Hey, everyone again. So, I haven't written lately, cause I had a lot going on and today I'm going to post two recipes. They are quite similar, but one is salty pastry and the other - sweet one. So here they are:
Banitsa with white cheese.
Ingredients
1 pack of filo dough (hopefully you can buy some, but if you can't, tell me, so I can post the recipe for it too)
3 eggs
1/2 kg white cheese (or feta cheese)
3 tablespoons butter (or 1 coffee cup sunflower oil)
400 gr yoghurt
Making:
Mix the crumbled cheese, yogurt and eggs together. Don't over mix - cheese should be lumpy. Melt the butter in a cup. Butter the bottom of a baking dish. Lay 5-6 sheets of filo dough, one after another (not together) as you spread some butter in between - use a brush for this. Spread some of the cheese mixture on top, lay another 3-4 sheets, spreading butter in between. Repeat until all mixture is used. Lay the last 3-4 sheets on the top with no butter in between. Spread the rest of the butter on top. Cut in portion sized squares and bake in the oven until golden (about 30 minutes on 200 degrees). After you take it out of the oven, sprinkle some soda water on top and cover with baking foil for about 20 minutes.
This is a traditional pastry and on New year's eve, we are supposed to make one and add some charms in it. I usually put small sheets with different things written on them (like "love", "travel" etc.) and also a coin which if you get, you are supposed to carry with you and not spend the whole year as it is a money charm and attracts money. Some people do that on Christmas eve, but I don't consider Christmas anything special (please don't judge, I haven't had anything going on on Christmas as a child, we used to celebrate New year as religion was somewhat forbidden in my country for 45 years ), so I keep doing in on New year's eve
The second recipe is for "tikvenik". Tikva = pumpkin, so this is some sort of pumpkin pie, but not quite
You need:
1 pack of filo dough
1 kg pumpkin (this one is really good when you make the Helloween lanterns)
1 coffee cup sunflower oil
1 and a half teacups sugar.
2 teacups grind walnuts
Making:
Stew the grated pumpkin with the sugar, 1 tablespoon of oil and some water until it becomes soft (I don't really grate it, just cut it in small cubes as I am too lazy to
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
). Wait until it cools a bit and start making banitsa, but with pumpkin mash filling. Don't forget to sprinkle the walnuts on top of every layer of pumpkin mash.
You can also add some cinnamon to the pumpkin mash if you like it.
This is they way these both should look:
![images.jpg](./download/file.php?id=898&sid=68051be6f3e5544464ee4e1bb2853fa2)
- images.jpg (9.87 KiB) Viewed 4668 times
So, enjoy
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)