Lebanese Lamb Pastries

These things are amazing! I made them for friends as part of a huge Middle Eastern meze type meal for Persian New Year. The feedback was good!

But I need to stress, this is probably not Lebanesey at all, simply my own recipe. 

Equipment needed for all:

Large mixing bowl
Frying pan
Saucepan
A wooden spoon
Fish slice
Baking/parchment paper
Baking tray
Pastry brush
Knife and chopping board

Makes 8-10 pastries    Prep Time 45 mins   Cooking Time 30 mins 

Ingredients:

300g lamb mince (try to go for something fairly lean)
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar (any will do)
Handful of fresh mint, chopped finely
1 red chilli, chopped finely
1 tbsp harissa
1 tbsp red pesto
2 tsp Lebanese 7 spice
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp sumac (Persian spice which is red and kind of tastes like lemon)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 pack (or 10 sheets) filo pastry
50g butter


The first step is to make the filling mixture, start this by very slowly frying the onion very slowly in the oil in a frying pan for around 10-15 mins until it has completely softened and taken on a rich colour. Add the sugar and allow the mixture to become sticky. Set aside to chill to at least room temp. 

Meanwhile you can dry fry the spices (Lebanese 7 spice, cumin, turmeric and 1tsp of the sumac) to bring them back to life; add all the dry spices to a dry frying pan over a medium heat and gently shake the pan to ensure all the spices are toasted and nothing catches. This will take around 1-2 minutes then tip them into a large mixing bowl. 

Now you can add everything into the bowl; the onions, lamb, garlic, mint, harissa, pesto and chilli. Mix everything together extremely well with your hands to ensure a good distribution of the flavours. Pop it in the fridge and forget about it for at least a couple of hours but I usually leave it over night. 

When you're ready to make the pastries (again you can do this ahead of time and leave them chilling in the fridge for up to 1 day) melt your butter in a saucepan and set up your workspace - you will need the butter and pastry brush to hand as well as a large surface. 

Now you're ready to start folding...

Take one filo sheet and lay it flat in front of you landscape-way. Then lightly brush all over with butter and fold as per the below into quarters so you have a long strip;

The add around 10th of your filling to the bottom corner, lightly butter around the edges and fold up into triangles over on itself. Seal with butter and brush with butter all over the top, place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Once you have used up all your filling and you have 8-10 pastries in front of you, sprinkle the tops with a pinch of sumac. You can now either bake them straight away or fridge them for up to 1-2 days. 

Preheat the oven to 180°c/fan 170°c/gas 6

Bake for 25-30 mins, remove and serve up with something yoghurty - I usually make a tzatziki using greek yoghurt, chopped fresh mint, finely diced cucumber, lemon juice and salt, but whatever you want really. 

Ultimate Crème Brûlée

I had a load of egg yolks left over from meringue making (which is just too simple to write up a recipe for really) so I thought I would have a go at crème brûlée and it turned out pretty bloody good! 


Makes 4 servings   Total Time Approx. 1hr 30 mins  


Ingredients:

426ml double cream - precise, I know, but this is 2 standard cartons, a 284ml one and a 142ml one
100ml full-fat milk
1 vanilla pod (or vanilla bean paste, don't use essence for the love of god)
100g caster sugar - 50g for the egg mix and 50g for the topping



Equipment:

Medium sauceapan
4 ramekins
Whisk (hand/electric)
Wooden spoon
Blow torch (optional)
Roasting pan
Baking sheet
Sieve
Large heatproof jug



Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. 

Sit four ramekins (I used the little Le Crueset dishes, you can be pretty adventurous with the vessel; as long as it it oven safe) in a deep roasting tin at least 7.5cm deep (or a large deep cake tin), one that will enable a baking tray to sit well above the ramekins when laid across the top of the tin. Pour the cream into a medium pan with the milk. Lay the vanilla pod on a board and slice lengthways through the middle with a sharp knife to split it in two. Use the tip of the knife to scrape out all the tiny seeds into the cream mixture. Drop the vanilla pod in as well, and set aside. You can totally use vanilla bean paste here though. 

Put the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for 1 minute with an electric hand whisk or normal whisk until paler in colour and a bit fluffy. Put the pan with the cream on a medium heat and bring almost to the boil. As soon as you see bubbles appear round the edge, take the pan off the heat. 

It's so important that you do not overheat the cream/milk mixture here as it will scald and taste awful.

Pour the hot cream into the beaten egg yolks, stirring with a wire whisk as you do so, and scraping out the seeds from the pan. Set a fine sieve over a large wide jug or bowl and pour the hot mixture through to strain it, encouraging any stray vanilla seeds through at the end. Using a big spoon, scoop off all the pale foam that is sitting on the top of the liquid (this will be several spoonfuls) and discard. Give the mixture a stir.

Pour in enough hot water (from the tap is fine) into the roasting tin to come about 1.5cm up the sides of the ramekins. Pour the hot cream into the ramekins so you fill them up – it’s easier to spoon in the last little bit. Put them in the oven and lay a baking sheet over the top of the tin so it sits well above the ramekins and completely covers them, but not the whole tin, leaving a small gap at one side to allow air to circulate. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the mixture is softly set. To check, gently sway the roasting tin and if the crème brûlées are ready, they will wobble a bit like a jelly in the middle. Don’t let them get too firm or you will miss the silky texture. 

Lift the ramekins out of the roasting tin with oven gloves and set them on a wire rack to cool for a couple of minutes only, then put in the fridge to cool completely. This can be done overnight without affecting the texture so if you have people over for dinner you can do this before to get it out of your head. 

When ready to serve, wipe round the top edge of the dishes, sprinkle 1½ tsp of caster sugar over each ramekin and spread it out with the back of a spoon to completely cover. Spray with a little water using a fine spray (I have one to spray my pup in the summer to cool her down and I'm not even going to lie, I used that one) to just dampen the sugar – then use a blow torch to caramelise it.

If you don't have a blow torch you can used a RIDICULOUSLY hot grill, but be careful because the longer they're under there, the softer the set cream will become and if it's not super hot then, well you'll have cream again. 

Then serve with a little teaspoon for cracking!