Quick & easy beef pastries + move to WordPress!

 
I’ve finally moved from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress! It wasn’t because I disliked Blogger, not at all (although there were a few hiccups along the way). I really needed to move because Blogger is banned in China and I spend a good month or 2 in China every year which means I wasn’t able to blog at all when I was abroad. I also have a lot of family in China who I want to show my blog to, it being my precious baby and also to show that I’m not completely wasting my time while I’m currently not working. 😛

Either way, the move has been made. Please be patient though as I’m still figuring things out and there might be some down-times or site changes in the coming few weeks. I appreciate your patience. :)

In the mean time, I leave you with this fast and easy recipe I adapted from a friend’s recipe (which she found on http://www.taste.com.au).
 

 
 
Fast & easy beef pastries
Adapted from taste.com.au
Makes 20

Ingredients:

– 500g beef mince
– 1 large onion, finely diced
– 5 sheets of pre-rolled puff pastry (partially thawed)
– 250g can of condensed minestrone soup (Heinz or other brand available in supermarkets)
– 1 large egg, beaten
– 2 tbsp milk
– white sesame seeds (optional)
– cooking oil
– salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Splash cooking oil onto a large pan on medium-high heat. Test a bit of onion on the oil, wait until the oil around the onion starts to bubble slightly and throw all the onions in. Cook until slightly brown.

3. Add beef mince to the onions and stir until beef is all cooked through. Make sure there are no large lumps in the beef.

4. Take the pan off the heat and add condensed minestrone soup, mixing through thoroughly. Let cool in room temperature.
 

 
5. Salt and pepper the filling to taste. As the condensed soup is already well seasoned, I only needed to add a bit of pepper but it’s personal preference.

6. Cut pre-rolled puff pastry (available from the frozen section of supermarkets) that were thawed in room temperature into square quarters.
 

 
7. Fill each square of pastry with roughly 1-1.5 tablespoons of filing. Ensuring you put the filing in the centre of the pastry.

8. Fold the pastry diagonally and pierce along the 2 edges with a fork to ensure the edges are sealed.

9. Combine beaten egg with milk and brush egg wash on top of all the pastries to give them a golden brown look. Sprinkle on sesame seeds.
 

 
10. Put pastries into oven and cook for around 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: We made these puff pastries at my friend’s Hens getaway so it was a rented house and there was no garlic. I would have added a few cloves of chopped garlic in step 2 with the onions for added fragrance. The filling can be made in advance and left in the fridge until needed. You can also use any left over filling as dip, it went very well with crackers!

Of course, you can also substitute the beef mince with any type of mince you like, or omit it altogether for a vegetarian dish.
 

 
If you have any suggestions or opinions about the site layout, please don’t hesitate to send me an email or leave me a message below! Your input is very much appreciated! 😀

Question time: Which blogging platform do you use? Have you found any issues with it or are you looking to change in the near future? 

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16 comments… add one
  • JasmyneTea January 20, 2012, 3:46 pm

    Your new place looks pretty nice :) I’m with Typepad, but I don’t see myself changing anytime soon. I do wish it were a bit easier to leave a comment on my page though. Sigh.

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 20, 2012, 11:40 pm

      Thank you 😀 I almost signed up to Typepad before I went with Blogger but I’m glad I’m on Wordpress now. :) Your site’s not too bad, commenting is not hard!

      Reply
  • msihua January 20, 2012, 10:39 pm

    Loving the new template and welcome to WORDPRESS!! Yayy! Do you really spend one to two months in China every year? Is it for work?

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 20, 2012, 11:41 pm

      Thank you!! I’m so excited 😀 Still tweaking, I want to make the commenting system like yours…
      Nah visiting relatives, I started going every year since the start of uni, only went for a few weeks during work but currently I’m not working so…:P

      Reply
  • Hotly Spiced January 21, 2012, 7:21 am

    These look like a very yummy snack. I didn’t know Blogger was banned in China. I have a sister living in China and often I’ll email her photos but she can’t open them or doesn’t get them because they have been blocked by the Communist rulers. Pathetic really.

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 21, 2012, 4:53 pm

      China really is pathetic when it comes to censoring information…I can install VPN clients that can make my computer jump the firewall but it’s so slow that it’s just not worth it…

      Reply
  • Daisy@Nevertoosweet January 21, 2012, 1:41 pm

    Ohhh Nice! I really like the new layout and the feel of your whole blog :) How has the move been? Hope you’ve enjoyed Wordpress so far hehe

    When are you going to China? I know what you mean I come back to Hong Kong for a month or two each year too ~ So it’s a pain when things don’t work here

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 21, 2012, 4:55 pm

      Thanks dear! The move’s been ok, my bf’s helping me with the layout and fixing things but I get headaches from it when things don’t go right :( I’m not a very technical sort of people..:P

      I’m going on about a months time I would think, haven’t got the tickets yet but I’ll definitely have to be there by mid March to attend my cousin’s wedding in Shanghai. :) Traveling is bad when one has to blog! There’s just so much to do and see everyday that there’s not much time for it…if it’s only a week or two, I can schedule posts but not over a month…:(

      Reply
  • Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella January 21, 2012, 5:23 pm

    Congratulations on your move Jenny! I had no idea that blogger was banned in China although when I travelled to Vietnam I got a little taste of what it is like to have a site banned as facebook is banned there! 😮

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 23, 2012, 11:51 am

      Thanks Lorraine! I know it’s stupid right…well, China is WAY worse…everything I like is banned there, including Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Oh Wikipedia used to be banned there too. :( So no social media for me when I’m overseas!

      Reply
  • choux choux January 23, 2012, 10:30 am

    I didn’t know blogger was banned in china. It’s so weird. Nevertheless, the new layout looks really good! It’s very fresh!

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 23, 2012, 11:53 am

      I know :( It’s hard to believe China can do such a thing…I have a theory, I think they block all those huge sites (like I mentioned above, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook AND Youtube) so that they can open up their own Chinese equivalent sites and make money from it! It’s China so they think they can do anything.

      If I was in China right now and I said this online, they’d probably arrest me. 😛

      I think my site’s a bit plain…I’m trying to figure out what it’s missing…I think it lacks colour or something…

      Reply
      • choux choux January 24, 2012, 9:55 pm

        They wouldn’t arrest you…. would they? Do they seriously do that kind of thing there?

        I don’t think the site looks plain at all. I think it’s great, especially when your photographs are so stunning and vibrant :)

        Reply
        • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 25, 2012, 2:39 am

          They sure do! There’s been plenty of news or rather, stories that the government hid from the public. There was this Chinese guy who lived in China and wrote a blog about how bad the Chinese govt was and how there’s no freedom of speech etc. He got sued and then put in jail, wasn’t allowed to get a lawyer and wasn’t even allowed to see his wife! Some lawyers tried to represent him because they felt he was righteous and those lawyers got ‘bashed up’. The guy’s wife’s house was patrolled by police and no one was allowed into the building without checking of ID.

          This story was actually on ABC news, some reporters went there to try and interview the wife but were refused entry. 😛 This only happened a few years ago so I imagine it’s still about the same now. Scary eh?

          Aww thanks. :) I tried to make the photos larger now but realised that they don’t look as sharp. :( Needs more work!

          Reply
  • Deanna January 27, 2012, 2:42 pm

    I was wondering why you weren’t posting! I guess you were but it wasn’t going through on my reader anymore. I guess I need to fix that.

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake January 28, 2012, 2:50 am

      Aww I didn’t realise the RSS changed. Sorry about that 😛 I didn’t think about it since I changed my own when I was testing it on my ipad. Glad you’re reading my blog again! 😀

      Reply

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