If you (like me) struggle with filo and uniform bite size morsels, this is a great stepping stone dish to assist with technique. These are a little fiddly, but well worth the effort. Serve them hot at a cocktail party, cold handing them up the rail in a race on the yacht.
I most recently served them the day after I had made them, at a picnic on the beach on Coochie Mudlo Island – there were none left!
INGREDIENTS:
- 100g butter, melted
- 800g Lamb fillet, in a thick dice
- 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
- 1 clove of garlic
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 50g Pepitas
- 50g Sunflower seeds
- 150g spinach
- 100g feta
- 50g panko breadcrumbs
- 1 egg yolk
- 16 sheets of filo pastry
METHOD:
In a large frypan, gently toast the seeds for a few minutes, then put in a mortar and roughly crush. Heat the pan to hot, and add a little oil, then quickly seal the lamb. It does not need to be cooked through as we will be baking it later. Remove from the pan and wipe dry. Then add the spinach to the pan so it has wilted. Remove from the pan and put in a colander, and squeeze to reduce excess moisture.
In a bowl, add the crushed seeds to crumbled feta, breadcrumbs and the egg yolk and combine.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees fan, then set up your workbench with space. Put a cake rack over a baking dish. Then start the production line.
Take one piece of filo (covering the remainder with a wet tea towel to prevent drying out). With a pastry brush, brush with butter, then fold in half, brush with butter and then fold in half again. In the middle of the filo, add a little of the lamb, followed by spinach and then the feta mixture. Brush some butter around the exposed pastry, then tuck in the ends and roll it up. Put on the cake rack.
Complete the remaining 15. Then brush them all with a generous amount of pastry, then put them in the oven for 20 minutes.
Serve immediately or the next day. In keeping with the greek theme, serve it with a dip such as tzatziki, or hummus or baba ganoush.
