Recipes for a Middle Eastern Feast: Beef Phyllo Rolls (Burak bi Lahm)

Family reunions are a feature of American life. When families are spread out all over our nation (a five day drive coast to coast), it prevents regular family time except for that glorious day (or week) during the summer or during the holidays when everyone gathers to catch up, show off the grand kids, and eat copious amounts of food.  Even if most of your family lives within a two hour drive of Grandma's house, family get-togethers are a treat--a time for remembering and sharing and passing down things that shouldn't be forgotten.  It's a time for heritage.

Food is part of that heritage.  The Mattson family reunions of my youth seemed to feature typical American fare dotted with the occasional traditional dish from the Swedish/Welsh heritage we all shared.  Hoagies, tuna salad, and egg salad sandwiches would be piled on plates and set down on one end of a picnic table along with the bucket of KFC chicken that someone who had just flown in that morning had picked up on the way over to the park.  There were jello salads and green salads, fruit salads and pasta salads.  And then there were the obligatory bowls of something that I have dubbed the Mattson Potato Salad--the magical concoction that no one had a recipe for but somehow could be produced identically by at least four of the aunties and adult cousins besides my mother.  It wasn't a real reunion without it. 

Similarly, it wasn't a real Solomon family reunion without a big bowl of Tabbouleh sitting next to the pile of hamburger patties that one of the uncles had been grilling. 

As a child, I didn't fully appreciate how unusual my heritage was.  I certainly didn't appreciate the culinary lessons that I was getting while listening to various aunties and cousins arguing about the sizes of grape leaves that were best for grape leaf rolls or whether the rolls should be cooked in tomato juice or lemon juice.  (More on that later.)  I just wandered in between the tables sampling a little of this and a little of that while chatting with the family members a little closer to my age.

With our oldest son leaving home soon, we've been trotting out more of the traditional family fare.  On Sunday, we prepared a Middle Eastern feast for our expected guests who came to see our son off.  Two of these dishes involved phyllo dough, an intimidating ingredient, if there ever was one.  I've become less intimidated as I've used it more and more.  I hope I can pass onto you some of the tips that I've discovered because phyllo creates some truly amazing dishes--not to be missed, if you can possibly help it.  

First--phyllo dough almost always comes in a one pound package from the freezer section of your grocery store--usually near the pie ingredients.  It usually also comes rolled in two bundles, sealed in plastic.  If your recipe only calls for half a pound of dough, don't thaw the whole package.  (You can't refreeze phyllo dough.  It glues itself together.)  Just pull out one of the rolls and leave the other one in the freezer.  I like to thaw mine on the counter top for a couple of hours before using.  (Leave it sealed in the plastic.)  This seems to work better for me than the usual recommendation of thawing it in the refrigerator overnight.  That always seems to create large glued-together spots in the fragile phyllo, which will make you so frustrated that you may have to rattle off a few naughty words in your head where your children can't hear them.

Second-you need to wrap your head around the idea that phyllo dough is going to wrinkle and sometimes tear, regardless of how careful you are.  Even with thawing on the counter, there may be a little glued-together spot.  The dough may start to dry out a bit and tear in the center as you are lifting a sheet up.  And yes, it will certainly wrinkle up as you brush each sheet with butter as you layer it.  But this is okay--the next layer will cover the tears, and the wrinkling is part of the beauty of flaky layers of phyllo.

Beef Phyllo Rolls are certainly worth the trouble.  Tangy and spicy without being hot, they are the perfect appetizer (mezza) or part of a larger spread.  The best part about them, in my opinion, is that for how fancy they look, they go together fairly easily and can be made ahead of time and frozen.  Then you just thaw them for a few hours on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for half an hour, leaving your hands free to set the table and prepare food that can't be made ahead of time.  I adapted the recipe from Classic Lebanese Cuisine by Chef Kamal al-Faqih, who catered White House dinners before writing a cook book that makes Middle Eastern food accessible to the home cook.

Beef Filo Rolls -- Yield:  One large baking sheet full of rolls.  Serves a dozen as an appetizer.
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 lb. lean ground beef (you can also make these with ground turkey or chicken)
3 cups minced yellow onion
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 lb. phyllo dough, thawed (for a couple of hours on the counter top)
1 1/2 cups melted butter

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread the pine nuts in a small baking pan and toast for 5-7 minutes, or until golden.  In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, breaking it up into tiny pieces.  Add the onions, cooking until tender.  Drain the grease and add the spices, cook for 2 minutes.  Add the lemon juice and cook until the liquid is absorbed.  Toss in the pine nuts and cool prior to using.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan and open your package of phyllo.  (Some recipes ask you to leave it under a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out.  I don't find that this helps much and actually impedes working quickly with the phyllo.  Try what works best for you.)  Unroll the phyllo.  Lay one sheet on the counter and brush lightly with butter.  (If you saturate it, it will get soggy.)  Top it with another sheet; brush lightly with butter.  Using a pizza cutter (or very sharp knife), cut the phyllo in half lengthwise.  Spoon a tablespoon of the filling onto the end of each piece. Fold the two long edges over the top of the filling and roll it up, starting at the end with filling.  (If the phyllo tears while you are folding it over, that's fine.  Just tuck the bits in, as in the top picture.  When you roll it up, it won't be noticeable.)   Place seam-side down on an ungreased baking sheet, 1/2" apart.  (This is the point where you freeze them on a plastic-wrap lined baking sheet and then place in an air-tight container, if desired.  Just set out to thaw on an ungreased baking sheet for 2-3 hours before baking.)  Bake the rolls for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool for five minutes before serving.