Saturday, April 2, 2011

Les Briques: a completely imprecise recipe


It is good to have French friends. Especially pretty ones named Karen who teach you to cook!

Im not sure I kept clear/detailed enough notes on this recipe for it to be recreated, but it was really fun to watch her work and hopefully you'll enjoy the pictures, maybe even get some good cooking tips out of it... like brushing with oil and baking instead of frying, or (oh my), the salmon filling was good enough to eat with a spoon!

For 20 Bricks (10 of each stuffing):

10 round sheets of wrapping dough/pastry sheets cut in half (into 20 half circles...) I am unclear on the name of the sheets, but it seems there are indian versions (its basically a semosa), chinese versions (think "spring roll"), filo dough might even work, but we used an arab variety. They come in packages with round sheets, separated by wax paper, which we cut in half into semi-circles.

Salmon Filling:
1 filet of salmon, sauteed and broken up
2-3 stalks leeks, diced and sauteed with butter
some sort of binding ingredient, like cream, some soft cheese, cream cheese, etc
curry, salt and pepper

Tuna Filling: 1 filet of Tuna, sauteed
a handful of sliced black olives
3 small potatoes, boiled, peeled and chopped
Same thing for the binding ingredient, cream, cream cheese, maybe an egg?
fresh coriander, salt and pepper











Fold into the wrappings: (You can probably make just about any shape you want, but Karen made these so well!) Fold:










Tuck-in the final flap, if you can, if not, just
place it how you can on your parchment lined baking sheet and use a egg yolk brush if you need to to stick the final edge to the side. (just a beaten egg yolk with a dash of salt)

Brush with oil - this is the real secret - this way you don't have to fry it and it is a reasonably healthy dish!

Bake at about 220 C (i dont know... 400 or 350 F?) I am going with imprecise on this entry, so lets just say until browning... maybe 20 minutes?

In the french meal there is l'entrée and le plat, the former being "the entrance" and therefore like an american appetizer, and the second the main dish or "the plate". At our dinner party we had soup and bread for the starter and these with a salad for le plat. twas the perfect combination!

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