling

Cook time: 1 hour 5 mins

FOR THE PASTRY:

400g white spelt flour, plus extra to dust

1ó teaspoons fine salt

2 tablespoons ground turmeric

340g cold vegan block butter, cubed, plus

5 tablespoons melted and cooled

up to 120ml iced water

2 tablespoons plant-based milk

1 tablespoon maple syrup

FOR THE FILLING:

1 green and 1 red pepper (or use 2 whole

roasted peppers from a jar)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 red onion, diced

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 tablespoon picked fresh thyme leaves

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 Scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded and minced (you might want to use gloves or choose a milder chilli if you don’t like heat)

1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce

3 spring onions, finely chopped

400ml really good-quality, full-fat coconut milk

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pastry, sift the flour into a food processor and add the salt and turmeric. Pulse until completely combined. With the food processor on its slowest setting, slowly drop the butter cubes into the mixture until the consistency is like fine breadcrumbs. Add the iced water slowly, with the machine still running, until the pastry combines into a rough ball (you may not need all the water).

Lightly flour a clean work surface (or a large board, if your worktop is white!) and tip out the dough, then quickly form it into two balls (you don’t want to work the pastry at this point, as your hands may melt the butter). Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or until firmed up.

Meanwhile, set a gas ring set to a medium heat and place the peppers directly over the flame (unless using already roasted peppers) to char on each side for about 5 minutes, turning four times to get an even char all over. Leave to cool in a covered bowl for 5 minutes and then gently scrape off the charred parts of each pepper. Finally, when cool enough to handle, deseed and dice.

Melt the coconut oil in a large saucepan with a lid over a medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté for 8–10 minutes, until fragrant and translucent. Now add the seasonings: the allspice, thyme, garlic, Scotch bonnet and tamari or soy sauce, cooking over a slightly lower heat so all the flavours can come together, for another minute.

Add the roasted peppers and spring onions, stirring for 30 seconds, then add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add the sweet potato and mix well, then cover and cook over a low heat, or until the sweet potato is tender. Once the sweet potato is cooked through, check and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Leave the mixture to cool in a bowl while the pastry continues to rest.

When ready to assemble, heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Take the rested pastry out of the fridge, cut each ball in half and then cut each half into three pieces, leaving 12 balls of dough. Lightly flour the work surface again, and roll out a ball of dough to 8mm-thick. Using a small bowl, about 8cm across, for the shape, and a sharp knife, cut out the pastry to make a perfect circle. (Discard the trimmings. Unfortunately, if you re-roll the excess pastry, you will end up with very misshapen patties, so it’s not really worth it.)

Place three tablespoons of the cooled melted butter in a small bowl, then use a little to brush each disc. Add a heaped tablespoon of the filling to one half of the pastry circle, slightly flattening out the filling and leaving about 1cm space around the rim. Fold the other half over the filling and press the two layers of pastry together using a fork and your fingers around the edge.

Place the patty on the lined baking tray, and repeat until all of the patties are made. Chill the tray in the freezer for 15 minutes so the pastry will be extra cold when it hits the oven (for extra flaky patties).

Prick each chilled patty with a fork a few times on top to allow steam to escape. Mix the milk, maple syrup and remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter together and then brush each patty with this mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before serving as they will be piping hot inside.