Escargots With Feta In Phyllo Pastry Recipes

ESCARGOTS WITH FETA IN PHYLLO PASTRY

Steps:

• Set oven at 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius, or 325 F/160 C if you have a convenction oven.
• Grease 6 holes of a muffin tin.It's easiest to use every alternate muffin hole because you have to press in the phyllo pastry.
• Open and drain the the escargots. Open the phyllo pastry, and cover with a well-wrung-out clean, damp kitchen cloth to prevent it drying out.
• If your olive oil has a stopper which makes it come out in a thin stream, just drizzle across the top phyllo sheet, then brush that evenly all over with a pastry brush. (Or put olive oil in a bowl and brush over).
• Put the phyllo sheet on a wooden board or on your clean counter. Brush 3 more phyllo sheets with olive oil, and put them, one after the other, carefully on top of each other.
• The phyllo I used could then easily be divided into 6 parts and carefully cut through. Put the 4-layer phyllo pastry rectangles in 6 muffin holes, patting them in with your fingers.
• Feta, where I am, usually comes in 2-ounce rounds in brine. Pat them dry with kitchen paper, and break up the feta in large bits. Put 1 ounce in each "nest" of phyllo. (Or see directions for camembert below).
• Put 5 escargots on top of the feta chunks. Add the walnuts, if using.
• Add about 1 heaped teaspoon finely chopped parsley to each filling.
• Melt the butter gently, adding the garlic and pepper, stir to mix.
• Add about 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon of this butter mixture to each filling.
• Carefully fold the phyllo pastry over the filling. The easiest way is to tuck in the short bits first, then fold the longest bit over the rest, and fasten with a toothpick.
• Brush every little bundle with more olive oil, or melted butter.
• Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until the pastry is golden.
• They should come out easily, but be careful because the phyllo is brittle when baked. Garnish to your taste.
• * Added later: If you have a small round bowl, you could cut out rounds and fit that into the muffin pan hollows by pressing them in gently. But cut out enough phyllo to cover the filling.
• * I have used Camembert cheese plus walnuts, instead of the feta, and found that even more delicious.