6 oz Feta cheese, crumbled
4 oz Creamed cheese
1 Egg, beaten
2 tb Chopped fresh parsley
1 tb Chopped fresh dill, or 1 tsp
-dried
8 Sheets packaged phyllo dough
1/2 c Butter
Throughout the Middle East, bureks are made by folding
buttered, cheese-filled phyllo dough into little
triangular shapes. Cigarro bureks taste the same but,
as the name implies, are rolled into cylindrical
shapes resembling small cigars. Bureks, frozen
unbaked, can go directly from the freezer into a
preheated 375 F oven to make an instant hors d'oeuvre.
Makes 40
Defrost the phyllo dough and return the remainder to
the freezer. Butter a cookie sheet. Melt the butter
and remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Mix the feta and cream cheese with the egg and herbs
and set aside.
Layout one sheet of phyllo dough on a counter. (Keep
the remaining dough covered with a slightly damp towel
to prevent its drying out.) Brush the sheet of dough
with some melted butter. Cut it the short way into 5
strips, about 3x10 inches each. Place 1 1/2 teaspoons
of the filling at one end of each strip. Roll the
strips into cylinders about 1/2 inch in diameter.
Continue until all of the dough has been cut, filled,
and rolled.
Arrange 2 to 3 cylinder per person on the cookie sheet
and brush them with more butter. (Freeze the rest of
the cylinders, unbaked, for use at another time.)
Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cylinders are
well browned and very flaky.
From MONDAY NIGHT AT NARSAI'S by Narsai M. David and
Doris Muscatine. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
