Spinach pastries (borek)

24 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
10 ounces Frozen chopped spinach
Thawed and squeezed dry
5 ounces Feta cheese; crumbled
(1 1/4 cups)
1 large Egg; beaten
1 teaspoon Fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon Grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons Pine nuts; (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper; to taste
1¼ Sticks unsalted butter; melted
12 Sheets phyllo dough
2 tablespoons Sesame seeds

Directions

MAKES 24 WEDGES OVO-LACTO

These delicious stuffed phyllo coils are one of the many shaped borek (pastries) served in Turkey. They can be made with different doughs. but the lightest and flakiest are made with phyllo pastry. To help keep coils neatly shaped during cooking, place a roll of scrunched foil around them before baking.

In medium bowl, mix spinach, cheese, egg, lemon juice, nutmeg and pine nuts if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush baking sheet with a little melted butter. Unroll dough and place on the work surface, keeping stack intact.

With longest edge parallel to work surface, brush top sheet of pastry with melted butter. Spread ½ cup filling in a thin strip evenly along bottom edge. Using whole stack to help you, flip 2 sheets of dough over to enclose the filling and quickly continue to roll up to form a long "snake".

Move this to one side and cover the remaining stack of dough with damp cloth. Quickly coil "snake" around itself to form a compact circle.

Transfer to baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling, placing coils on baking sheet as close as possible. (This will prevent them from spreading too much during cooking.) Brush coils with remaining butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool on baking sheet before removing to serving platter. Cut each pastry into 4 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

PER WEDGE: 104 CAL.; 2G PROT.; 8G TOTAL FAT (4G SAT. FAT); 6G CARB.; 30MG CHOL.; 184MG SOD.; 0 FIBER.

Recipe by: Vegetarian Times Magazine, August 1998, page 42 Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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