Butternut squash and walnuts fillo rolls

During Christmas we traditionally bake salt or sweet filo pastries, similar to baklava or strudel, with nuts or with nuts and fruit.
My apologies to everyone, who likes the traditional English Christmas pudding or the mince pies, but this brownish paste with strange multicolor things inside look to me like a bunch of plastic office supplies cut into glue. Unfortunately the taste is also similar. You just stare into this thing and you can't imagine it's edible ...
Maybe it's so because I've only tried factory-made goods of these, I truly hope that the home-made ones are completely different.
However, I suppose this Christmas I'll opt for something familiar, like this butternut squash and walnuts sweet fillo pastry. I should put sultanas inside next time.



To make it you need: 1/2 pack of fillo pastry
about 400 gr peeled butternut squash - grated
1 cup of sugar
200 gr walnuts - slightly backed and chopped
vegetable oil or butter
cinnamon and nutmeg
(maybe I'll put sultanas next time)

for the syrup
150 ml water
150 gr sugar
vanilla

How to make it:
The mixture:
In a saucepan put enough oil or butter, but not too much because it will become too oily. Heat the oil and add the grated butternut squash and the sugar Cook on medium heat stirring occasionally. When it is half cooked, add the walnuts and cinnamon and nutmeg and leave on medium heat, stirring. Remove from heat and leave aside to cool.

Brush slightly a fillo sheet with oil or melted butter and put another sheet on top. Brush the second sheet with oil or butter and spoon enough of the mixture over the fillo part which is closed to you. Start rolling the two sheets with the filling tightly. Proceed the same way with the rest of the fillo sheets until the filling is over.
Brush the rolls with oil and put on a tin lined with baking paper. With a sharp knife cut the fillo rolls to make smaller rolls.

Bake on 170-180 degrees until golden.

Bring the water and sugar for the syrup to the boil, set aside to cool. Add vanilla. Spoon the syrup evenly over the fillo rolls. Bake for another 5-6 minutes and leave to cool.

You may sprinkle with powdered sugar, but I personally don't prefer so much sugar, so I missed this part :)

Spicy Beef and Cheddar FIllo Triangles

Last time when I finally found these fillo I bought more, so to have in stock :) Now these are the same triangles but with other filling - it's spicy beef and cheddar.
You need about 250 gr of fillo sheets (half a pack) - proceed with them as indicated in the previous post.

for the filling:
about 200 gr of beef mince
one large onion
80 gr chopped tomatoes
50 gr mature cheddar
vegetable oil
a pinch of nutmeg, of salt, of white pepper, of ground cumin, of basil, of thyme, chives and parsley. Let the smell lead you.
I think it would be nice to add half a roasted and peeled bell pepper (yellow or red).

In a sauce pan heat some 50 ml oil and add the copped onion. When it starts to caramelise add the beef mince, then the herbs and at the end the tomatoes. Leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes.
One or two minutes before removing from heat add the cheddar.

Use a teaspoon as a measure to fill the triangles.

Mushroom and Feta Fillo Triangles

Finally! I finally found some fillo pastry here in London, after more than a month of search in the local supermarkets. On Sunday I was walking down a more distant part of the neighbourhood when I reached a Polski Sklep ( I suppose this would mean supermarket or something) :)
The Polish supermarkets here sell traditionally continental foods and some of them also offer fresh vegetables - I'll say it again - continental vegetables! - as well as some Turkish and Middle Eastern goods and products.
This was a very well supplied store, bursting with choice! It had almost every food a non-English :) might wish to buy vine and cabbage leaves and even some Chinese and Thai ingredients, not including all the pulse, nuts and oriental sweets.
No need to say that I spent more than an hour on the premises, happy to find so much foods that I was looking for unsuccessfully before.
The first thing I noticed was the fillo pastry packs. My attention was first attracted by two elderly men, possibly Greeks or Middle-Easterners, standing near the freezer and pulling out of it packs and packs of fillo pastry. First I thought - they sell fillo! And my second thought was - Oh no! these men will buy it out! They really took about six or seven packs! :) But fortunately there were more ;) In fact there were even two different brands of fillo pastry, a feast! So I took them and then looked around for some Bulgarian cow cheese. I had to admit this store was selling several brands and several varieties of Bulgarian cheese.
I have tried the so called Greek salad cheese, but it's much too hard, compared to the Bulgarian cheese and obviously is not so universal as the Bulgarian cheese - you can use it both in salads and for filling as well.

Now that I had these two main ingredients for fillo triangles, I needed something for the filling - it could be meat, or mushrooms, or spinach, or leaks, or some sweet filling.
I opted for onions and button mushrooms filling with Bulgarian cow cheese.

About the triangles, these were the first triangles I am making ever, but they turned out to be very easy. Once you place the filling and make the first triangle, then it's obvious what to do next and how to ply the fillo.
I should post some step-by-step the next time.

now the recipe:

You need:
8 fillo sheets, cut lenghtwise by four
vegetable oil

for the filling:

1 large onion, cut in large parts,
125 gr button mushrooms - cut,
200 gr Bulgarian cow cheese
thyme, salt, chives, white pepper
vegetable oil

To make the filling mix the mushrooms and onion in hot oil, stir well for several minutes, leave on the heat to simmer for more 10 minutes. Add the thyme, salt, chives and pepper and at the end of feta cheese. Leave for more 5 minutes. Remove from heat and leave aside to cool.

Then take two stripes of fillo, oil the first one and place the second on top of it. Slightly oil the second sheet also. With a table spoon take filling and place it in the angle of pastry which is nearer to you. Start plying a triangle, making sure that the filling will remain within it, then fold logically to make triangles.
Oil the ready triangle.
Proceed the same way until the fillo or the filling is over :)
Bake in 180 degrees until golden.

Serve with yogurt and fresh thyme leaves.

Cheers!