Cigarettes Borek

Sausage rolls

• 200 GRAM PHYLLO DOUGH
• 250 GRAM FETA, mashed
• 150 GRAM COTTAGE CHEESE
• HANDFUL DILL, chopped
• 1 TSP OREGANO
• OLIVE OIL
• 50 GRAM BUTTER, melted

• 300 GRAM FLOUR
• 1 CUP MILK
• 1 TSP YEAST
• 1/2 TSP SALT
• 300 GRAM MINCED BEEF
• 1 EGG

Roll the dough out to 6 rectangles of 24X12 centimeters. Brush the rectangles with olive oil and fold them to squares of 12X12. Mix the cottage cheese with the feta, dill, oregano and pepper and salt to taste and divide this over the phyllo squares. Roll them up and put them in a greased oven dish. Drizzle the melted butter on top. Bake the cigarettes 35 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.

This is a recipe from the Marmara region, the area around Istanbul, famous for its culinary performance.

Mix the flour, milk, yeast and salt and knead for 10 minutes. Allow the dough to rise for one hour. Divide the dough into 10 pieces and roll the the pieces out to rectangles. Divide the minced beef into 10 pieces and roll them into sausage form. Put them on the dough rectangles and roll them up. Brush the rolls with egg and bake them 15 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius.

Sausage rolls come form Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands, even though they are also popular in Belgium. They were usually eaten after church on Christmas Eve. Also, as you can read in the culinary calendar for January, they were served on the Monday after Twelfth Night (Lost Monday) to harbor laborers in Antwerp, Belgium, because they had put all their wages in drinks.