Feta and Cheddar Pastries with Spicy Tomato Kasundi

No, I'm not confused, just confusing. I know there's a bit of a Greek/Indian thing going on here. A strange cross-cultural spanikopita-meets-Indian-chutney thing. It's okay, I haven't gone cray cray. I do know my
Saree from my foustanella and my gulab jamun from my loukoumades. It's just that sometimes it's nice to experiment and mix your tabla with your bouzouki, you never know what sweet music it could make.


NOTE: You should make the Kasundi about week before you want to eat it. Once you've made it, it will keep for months in sterilized jars, giving you a ready supply at a moments notice. You can freeze the pastries at the stage before baking and just defrost for 2 hours before you bake them. So, even though there is a little bit of pre-planning required, it can end up being pretty much an instant meal.


Feta and Cheddar Pastries with Spicy Tomato Kasundi
Pastries from Bill Granger's Easy, Spicy Tomato Kasundi from The Cook and the Chef
Makes 16 pastries and about 600ml of Kasundi

For the Pastries:
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
100g cheddar cheese, grated
100g feta cheese, crumbled
freshly ground black pepper
16 sheets filo pastry
100g ghee, melted.


For the Kasundi:

2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
2 cups malt vinegar
250g fresh ginger
20 cloves garlic
30 ml vegetable oil
30 fresh mild large red chillies
2.5kg fresh ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons ground turmeric
6 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ tablespoons salt to taste

Make the Pastries:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. and grease a baking tray with a little melted ghee.

Combine the beaten eggs, cheeses and freshly ground black pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

Lay one sheet of pastry out on a work surface and brush liberally with melted ghee. Lay another sheet of pastry on top. Cut the pastry down the middle lengthways. Brush the two strips with more melted ghee and fold them in half lengthways. You should now have two long strips of pastry with four layers each. 

Place a tablespoon of filling on the end of the pastry and fold one corner right to left to create a triangle. Then fold it left to right to reinforce the triangle. Keep folding this way until you have a neat triangle and the filling is completely enclosed. Continue the process until you have used up all of the pastry and filling.

Brush the outside of the pastry with melted ghee and sprinkle with paprika.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Make the Kasundi:

Soak mustard seeds overnight in vinegar. Puree in blender. Add ginger and garlic and blend until smooth
Halve chillies and remove seeds. Blanch tomatoes, peel and remove seeds and dice.

Heat oil until smoking. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir in turmeric, cumin, chilli powder. Add garlic and ginger/mustard mix, tomatoes, halved chillies and blended sugar and salt mix.

Simmer for about an hour until a pulp and oil starts to float on the top.

Pour into sterilized jars, and allow to stand at least a week before using to develop character.