Cooking with Margo... to assure you no the house didn't burn down

Hi Steemians,

I am going to visit some friends this weekend and we are having a little gathering sending one of our friends off as she is leaving her job. Naturally this means we are preparing for a dinner party and of-course I wanted to bring something tasty to the occasion. I am no cook by all means, but just like with my photography skills practice makes perfect (well that was the hope at least).

When it comes to cooking for others I always strive to make it perfect and in my defense this is why I think it never really turns out that great. I decided to make a sweet and savory dish and below you will find something that should resemble mouth watering, eye-opening, tongue-tingling irresistible treats!

Savory Dish (Banitsa or Баница)

This is a traditional Bulgarian dish, it is a cheese pastry that is normally eaten for breakfast, but I can eat this any time, and this is how I usually make it, but there are plenty of other variations out there.

Ingredients used

• Filo pastry (400 grams)
• Three eggs
• Feta Cheese (300 grams)
• Sunflower Oil (100 mL)

Method

Filling
Firstly I prepared the filling as this is what was placed in between the layers of filo pastry. In a bowl I mixed the feta cheese and eggs using a fork, this doesn't have to be too neat and there won't be any problems if there are lumps.

Then I took a baking dish, greased it with a little bit of the oil, took two sheets of the filo pastry and placed down the first layer. After this i added a part of the filling. Then I continued to layer with filo, oil then then filling until finally I had reached the last bit of filo to which I just added oil. Finally I placed the dish in the oven on 200°C until cooked (should be until golden brown) but as you can see it is VERY well cooked.

Sweet Dish (Baklava)

Moving on to the sweet stuff, if is marginally better I can assure you! So I am a massive sweet tooth and love baklava, I decided to make it with walnuts and almonds.

Ingredients used

• Filo pastry (400 grams)
• Crushed Walnuts and Almonds (400 grams)
• Cinnamon powdered (4 teaspoons)
• Sugar (3 teaspoons)
• Butter (100 grams)....unsalted..that is a mistake you'd only make once

For the Syrup

• Water (1 cup)
• Sugar (3/4 of a cup)
• Honey (A couple of teaspoons)

Firstly I started off by adding the walnuts, almonds, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and mixed everything together. Then I buttered a baking dish and placed the first two layer of filo pastry in the baking dish followed by some of the melted butter then sprinkled some of the walnut/almond mixture on top. I continued to layer this way until I had finished the filo and mixture.

After the last layer of filo pastry went on top I added some butter and cut the pastry into diamond shapes like so.

(I have attempted to make the triangle piece in the left hand side corner smaller hmm looks a bit odd now oops)

After this has been done the dish went in the oven at 200°C until golden brown.

(well I am sticking to the VERY well done theme here)

Then I waited for the dish to cool and in the meantime made the syrup by adding the water, sugar, honey to a pot and brought everything to the boil everything whilst stirring for 15 minutes ensuring the syrup is uniform. The last bit is easy and the syrup went over the baklava and here is the finished product.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my cooking adventures and I really do hope they like these or else I will be eating my sorrows away (literally).

Thanks for reading guys and catch you soon!

Love
Margo
xoxo