Series: Slavka’s filo pastries
My friend Slavka makes the best use of filo (or phyllo) pastry sheets in Toronto. This thread features a few of her recipes. But before that, let’s set the stage.
Banitsa (or banica) is a Bulgarian word (gibanica in Serbian, börek in Turkish) for filo pastries popular in the Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisines. Bulgarians tend to tell you that this is a traditional Bulgarian dish. But as everything on the Balkans it is every Balkan country’s traditional dish (depends on who you talk to). And then The Greeks will say the same. So do the Turks. As a matter of fact, historians say the origin of banitsa came from the Middle East via Turkey. Complicated and disputed as the history of the region.
Filo sheets are used for a variety of dishes. Even if you have never tried banitsa, you probably have bought or seen baklava. Especially if you have a Middle Eastern store near you or shop in Costco (for the North Americans) or have a Muslim colleague, who at the end of Ramadan will bring baklava into the office for everybody to try. The filo sheets are made with flour, salt, oil and water, but no yeast. It is easy to make the dough, then divide to small balls, and then roll each ball to spread to the thickness one wants with rolling pin.
Aside from the traditional egg and feta cheese (white brine cheese) filling, one can use a variety of other ingredients and make a savory or sweet dish. Filo pastry with cabbage stuffing is called zelnik in Bulgarian, which comes from zele=cabbage. Filo pastry with pumpkin (or squash) filling is called tikvenik, from tikva=pumpkin. We’ll cover some of these in subsequent posts.
One of the Bulgarian traditions though, is the New Years Eve banitsa (or some do it for Xmas Eve). This banitsa contains traditional lucky charms (lucks), called kusmeti in Bulgarian.
For the lucks we use a special fruiting tree – cornelian cherry dogwood (google it). My father used to have many of these in his garden (We call it dryan in Bulgarian). The fruits are tart, but when preserved with sugar in jars they make for a tasty fruit cocktail. The trees have well-developed buds around Xmas and are used for the kusmeti. One picks small pieces of the budded branches, all with a different number of buds. Each little branch is associated with a wish (for good luck). These little pieces are put in the banitsa when the filo sheets are rolled. We also put a coin in one of the sheets. When the banitsa is ready, it is cut into pieces and each piece will have a kusmet in it. When put on the table, the platter is spun, usually by the elder in the house. When it stops spinning, everyone takes the piece of banitsa that is in front of them. They find their luck inside. It is a wish of what to expect in the New Year. Usually the lucks are: love, health, happiness, house… I include joy, travel, new job, etc. depending on the situation of my family and guests that will be at the table. Since no cornel trees can be found in Canada, I write the lucks on small pieces of paper, fold them and wrap them in foil. I wrap the coin in foil too. Alex says that the tradition reminds him of Chinese Fortune Cookies.
Don’t know elsewhere, but one can buy frozen filo sheets in almost every store in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Some are very thin, some are thicker. I usually buy the thicker ones since my gang likes the bread feeling of it. As a matter of fact, for years now I’ve bought home made ones. My neighbour across the street is of Serbian origin and knows a Serbian woman in Kitchener who makes them. So, she delivers it to my door (alas not this Covid year, when we are in perpetual lockdown). Home made filo has no comparison to the store bough ones. They are thick as we like them, have all the needed oil in the dough and are round. But the best is, as home made, they don’t have preservatives.
My banitsa is simple with occasional variations. But it always has the main ingredients: eggs and Bulgarian feta (sirenē). As with everything else, I create my own style. For a pack of 12 filo sheets (that’s what the home-made packs have) I splurge with 4 to 5 eggs and a chunk of Bulgarian feta (it is readily available in Toronto). I add a few spoons of Astro yogurt, usually the original Balkan style (over the years here, I have found Astro yogurt tastes closest to the Bulgarian yogurt), and a pinch of backing soda.
I usually roll the sheets into individual parcels, but many will just layer them. I spread 2 table spoons of the eggs & cheese filling in the middle of the sheet, fold it in half, covering the spread and roll it. Bake in my Gemini top oven at 400F for about 40min.
As variations I’d add some spinach or sorrel, fresh from my gardens; or fresh-picked nettles (pre-cooked) in the spring.
Slavka however makes a slew of filo pastries, recipes or ideas of which we’ll covered in this thread.
Join the conversation around our e-Table