FILO PASTRY RECIPES RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
  2. Peel and finely grate the garlic, finely chop the parsley, stalks and all, then mix both with the soft butter and season with sea salt and black pepper.
  3. Use the tip of a sharp knife to slice into the thickest part of each chicken breast and create a pocket. Divide and stuff in the garlic butter, then shape the breasts back into their original form, sealing the butter inside.
  4. Gather up one sheet of filo in waves and wrap around one breast. Repeat, lining up the kievs on a large oiled baking tray. Mix 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar, then lightly brush the filo, reserving the remaining mixture for later. Roast on the bottom of the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden, juicy and cooked through.
  5. Meanwhile, chop the potatoes into even-sized chunks and cook in a large pan of boiling salted water for 15 minutes, or until tender, adding the peas for the last 2 minutes.
  6. Trim the tough ends off the broccoli stalks, halve any thicker stalks lengthways, toss with the remaining oil and vinegar mixture and add to the chicken tray for the last 10 minutes.
  7. Drain the potatoes and peas, then mash with 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and season to perfection. Serve it all together.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180C/160C(fan)/350F/Gas 4. Place a baking tray into oven to heat up. (This will give extra bottom heat to the pies so that the bases cook through and are not soggy.) Grease a 12-hole muffin tin with a little spray oil and set aside.
• Put all the mincemeat ingredients into a saucepan over a medium heat. Allow to cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the apples begin to soften. Then remove from the heat and leave the mixture to infuse while you make the pies.
• Lay the sheets of filo pastry out on top of each other and cut them in half across the width. Then cut each half in half again to give four stacks of about 12cm/4½in squares of filo. I find scissors really handy to cut these out, but a sharp knife will do. Keep any filo not being worked on under a damp tea towel so that it doesn’t dry out.
• Line each hole of the muffin tin with three squares of filo. I like to take a square at a time and press it into the hole, each one slightly staggered from the previous so the resulting pastry case edge looks like a star. Make sure to push the pastry down so it is in the ‘corners’ of each muffin hole.
• After lining the tin, you should be left with 12 squares of filo. Which you can reserve under a damp tea towel for now.
• Spray each stack in the tin with a little oil and bake in the oven for five minutes until crisp and pale golden. Then, divide the filling evenly among the cases.
• Next take the remaining squares of filo, scrunch each one up lightly and place one on top of each pie so that it looks like a scrunched-up tissue. Brush them lightly with beaten egg or melted butter.
• Pop in the oven on the heated baking sheet for 8-10 minutes or until the pies are crisp and golden.
• Meanwhile, prepare the yogurt for serving. Gently mix together the yogurt, icing sugar and vanilla seeds or extract in a bowl. Cover and set aside in the fridge until ready to use.
• Once ready, remove the pies from the oven, dust with a little icing sugar and serve with a dollop of the yogurt, if you like.