If you’ve been waiting anxiously to see what interesting vegetarian dish we cooked up for Thanksgiving this year – here it is! We went into the holiday originally intending to make this recipe from the New York Times, but when we went to go grocery shopping we found that the store didn’t have frozen puff pastry, only phyllo dough sheets. So Cyril, being the more creative cook in the family, quickly pivoted and came up with this instead. We think it was a pretty good adaptation, and our family enjoyed it as well, so we’ll show you here how we made this delicious pre-dinner appetizer.
You’ll need:
- A Yukon Gold potato
- Ginger
- 3 chiles
- Frozen peas
- Vegetable oil
- Sesame seeds
- Fennel seeds
- Cumin seeds
- Mint
- Garam masala
- A lemon
- Frozen phyllo dough sheets
- Olive oil
To start, measure a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a small pan and warm over medium heat. Add in a tablespoon each of sesame seeds and fennel seeds plus a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Let these all cook for just a minute, until they become slightly toasty, then take them off the heat.
Now cut your potato in half, place it in a small pot, cover with water, and bring this to a boil. Let it cook like this for 15 minutes and drain. Meanwhile, thaw 2 cups of peas by heating them in the microwave for 2 minutes and place them in a food processor along with a one-inch peeled piece of ginger. Take 2 of your chiles and cut the stems off, put them in the food processor as well, and grind everything together for just a minute or so. Add in your seeds, 1/4 cup of mint leaves, the juice from half your lemon, some salt, and a teaspoon of garam masala. Once the potato is done cooking put that into the food processor too and blend everything together until you have an even, thickened mixture.
Now cut a piece of parchment paper that’s slightly larger than one sheet of phyllo. Place this onto a baking sheet, brush with olive oil, and lay a single sheet of phyllo on top. Brush the phyllo with olive oil and place another sheet over it. Repeat with phyllo and olive oil until you’ve got 7 layers of phyllo piled up, then spread half of your potato-pea mixture evenly on the top sheet of phyllo.
Lay another 7 sheets of phyllo on top of this, brushing each with olive oil before placing on another layer. Spread the rest of the mixture on top of the 7th sheet, then cover with another 7 sheets of phyllo with olive oil brushed on top of each. Finally, when you get to the top sheet of phyllo, brush with olive oil and scatter sesame seeds on top.
Bake for 30 minutes at 375°F, checking to make sure the top doesn’t burn but only gets golden brown. If the top sheet isn’t browned after half an hour, leave it in for 3-minute increments until you have a nice color on top. Once the phyllo is cooled slightly, cut into triangles.
Finally, make a green chutney by peeling and chopping a one-inch piece of ginger and cutting the stem off your last chile and placing these in a food processor with 2 cups of mint leaves. Add in 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala, the juice from the other half of your lemon, a tablespoon of water, and some salt. Grind everything together, adding more water as necessary, until you have a smooth but not too thin sauce. Serve the chutney alongside your phyllo bites.
And now you and your guests can eat these tasty bites!
All in all, we think these were a pretty good version of the original recipe we saw. The filling – nicely spiced and a little bit hot – goes well in between sheets of phyllo, which become flaky when you layer them and then crisp up in the oven. Placing down the phyllo sheets does require some time and patience, because they’re very thin and you need to be careful not to rip them, but the layered pastry with a savory filling that results is worth the effort. This certainly made for an interesting, non-traditional appetizer for the big meal, and we were glad to be able to contribute a unique dish for the holiday.