Christmas Recipe: Cinnamon Chicken and Pine Nuts Pastries

How often do you count your blessings?

I always count my blessings and look at the positive side of life. I must be thankful for everything positive in my life. I must look to where my life is and why it is where it is. It is amazing, whether you believe in God or not, there is an energy we dispel into the world that somehow comes back to us.

Christmas is right around the corner. As I was baking these delicious pastries, I can't stop smiling and feeling so blessed.

This is a great appertizer, cocktail or canapes recipe for your Christmas party.

Cinnamon Chicken and Pine Nuts Pastries
(Adapted from BBC Magazine: Rick Stein's Summer Meze)

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for brushing
450 g / i lb onions, finely chopped
600 g / 1 lb 5 oz skinless chicken breast, chopped into 1 cm pieces
3 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 1/2 tsp sumac or 1 tbsp lemon juice
500 g pack chilled puff pastry
A little plain flour, for dusting

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring now and then, until they are very sweet, soft and slightly caramelised.
2. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 5 mins. Stir in the pine nuts, cinnamons, allspice, sumac or lemon juice and some salt and pepper, then cook for 2 mins more until most of the excess liquid has evaporated. Check the seasonings.
3. Heat oven to 200C. Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface, then cut out 25 x 8 cm discs using a plain pastry cutter. Working with one pastry disc at a time, dampen the edge with a little water. Place a heaped tsp of the chicken mixture into the centre of the disc, then fold the sides, pinching together in three places to create a triangular shaped parcel, leaving about 1.5 cm of the filling showing in the centre. Repeat with the reamining discs. Place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and brush each one lightly with olive oil. (Can now be frozen for up to a month.)
   

   

4. Bake for 20 mins until crisp and lightly golden. Serve warm.