So I have this wonderful friend named Marion who made these scrumptious little appies for a Ladies Night at my house before the holidays. We all gobbled them down, between sips of beer and wine!!! They tasted like roast beef dinner in a bite! And we all screamed the same thing..."I MUST HAVE THIS RECIPE"...to which she replied "Oh, they are so easy". Ok, they are "easy", once you get a system in place, and have some guidance (thanks Marion for the last minute pep talk before assembly!) So...the holidays came and went and I took them a couple places and those people said "I MUST HAVE THIS RECIPE". So I decided it was worth posting the play by play on my blog, just incase there was any confusion around some of the directions. So the wait it over - this WILL be your "new favourite appie of 2014" I guarantee you!
So to get started the first thing I did was give my fresh Italian parsley a good wash in my salad spinner. This gets rid of all that crud that you don't see and perks it up a little bit!
Then I pinched off all the parsley leaves from their stems and put them all into my Tupperware Quick Chef System. (On a complete side note - I LOVE this freaking machine - it is easy to use and you control the thickness of fineness of your chopping/dicing/mincing by how many times you pull the cord!) Pulled the cord about 6 times to dice up nicely!
Next, I gave the Quick Chef a quick rinse and tossed in my onions to dice them up. I enjoyed a sip or two of wine at this point, as I didn't have to spend any time wiping tears out of my eyes...because I used the QUICK CHEF! Am I making you want to get one of these gadgets yet?
Meanwhile I melted my salted butter in the microwave until it was warmed and smelt delicious! To that I added the parsley, onion and horseradish - and stirred it all up to incorporate!!!
So I bought the CO-OP brand of Phyllo pastry for a couple reasons - it was cheaper (because everything is so bloody expensive at that store in the first place, and secondly, it was wider than the name brand that they carried. This is important to know, if you are looking for a final number of "bon bon's" that this recipe will make. Once you thaw these pastry sheets overnight in the fridge, you will need to know that you will have to have a clean, damp tea towel to wrap them in once you open the pack. This will keep the pastry sheets from drying out - as they do this very quickly and are very delicate - hence why people don't like working with this pastry. Guarantee disclaimer - these will be sooooo worth the effort to carry on my friends! I kept the folded in the plastic wrap they came in, and just wrapped them loosely in the tea towel.
So when you are ready to start, take out two sheet of Phyllo and place them on top of each other. By the time I had finished making these, I had figured out the trick to perfecting these morsels! When your sheets are laying flat, one on top of the other, fold the top half down of the top sheet. Take your scrumptious horseradish parsley butter and brush on. When you are finished, fold up the top sheet to cover the half that you have buttered. Then do the same with the bottom half, folding up then down. This was my "AHHH HAAAA" moment - so much easier than trying to brush one entire sheet and then trying to line up the top sheet with the two hands you were given!
Then add your second layer of butter mixture...that's right Paula Deen... just a little more but-ah makes it bet-ah!
Here comes the important part - sectioning!!! First cut - your entire two sheets into 4 big rectangles...
Then you are going to cut each big rectangles into 4 small rectangles. These are your pieces you will be rolling up.
Ok...so now you are ready to assemble. Take your slice of deli roast beef, mine was a good wide consistency so I was able to cut each strip into 3 pieces. Place one piece on a rectangle of Phyllo and get ready to roll - baby!!! Only note to mention here is to make sure that your beef is not hanging out the end that will be at the end (the top if you are rolling from the bottom up - which I was), so that it seals properly.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment and place on the sheet when finished rolling. Once you are done the entire sheet (work quickly my friends) I just popped them into the freezer to "flash freeze" them to a consistency that I could then stack them in a container or in ziplocs for further freezing until I am ready to cook them.
EASY PEASY...RIGHT?
So I was such an expert at this by the time I blew through all my roast beef, I thought well, I suppose I could make a variation of this with other meats and butters... so, I took out some homemade cranberry sauce, onions and butter and made some rolls with turkey breast. These were pretty good too! But my favourite are still the roast beef bon bon's! But thought I would share the photos of both...
So now for the recipe....
Marion's Beef Rolls
1 Box CO-OP Phyllo Pastry Sheets (16 sheets to a box)
1.5 cups butter, melted
1.5 hearty bunch of fresh Italian Parsley
2 onions, minced
10 tbsp of prepared creamed horseradish
1000 grams deli garlic roast beef, sliced
Chop up fresh parsley. Mince up onion. Melt butter in microwave safe bowl. Add onion, parsley and horseradish. Incorporate.
Lay 2 sheets of Phyllo pastry ontop of each other, pull back top half and spread with pastry brush, the butter mixture. Fold up the top piece, then do the same with the bottom. Once your two pieces have butter in-between them, lightly brush to edges with more butter mixture.
Cut pastry into quarters, then each quarter into quarters again = 16 pieces.
Lay a strip of beef ontop of piece and roll up.
Repeat with remaining pastry, horseradish butter and beef.
Place on a parchment lined baking tray and bake at 400 degrees F for 8-10 minutes until golden and crisp. Watch closely not to burn.
Serve with a horseradish mayo for dipping.
Note* I have modified the recipe above to accommodate enough for 1 box of CO-OP Phyllo. In my photos I had left over Phyllo so therefore was able to do the Turkey Rolls from the same box.
For the Turkey breast rolls I used 1/2 cup butter to 1 cup of cranberry sauce.
I would imagine your fillings are endless but you could also try Chicken breast with garlic butter or Ham with Dijon Mustard butter.
NOW, I know this looks like ALOT OF WORK - but I promise you it will be entirely worth it! And if I could do it (and take photos of every step to share with you), then you have no excuse - now get rolling!!!!
~MWAH~
Bootybella
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