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Egg, Cheese and Phyllo Casserole (Banitsa)
Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Equipment | Techniques | Cookbook Disambiguation Pages | Recipes | Cuisine of Bulgaria
Source: Wikibooks contributors
Adapted: Imported and reformatted by HowManyCookies from the cited Wikibooks revision.
Source revision: Revision 4605238
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikibooks contributors
Ingredients
- 2 packets phyllo dough (Bulgarian "fini kori" or phyllo from the frozen section)
- 200 grams kashkaval cheese (or a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella), cut in small pieces
- 500 grams sirene or feta cheese, crumbled
- 7 eggs
- 100 grams of butter
- ½ cup soda water
- 1 cup yogurt
Directions
- Mix 6 of the eggs, the grated butter, both cheeses, and the yogurt.
- In a buttered pan, lay a layer of the phyllo dough, spread a layer of the mixture, and continue alternating layers so that the phyllo and the mixture are finished about the same time.
- Finish with a layer of phyllo dough on top.
- Cut the banitsa into serving pieces.
- Mix the last egg with the soda water, and stir well.
- Pour the egg mixture over the banitsa, and make sure there are no pieces of the phyllo dough left dry.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C (390 °F) for 40 minutes, or until golden. Enjoy!
Notes
For spinach banitsa, substitute 3 of the eggs with ½ kilogram spinach, washed, cut and lightly fried (no more than 5 minutes).
For green onion banitsa, substitute 3 of the eggs with 5–10 stalks of green onion (about 1 cup chopped), lightly fried (no more than 10 minutes).
Instead of piling the phyllo leaves on top of each other, you can just spread the mixture on the phyllo, top with a little soda and roll two of the leaves up around the mixture. The rolled phyllo is then aligned in a spiral in the pan. Sprinkle with some oil before baking.