My graduate program had a welcome back rooftop party so I decided to make these. I kinda made it up in my head as I went along so there's nothing really exact.
Here's a recipe:
2 packages Dufour puff pastry
1 1/2 pound package of meatloaf meat (that has a 1/2 pound each of ground veal, beef and pork) or just buy them separately
1/2 pound ground lamb
a handful of fresh tarragon leaves chopped
a large handful of fresh oregano chopped
a bunch of fresh flat parsley chopped
8 cloves garlic chopped into small pieces(or to taste)
1/2 vidalia onion minced fine
fresh cracked pepper to taste
a pinch of cumin seeds ground up in a mortar and pestle (I ran out of powder)
a dash of ancho chili powder
a dash or three of Penzy's Arizona Dreaming spice mix
5 dashes of Hungarian sweet paprika
a dash of cayenne pepper
a couple dashes of Worchestershire sauce
a couple dashes of soy sauce
a dash of sweet balsamic vinegar
a teaspoon of chicken soup base (better than bouillon)
1/2 a small package of feta cheese
6 oz parmigiano reggiano
1/2 pound blue or gorgonzola
butter
2 egg yolks mixed with water for an egg wash
the puff pastry:
You can leave it out at room temperature for 40 minutes, or do like the package suggests and defrost in the fridge for 3 hours. My fridge did not really completely defrost it in more than 3 hours, but if you press your hand against the dough to warm it wherever it needs it will roll out fine.
the filling:
I started out by using some bacon ends I had to render oil for the onions and garlic to caramelize. You can use olive oil or nothing and just add them along with the meat. Once that was done I added the meat and cooked till browned and the juices were almost absorbed.
I drained the meat and put it back in the pan with a pat of butter to replace any oil lost, but not risk the puffs coming out soggy from too much liquid.
I added the freshly chopped tarragon leaves and oregano to the pan. Then I added the other seasonings. This was mainly trial and error, I didn't know what sort of flavor I was going for yet so I kept adding things till I liked the taste.
Once everything was cooked through I chopped up the fresh parsley and added it to the mix. Then I added the Parmesan cheese.
I let this sit on the stove for a while then popped it into my fridge in a container to cool more after adding half the package of Greek feta.
Once the mixture was cool enough I crumbled the blue cheese in and added it to the rest.
You will have half of this mixture left over and can use it on pasta or in more puffs later!
putting it together:
Pre-heat the oven to 375 F
Lay the pastry out on a floured board and roll out the rectangle to a 12x12 square. Cut 16 ~3 inch squares out of the sheet with a pizza cutter.
spoon a teaspoon full of filling into the center of each square.
moisten the edges of each square with egg wash and fold over. You can make triangles or rectangles. FYI rectangles are easier when you're tired of folding pastry.
Crimp the edges with a fork or if you're fancy, crimp them in a nicer way. My crimping attempts tend to look like a dog got a hold of the edges and shredded them with its teeth so I still use a fork.
Place the puffs on parchment paper on a cookie sheet or in a roasting pan. You can pretty much use whatever you have handy.
Brush the egg wash on top of each.
Bake in the oven for 25-40 minutes or until the tops are browned and the pastries are puffed out plumply.
Repeat with the other package of pastry.
This will make 32 puffs.
It's cute and it's called ittybit from the Bunnies by the Bay collection
