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??