Sausage & Rice Satchels

Using a potato/carrot peeler, strip shreds length-wise from the carrots. Shreds should be 2 to 3 inches long. Place the shreds in a bowl of hot water to keep them pliable until ready.

Crumble and brown the sausage in a skillet, and drain well on paper towels. Stir sausage and peas into the cooked rice.

Melt the butter, and stir in the sesame oil. Remove one sheet of filo dough. With a pastry brush, brush both sides of the pastry sheet with the oil mixture. Do the same with a second sheet of filo dough, and lay it on top of the other sheet, rotated ⅛th of a turn. (Keep the unused filo under a damp dishtowel; otherwise, the pastry may dry out and crumble.)

Place a rounded tablespoon of the rice and sausage mixture in the middle of the top pastry sheet, and fold up the corners and edges of the sheet into a little pouch, and do the same with the bottom sheet. (You are making a double-layered satchel.) Loosely tie the satchel with a carrot shred. (The filo is very thin: should you tear a sheet, just oil and wrap another sheet around the others.)

Apply cooking spray to a 9×13‑inch pan. Arrange the satchels in the pan. If preparing ahead, cover tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate. (You may want to drizzle a little more oil over the satchels so they don’t dry out.) When ready to serve, bake in a pre-heated 350° F oven for about 20 minutes, until the dough is lightly toasted. The satchels are somewhat fragile, so lift carefully from the pan with a spatula.

Serve the satchels with sweet & sour sauce and/or fruit chutney for dipping.

Yield: about 2 dozen.