Puff pastry loaf with roast beef, cheese and potato salad ローストビーフ、チーズ、ポテトサラダローフ

My wife invented this loaf which is a variation of egg and smoked salmon in puff pastry. She already made one variation using smoked salmon, cheese and mashed potato. This time, we were in cleaning-up-leftovers mode. Although we rarely eat beef, one weekend we made a beef roast on the Weber grill with hot smoke. We used thin slices of the roast beef for sandwiches during the week but still had some left over. In addition, I had made potato salad a few weeks ago and a good amount was still left.  (The potato salad is made with rice vinegar and strained yogurt i.e. Greek yogurt in addition to the usual mayonnaise, and these two ingredients act as a kind of preservative. As a result the potato salad lasts a long time but even so there is a limit so we had to use it up). My wife came to the rescue with this dish using roast beef, potato salad and her variation of cheese stuffing. This is like a "pasty", all inclusive--starch, veggies and proteins from the meat and cheese.

Ingredients:
sheet of puff pastry thawed

for cheese filling:
4 oz. feta cheese
3 oz smoked mozzarella cheese
2 oz. Monterey jack
5 oz. ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
sprinkle of red pepper flakes to taste

Other ingredients
roast beef cut into thin slices.
cup of potato salad (or amount needed to top the cheese filling)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Crumble the feta cheese into small pieces. Grate the mozzarella and Monterey jack cheeses. Mix the crumbled and grated cheeses with the ricotta, egg and red pepper flakes. Roll out the thawed puff pastry on parchment paper. On half of the pastry dough, add layers of thinly sliced roast beef, the cheese mixture and potato salad (shown below).

Fold the other half of the pastry dough over the filling and seal the edges by painting on a mixture of water and flour and pressing the edges using the tines of a fork.  Dock or prick the top of the dough with the fork. (This lets steam escape as the loaf cooks). With the loaf still on the parchment paper place it on a rack and put the rack on a cookie sheet. (This allows the bottom to cook thoroughly). Cook for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

Again, you can't go wrong with this combination of pastry, meat, cheese and potatoes--its a meal in itself. The potato salad was an interesting addition. It added a slight vinegar tang and the mayonnaise yogurt blended into the cheese mixture adding a creaminess. The onions and carrots in the potato salad were a nice dimension that was not present in previous versions of this loaf. The smokiness of the barbecued beef also added its "voice" nicely. (Although the roast beef was very nice, we decided that maybe we preferred the saltiness of the smoked salmon used in previous versions a bit better). Slices of the loaf heat up well in the toaster oven. This is nice to have after work with a nice glass of red wine of course.