Beef Boregi With Fresh Herb and Pine Nuts

You can serve this delicious pastry as a main dish with simple salad, or as an appetizer. It is also can be made into individual size, which is perfect if you are planning to have a large crowd to feed. I love how the  cinnamon and spearmint give the pastry slightly sweet and fragrant flavor. Although, I just found out that pine nuts is becoming more and more pricy here, it is always become a nice addition to any Middle Eastern pastry. Use as much or as little as you can afford to buy, it is worth it, even if you add only couple of tablespoons. In the past, I have made boregi using lamb filling instead of beef, which I must admit that my family and friends quite fond of it. Having said that, meat is not the only filling that goes into this pastry, any kind of vegetable filling will be equally delicious as well. If you want to make a vegetarian version,  you can check one recipe that this girl made couple days ago. If you want this pastry to be kosher, omit the yogurt for brushing, use combination of couple of eggs and olive oil instead. 

Beef Boregi With Fresh Heb and Pine Nuts

make one 13-inch boregi

1 pound lean ground beef

1 large onion, peeled, cut in half, sliced

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

freshly grated black pepper

salt, to taste

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped scallion

1/4 cup chopped spearmint

1 - 2 tbs olive oil

handful or two pine nuts

1 package phyllo dough (18 sheets - 13 x 17 inch), thaw according to package direction

For brushing the phyllo

1 cup yogurt

1/4 cup olive oil

pinch of salt

Heat 1 to 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium pan set over medium heat, add onion and cook until brown, add ground beef, using a large fork, crushing and stirring the meat to  break up the lumps. Keep stirring back and forth until the meat is no longer pink. Add cinnamon, ginger, freshly ground black pepper, and salt, stir for a few second, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Lastly add parsley, scallion, and the mint, stir to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Remove from the heat and let cool before adding the  pine nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Brush a 13-inch in diameter round baking pan with oil. Set aside

In a small bowl, mix yogurt, olive oil and salt. Set aside. 

Take out the phyllo pastry from the package, place it close to you, cover phyllo with clean kitchen towel to prevent them from drying. You might not use the whole package, but always nice to have extra just in case you tear some. 

Take a sheet of filo dough, brush with yogurt mixture, cover with another sheet of filo, brush it again with yogurt mixture. Take about a few tablespoon of meat and scatter it on top of filo dough. Starting at then end closest to you, roll into a log, carefully  lift up the log with both hand and place it in the middle of the pan. Very gently, curve the log into a snail like shape. Repeat the process of brushing the filo dough, scatter the meat, rolling, and curving, until all filling is used up.

Brush the top with remaining yogurt mixture. Bake for 40 minutes until golden.