How was your French at school? Mine was okay’ish I suppose so here’s a quick lesson: how do you say “blind” (the Venetian sort) in French?
The answer dear people of the blogosphere is ‘Jalousie.’ Look it up in most French dictionaries and you’ll find a completely different definition with ‘jealousy’ being the most commonly referred to term. That’s because a Jalousie, in culinary terms at least, refers to a slatted flat tart (looking like a Venetian blind) usually made with puff pastry which is filled with either sweet or savoury ingredients. Meant to be eaten as a snack, a Jalousie is easy to make, extremely versatile in that you can almost put anything into one and is quite delicious hot, warm or cold.
As we’re only about nine weeks away from Christmas (and because food blogs everywhere will be full of the same old, same old seasonal treat recipes shortly), I’m getting in early and showing you something different; my take on a delicious alternative to the traditional British mince pie. Delicious because it is, French because they are better than us at some things whether we like to admit it or not and, if you make it, your delighted friends and family will be so Jalousie of you!
What you’ll need
- 1 pkt of best quality richly butter-filled puff pastry
- 400g of the very finest and most expensive mincemeat
- the zest of 1 organic orange
- 1 tsp dark rum
- 1 tbsp of Demerara sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- ¾ tsp mixed spice
How to make it
Unroll pastry and cut in half. Take one half and roll it out on a floured surface until you have an oblong sheet about 20cm by 40cm. Place on a silicone baking mat or buttered baking sheet. Prick all over. Add the rum, mixed spice and orange zest to your mincemeat and spread evenly over the pastry base with a palette knife leaving a 3cm margin around the edges. Take the other sheet of pastry and roll out to the same dimensions before folding in half lengthways. Make several diagonal slits through both layers along the folded half being careful not to go all the way to the edge. Open the pastry back out to reveal a slatted appearance. Brush the margin of the pastry base with beaten egg and carefully lay the slatted pastry half on top pressing down firmly around the edge to form a seal. Brush the whole thing with beaten egg and sprinkle with the sugar. Place in a pre-heated oven set at 200°C for around 30 mins or until it is golden. Do not eat straight away or you’ll lose the skin on the roof of your mouth.
Now a Jalousie can looked perfect or it can look terrible. I tell you here and now that whatever yours looks like, it’ll taste sublime. Bon Appetit!
Pomegranates and Princes 