One of my absolutely favorite Greek foods is the tiropita. In fact, pretty much everyone I know loves them. What's not to love? It's paper thin filo dough, stuffed with cheese, slathered with butter, and then baked. They are the perfect size - you can pop them into your mouth in one swift motion. This allows you to eat many of them, very very quickly, and without utensils! (I witnessed this first-hand when a good friend of mine popped one after another in a vain attempt to ease her hang-over at my son's Baptism dinner.) Some people ruin this recipe by making it into a casserole which, in addition to being borderline blasphemous, it just lazy. You lose the optimal crispiness of each triangle when it's all baked in a dish. Don't waste your time. They are indeed tedious to make. If they weren't such a pain in the butt to make, I'd make them every day. Good thing though, because then I'd be big as a house.
I can remember making these with my Mother before one of their many fabulous cocktail parties. She would make these several days in advance and freeze them. (These and her tiny little ham biscuits - but that's another recipe for another day!) She showed me how you tenderly lift one piece of filo and lay it on the cutting board. Keeping the filo dough from drying out without getting too soggy was an elaborate process. Mom showed me how - take four tea towels, moisten the bottom towel, then place a dry towl on this and then the filo. Cover with a dry towel and then top with another moist towel. This allows the filo to not dry out without being in direct contact with the wet towel; otherwise it gets too wet and then is just a gummy mess.
Lay one sheet of filo on a large cutting board. Then "paint" it with melted butter, and cut it into 2" strips using a pizza cutter. Placing a small amount of the cheese mixture at one end of the strip, you fold it up like a flag, over and over, into a perfect little triangle. Then, you paint it with more butter and place it on the cookie sheet for freezing. Repeat this approximately 150 times! Even then, my young back hurt. Now, it's ridiculously painful to make these for any length of time unless I'm fortified with plenty of Advil and red wine.
TIROPITA
Ingredients:
1 pound feta (crumbled)
1 8-oz. carton cottage cheese (small kernel)
2 eggs
pepper to taste
1 pound filo
Mix the first four ingredients to make the cheese mixture.
Take the sheets of filo and butter each, cutting strips into desired widths. Take a small portion of cheese mixture and place it at one end of the strip. Fold the filo over the cheese, wrapping it up flag-style for the length of the strip. Butter again.
Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Wonderful appetizers!
