Baby Apple & Cinnamon Phyllo Bites

These dear little apple tartlets fall into the category of Dainty Little Nibbles, and although I'm not a cupcakey sort of cook, I can't resist posting them here as an idea for a show-stopper of a Valentine's Day snack. You can fling these crunchy, tart-sweet bites together in under half an hour, using just a few ingredients, and you'll be rewarded (I hope) with murmurings of appreciation from your sweetheart; perhaps even a nuzzle on the earlobe if you're the lucky one.

These sweet, crunchy little nibbes are so easy to make.

These are easy to make, and the only fiddly bit is tying lengths of raffia around the pastry.  This is manageable if you have nimble fingers, but I suggest you summon an extra set of hands. If you don't have any raffia (I buy this in bundles once a year, from a packaging shop), use lengths of fine kitchen string instead.

Use a sharp-edged cookie cutter to make the phyllo circles.

The idea for this recipe came when I was thinking of something to make with left-over pastry.  I was busy testing a recipe for phyllo-wrapped rainbow trout, but it was a disaster because I packed the parcels with a topping of herbed butter so lavish that the pies came out of the oven looking as though they were soggily floating on a golden lake of oil. I ate them anyway, of course.

I found two tins of baby apples in the back of the cupboard, quickly stamped out some pastry circles and 25 minutes later these tartlets were ready. Baby apples are available in tins from good delis and other speciality suppliers.

Beautiful little Ronde de Bordeaux figs.

I am itching to try this with the tiny purple Ronde de Bordeaux figs I bought at Woolies this week, and my plan is to make sweet-savoury bites using slivers of the simply outstanding (and I mean faintingly good) Kilimanjaro goats' cheese that won the 2012 Woolworths Cheesemaker's Challenge. But more about that soon.

I recommend you use, for this recipe, an unfrozen roll of phyllo pastry, which - as far as I know - is stocked only by Woolies.  The frozen variety available in other supermarkets is good, but the sheets do tend to stick together and then rip when you pull them apart, which is an annoyance when you're in a hurry.


If you'd like to add some extra crunch, sprinkle some very finely chopped nuts - toasted almonds, say - between the layers of phyllo.  And, if you're watching your calories, use a can of good olive-oil spray to apply a fine mist over the pastry sheets. This won't be as delicious as melted butter, but it will do, and I promise the tartlets won't taste of olives.

I haven't given you exact quantities for sugar, cinnamon and butter here - this is up to you.  But go easy on the softened butter. Cinnamon is also best used in whispers.

If this recipe appeals to you, here are some more phyllo-pastry finger foods you can make in a jiffy:

• 10-Minute Phyllo Tartlets
• Potato, Cheese and Chilli Phyllo Triangles
• Festive Phyllo Crackers with a Spicy Plum and Almond Filling

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Baby Apple & Cinnamon Phyllo Tartlets 

2 tins baby apples, drained of their syrup
6 sheets phyllo pastry, fresh if possible, or thawed overnight in the fridge if frozen
caster sugar
a little cinnamon
unsalted butter, softened
toasted flaked almonds, or other nuts of your choice, very finely chopped
icing sugar, for dusting

Heat your oven to 170º C, fan on, or 180 ºC, fan off.  Unroll the phyllo pastry and remove one sheet.  Place this on a large board or your kitchen counter. Cover the remaining sheets with a slightly damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out.

Melt a few tablespoons of butter in the microwave, or on the stove, and brush a thin film all over the top of the pastry sheet.  Lightly dust the sheet with caster sugar and a suggestion of cinnamon. If you are using finely chopped nuts, sprinkle them over top.

Place another sheet of phyllo on top of the first one, and repeat the steps with this and the third sheet of pastry.  Now, using a sharp cookie cutter and some firm pressure, stamp right through all three layers to cut out as many neat circles as you can fit into the stack of pastry. The size of the cookie cutter depends on how large the baby apples are, and you will need one that is large enough to allow the pastry circles to come up to about two-thirds of the way up the apples' girth once wrapped (see picture, above).  If you don't have a cookie cutter of the right size, use the rim of a large drinking glass, and cut around the circumference with the tip of a very sharp knife.

Smear a thin layer of  softened butter over each disc (this will help it stick), place a baby apple in the centre, and gentle press the pastry around the base to form a nest.  Tie a short length of split raffia around the midline of the apple and secure with a knot. The easiest way to do this is to hold the apple by its base, put the raffia in position, and ask someone else to tie a knot or dainty bow. Trim the ends of the raffia and place the apple tartlets upright on a sheet lined with baking paper.

Now repeat the process with the second tin of apples and the remaining three sheets of phyllo.

Generously sprinkle some extra caster sugar over the tops of the apple and gently fan out the phyllo-pastry 'ruff' on each tartlet.  Bake for 8-12 minutes, in the middle of the oven, or until the phyllo is crisp and golden, the sugar melted and the apples hot.  Watch the tartlets closely for signs that the pastry is darkening too quickly, and turn the baking sheet once or twice if your oven has known hot spots.

Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar (and a blob of cream, if you fancy that). You can snip off the raffia binding before you serve them, using a pair of fine-tipped scissors, or - if you've been patient enough to tie a small bow on each tartlet - you can remind your guests to remove the string themselves before they pop the the tartlets into their mouths.

If left to cool completely on a wire rack, these will happily retain their crunch for an hour or two, depending on humidity.

Makes about 24 apple tartlets. 

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Valentine's Day: Steak with Pink Peppercorn, Rosemary and Lemon Butter

At this time of the year, there's lots of talk about food for lovers, which interests me because (have you guessed?) I'm a lover of food. In particular, I'm a lover of steak and butter. This is what I might cook for my dearly beloved on 14th February, if he plays his cards right.

As the butter melts, the heat of the steak releases the pepper, lemon and rosemary aromas.

This recipe is quick and easy, but you will need a small heart-shaped biscuit cutter. (Unless you're not a romantic, in which case you can shape the butter into discs.) These cutters are available from good kitchen shops. Pink peppercorns are less easy to find, but well worth tracking down.

Pink peppercorns (via Wikimedia Commons) )

They have a sweetish taste quite distinct from black and green peppercorns, and are in fact not true peppercorns at all, being the fruit of Schinus terebinthifolius, a Brazilian flowering plant belonging to the cashew family, and also known as a Brazilian pepper tree, Christmas berry, or Florida holly.

My husband bought a bottle of these for me from Germany after a business trip three or four years ago, and they're still as pungent as they were when I first opened the bottle.

The papery seeds are a beautiful deep coral-pink and crush very easily under light pressure from the blade of a knife. I'm smitten by their lovely colour and aroma, and I think you will be too, but as pink peppercorns have been known to cause allergies and dermatitis in certain people, I advise you to eat one and wait for a few hours before inflicting them on your darling.

You can use any sort of good quality, well-matured steak here. I like a good, juicy piece of rump (and no Valentine's Day sniggers from the peanut gallery, please) or rib-eye or sirloin, with a nice marbelling of fat. Everyone has their own method for cooking steak, but I find the best way to achieve a crusty, well-caramelised outside and perfect rosy pinkness within is as follows:

• Don't marinate the steaks.
• Bring them to room temperature before you cook them. 
• Season the steaks with salt and pepper immediately before you cook them.
• Heat the oil until it's ferociously hot and shimmering, but not yet smoking.
• Lay the steaks in the shimmering oil and allow to cook for a minute and a half to two (depending on the thickness of the steak) without moving or prodding them. Turn them over with a pair of tongs when they're beautifully browned, and the add a knob of butter to the pan (see recipe, below). Cook for another minute and a half, basting frequently with the butter.
• If you're not confident about cooking steak, turn one of them over and sneakily cut a deep slit in its thickest part.  You will lose some juices from the steak by doing this, but the loss is minimal.
•  If the middle of the steak is a lovely dark pink, and you're looking for medium-rare, remove the steak from the heat immediately (it will continue to cook as it rests).
•  If it looks disturbingly bloody on the inside, give it a little longer.

I love to serve steak with a baked potato brimming with sour cream and chives (or a mixture of sour cream and yoghurt, just to keep heart attacks from the door), but this would also be nice with a zingy potato salad, or little new potatoes, or a pile of warm, buttery mash.

The salad leaves in the picture are mustard greens and red-vein sorrel leaves, both of which I grow in pots on my veranda.

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Steak with Pink Peppercorn, Rosemary and Lemon Butter

2 well-matured rump, sirloin or rib-eye steaks
2 Tbsp  (30 ml) olive oil
salt and milled black pepper

For the flavoured butter:
4 Tbsp (60 ml) softened butter
12 fresh rosemary needles
1½ tsp (7.5 ml) pink peppercorns
1½ tsp (7.5 ml) finely grated fresh lemon zest

First make the butter. Put a handful of ice chips on a small plate, and place it in the freezer. Finely chop or snip the rosemary needles and gently crush the peppercorns using a mortar and pestle, or a rolling pin. Don't pound them too hard, or they'll turn to a paste.

Stir the rosemary, crushed peppercorns and fresh lemon zest into the butter, and mix well. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Take the plate with the ice out of the freezer and push the ice chips to one side. Place the heart-shaped cutter on the plate, and fill with the flavoured butter.

Smooth the top and place back in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until firm. Push the heart-shaped butter pat out of the mould and set to one side of the plate. Repeat the process to make a second heart-shaped butter piece. Reserve the remaining butter.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat. When the oil is very hot and shimmering, add the steaks and cook on one side until nicely browned and caramelised (see my notes, above). Flip the steaks over. Add any remaining flavoured butter to the pan, and, using a spoon, baste the steaks every twenty seconds. When the steaks are done to your liking, remove them from the pan and place on a plate to rest for 5 minutes.

Slide the steaks onto plates and top each one with a pat of flavoured butter. Serve immediately with green salad and a baked potato.

Serves 2.

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