Around the holidays such as Christmas or New Years, kusmeti is baked right into the pastry. Kusmeti means luck and you may be asking yourself how they could possibly bake something immaterial like luck into a pastry, well luck comes in the form of charms, coins, or wishes written on paper and wrapped in foil. One lucky charm used is dogwood and each bud symbolizes health and longevity and the pastry is cut in a way that everyone receives a bit of the dogwood branch, I guess depending on the number of buds you receive in your piece determines how many wishes you get. I really enjoyed the optimism that accompanies this pastry.
The most important thing to remember when making banitsa – REMAIN CALM! The phyllo dough is going to break, the mixture is going to seep through, there will be leaks, don’t panic! Just work in a cool and collected manner and take your time… well don’t take too much time or the phyllo will dry out and the eggs will make it mushy, but take enough time to roll it carefully without creating unnecessary holes and tucking away any loose edges. What I’m getting at here is that when baked the dough is very forgiving. I’ve made Baklava several times and no matter how brittle my phyllo is or how many holes appear, it always comes out the same – flaky and delicious. The same can be said here. As long as you get the ingredients from counter to pan without completely destroying each piece, it will work. Think of the phyllo as the newspaper and the butter as your glue, think like this and you’re back to third grade making things with paper mache. Easy right?
As far as taste goes, I was a little overwhelmed with the feta. I have never really eaten feta on anything aside from the occasional Greek salad and I’ve certainly never cooked with it extensively. Having said that, I did like the concept of this pastry overall, I just think it would be a whole lot better with some spinach added to it to balance all that cheese. Because there is A LOT of cheese going on here. I can also see this as more of a brunch thing since it is quite heavy and rich and I couldn’t imagine eating it for dinner or as an appetizer. It’s way too heavy sit in your stomach before bed and the thought of eating anything after this makes me bloated just thinking about it. It’s just too filling.
I would also be interested to see if I can somehow spin this into a dessert since I love the presentation and the flaky layers of phyllo, perhaps turn it into a cream cheese or fruit thing? That sounds more up my alley. I feel like desserts can get away with a lot more as far as overly rich and heavy is concerned. I did read about banitsas made with apples or pumpkins and also some filled with cinnamon, sugar, and nuts and wish I had tried one of those even if they aren't as traditional.
Clearly with all the changes I plan on making to this, I can say it was probably my least favorite dish so far. I was shocked, I really thought I would like this and to be honest, I wanted to like it. I thought it would be reminiscent of the delicious cheese pastries I had in Greece, but the feta was just too much for me and too salty. I do wonder how the “real thing” tastes in Bulgaria. It did have a strange taste to it as well and it took me a while to figure out why it tasted familiar. Then it hit me, this tastes like mac and cheese. Don’t ask me how a carefully handmade pastry could possibly taste like something that comes in a box and sells for 99 cents, but I swear that’s what I got from it. Another downside is that phyllo, while delicious when right out of the oven, becomes rather un-delicious after a day of soaking up all the moisture from the eggs and the cheese.
My conclusion, would I make this the traditional way again? Probably not. Would I experiment with it and turn it into a really delicious desert? Most definitely.
Servings: 4-6
ReplyDeleteI made a mini one and cut all the ingredients in half, depending on the size of your casserole dish, you may end up with leftover phyllo and filling, I lucked out and had just enough egg mixture.
3 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 oz sirene cheese (or feta)
1/2 stick butter
thawed phyllo dough (I used about 10-14 sheets for mine)
Preheat oven to 350F. Melt the butter and whisk eggs together with baking soda and cheese. On a clean worksurface, lay out one sheet of phyllo. Brush with melted butter. Add a second sheet of phyllo. Brush with melted butter again. Repeat a third time. Sprinkle cheese mixture over phyllo and roll into a tube as best you can, don’t worry too much if the eggs soak through or holes appear. Shape phyllo log into a circle in a large round baking dish (mine was more like an oval, but it worked out). Repeat until all the phyllo dough is used up or your dish is filled. Wrap each tube around previous tubes, making a snail shell pattern. You’ll end up with 6-7 tubes. (I had 5 tubes because mine was smaller) Brush with butter and bake 40-60 minutes until golden brown. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing.