TODAY Food Club

This is a recipe straight from my mother's Mediterranean kitchen. Spiced ground beef nestled in golden, crisp and flaky phyllo sheets. The perfect addition to your holiday table. Generations ago, family may have made the phyllo dough from scratch--a process called "opening phyllo." But we now use store-bought phyllo...a nice time-saver.

Phyllo Meat Pies

Ingredients

• 16 oz package frozen phyllo dough, thawed in package
• 1 egg whisked in 1 cup of milk
• ½ cup butter melted and combined with ½ cup olive oil
• olive oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onions
• 1 ½ lb lean ground beef
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Carefully lay the thawed phyllo dough sheets between two lightly damp kitchen towels. This will prevent them from breaking.
3. Begin with preparing the meat filling. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick pan. On medium-high heat, saute the chopped onions briefly. Add the ground beef. Cook until fully browned, tossing regularly. Remove the pan from the heat briefly and drain any fat, then return back to the stove. Add in the spices and stir to fully combine. Remove from the heat.
4. Now, to assemble the phyllo pie, lay three to four sheets of phyllo dough on the bottom of a lightly greased 9 ½ x 13 x 2 ¼ inch baking pan. Fold any excess dough in. Brush the top phyllo sheet very generously with the melted butter and oil mixture. Repeat this step as you lay three to four sheets of phyllo at a time in the baking pan until you have used ½ of the phyllo sheets.
5. Now, as you have a nice base for your pie, spread the meat filling evenly on top of the last phyllo sheet.
6. Layer the remaining sheets on top of the meat repeating the same process as before (again, three or four sheets at a time, fold excess phyllo and butter the top sheet) until the phyllo sheets are used up. Brush the top sheet very generously with the butter and olive oil mixture. With a sharp knife, cut the phyllo pie into 12 squares. Season the prepared milk and egg mixture with salt and pepper and pour evenly over the pie.
7. Place the phyllo meat pie on the middle rack of the 350 degrees F heated-oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until cooked through. It should turn a nice golden brown. Be watchful so that the pie does not over bake or burn. Serve warm with a side salad! Enjoy!

Recipe Tags

• Mediterranean
• Entree