Curry? No. Chicken? No. Pasta? No. Though the ingredients were available, they just didn’t rock my boat. We did have some pork mince in the fridge and Mr MWCED said “use that filo up”, so that was a start. I felt like something a little different to our usual, and found some great middle eastern recipes – it feels a bit wrong to use pork, but as (1) we don’t eat beef or lamb and (2) I had pork, well I’d just have to go with it (and absolutely no disrespect intended). I love pomegranate molasses flavour – though for some reason the bottle seems to sit at the back of the pantry and I forget about using it. So, out you come and flavour up tonight’s dinner!

I got the original recipe from here – though made a few alterations. After googling “znoud el-sit” the most common recipe seems to be a sweet deep fried pastry and not savoury. I don’t do deep fry – and the body doesn’t particularly like it either – but definitely want to try one of these one day – they look very bad but very very good.

I served the pork with Israeli couscous (cooked in a vegetable broth, then sliced spring onions, mint, parsley and coriander, s&p added) and a healthy green salad (freshly picked from the garden).

For those with moderation, one of these with sides would probably be enough. For the likes of people like me who just don’t have enough resolve to be moderate, then 2 was plenty. If I could have, I would have had 3 – because they were so good! At least there is something left over for lunch tomorrow!

Recipe:

• ⅓ cup             pine nuts
• ⅓ cup)             olive oil, plus extra, to brush
• 1                      large onion, finely chopped
• 250 g               pork mince
• 1-1/2 tbsp        pomegranate molasses, plus extra, to serve
• 6 sheets          filo pastry, fresh or thawed

Spice mixture:

• ½ tsp               allspice
• ½ tsp               black pepper
• ½ tsp               ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp               ground coriander
• ½ tsp               ground cumin
• ½ tsp               ground nutmeg

Instructions

To make spice mixture, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Place pine nuts in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until browned, then remove from pan and set aside. Add oil to the pan with onion and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until softened. Add meat and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for 6 minutes or until browned. Add the spice mixture and ¾ tsp salt and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in toasted pine nuts and pomegranate molasses. Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Lay a sheet of filo pastry on a clean work surface or chopping board, with a long edge facing you. Brush the half closest to you with oil, then fold in half lengthwise. Turn filo so that the short edge is facing you and brush with oil. Place 1/6^th of the cooled filling along the short edge closest to you, leaving a 2.5 cm border on sides and bottom. Roll short edge over filling to enclose, then fold in the 2 longer sides and roll up to form a cigar shape. Place seam side-down on prepared oven tray and repeat with remaining filo pastry and filling to make 6 rolls.

(you can make these rolls larger or smaller.  If larger I’d use 2 sheets of filo pastry per roll)

Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Serve pastries with extra pomegranate molasses and some hummus on the side.