Recently I was invited to a dinner party and everyone was expected to bring some food. The guidelines were: 1) it should not be boring and 2) not frozen from the supermarket! The second one was easy as I never do that but…not boring?
As ~ 80% of people in western societies are cheese lovers, I decided to play it safe and make some cheese rolls in filo pastry. They are not difficult to make, the only time-consuming part is the rolling as you need to develop some technique. Eventually you will manage to roll one in less than 30 seconds.
To make them more interesting I added some mint as the Turks do in their Boreks. It takes it to another level. I didn’t want to disappoint the meat lovers so I included small pieces of chorizo. Without the chorizo it is a great vegetarian starter.
Ingredients (for 24 rolls)
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12 filo sheets.
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500 gr (1 lb) feta cheese crumbled.
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300 gr (0.6 lb) Gouda or other yellow cheese shredded.
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1 bunch of mint chopped.
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1 onion chopped.
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1 red pepper chopped.
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~ 8 cherry tomatoes cut in small pieces.
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1 egg.
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100 gr (0.2 lb) chorizo cut in small pieces.
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2 teaspoons of ground pepper.
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1 cup of extra virgin olive oil.
Add all of the ingredients (not the filo sheets!) in a large bowl together with the egg. Feta can be crumbled nicely with a fork. Use your hands to create a smooth mixture.
Place a greaseproof piece of paper on a baking tray and spread some olive oil using a kitchen brush. It has to be a large tray or you may need a second one to fit 24 rolls.
Using a knife, cut the filo sheets in half along their longer dimension. Take one half and add some of the mixture close to the top. Spread some olive oil in the rest of the sheet. Start rolling the filo sheet. When you reach the middle, fold the edges, finish rolling and place the roll on the tray.
Just before putting them in the oven, add some olive oil on top of the rolls with your brush.
Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degrees Celsius (340 F) for ~ 30 minutes until golden brown.
Bon appetit!
