Hi, I'm Nobody.
And, boy, was I craving this
awesome little recipe (by
an awesome little lady) today...
These are known as Bourek or 'Brik', and are triangle-shaped appetizers famous throughout the Middle East.
It starts with a small onion (as all good recipes do).
(It also helps if you have a big, scary knife and a magical blue wall. But if you don't, I'm sure it'll still be tasty!)
Chop it up just as finely as you want. Then throw that mess into a pan with a little butter and cook it until the onions are translucent.
Now crack open a couple cans of tuna!
(I warned you about the lack of fancy up in here.)
Drain and crumble it into a bowl.
Then season 'er up with some parsley (fresh if you have it), salt and pepper.
(And please ignore my freakishly huge, red alien fingers looming over our future lunch.)
Grab yourself some parmesan.
I've long ago made my peace with the stuff in the 'little green can', but if you haven't, you're welcome to shred some authentic, imported-from-a-tiny-village-in-Italy Parmigiano-Reggiano.
But, me?
I'm a shake-and-bake type of gal. A Kraft dinner connoisseur, if you will.
And I sleep perfectly well at night using canned cheese in traditional Morrocan recipes.
Grab your onions and add them to the bowl.
Now, if you're like me (lord help you), and have no capers to mash at this juncture...
You can use lemon juice. Just a squeeze! (But don't tell Avon.)
Mix 'er all up, and grab your phyllo!
Ahhhhh, phyllo.
How I love thee...
If you've never cooked with phyllo, you've never lived.
If you've never read
my previous blog about cooking with phyllo, then you've also never liv-
You see where this is going. So I'll cut to the chase. Cook with phyllo, it's easy, it's delicious, and people will think you're fancy (even when you're serving canned tuna!). :D
Now, the trick with phyllo is layers. Lots and lots of butter-laden, crispy, buttery, golden, delicious, buttery layers...
Have I mentioned you'll need butter?
Go ahead and melt yourself some while you separate a sheet of phyllo.
Take one of these paper-thin sheets and lay it out.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand... business fold it lengthwise.
Fold one side over, then the other, making a long rectangle.
And because I'm smart (read: lazy), I took a pizza cutter and shaved a teensy, thin strip off each side of the folded phyllo...
Just like this!
And it gave me three, perfectly uniform rectangles. :D
(Told ya I was laz- I mean smart!)
Take a single sheet, and drizzle butter down the length.
Then spread it evenly with a brush!
Lay another sheet over top, butter it, and lay the third sheet on top of those!
Mmm, butter. Layers of butter...
Don't worry too much about keeping the layers perfectly aligned. It's all going to be folded up anyway.
You won't even be able to tell if it's a little wonky!
(Unlike yours truly, who is blatantly, irrefutably wonky.)
Now take the little bottom corner and fold it over, making a triangle at the bottom.
And unfold it again!
(There's a method to this madness, I swear... )
You see the little line we've made?
Drop a big heaping tablespoon (or two) of filling above the line!
Shape the filling into somewhat of a triangle shape!
Take the left-hand corner and fold it to the RIGHT, up over the filling.
And because enough butter is never enough, butter every inch of available surface area like your life depends on it.
Your buttery, delicious, but-
Ahem.
Lift the whole bottom part, and gently fold it UP.
If any of the filling falls out, just poke it back into place (story of my life, right there).
Aaaaaaaaaand.... fold everything over to the LEFT.
The open end (with the filling still visible) is now pointing away from the freakshow with the Kodak EasyShare (hi!).
Lift the phyllo bundle by the bottom point and fold it all UP, enclosing the filling completely.
You're on easy street from here!
Keep folding, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP until...
You reach the end!
This is the little bit of phyllo that was left at the very end...
You can do a couple things now. You can trim it off with the pizza cutter, ooooor...
If it's just a little teensy bit, you can tuck it up under the phyllo sheet like so!
And that's it!
You're done!
Don't worry if it kind of looks flat and weird, it'll puff up as it cooks, I promise.
Trust me.
I wouldn't lie about phyllo.
Now slap that puppy down on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
(I was running out of parchment and had to scavenge two narrow strips for this pan. But don't be like NG - be prepared!)
(And also buy capers...)
Totally knew that last layer of butter was coming, didn't you?
Cook these on a parchment-lined pan in a 300 C oven for 15 minutes, or until golden and crispy and buttery an-
Mmmm...
These are so tasty. You have no idea. And the filling is HOT!
(So, once again, don't be like NG - and don't stuff your face as you're taking them off the pan... )
(It hurts so good!)
Mama Marie's Moroccan Tuna filling for Brik
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 10-15 min
Ingredients
1 TBSP butter
1 small onion finely chopped
2 5 oz cans of oil packed tuna drained
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
1-2 tsps capers
2 TBSP parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Directions
Melt the butter, and cook the onion til translucent not browned. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and mash well. Prepare your phyllo, if you are doing the cigar shape fine; just make sure to fully enclose the filling. Otherwise do them in a triangle shape. Cut phyllo into strips, putting filling in bottom corner and fold from corner to corner like folding a flag. Fry these in a saucepan with oil about an inch deep until they are hot and golden. Drain, serve with lemon wedges.
I love you Mama Marie. I love you and your buttery, delicious, buttery, crispy, buttery, golden tuna-filled bundles of love.
Yeah. <3
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