Treat your friends to a New Year’s Eve spread they’ll be talking about long into January!
Filo tartlets with Asian beef
Makes: 20
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
*4 sheets filo pastry
*2tbsp butter, melted
*200g beef fillet steak, 2.5cm thick
*1tbsp light soy sauce
*1tbsp lime juice
*1tbsp fish sauce
*¼tsp sugar
*15g coriander, leaves stripped
*15g mint, leaves stripped, plus extra to garnish
*¼ red pepper, finely diced
*1 tomato, seeded and diced
*1tsp sesame seeds
*1tsp lime zest
*1 red chilli, sliced
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Lay 1 sheet of filo pastry on a chopping board and cover the unused pastry with a clean tea towel. Brush the sheet with melted butter. Using a sharp knife, cut the sheet into 5x5cm squares. Place 4 squares on top of each other at different angles to create a spiky look. Repeat with the remaining pastry. Take a 24-hole mini-muffin tin and push each pastry stack into the holes, ensuring the bottom of the pastry is as flat as possible. Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Allow to cool.
Sear the steak in a hot pan on both sides, for 6 minutes in total. Cool and cut into 20 slices. Combine the soy, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, fresh herbs, red pepper, tomato, sesame seeds and lime zest in a bowl and toss in the steak slices. Divide among the tartlets. Garnish with the red chilli and mint.
The filling can be made up to 1 day in advance, but only add the fresh herbs up to 1 hour before serving, then cover and refrigerate. The tartlets can be filled up to 30 minutes before serving.
53 calories 2.3g fat
- FYI Light soy sauce is used for dipping, as it has a more robust, salty flavour, whereas the dark stuff is used during cooking to give food a caramel colour and sweeter taste.
Sesame sushi rolls
Makes: 24
Prep time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
For the sushi rice
*175g short-grain rice
*125ml rice vinegar
*5tbsp sugar
For the filling and coating
*3tbsp sesame seeds (ideally a mixture of brown and black, available from specialist stores)
*2 sheets nori (roasted seaweed, available from major supermarkets), halved
*½tsp wasabi paste
*125g medium prawns, halved lengthways
*½ cucumber, seeded and cut into julienne strips
*6tbsp shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
Equipment
*Cling film
*1 bamboo sushi mat
Place the rice in a large bowl. Cover with cold water and stir with your fingers until the water turns cloudy. Pour off the water. Repeat until the water is almost clear, then drain rice in a sieve. Tip into a pan, add 200ml water, cover and bring to a boil over a high heat. Boil for 2 minutes, reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes until the water is absorbed. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes without removing the lid.
In a separate pan, bring the rice vinegar and sugar to a boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat to cool. Turn the rice on to an oven tray and drizzle the vinegar mixture over evenly. Toss the rice gently with a wooden spoon. Cover with a damp tea towel and let cool.
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over a low heat until golden, then cool. Cut 1 piece of cling film just larger than half of 1 nori sheet. Place 1 nori half, smooth side down, on a sushi mat. Moisten your fingers with water, then spread ¼ of the rice in an even layer on the nori. Cover with cling film.
Pick up the nori, carefully turn over, and place on the mat cling-film-side down. The nori should now be facing up. Spread a thin line of wasabi lengthways along the centre of the nori.
Arrange ¼ of the prawns, cucumber, and 1tsp sesame seeds on top. Pick up the mat and cling film and tightly roll the rice around the filling. Unroll the mat and cling film. Roll the rice in half the leftover sesame seeds. Roll up tightly in cling film, twisting the ends to secure. Repeat this three times with the remaining ingredients.
Trim the roll ends to neaten, then cut each into 6 pieces with a moist knife. Remove cling film from the cut pieces. Serve at room temperature with shoyu for dipping.
58 calories 1.2g fat
Sweet potato and ginger rösti with coriander pesto
Makes: 20
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
For the rösti
*400g sweet potato, peeled
*3 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
*1 egg
*1tbsp plain flour
*1tbsp fresh ginger, grated
*10g fresh coriander, finely chopped
*Salt and pepper
*3tbsp sunflower oil
For the pesto
*15g fresh coriander
*1 spring onion, trimmed
*20g dry-roast peanuts
*1tsp sesame oil
*1tbsp olive oil
*1 green chilli, seeded
To garnish
*120ml crème fraîche
Place the whole, peeled sweet potato in a small pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain, cool, and coarsely grate. In a bowl, mix all the rösti ingredients, except the oil.
Heat a large frying pan with a little oil. Shape 1 rösti into a small patty and fry for 1-2 minutes each side. Test the seasoning and adjust the rest of the mix accordingly. Fry the rösti in 2 batches on a medium-low heat, using a teaspoon to place the mixture in the pan. Flatten as they cook. Make sure there is always a little oil in the pan and ensure they don’t burn. Remove and cool. Meanwhile, tip all the pesto ingredients into a food processor or chop finely. To serve, place 1tsp crème fraîche and some pesto on top of each rösti. The rösti and pesto can be made the day before and assembled just before serving.
74 calories 5.6g fat
Monkfish, pancetta, and rosemary spiedini with lemon aioli
Makes: 20
Prep time: 50 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
For the aïoli
*2 egg yolks
*1tsp Dijon mustard
*1tbsp white wine vinegar
*½tsp salt
*1 pinch freshly ground pepper
*1tsp sugar
*300ml sunflower oil
*1tbsp fresh lemon juice
*1tbsp lemon zest
*2 garlic cloves, crushed
For the fish
*350g monkfish tail, boned and skinned
*10 long slices thin pancetta
*20 rosemary branches
*1tbsp olive oil
For the marinade
*4tbsp olive oil
*Zest and juice of ½ lemon
*1 garlic clove, finely chopped
*½tsp salt
*½tsp black pepper
For the marinade, roughly chop 1tbsp of reserved rosemary leaves and combine with the oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the monkfish and toss to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Wrap each piece of monkfish tightly with a strip of pancetta and thread on to the pointed end of a rosemary skewer.
Heat a heavy saucepan with 1tbsp oil and sear the spiedini for 1 minute on each side. Serve warm with the aïoli.
142 calories 15g fat
- In a rush? Flavour mayonnaise with lemon and garlic to make the aïoli.
