Middle East version of Sang Choy Bow / Ladies' Fingers

I found this fantastic recipe for the filling for Ladies' Fingers from a Lebanese restaurant called "Abla's" in Victoria. see website:

A rather simple recipe with some key spices.

• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 250g coursely minced lean lamb
• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sumac

For those unaware of Sumac, its a middle eastern Spice, rich red crimson colour, which is sweet and savoury. Its almost like a sweeter version of paprika. It also has lemon aromas.
Many homus recipes call for Sumac as a garnish. Im really fond of it.

For the minced lamb. The first time I used some lamb loin strips from wollies. They may have been rib fillets im not too sure, but they were long cylindrical morsels. Without a mincer i just diced them finely and they worked great. I wouldnt use bought lamb mince unless you know a good butcher lol. You want lean lamb without a lot of fat.
We've since snaffled a Kenwood attachment mincer for the mix master and minced the lamb and that worked just as well if not better and much quicker. I wouldnt attempt this recipe for the lettuce leaves filling unless you used good quality lamb.

The recipe suggests using this filling and rolling it in filo pastry and making Ladies' Fingers or Cigars as I would call them lol.

However I thought the filling was so tasty that it would make a great substitute for the traditional chinese Sang Choy Bow filling in lettuce leaves.

Sure enough it tasted so good in cos lettuce leaves.

I modified the recipe slightly, adding a clove of garlic, and using eshallots instead of onion.
I also added some English spinach into the mix. It gave it more colour.

While these lettuce leaved satchels are scrumptious by themselves and a great entree, I found that Feta really went well with the mix. However personally I wanted something slightly more refreshing with it. So a nice crispy hot and cold salad really did the trick, and I turned it into a main course.

Hot and Cold salad:

The only reason I went for this combination is that I really love zucchini and eggplant, and I wanted these ingredients in my salad. I also thought the crunch of snow peas would be great. Sugar snap peas would be great too.

In a fry pan, with olive oil and quickly fried some zucchini and eggplant until slightly golden on either side and remove and drained. Then I added some red capsicum julienned with the snow peas and very quickly and removed.

I set aside and just cut up some cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, and Fetta cheese.

I have trialed making some Pomegranate molasses. 4 cups of pomegranate juice, 1 cup of sugar and 1 lemon, reduced down to 1 cup. Although i found it slightly TOO viscous similar to the syrup used for the baklava.

I think the tart and sweetness of pomegranate juice to be sensational and would go terrific for a vinegarette for this salad.

Since I was pushed for time and just adlibing and basically lazy lol I just added some pomegranate and cranberry juice i had, and added some lemon juice, sugar with some dijon mustard. It really tasted good in the salad and supported the lamb filled lettuce leaves perfectly.

What I would like to trial would be to make them to the original recipe for Ladies' Fingers and make a Pomegranate molasses dipping sauce. It would substitute duck sauce and spring rolls lol A middle eastern twist.

Ideally when in season, using fresh pomegranate seeds would be the best for the salad.

I have to say though in many of the new recipes ive tried recently this lamb filling is one of the best tasting combinations ive tried.

Baklava - Pistachio

This recipe promised so much, and being an AVID pistachio lover, I was very excited lol.
There is a flaw in the recipe I believe.
They suggested boiling the sugar syrup for 15-20 mins until it becomes slightly viscous.
I think thats rather vague myself, and I boiled it for 14 mins and it just became somewhat thick, or gluey or syrupy. But in my opinion this is too far long to be boiling it lol.

Some Toffee recipes suggest 7-10 mins.

When i added the juice of one lemon to the syrup, and the orange water etc. It didnt seem that viscous at all. It seemed perfect consistency to be drizzling over and into the baklava which had just been baked. Unfortunately it turned hard like toffee. Even after the lemon was added.

It seemed to soak into the baklava ok but once it cooled, it went far too hard.
It was almost like I had made pistachio brittle lol.
It tasted good lol But for me a little too sickly.
I think the recipe made far too much syrup for the baklava.

I also prolly made a mistake by putting it into the fridge after it had cooled, this would harden up the syrup as well.

Im not even sure what the texture of good Baklava is supposed to be after it has cooled, but I gather its supposed to be a lot more moist, and certainly not remotely as brittle as what mine turned out.

Its such a large batch as well. Pistachios are not cheap either. Im not even convinced Filo is the best way to go here. If we want to create separate layers of pastry, I would agree with filo, but if you only wanted bottom and top, perhaps puff would be feasible.

In any case I would make a much smaller version in terms of surface area, and experiment with the syrup to your taste requirements.

Its definitely a recipe to pursue further. But It needs to be modified for better results.

The recipe also calls for some ingredients which can be difficult to buy. Supermarkets wont have them. That being Orange flower water and Rose flower water. I found these for about 3-4 dollars each at a health food store.

Heres the recipe from SBS Food Safari

Im not convinced whether just plain pistachios is the best way to go.
Perhaps some kind of combination of fruit and nuts. Pistachio and Fig maybe.
You can also use walnuts, pecans, or any nut u like really.
Maybe an apple and walnut Baklava.

Puff Vs Filo - Spanakopita recipe link

Recently I worked with Filo pastry for the first time.
I made a Pistachio Baklava and a Spanakopita.

At the supermarkets, Woolies was out of Filo, and only sold one brand.
Coles had it in good supply.

Apparently some brands Refer to a SAVOURY puff and a DESSERT puff pastry.
I dont know if the savoury version is similar to the Filo, but as far as ive read "Filo" is Greek and distinctive by very thin sheets of pastry, which you need to layer together yourself, by buttering or oiling each layer and sticking them together...Very painstaking for the first time.

I did get the hang of it second time around, but you must make sure its FULLY thawed out at room temperature!!!

Lots suggest using a damp towel to place over the Filo you havent used, while your buttering the current sheet, but be very careful how wet ur towel is. Personally, I dont think you need to dampen the towel at all. It doesnt dry out enough to worry, and all the damp towel achieved for me, was to make the filo TOO moist to work with. It actually absorbed the moisture so much that it made subsequent sheets stick together and more tedious to work with.

Some recipes suggest mixing 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil together...
I found that I used far too much butter. Even though i layered each sheet with THIN equal amounts of butter, i think i could have left some gaps in between to reduce the amount of butter, perhaps just enough to stick around the perimeter and maybe some columns or rows.

With the Spanakopita recipe, it was suggested that you fix 20 layers together for the top and bottom of the pie. Basically its just a Greek name for a spinach and cheese pie in filo pastry.

It was rather rich for me and would make a better lunch, but personally I wasnt thrilled about it, and wouldnt make it again.

I found the recipe from SBS Food Safari.