Human Library - Chef

Happy 2014 everybody. Hope that the last twenty-four days of the new year have been good to you...

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of a chef, but don't know one personally? If so, you will want to head to the Ottawa Public Library this Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to take part in the Human Library event. The Human Library allows you to have a 20-minute conversation with a person to learn about them and their experiences, essentially turning them into a human book. One of people appearing at the Main Branch is Luke Campbell, an Algonquin College trained chef who has cooked for diplomats, senators, and prime ministers, and is credited with bringing Jamaican cuisine to the nation's capital with his legendary Jamaican patties from his old restaurant Spicy Luke's. He probably won't share with people his recipes for this sorely missed treat, so this recipe from jamaicatravelandculture.com/ will have to do.

Ingredients - pastry

 1 lb flour
 1/2 cup ice cold water
 1/2 cup melted butter
 1/2 cup shortening
 1 tsp salt
 1 Teaspoon of baking powder
 1 Teaspoon of curry powder medium hot
 1 Teaspoon on turmeric or 1 drop of annotto

Ingredients - filling
 1 lb ground beef
 1 medium onion
 4 scallion (or 1 more medium onion)
 2 stalks fresh thyme or 2 tsps ground thyme
 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
 1 scotch bonnet pepper (or 1 tbsp curry powder / chilli sauce)
 2 cloves garlic
 1 cup water
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp pepper
 1 tsp paprika
 1/2 tsp sugar
 1 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in baking powder, curry powder, salt and turmeric.
2. Work the butter and shortening in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly drizzle in the water until the mixture has a dough-like consistency (it should only be slightly sticky).
3. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Cut the onion and scallions into fine pieces. Gently fry so they do not quite get time to brown.
5. Add the ground beef, thyme, garlic, peppers (finely chopped), salt, pepper, paprika, sugar and nutmeg. Fry until mixture is fairly dry, drain off excess fat if necessary.
6. Add water and breadcrumbs, and cook until the mixture has a thick, saucy texture. Set aside.
7. Roll the dough on a floured board until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut as many circles (about the size of a saucer) out of the dough as you can.
8. Place 1 tablespoon of the meat filling on one side of each pastry circle. Moisten the edges of each patty with water and fold the pastry over to make a crescent shape. Seal the edge of each patty by crimping with a fork
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the patties on aluminium foil, and cook for 35 minutes (or until golden brown) Serve the patties hot or cold.