Whether for entertaining or lunchboxes, always a winner!
- 1 large sweet potato (roasted and cooled)
- 125 g cream cheese
- 150 g frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup polenta (cornmeal for the non-aussies)
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 cup grated cheese
- ½ white onion
- 4 sheets puff pastry (each sheet cut into 4 squares)
- 1 lightly beaten egg (for brushing)
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Grab pastry out of the freezer to thaw. Put everything down to the puff pastry in the food processor and blend well. Pop spoonfuls of mix onto each square of pastry. Fold in half, seal edges and create a vent in top. Brush with egg and bake at 220 deg cel until pastry is well puffed and golden.
The sky is the limit with these, don’t be afraid to get creative! I want to try swapping the sweet potato for pumpkin, cream cheese for ricotta and next time I have it, see how fresh spinach goes in these pasties. Toasted pine nuts would also be a winner!
PS, if you don’t have polenta, bread crumbs will do in a pinch.
The Ramblings:
Growing up, Dad and my brother Doug were meat and veg men. They have both since diversified but when I was little, whenever the boys were away, Mum and I used to relish the opportunity to indulge in ‘girlie food’. Our ultimate girlie food was pumpkin pine nut pasta. I have Mum’s recipe and one day I may make it too, but I never have because I just know it will be like Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies, the reason I loved it was about who had made it and I was enjoying it with.
Girl food also included anything and everything from cannelloni to spinach and ricotta lasagna; anything ‘a bit funky’. Once, when I was pretty little, the boys went to something at Suncorp Stadium (either football or cricket I think?). Anyway, as a result Mum and I had a girls day in Brisbane that culminated in dinner at a proper restaurant. I don’t remember many specifics but I remember feeling like the queen of the universe when the waiter put my apron across my lap and I got to have gelato for dessert!
While Matt has gotten so much better about trying new or different things, the concept of girlie food prevails here too. This weekend, two of Matt’s friends are coming but most excitingly, so is one of their girlfriends!!! I’ve only met her once but she is an absolute hoot and cannot wait to have another girl in the house to justify making ‘girlie food’! So these sweet potato and spinach pasties are the beginning of it! I will pop these in the freezer for us next week. So excited!!!