SUNDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER-FILO WRAPPED FISH

This is a delicious easy to make filo wrapped fish with a very flavorful tomato sauce.

1lb salmon or other fish fillet
1 lemon
2Tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 red or green bell pepper chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped or to taste
14oz canned chopped tomatoes
1/2 C tomato sauce
4Tbs chopped Italian parsley or cilantro or a combination of both
large pinch of allspice
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of sugar, enough so the sauce is not too tart from the tomatoes
6-8 sheets filo dough


Sprinkle the fish fillets with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Set aside an prepare the sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the chopped onion,celery and pepper and saute until vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so, then add the tomatoes and tomato sauce and cook until the tomatoes reach a sauce consistency. Stir in the parsley and season with allspice, cayenne pepper, sugar and salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Take one sheet of filo pastry and brush with olive oil and place the second sheet on top. Place a fish fillet on the pastry, towards the bottom third of the pastry then top with 2 spoonfuls of the tomato sauce and spread it over the fish. Wrap the fish in the pastry and place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining fish fillets, sauce and pastry. There should be about half of the sauce remaining to serve with the fish. Bake the fish for 10-15 min. or until the filo is golden brown. Serve immediately with the remaining sauce.
Note: Filo dough does not reheat well if there are any left overs. The best thing to do is to take the filo dough off any of the left over fillets and store. There will be a recipe following to make use of the left over fish and sauce.
If you have never used filo dough before this is a good recipe to try using it. It is easy to just wrap up the fish in it and to give you a feel for working with it. Important thing is don't let it dry out. What dough you are not using put a piece of plastic wrap over it and then cover with a damp towel or paper towel. If it dries out, and it does quickly it will just crumble to pieces.
Do not make this in advance..the filo dough gets soggy if left to sit with a filling inside. Wrap all the fish and place it immediately in the oven.
This fish goes well with my next recipe, cauliflower with garlic crumbs.
Also check out Shankari and Mel's blogs for their Sunday's with Marlena features.

SUNDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER

BRICK a L'OEUF~
Ahh Brik...hmm what can I say? It tastes good, it tastes great but it isn't for the faint of heart to try to make. I tackled this recipe because it presented such a challenge. I think in this throw down Brik won. Imagine working with a piece of Filo dough and a raw egg and trying to wrap it all up without the egg oozing out or breaking and running all over the place. Exactly. I may try this again since it was delicious but I don't know if it was worth the aggravation.

Here is a little background on Brik. These are pastries that are sold in the market places in Israel. Men balancing trays of Brik compete to sell the pastries to the crowds before the market place closes for the afternoon siesta.

BRIK A L'OEUF

1 onion finely chopped
2-3 tsp chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley or a combination of the two
a pinch of fresh chopped chili (optional)
4 filo dough pastry sheets
4oz can tuna, well drained. Try to get the Albacore or the chunks of tuna in a jar-the regular canned tuna is too mushy, you want chunks.
4 eggs
vegetable oil for deep frying

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and have oil heated to 375 degrees
In a bowl combine the onions, cilantro or parsley and chili. Lay out a sheet of filo dough(make sure you keep the other sheets covered with a damp towel) and fold in half length wise. Put a quarter of the onion mixture in the corner and then add 1/4 of the tuna. Break an egg into a small bowl, then slide it onto the pastry with the onion mixture.

Quickly fold the pastry to form a triangle and keep folding (like you would fold a flag) to encase the egg completely. Carefully slide the folded pastry into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Remove the Brik from the oil and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the other 3 pastries. Bake the pastries for 5 minutes. Do not over cook, the egg yolk must be still runny. Serve immediately accompanied by hot sauce.

These are how they turned out except for the one.

*cooks note: #1 try not to let the egg break while folding, it runs out all over the place and if you fry it up it becomes like scrambled egg inside the pastry. I found that if you fold the dough into a triangle to mark it off then add the filling under the mark then you have the top triangle to flap over the filling to kind of hold in the egg. It is very difficult to fold it into a triangle so it might be easier to just fold it into a rectangular package. Either way, I found no easy way to keep the egg from oozing around and the filo from crumbling or tearing as I tried to fold it up. Working quickly I found was not an option as I wrestled with the egg. If you work too fast the egg breaks. I tried using a spatula to help me fold over the dough but with little success. I have no answer yet for that. I will try again one of these days to make Brik and maybe find a way to make it work, I guess it just takes a lot of practice.
To those of you who are brave and adventurous.. good luck.

Be sure to go to Cooking Schmooking Mel is making Lentil Soup and Sacramento Spice where Shankari is making a Chicken and Rice dish for their Sunday with Marlena.