Ramadan Special: Oven Cheese Fatayer

Few weeks ago I discovered a new ingredient, Lavash bread. I have always seen it on Middle Eastern grocery shops in West Ealing but I never thought about trying it until recently, and what a discovery! Lavash is a type of very thin bread native to Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The bread is a beautifully versatile ingredient that can be used to make pastries, borak and even oven samosa. For those of you familiar with Syrian breads, lavash is somewhat a cross between Saj bread and Tanoor Bread.

In Ramadan pastries has an essential role on the Iftar table. It adds a nice variety to the meal and nice side to a warm bowl of soup. Cheese, meat and spinach are the classic fillings.

For today's recipe I tried to create a cheese filling that doesn't require a trip to a Middle Eastern shop. I wanted to make a cheese filling that resembles the taste of that used in cheese borak in Syria but without the use of any "specialty" cheeses. I will have to say, the experiment was a great success. Even better than I expected!

Of course using Lavash bread defies the purpose of this whole exercise. So if you want to keep "high street supermarket only" tag to your dish you can use filo pastry or even puff pastry although the latter will produce a completely different dish.


Here is my Oven Baked Cheese Fatayer recipe:

Lavash bread 400 g
Feta 250g
Grated mozzarella 250g
Parsley 50g
Butter 50g
Salt
Black pepper
Milk
one Egg

Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mash the feta cheese with a fork and mix it with Mozzarella, chopped parsley, egg, salt and freshly ground black pepper. If your mix is too thick you can add a splash of milk. Be careful not to add too much other wise you will end up with a soggy pastry base.

Butter the bottom of a small baking tin. Add two layers of the bread brushing each layer with melted butter. Spread halt the cheese mixture then another bread layer, more cheese then the top bread layer. Brush the top generously with butter to get a crispy finish.

Bake in the oven for twenty minutes until the top is golden. Let cool for few minutes, cut to individual portions and serve.