Cheesy Beef Taco Pockets

Ingredients

• 450g beef mince
• 1 egg, beaten
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 0.5 onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 200ml passata
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp mild taco seasoning
• 150g sweetcorn, drained if tinned
• 180g mature Cheddar, grated
• 120g mozzarella, grated
• 500g ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 150g Greek yogurt
• 1 lime, juiced
• Warm tortillas, to serve
• Soured cream, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat and cook the onion for 5 minutes until soft and translucent, with no colour. Season the onion with a pinch of salt as it goes in — it draws the moisture out and stops it catching.
2. Turn the heat up to medium-high. Season the mince generously with salt and pepper, then add it to the pan in two batches. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Break it up with a wooden spoon and let it sit untouched for a minute at a time so the edges catch and go properly bronze — about 8 minutes total across both batches, returning the first batch to the pan at the end.
3. Stir in the grated garlic and taco seasoning and cook for 30–45 seconds until fragrant — watch it, don't burn it. Burnt garlic turns the whole filling bitter, and blooming the spices in the oil for those few seconds is what makes them taste of themselves rather than dusty.
4. Pour in the passata with a splash of water — the liquid breaks the tomato down so it tastes of fruit, not tin — then add the sweetcorn. Simmer for 6 minutes until thick and spoonable with no pooling liquid. Taste, season, taste again — adjust now, not at the table. Take off the heat and cool for 5 minutes, then fold through half the Cheddar and half the mozzarella so it just begins to melt into the mix.
5. Heat the oven to 200°C fan and line two baking trays with baking paper. Unroll the puff pastry and cut into 8 rectangles, roughly 12cm by 10cm.
6. Spoon the cooled filling onto one half of each rectangle, leaving a 1cm border — hot filling will melt the pastry and you'll lose the puff. Pile the remaining Cheddar and mozzarella generously on top. Brush the borders with beaten egg, fold the pastry over and press to seal, then crimp the edges firmly with a fork. Brush the tops with more egg for a deep glaze and slash a small steam vent in each — without it, steam splits the pastry at the seam.
7. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until deep golden, puffed and crisp, swapping trays halfway if your oven runs uneven. You're looking for cheese bubbling at the seams and the bases sounding hollow when tapped.
8. While they bake, stir the Greek yoghurt with the lime juice and honey until smooth and slightly loose. Taste — it should be tangy first, sweet second, with enough salt to bring it forward. Add a pinch if it's flat.
9. Rest the pockets for 2 minutes — they should crackle when bitten, with molten cheese stretching from the spiced beef inside. Plate the pockets, scatter the extra Cheddar and torn coriander leaves over the tops, spoon the honey-lime yoghurt alongside, and tuck in the lime wedges for squeezing.