Bacon Strudel

Ingredients:

Filling:
350g bacon lardons
2 red onions, sliced
200g white button mushrooms, sliced
200g portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 Tablespoon chopped rosemary
75g butter
50g pistachios
sea salt and pepper
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoon water
Fresh herbs for garnish

Rough puff pastry:
250g high grade flour
250g unsalted cold butter
½ teaspoon salt
125ml ice cold water

Method:

For the filling:

Melt half the butter in a frypan and fry the bacon half at a time until lightly browned. Tip into a strainer reserving the butter. Pour the drained bacon butter back into the frypan and add the onions, cover the cook until softened.

Remove the lid, add the sliced mushrooms, rosemary and the rest of the butter and cook until all the moisture from the mushrooms is reduced (the moisture from the mushrooms needs to be well cooked down to avoid any juices coming out and making the pastry soggy).Season with salt and pepper.

Roll the pastry out to a rectangle approximately 30cm x 50cm. Place the pastry onto a piece of baking paper, then brush the edges with the egg yolk and water mixed together. Spoon on the bacon and mushrooms over one half of the pastry and cut the other end into thin slices. Fold the sliced pastry end over the bacon and mushroom mix and press to seal the joined pastry edges. Trim if necessary. Brush all over with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Place in a preheated oven at 220deg C and cook until golden and crisp, around 20 mins.

Slide off the tray onto a serving platter and sprinkle with roughly chopped pistachio’s.

For the rough puff pastry:

Dice the butter into small cubes. Put the flour and butter into a bowl and start rubbing the butter into the flour with your fingers, but don’t rub in fully, you still need to leave visible lumps of butter in the flour.

Make a well in the centre and add the cold water and mix to a soft dough. Roll out on a floured surface to a rectangle of 20cm x 30cm. Fold into thirds (layering the thirds on top of each other). Repeat this rolling process again.

Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for ½ hour. Repeat this rolling and folding process 2 more times. Resting in the fridge between rolling. The pastry is now ready to use.

Note: lardon bacon is like unsliced streaky bacon. You can buy it at the deli department and slice it yourself into pencil like thickness pieces.