Recipe: Baking: Pâté So / Pâté Chaud

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Remember when I posted about the Pâté So (also goes by the name Pâté Chaud) from JJ's French Pastry in Honolulu?

We ate a lot of those during my last trip home. Breakfast, lunch, snack...I ate two a day over the course of my ten-day stay, and soon realized that my daily Pâté So expenditure bordered on ridiculous.

Why not learn to make my own right?

Pâté So is essentially puff pastry filled with ground pork. The pork is mixed with celery, vermicelli noodles, onions, salt and pepper. It's a forgiving recipe, just don't leave out the nuoc nam, which is an essential component! I made a big batch because we had family over for Grandpa's birthday dinner, and dad thought it would be fun to serve them hot out of the oven as pupus. We replaced pork with chicken because Grandpa's doctor suggested that he lay off pork for health reasons ;)


Pâté So / Pâté Chaud
1 package puff pastry sheets, defrosted (I used Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets - but it's worth making your own puff pastry if you have time)
1 pound ground pork (or chicken, but I prefer pork)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup vermicelli noodles (soak in warm water until softened, then cut into 1-inch long pieces)
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon nuoc nam
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. In a big bowl, mix together the ground pork, celery, chopped vermicelli noodles, onions, nuoc nam, salt and pepper.

2. Roll out the puff pastry sheet to a rectangle, about 16" x 12". Cut in half to make two 16" x 6" rectangles. Put a quarter of the ground pork mixture on one of the rectangles, spreading across the bottom half of the 16" side. Lift the unfilled side, fold over and close. Use fork tines to press along the edges, making sure it's securely sealed.

3. Do the same for the other puff pastry sheets, making for a total of four Pâté So "logs." (If you use the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, note that the package comes with two sheets, which makes for a total of four rectangles).

4. Make deep cuts along the log, 1" apart. This will make it easier for you to cut and serve once done baking. Brush with a beaten egg wash, and slide in the oven.

5. Bake for 25 minutes at 400F, until it has a deep golden brown shade. Cut and serve while hot!

Notes:
- Leftovers keep well, just pop in the toaster oven for a few minutes to warm up.
- This makes a killer late night snack with beer.
- Inside of a log, you can do individual rectangles (like they do at JJ's French Pastry). You'll want to cut the pork mixture down by half because you won't have as much puff pastry "space" to work with if you're making individual rectangles.

Enjoy!