spiced beef cooked with pomegranate juice and wrapped in a coil of flaky phyllo pastry

This dinner was inspired by [eatingclub] vancouver's Borek with Beef Filling. (TS and JS, the sisters behind [eatingclub], make delicious, creative food. I always love their take on WC's Weekend Wokking). This was back before I lowered my dorm meal plan and started cooking again, so I was very hungry and craving good, interesting food. I saved the page and, when spring break came rolling around, brought it out gleefully to make with friend CH.

I love the contrast between my spring break, full of cooking, baking, feeding friends and family, and hanging out with little sis, and the average spring break of my university peers. Gives me the chuckles it does.

Bureks (boreks), according to the lovely wikipedia, seem to be anything wrapped in phyllo dough (or similar doughs, such as yufka). (I approve heartily of most things that fit this description). The spiral shape that TS, JS, and I chose (because it's pretty) is Bosnian style. TS and JS chose to stuff theirs with a Turkey inspired filling, but I was quite taken with the description of traditional Arab burek flavors: meat cooked with nutmeg, caramelized onions and pomegranate juice.

I don't think I was greedy enough with my filling. When I make this again, I'd want each layer to have a lot more tasty inside of it.

Pomegranate Beef Burek
1/2 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 Tb butter
6 oz pomegranate juice
1 Tb allspice
1 tsp paprika
1/2 C pomegranate pips (Trader Joe's stocks them, as does Costco. You could also get a pomegranate and de-seed it yourself).

1 pkg phyllo, thawed (You'll find this in well-stocked grocery stores, in the frozen section near the pie crusts)
1 egg
1/2 C yogurt
1/4 C milk and olive oil mixed together

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a frying pan, caramelize the onions in the butter, until they are soft, sweet, and brown. This should take fifteen minutes or so. Be patient and don't worry about burning too much. Add the beef and cook through. Add the pomegranate juice and reduce it to thick syrup, then add the spices and the pomegranate seeds.

Mix together the egg, yogurt, milk and olive oil. On a large, clean surface, unfold your phyllo sheets. Carefully (don't panic if it tears, it's not the end of the world) lift one phyllo sheet of the stack and lay it down on the wax paper. Brush with yogurt mixture. Lay another sheet on top and brush this with yogurt as well. Put some beef mixture along the bottom edge and then roll up the sheet, tightly.

On a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper, coil the roll around itself. Lay out and yogurt-brush another two sheets, and roll up some beef mixture again. Continue the coil on the cookie sheet. Repeat until you run out of phyllo dough or beef.

Brush the top with the remaining yogurt mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 45 minutes or until crispy and golden.

Make it the evening you plan to devour it. It's not nearly as tasty the second day. (You probably won't have any left over, anyway. We wouldn't have, if we weren't purposefully wrapping away samples of meals for Mum, who was out of town).

I'm a big fan pf phyllo. Have you used it before? What sort of dishes to you like to make? Are you from a culture that traditionally uses phyllo?