Filo Pastry

[WWordsworth Profile]

Anyone else having difficulty obtaining it?

I have tried all the big supermarkets plus M&S, H&B and Aldi.
I could do without having to learn how to make it.

[Suffs Profile]

I got some from Sainsbugs, but that was 1st July.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I seem to recall someone mentioning that it can be made with a pasta machine. As baklava is on my list of naughty things to make, I may look into that. I remember making it last time and giving some to a neighbour who gave it straight back because it was too sweet!

I'll put a link here if I find a YouTube.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I remember Gillthepainter made some from scratch quite a few years ago.......interesting, but not something I could be bothered to do now.

Why bother.........?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I’ve seen people make samosa pastry with a pasta roller, but surely the point of filo is it comes in wide sheets?

[Sakkarin Profile]

I have Baklava in mind, which is more about the layering than the size. In fact I'd probably cut down the sheets to something like pasta machine width anyway. Not finished hunting around, but this looks promising...

https://www.thespruceeats.com/make-phyl ... ts-1705677

At the other end of the scale, proper strudel pastry which filo is a cheat for would be the size of a tabletop. Now that IS a faff, although I've done it a few times. Gorgeous though if done properly.

Why bother? It's not about saving a few pence on the shop-bought baklava (or strudel), it's the joy of making stuff from scratch. In the case of strudel, most of the "strudel" on sale is not proper strudel at all, often it's not even filo pastry, let alone strudel pastry. A real strudel is an absolute joy.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Many shop “strudel” are made with puff pastry - so wrong M&S used to do nice apple and raisin, proper, ones

Went to a strudel cafė in Budapest where they had about 15 varieties on offer and you had a plate of 3 chunks as a light lunch

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Even with Covid lockdown and only the dog for company, I will give making Filo pastry a miss
A local Lebanese/Turkish/Greek deli or grocery will probably have some.

[WWordsworth Profile]

That's an idea, although I'm in a pretty rural location.
There is a big ethnic shopping area in a nearby city but I'm not keen on going there at the moment.
It's usually very busy.

I agree, life is too short.
I will make something else.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Homemade pasta?

[WWordsworth Profile]

Wouldn't really work with the recipe I had in mind.

[Amber Profile]

I used to love making strudel pastry. I didn’t find it hard at all, but it was about 35years ago . It’s on my list of things to do....

(but I’m not very good at shortcrust )

[Sakkarin Profile]

Hmm. I've decided to make canneloni to use up the rest of the ricotta from my Courgette and Ricotta stuffed chicken earlier in the week, but it seems to have disappeared from the shelves in Tesco and Lidl, so despite all those comments on the faffiness of using a pasta machine I've decided to make some. It is even going to be the superfaffy green pasta, as I've found a good tweak to making it, which is to blitz the spinach with the egg. Also ties in with my thoughts, that I should make an effort to go veggie on some days of the week.

EDIT: P.S. I've augmented the tomato sauce with carrots in that pic...

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Looks good, Sakkers.
I think I prefer cannelloni to lasagne, in an odd way, as it's the same thing effectively.
& I think I prefer veggie cannellonis to meat ones.

I may even drag my pasta machine down in the week and make a veggie cannelloni too.
My trick (Mamta's actually) is to pulse the raw spinach in a processor, then angle the contents on their side, letting the spinach water drain. Leaving perfectly "strained" raw spinach for the stuffing.

[Pampy Profile]

If I can't get cannelloni, I just use lasagne - it's actually far less fiddly than trying to fill tubes!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Filling the tubes takes an eternity - I use a knife for the job.
Otherwise you can get large cannelloni tubes under normal circumstances which makes it easier too.

[Sakkarin Profile]

As Pampy said, I'm making flat sheets and rolling them around the filling! A lump of green pasta dough is resting at the moment, and I'm thinking of a stripey sauce with tomato and bechamel.

May use your tip to process the spinach which is defrosting for the filling, but I really, really, really hate washing the processor, so may try just chopping it by hand.

[WWordsworth Profile]

Neighbour has added filo to her Ocado order for me.
Hope it arrives.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I am utterly predictable when stuffing canneloni. spinach and ricotta, that´s it.
I wash the spinach , drain it, then put it straight into a pot. No extra water, just the liquid that still clings to the leaves. Lid on, and in about 2-3 minutes,. the spinach has wilted.
Drained until cool and then squeezed out in my hands. Chopped and added to the ricotta, with a little nutmeg.
The only canneloni available here are "ready for the oven", so I stuff them one by one, using my fingers. Ricotta mix pushed into the shell until filled. Doesn´t take long.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I tend to roll lasagne rather than attempt to fill tubes

Morrison’s occasionally have large fresh lasagne sheets intended to be the right size to be a single later in an average lasagne dish,really good for cutting down to fill different containers or to roll