Recipe: Greek Bourekakia

Here is a dish from my childhood which reminds me of big fat Greek family parties and gatherings.  Everything revolves around food.  Talking, laughing, crying… everything!

Here is a dish to add to your list of mezes the next time you have a Greek night of your own!

Bourekakia

Ingredients:

2 packets of filo pastry (I use Jus-Rol)

600g cottage cheese

200g feta (or if no feta available you can use ordinary grated cheddar)

1 egg

Chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for shallow frying

Method:

Place cottage cheese, feta or cheddar, parsley, salt and pepper into a large bowl and mix well.

Add the egg to the mixture and continue to stir, making sure mixture is thoroughly combined.

Take your filo pastry (work with one pack at a time and work quickly before they dry out) and spread out onto the table.  Divide the sheets into four equal strips…

Take one teaspoon of the mixture and place at the end of one of the strips…

Making sure you only use one layer of filo for each bourekaki start to fold into triangles.  Fold over the end of the pastry across the mixture…

Take the bottom corner and flip up up and over to form a triangle like this…

Now, do you see that straight edge you have there?  Fold your pastry across so your triangle flips the opposite way like this…

Next, take the top right hand corner of your triangle and fold it across to the bottom edge, folding the pastry at the bottom of the triangle (sitting diagonally)…

Carry on folding as shown until you reach the end of the pastry length.  Dip the end of the pastry strip into a cup of cold water…

… then fold it over to form a complete triangle using the moist edge to stick and seal it…

Work through the pastry making triangles as quickly as you can before the pastry dries out.  Lay them out one layer at a time separated with sheets of greaseproof paper to prevent them sticking together.

Once your bourekakia are made and ready for cooking heat up a small amount of oil in a frying pan or griddle (we need to use a griddle due to the sheer quantity we need to make at a time!).  When the oil has heated up fry the bourekakia for a couple of minutes on each side.

Whilst these can be eaten cold if there are any left over they really come into their own when eating warm straight from the pan. If you aren’t planning to lay out a whole table full of mezes you can also serve these as part of a meal alongside some pasta, a salad and a generous helping of tzatziki.

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