Is it filo or fillo or phyllo?

A little cup made with filo and stuffed with greens (this batch gomen–Ethiopian collard greens), an egg, and topped with a little (or lot) of berbere oil.  A great little savory start to the day.  This was a bit of an experiment, so was not entirely sure how they would come out — kitchen disaster or keeper?

I’m happy to report that they came out just as imagined.  I love when that happens; although, I’ve had my share of disasters in the kitchen too.  Like when I tried to make baba ganoush, and nearly set my apartment on fire trying to get the eggplant nice and charred and smokey; uhm, do not place charred eggplant on parchment paper in the oven at high temperatures, it catches on fire.  And, do not place hot pyrex under cold water, it shatters into a zillion little pieces all over your kitchen.  And the octopus terrine I had such high hopes for (love octopus, but in a terrine it just didn’t work out); well, lets just say I think I can scratch that one off my list.  But, luckily, these are the exceptions rather than the norm.

But I love the way these filo cups came out.  Baked until the eggs just set and are still a bit runny.  When you break the yolk with your fork, it oozes all over and mixes with the berbere oil to create a creamy sauce with a bit of spiciness.  Berbere a mildly spicy blend of spices — including chiles, paprika, fenugreek, ginger powder, onion powder, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, allspice — adds a depth of flavor, and a little tingle of heat on the back of your throat.

Picked up a huge bunch (weighing in at close to 1 1/2 pounds) of collard greens for the gomen from my local farmers’ market; not like those measly little bunches you see in the grocery store (at twice the cost).  The farmer told me they were extra good since they went through a frost.  Not sure exactly what that adds, but I agree…they were really tasty.

I have quite a bit of filo left over.  Hmm, what else can I stuff into these little cups??

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Filo Cups

6 servings
6 sheets of filo
6 eggs
1 batch Gomen (recipe can be found here)
Olive oil (for brushing each layer of filo)
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
Berbere oil (refer to recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Brush generously each cup (of a 6-cup non-stick large muffin pan) with olive oil.

Lay one sheet of filo flat on the counter.  Brush the sheet with olive oil to lightly coat and fold in half. Brush again with olive oil and fold in half.  Invert a 6-61/2 inch bowl over the filo and cut a circle with your knife (it’s okay if its not exact or slightly larger).  Gently press into the muffin pan.  Repeat with the remaining five sheets of filo.  Bake for 5 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven.

Spoon the gomen into each cup.  Make sure they are nice and packed with lots of greens. Crack an egg into each cup on top of the gomen.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the eggs just set and are still a bit runny.  With a butter knife, carefully pop each filo cup out of the muffin pan.  Drizzle with berbere oil.

Berbere Oil

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon berbere

Combine the berbere with the olive oil. Whisk well to combine.

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2 comments

Reply

Very intriguing filo cups. They look mouth watering 🙂

Reply

Very intriguing filo cups. They look mouth watering 🙂

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