My family is weird. My three kids live to eat meat, the carnivores. Without cooked animal parts gracing their dinner plates, they completely withdraw and become quite annoying. My husband is still dabbling with vegetarianism. Some days he feels more optimistic about his resolve to lay off the animals and other days, he just succumbs with a sigh of defeat. On the days when his resolve is solid, I end up with a lot of leftover chicken or lamb curry. Since I pride myself on fixing the best camouflage food for the kids, I figure I could make it work for him as well. The rule of thumb when making camo fare is that you have to:

a. smother the unpopular food with enough seasoning that it passes muster

b. wrap the unpop food with something; flaky pastry, tortilla, mushed up potato .. really, anything works

The curried chicken was flavorful enough so I went with option B. Flaky,puff pastry is easy to find and easier still to use. Pepridge Farm makes a decent puff pastry and it does not have the trans fat that it used to have. To make the meal more appetising I chose to make small, individual pies. Wal-Mart sells a 4-pack of individual non-stick pie pans. Using the pan as a guide, I rolled out one sheet of pastry (1 sheet will yield 5 individual pies)and cut out four circles of pastry which I draped over the pans. For the fifth pie, I used the scraps. When it cooks, you won’t notice that the pastry originally started off as a piece of patchwork.

For the filling, I used

The left over chicken curry ( I shredded the meat coarsely) – approximately the equivalent of 1 cup

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup of diced, parboiled celery, carrots, potatoes

(optional) colored bell peppers, cauliflower, peas

(for the adventurous person) cooked turnips

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Method:

Mix the ingredients. Spoon into prepared pie pans. Toss them into a pre-heated oven (400 degrees) and set a timer for 18-20 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let it sit for a minute or two before you de-pan the pie. Serve with a fresh salad and fruit.

Be a flake. Improvise.