CHORIZO AND CHICKPEA PARCELS

I made these little parcels for a dinner party recently - they are really easy as you can make the filling the day before and then finish them off before the guests arrive. The recipe makes around 16 pastries however I still had quite a bit of filling left over which I will freeze until I make these again or you can eat the chorizo and chickpea mix with a jacket potato or pasta.

Ingredients for 16 parcels:

1-2 x 320g packs of ready rolled shortcrust pastry

a splash of olive oil

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

100g chorizo, finely diced

400g tin chickpeas, drained

400g tin chopped tomatoes

250g ball of mozzarella, drained and finely diced

1 egg, beaten

First things first, take the pastry out of the fridge 20 minutes before you need to use it and preheat the oven to 200 C fan / 220 C / gas mark 7.

Chop up the ingredients. I only used 125g mozzarella but you definitely need to double this.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and chorizo for 5 minutes until they start to caramelise. 

Add the chickpeas for another 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Take off the heat and stir in the mozzarella and let the filling cool.

Unroll the pastry and then cut down the middle length ways, then cut each half into 4, creating 8 equal rectangles. Do this for the second roll of pastry too.

Divide the chorizo and chickpea mix equally among the rectangles (about two loaded teaspoons per parcel). Then fold the pastry over the filling in the middle and use a fork to press down around the open edges.

Place the parcels on your baking trays and brush each with some beaten egg and cut a small steam hole in the top with the tip of a sharp knife.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until all are golden and then leave to cool for a few minutes before tucking in.

These were really good - a great dinner party canapé. They were bigger than I thought they would be and very filling, you could also make them for supper with a nice crisp green salad or as an open top tart. Even though Pascal doesn't like spice, he thought a hot sauce would also compliment them! So many options - I am looking forward to adding the chorizo and chicken mix to some pasta and plenty of melted cheese!