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Fish
markets will sometimes use the word prawn to describe large
shrimp, and you definitely want tiny delicate shrimp for this
recipe. Frozen puff pastry, a cookie cutter, piping tips and a
piping bag are essential to create flower petal shaped pastries
topped with a swirl of creamy herbed shrimp filling. These
pop-in-your-mouth appetizers are simply too easy to make.
Pastry
1 (17.3-ounce) package puff pastry
Filling
2
tablespoons butter
½
pound miniature shrimp, chopped (100 per pound)
3
tablespoons chopped green onion
3
tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2
(8-ounce) packages cold cream cheese
½
teaspoon dried dill weed
1
teaspoon garlic salt
⅛
teaspoon freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns
¼
teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Garnish
Capers
1.
Thaw the unopened box of puff pastry in the refrigerator
overnight
or set it out on the counter and thaw according to
the
instructions on the box, or about ½ an hour.
2. Melt the butter
in a 10-inch frying pan. Fry the shrimp, green
onion
and parsley all at once for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl,
stir the cream cheese until softened. Stir in
the
shrimp mixture. Add the dill weed, garlic salt, pepper and
Worcestershire
sauce and stir until well blended.
4. Fit a piping bag
with a number 863 piping tip. Spoon filling
into
the bag and refrigerate until cold or until needed.
5. Lay the pastry
out on a floured bread board. Cut out 1-inch
flower
shaped pastries. Press the small end of a number 807
piping
tip into ½ the flower shapes to create a hole for
filling.
Moisten the edge of a regular flower shape, top with
a
second flower shape with a hole. Place the double
layer
pastries on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake pastries in
a preheated 400
oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
Set
the delicate pastries on a cooling rack.
7. When completely
cooled, fill each pastry with the shrimp filling.
Top each pastry with a caper. Place the filled pastries
on
a doily lined plate. Refrigerate until serving time.
Hint: These are best made on the day of serving.
The shrimp
should also be finely chopped or it will stick in the
piping tip
and it will be difficult to pipe the filling.
Capers: These are tiny olive-green buds of a
trailing bush
native to the Mediterranean. Once a bottle is opened they
may
be kept in the refrigerator for up to one year.
Makes 40 pastries
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