Recipe of the Week #1: Escargot Vol au Vent

Ingredients:

2 oz Cream
1/4 c Butter
2 oz Finely chopped parsley
5 Garlic cloves, minced
1/2 med onion, chopped finely
1 med tomato, diced
1/2 c Dry white wine
1 1/2 ts Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 ts Fresh lemon juice
2 or 3 oz sliced mushrooms
3 or 4 strips cooked bacon, chopped finely
18 Snails, washed
1 Puff pastry dough sheet - thawed
1 Egg

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400.
On a sheet of parchment, cut four 3.3"x6" rectangles out of the puff pastry.
Cut a smaller rectangle out of two of the pieces, about 3/4" inside the edges. Cut PARTLY through the other two in the same shape.
Brush the top of these pieces with egg white, then gently press the outer part of the completely cut pieces on top of these.
Brush the top of all of the pieces with egg (not just whites).
Slide the parchment onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until well risen and golden.
On removing the pastry from the oven, take out the middle part where they were partly cut through, those are the lids.
Set aside and turn oven off.
Gently sauté the bacon, onion, and garlic in the butter until soft and just starting to brown.
Add the mushrooms, Worcestershire, and wine. Reduce a little, then add tomato, tomato paste, lemon juice, snails, and parsley.
Return pastry shell to oven at this point so it will be warm.
When reduced by about half overall, stir in the cream. Heat through and fill pastry cases, reserving a little sauce to pour over the covered cases.

Notes: There's a whoops in the ingredient group photo. Very forgiving recipe, just get close on most ingredients and it'll be fine. Pastry picture from a smaller (test) batch than described here. I leave all of the cut-out pastry pieces on the parchment/cookie sheet - someone will want them.

We had something like this at the Lake House in St. Catherine and this is my attempt to recreate it. I'm pretty sure they used prosciutto, where I've used bacon.
Very tasty and somewhat showy appetizer.

Wife's rating: ****1/2 (out of 5). Taking spare puff pastry pieces to the pan to get remaining sauce.
My rating: ****1/2. Who am I to argue?