Gollash

The filo is layered flat in a tray with the meat as a filling between, never wrapped round it.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

the pastry

• 500 g filo pastry sheets
• 200 g ghee, melted

the filling

• 700 g minced beef
• 3 onions, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

to finish

• 1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons milk

Method

1. THE FILO IS LAYERED FLAT IN A TRAY WITH THE MEAT AS A FILLING BETWEEN, NEVER WRAPPED ROUND IT. Half the sheets down, buttered one by one; all the filling spread in one even layer; the rest of the sheets on top. It is a tray pie cut into squares, not a parcel, a roll or a coil -- and that matters because it means the pastry above and below cooks as flat crisp sheets with nothing sealing steam inside. The parcel versions of this idea elsewhere in the region trap the meat's moisture and go soft; layered flat in an open tray, the steam leaves and the filo shatters.
2. EVERY SHEET IS BRUSHED WITH GHEE INDIVIDUALLY. All of them, one at a time, including the ones in the middle of each stack. Two hundred grams of ghee for five hundred of filo. Ghee poured over a stack runs to the edges and the middle sheets stay dry, which is how a pie like this ends up with a crisp top, a crisp base and a pale doughy band between.
3. THE FILLING IS COOKED COMPLETELY DRY AND THEN COOLED. Mince browned hard with the onions and cooked until nothing moves in the pan when it is tilted. Then cooled. Any liquid at all turns the sheets beneath it to paste, and a warm filling melts the ghee out of the layers it is sitting on.
4. IT IS SPICED WITH ALLSPICE, CINNAMON AND NUTMEG AND NOT WITH PAPRIKA. The name is a coincidence of sound rather than a relation to the Hungarian stew, and seasoning it that way makes a dish that tastes of neither. Warm sweet spices against beef is what is wanted.
5. IT IS CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE BAKING. Scored through every layer to the base of the tin. Filo cut after baking shatters and the pie cannot be lifted out in squares; cut before, the edges set and each square comes out whole.
6. THE EGG WASH GOES ON THE TOP SHEETS ONLY AND IS THINNED WITH MILK. It gives an even deep gold without the patchiness of ghee alone. Thinned, it brushes over fragile filo without dragging it.
7. The onions softened in a little ghee 10 MINUTES, the garlic in for 1 MINUTE.
8. The mince added and browned HARD, then the purée, spices and seasoning, and cooked until the pan is COMPLETELY DRY.
9. COOLED COMPLETELY.
10. Half the filo sheets laid in a buttered tray, EACH ONE brushed with melted ghee individually.
11. The filling spread over in ONE EVEN LAYER.
12. The remaining sheets laid on top, EACH brushed with ghee.
13. CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH to the base of the tin into squares.
14. Brushed with the egg and milk wash.
15. Baked at 190°C for 40 to 45 MINUTES, until deep gold and crisp.
16. TESTED: a lifted square should be crisp top AND bottom with no pale doughy band in the middle. That band means the sheets were not brushed individually.
17. Rested 10 MINUTES and lifted out on the cut lines.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes