Every year I throw a holiday party and I usually keep my menu authentically Indian. However, when it came to choosing an appetizer recipe I deviated from my rule a bit. This year’s menu includes puff pastry appetizers, saffron rice pilaf, dal makhani, tandoori cauliflower, Shahi Chicken and payesh (Bengali rice pudding) which will be served with chapati and Indian style salad.
Last year, when I was throwing my holiday party, I struggled to find an appetizer recipe. I wanted to prepare ahead so I can reduce some workload on that day. My mum always makes ‘pakoda’ as an appetizer when she throws a party. Do not get me wrong, I love eating it but it takes a significant amount of time to prepare. And on the day of your party, when you are always running on toes, you want to keep things as simple as possible. So I was looking for a baked appetizer which I can prepare in advance and just bake on the day of the party.
After speaking with my friend Beverly and my MIL, I decided to make puff pastry ‘sfeeha’. ‘Sfeeha’ is a Lebanese meat pie. Beverly suggested sfeeha and my MIL suggested a puffed pastry appetizer. I thought, “Why not combine the two of them?” This is how my signature appetizer Puff Pastry Sfeeha was born. I make the meat with Middle Eastern spices and fill the puff pastry with it. I usually prepare large batches and deep freeze them. On the day of my party I take them out to let thaw for about an hour and then bake.
I use Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry sheets. Each sheet makes about a dozen puff pastries, so from one packet you can make about two dozen. It goes well with wine, diet coke or any beverage of your choice. These appetizers are a show stopper at my parties. Every time I make it my guests ask for the recipe. So I am stopping my jibber jabber and jumping into the recipe.
Recipe for Puff Pastry Sfeeha
For this recipe, you have to make a trip to a Middle Eastern grocer. You will need Turkish red pepper paste. labne and Turkish chile flakes.
Turkish chile pepper flakes add a very fine taste to the dish but do not make it too hot. If you cannot find it you can substitute it with cayenne pepper.
You can replace labne with thick strained yogurt or cream cheese. Check Anshie’slink on how to make Labne at home.
Also, you can make them any shape you want. I make pinwheels because I find it the easiest.
- 4 frozen puffed pastry sheets, thawed according to the packet directions
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- black pepper, freshly ground
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste
- 1 teaspoon allspice powder
- 1 teaspoon Turkish chile flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 tablespoon labne or strained yogurt
1. In a thick bottom pan, heat oil in medium-high heat. Add onion slices and fry it for 3-4 minutes until they are translucent. Add ground meat and fry until there is no pink.
2. Add salt, pepper, red pepper paste and all spices except labne. Cook for 4-5 minutes in medium-low heat until meat mixture is cooked all the way through.
3. Add labne to the same pan and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes in medium-low heat. Your meat mixture should not be watery or too dry. See photo of meat mixture above.
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. When the meat mixture is cool enough to handle, put a generous amount of it on the puffed pastry sheets. Fold each sheet like a wrap. With a sharp knife, cut them into pinwheel shapes.
5. In a baking sheet, line them with parchment paper. Arrange pinwheels with a generous amount of space between each one because they will rise. Using a pastry brush, add egg-wash to the pastries. This gives a nice color to the appetizers.
6. Bake them for 20 minutes until they become slightly browned as shown in the picture.
Serve hot with drinks.
Hi Dolphia,
I just loved those appetizers. I’m not sure where to get the middle eastern
spices but here there are plenty of stores that carry Indian spices although
not the ones you get that are not sold here.
I thought of a variation on this recipe and I am going to try it.
To be continued….
The spices I used here can be found in any middle eastern grocery store. Just google middle eastern grocery store in NY, it will show all the options.