Moroccan Cigars Recipe

These ‘cigars’ are for eating, not smoking. Like most Moroccan food, they are very aromatic with spices. Cigars are a great appetizer before any meal and they make a nice change from more conventional hors d’œuvre and appetizers.

Photo by Avlxyz from Flickr

These can be served with any dip, but are especially good with hummus.

Ingredients

1 medium Onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup Olive Oil
15 ounce lean ground Beef
2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground Allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground Ginger
Ground Pepper
1/2 cup fresh Parsley, chopped
5 Eggs
1 pound Filo Pastry
6 ounce Butter, melted

Directions

Firstly, preheat the oven to 300F.
Prepare the filling for the cigars first. Cook the Onion in a pan with the hot olive oil for 10 minutes, and then add the Beef, simultaneously crushing it with a fork.
Add all of the seasonings and spices to the Beef and cook for a further 10–15 minutes. Keep stirring the mixture so it doesn’t burn.
Beat the eggs in a small bowl, making sure they are well mixed before pouring over the meat and cooking for a further 2 minutes. The egg mixture should start to go creamy.
Take the mixture off the heat and allow it to cool.
Now, cut the filo pastry into rectangles and place them in a pile with a damp cloth on top. Leave it for a few minutes.
Brush the rectangle on top with melted butter and put a small amount of the filling on one of the edges. Then roll it into a cigar, tucking the edges in as you go. Repeat this for all of them.
Warm the last of the oil and fry each cigar, ensuring they are brown on all sides. Drain them and place in warm oven until it is time to serve them!

Morocco

A Culinary Journey with Recipes from the Spice-Scented Markets of Marrakech to the Date-Filled Oasis of Zagor

“Some international cookbooks stimulate appetites and others induce wanderlust – this survey of Moroccan cuisine does both.” – Publishers Weekly

With a wide range of exotic flavors and cooking styles, Morocco includes 80 recipes with Spanish influences, rustic Berber styles, complex, palace-worthy plates, spicy tagines, and surprisingly easy to make street food.

From piquant appetizers like cumin-spiced potato fritters, to classic tagine and couscous entrees, and stuffed pastries like Seafood Pastilla, to fragrant sweets like Honeyed Phyllo Triangles Stuffed with Almonds, and, of course, Mint Tea, this beautiful collection of recipes surprises and inspires the home cook.