Monday, January 4, 2010

Tunisian Brik

I wanted to add some more appetizers to my repertoire, so when I found a recipe for Tunisian Brik in my appetizer cookbook ("Appetizers, Finger Food, Buffet & Parties", by Bridget Jones) I had to try making it. I did make a few small changes - of course. The following is what I came up with.
  • 3 TBS butter, melted
  • 1 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 TBS lemon juice
  • 2 TBS finely chopped cilantro
  • 1-2 eggs, scrambled
  • phyllo dough
Start by mixing everything but the egg and phyllo dough in a frying pan and cook until meat is thoroughly cooked. Then it is on to phyllo dough!

Let me start by saying that phyllo dough is a mother to work with! It is very thin, tears easily, dries out quickly, and then crumbles. I kept a mister handy to keep the dough moist; but be careful! If you get the dough too moist, it sticks to everything!





I laid out two sheets. the recipe called for brushing with melted butter, but due to the delicacy of these sheets, I sprayed them with Pam instead.
The sheets were rather large, so I cut them into sixths.
Then I folded each of the pieces until they made 3"x3" squares.

They don't need to be perfectly even. As you can see, some parts have more layers than others.
Place a tablespoon of the meat filling in the center of each square and a teaspoon of egg over that.

Fold the phyllo corner to corner and seal with a little water. Place the triangles on a greased/oiled baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake at 425F for 8-10 minutes. They should be golden brown.


These were AWESOME! And once you get the hang of handling the phyllo dough, they are amazingly easy to make!