Turkish Fried Cheese Rolls
This recipe comes from Turkey and is part of their brand of appetizers (meze), which can be a variety of hot or cold dishes including meats or seafood, cheeses, and other kinds of dishes. To make these Turkish "cigarette" pastries (fried feta rolls), you'll use yufka dough, if you can find it, and you'll be filling it with Turkish white cheese or feta.
Here is the full list of ingredients you'll need to make the Turkish fried feta rolls:
- Turkish white cheese or feta cheese (half pound)
- 24 inch yufka sheets (4), or a 16 ounce package of frozen phyllo dough (1)
- vegetable oil (to fry)
- parsley, finely chopped (2 tablespoons)
- kosher salt and ground black pepper
If you're working with phyllo dough, let it thaw out. Take two phyllo sheets and put one on top of the other. Place so that the top and bottom are the short ends. Starting at the center of the top, cut to the bottom left corner, cutting diagonally. Then start from the same point at the top and cut diagonally down to the right. This should result in three triangles for you to use.
Take a small bowl and crumble the cheese into the bowl. Now add the parsley, salt and pepper as well, and mix everything together.
Start with one of the phyllo triangles, with the long base of the triangle closer to you and the tip further away. Take a tablespoon of the cheese filling and spread it out along the bottom edge, but leave about half an inch around the filling at the bottom. Fold the right and left sides toward the area with the filling, to trap the filling in for when you roll the dough up.
Slowly roll the pastry up from the long side, closer to you, to the tip of the dough, further away from you. Put a little water on the tip of the phyllo dough to help seal the pastry when you finish rolling it.
Repeat this process until you've used up all of your pastry dough and your cheese mixture.
Take a deep skillet and add vegetable oil, up to about 2 inches deep. Heat to around 350 to 360 degrees. Place your pastries in the pan, but make sure you leave a little room between each pastry.
As the pastries fry, move them around with a fork so that they cook evenly. You want the pastries to end up golden brown all over. The ends will probably end up with a darker golden brown color than the rest of the pastry exterior.
When the pastries are done cooking, carefully remove with the fork and place on paper towels so that they can drain.
Remember that this is an example of Turkish meze, basically appetizers. Usually some kind of cold meze will be served, followed by a round of hot meze (like the cheese cigarettes from this recipe). Then the main course is served, typically fish or meat.
If you have a Mediterranean grocery store, you might be able to find yufka for the pastry dough instead of phyllo dough.
Here is the full list of ingredients you'll need to make the Turkish fried feta rolls:
- Turkish white cheese or feta cheese (half pound)
- 24 inch yufka sheets (4), or a 16 ounce package of frozen phyllo dough (1)
- vegetable oil (to fry)
- parsley, finely chopped (2 tablespoons)
- kosher salt and ground black pepper
If you're working with phyllo dough, let it thaw out. Take two phyllo sheets and put one on top of the other. Place so that the top and bottom are the short ends. Starting at the center of the top, cut to the bottom left corner, cutting diagonally. Then start from the same point at the top and cut diagonally down to the right. This should result in three triangles for you to use.
Take a small bowl and crumble the cheese into the bowl. Now add the parsley, salt and pepper as well, and mix everything together.
Start with one of the phyllo triangles, with the long base of the triangle closer to you and the tip further away. Take a tablespoon of the cheese filling and spread it out along the bottom edge, but leave about half an inch around the filling at the bottom. Fold the right and left sides toward the area with the filling, to trap the filling in for when you roll the dough up.
Slowly roll the pastry up from the long side, closer to you, to the tip of the dough, further away from you. Put a little water on the tip of the phyllo dough to help seal the pastry when you finish rolling it.
Repeat this process until you've used up all of your pastry dough and your cheese mixture.
Take a deep skillet and add vegetable oil, up to about 2 inches deep. Heat to around 350 to 360 degrees. Place your pastries in the pan, but make sure you leave a little room between each pastry.
As the pastries fry, move them around with a fork so that they cook evenly. You want the pastries to end up golden brown all over. The ends will probably end up with a darker golden brown color than the rest of the pastry exterior.
When the pastries are done cooking, carefully remove with the fork and place on paper towels so that they can drain.
Remember that this is an example of Turkish meze, basically appetizers. Usually some kind of cold meze will be served, followed by a round of hot meze (like the cheese cigarettes from this recipe). Then the main course is served, typically fish or meat.
If you have a Mediterranean grocery store, you might be able to find yufka for the pastry dough instead of phyllo dough.