Pâtés chauds

Some days ago, I told my mother that I had started to write a blog regarding delicious food around the world. My mother immediately asked me if I had already written about the famous Vietnamese appetizer, called "Pâtés Chauds", that she and my brother usually make whenever they host guests at home or whenever they need to bring some dishes at parties or important events. If you have read and followed my blog, you already know the answer is "no".
So when I told her "no", she immediately started to tell me the stories behind this dish and the outside look of this dish, as if I have never eaten her famous appetizer. Although I have been living in The Netherlands, every time that I would visit her, I always saw my brother making this dish. So of course, I know about this dish but I thought that it was from French cuisine, as my brother can cook quite well French and Italian dishes. Actually, few years ago, before my brother even started to cook this dish, I have eaten this very similar appetizer when I was on vacation in Antibes (South of France).
When my mother realized that I was surprized about the origin of this dish, she started to tell me the stories about the Pâtés Chauds and all the events she and my brother attended and had to make this appetizer.
The next day, I received an e-mail from my brother attaching few pictures of the Pâtés Chauds they have made. My brother also took his time to write me the full recipe.
Although Pâtés Chauds is not in my top 20 favorite appetizers, I have decided to introduce to you this dish, as my mother loves it so much that she kept advertizing it. I am sure she must have nagged my brother to e-mail me the recipe. Actually one of my friend will be quite happy when he sees the below recipe as I know that he enjoyed eating those pâtés chauds at my mother's house.
So for my mother's marketing campaign about this dish, my brother's time, and my friend, here below is the recipe for the pâtés chauds. I have copied and pasted the original recipe (in French). But don't worry, I will put the English translation in pink color.

Pâtés chauds (20 pièces) = Warm Meat Pie (20 pieces)

Ingredients:

A

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1 oignon haché = 1 chopped onion

1 échalote hachée = 1 chopped shallot

3 gousses d'ail hachées = 3 cloved of garlic

250g de spiringue de porc hachée ou viande hachée porc/veau = As I am not fan of pork, I rarely even buy pork or order pork dish in English speaking countries. Unfortunately, this word is even not in my Robert & Collins dictionary. So I don't know the English translation for "spiringue". It is some parts of the porc that you need to mince/grind in order to obtain ground meat. "Viande hachée porc/veau" means "ground meat pork/veal".

For those who really want to find "spiringue de porc", here is a picture of spiringue de porc:

3/4 teaspoon sel = 3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons poivre = 2 teaspoons peppers

1 teaspoon sucre = 1 teaspoon sugar

1 blanc d'oeuf à mélanger à la viande = 1 egg white to mix with the meat

B

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de la pâte feuillée = puff pastry (an other name for this pastry is flaky pastry)

2 jaunes d'oeuf pour dorer la pâte = 2 egg yolk to brown the pastry

Procedure:

1. mélanger les ingrédients A = Mix the ingredients under A

2. prendre la pâte feuillée et couper des rectangles de 10x5cm = Take the puff pastry and cut into rectangles of size 10x5 centimeter.

3. déposer sur la première moitié du rectangle de la viande = Lay the meat on the first half of the rectangle

4. rabattre le rectangle en deux pour faire un carré = Close/fold the rectangle to make it a square

5. fermer en pressant les 4 côtés = Close well by squeezing the 4 sides

6. à l'aide d'une fourchette, faire des traits sur les 4 côtés = with the help of a fork, draw some lines on the 4 sides

7. préchauffer le four à 180°C = preheat the oven at 180 degree celsus

8. déposer les pâtés chauds sur une plaque sur du papier de cuisson (papier sulfurisé) et badigeonner les pâtés chauds de jaune d'oeuf pour dorer = lay a greaseproof paper on a medium cooking sheet. In North America, greaseproof paper is known as parchment paper. Then lay the pâtés chauds on top of the greaseproof paper/parchment paper (which is now on top of the cooking sheet). Then brush some egg yolk on the pâtés chauds to brown it

9. enfourner dans le four et cuire pendant 25 min = put these in the oven and cook for 25 minutes

10. sortir les pâtés chauds du four, les retirer de la plaque et les mettre sur une grille = Remove the pâtés chauds out of the cooking sheet and put them on a grill rack.

I hope that my translation skill is enough good for you to understand how to make these pâtés chauds. Although my mother insisted that it is a Vietnamese dish, I still have some doubts as I have seen those pâtés chauds served in South of France and even in North America where they call it "meat pie". I let you judge whether it should be a Vietnamese dish.

Enjoy it !