Cheese and Potato Bourekas

 

Friday nights call for wine and elegant nibbles, yes? Okay, so some Friday nights call for beer and pretzels... and I'm okay with that too. But tonight it's all about cheesy, potato-y crispy mouthfuls, with crispy white wine... I mean, crisp white wine. I may have had a little too much of the crispy stuff. Cheers and have a delicious weekend.




Cheese and Potato Bourekas
Makes 12

For the Filling:
1 cup cold mashed potato (I baked a few small to medium potatoes for about an hour at 200C, then when cool, scooped the flesh out of the skins... then stood at the kitchen counter and sprinkled salt on the skins and ate them.)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 egg, lightly beaten
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


For the Pastry:
12 sheets of filo pastry
100g unsalted butter, melted
I egg yolk whisked with a teaspoon of water for egg wash
1 tablespoons nigella seeds

Make the Filling:
In a large mixing bowl, combined the potato, feta, chives and egg. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Remember that the feta is salty and if you are using leftover mashed potatoes, they will probably have already been seasoned. Set aside.

Make the Bourekas:
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Line two baking sheets with baking paper, Set aside.

Lay a sheet of filo pasty out on a board and brush it generously with the melted butter. (Keep the remaining sheets of filo under a clean, damp tea towel to prevent them from getting dry.) Fold the buttered filo into thirds lengthwise. You should have a long, thin, three layered strip of filo. Brush the top with more butter. Spoon a tablespoon of the filling on the end of the pastry and fold the pastry over the top of the filling into a triangle to completely cover. Fold the pastry up and over itself, in a triangle again. Keep folding until you have a neat triangle. Place it on one of the prepared baking sheets and continue to make the bourekas with the remaining pastry and filling until you have 12.

Brush the top of each triangle with the melted butter and sprinkle with nigella seeds. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the baking trays halfway through baking. Eat warm or at room temperature.

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