Tropical Fruit Purse

Today I am going to be making a little tropical fruit purse for you. What I have here is some butter, and I melted it in the microwave, and I am going to make it clarified butter. Now, basically to do that is, I just want to skim the little stuff off the top. I am just going to get rid of that. When you make clarified butter, it's usually when you separate the milk solids away from the butter itself. So once I get this done, as you see, the solids went down to the bottom. Then I am just going to take my ladle, and I am just going to scoop it out without getting the rest of the milk solids. The reason why I am doing this is because I am going to put it with my puff pastry, and I don't want the milk solids, because it will make my puff pastry soggy. So I just want the butter itself. A lot of kitchens use the clarified butter for like everything. It stays in liquid form a little better, it stays in liquid form longer than butter does. If you leave butter sitting out with the milk solids in it, it will solidify. This, you just kind of keep warm on the side. You can sauté vegetables with it. That's how simple it is. You can do this in the microwave, you can do it on a pot, and once it kind of starts melting down, you just kind of skim all the good clarified butter off and you have all that milk solids, then at the bottom, you just kind of get rid of that. Now that I have that, what I want to do is, I have a little bowl and I have some papaya; this is how it comes. You just peel it up. You take a little spoon to clean out the middle of this. Just take out all the seeds, clean it out, and then just dice it up. I have some right here, it's a nice winter fruit. I also have a mango. When you are working with a mango, there is a big seed in the middle, and it's basically, when you look at the fruit, see how it's kind of shaped round, that's where you know where the seed is going through it, and you want to cut that. It's a big seed, so you have got to kind of cut it. I am going to show you the seed. Sometimes you cut it itself. That's pretty much the seed right there. So it's huge. So you want to be careful, like this is a nice little snack for you, once you clean off all the other stuff, you can nibble on it. A lot of times people eat it like this, they will cut through it, just like this, and then you take it and you just kind of flip it, you have got little chunks, nibble on it. I went ahead and I peeled it, I cut it up. I have it nice and small right here. I also have some kiwi. Most people, we have seen kiwis now, I remember when it first came out I was like, what is that in the refrigerator? I thought it was a little mouse or something gone bad. I was like, I am not eating that. But they are actually really tasty, they got the seeds in them and everything. Then your pomegranate, which is a very messy thing to eat, that's probably why people don't eat it very much. Instead they will have pomegranate martinis with the pomegranate juice. But it's very messy. Basically there are seeds in there, and around the seed is like a pulp, and you can eat the seed actually. So it's okay, it's a little crunch, but it's alright. But it's like a membrane, and the seeds are all hidden in there, and you just kind of pull it apart and knock off the seeds, and your hands will probably be nice and red from all the juices. That's why I usually like to use gloves. Put on some plastic gloves and use that. But I already went ahead and did that the way I didn't have to be too messy. Add some pineapple juice or pineapple slices, and I also have some Angel food cake. I got a little sour cream here that I am going to put in the middle of my stuff. I want the sour cream, because I want that nice little tartness. I am going to add a little bit of sugar to it, and a little bit of vanilla, because I am using it as a dessert. It's still going to have that littler tartness, but then it's also going to have a little sweetness as well. Crème fraîche, you can use that as well, but this is a lot easier and a lot cheaper. Most of the time you have sour cream at the house anyways, you buy it, and you don't use it all, and you are like, what am I going to use this sour cream with? So you can do that. Alright. So I will grab my little bowl here, and what I want to do is I want to take my papaya, my mango, and a little bit of my kiwi. I am not going to put any of the pomegranate seeds in there, I am using that more for garnish. But I got this, and I am going to put a little bit of sugar in there. I don't want to use much, because fruit usually has its own natural sweetness to it, and you don't want any pure sugar in there, unrefined. So now I am going to set that aside. What I have here is some phyllo dough. You can usually get this in the supermarket, in the freezer section, and this is like paper thin. You have to be very fragile with this. What I want to do is, it dries out really easily, so that's why I keep a little piece of wet towel, and I keep it up, that way it doesn't get too wet, because you can't get it too wet, you can't let it get too dry, it's really something that's fragile. So I have got my clarified butter. I am just going to put this on here. This will keep it from drying out. Phyllo is good to use for like turnovers and things like that, you get that nice flaky pastry. So I get that. I am just going to use a couple of pieces, cut that down, and I am going to put a little bit. Now what I am going to do is I am going to slice off a nice piece, because I am going to use that to tie up my little purse. So I will just leave that sitting up there. What I am going to do is, I have got my Angel fruit cake, so I am going to make a nice bottom on it. I have my pineapple. Now, this is pretty big, I am just going to cut it down to make it a little bit smaller. You can cut it and make a smaller ring if you like. In fact, that's what I am going to do. I will make a little piece, with a smaller ring. Then I am going to take a little bit of my sour cream and put that right in the middle. Then I have my fruit. I am going to just make a little bitty pile on top of that. Usually when you use the harder fruits, because we are going to cook it and you don't want it to get soft like kiwis or strawberries or something, it just falls apart. So then I take my phyllo and I just bring it up into a nice little pouch. This doesn't have to be perfect, just kind of bring it up like a little purse, try not to make any holes. I am going to take my little wrap, and if it breaks, just wrap it around. That should stay nice. Then kind of fill out my edges a little bit. Then I am going to take some more of my clarified butter and just brush it around the sides, a little on top. In these you can also make something a little savory. Put some beef or blue cheese in it, and you just kind of pile it up, and you have like a nice little different type of dish. I am going to go ahead and brush my pan with a little bit of the butter. I will sit it right here. I will make a couple more. You can make small ones, so you made like a little bitty one, you can pass them around, if you were having a little party. You don't have to do them like the purse style, you can do them as, just roll them up, and maybe like a little burrito or something. Once you start playing around with the feel a little bit more, it gets easier, you kind of understand it, you feel it, you are like, okay, I know what I need to do or not do. Watch the nails. Cut off my sides. You can also use; I was going to use vanilla beans, you just kind of slice them down and open them up, and you can use that as a nice little tie. I wonder if they come in smaller slices. Go and make your own. Put some fruit. I am going to just pull it up, just kind of let it do what it wants to do. Kind of talk it into going where you want it to go. But for the most part, it's really simple, and you will see once it comes out of the oven how beautiful it looks. I just hope that these ties stay. Usually we use the vanilla beans, because you can tie them in a knot, but I couldn't find any today. I am going to go ahead and slide these in the oven. I set a plate here. What I have also is a little bit of passion fruit puree, its pretty tart, so we don't need much. It was just basically juice and a little bit of sugar. I am pretty sure you can find different types of purees in the grocery store. You might find it at a specialty store as well. I am just going to take it and put it around. Then I am going to take some of my kiwi. Nice. Some of my pomegranate seeds. The red is nice, brings out the plate and the rest of the fruit. I will take a little bit of mango and stuff. That way everybody knows kind of what's in your dessert, that gives them an idea. So they are not like, oh, what is this? They are like, okay. There we go. I am going to pull these guys out. Alright. Take a little. There we go. That's a little tropical fruit purse.