Many of you are big fans of Dara Bunjon, Jmore’s host of the popular Facebook Live show “The Food Enthusiast” on Thursdays at 12:30 pm. at facebook.com/jmoreliving.
If you missed the live shows, they’re all archived on jmoreliving.com and Jmore’s Facebook page, and you can reach Dara at Food@JmoreLiving.com.
But you may not know about the depth of her knowledge and experience. Here are a few tasty tidbits:
Dara is passionate about all things food — its origins, preparation, presentation and consumption. Her culinary career began with stints as a cooking personality on WBAL-TV, president of the Epicurean Club of Maryland, as well as a food stylist for chefs and cookbook authors, including Steven Raichlen, Sara Moulton, Nathalie Dupree, Elizabeth Falkner and Nick Malgieri, to name just a few.
She has served as a board member of the Restaurant Association of Maryland’s Education Foundation, a mentor to the ProStart culinary team at the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, and as a member of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs.
A past columnist and contributing writer for Foodservice Monthly, Examiner.com, Style Magazine and her award-winning Dining Dish blog, she also co-wrote a cookbook — “Yum! Tasty Recipes from Culinary Greats” (Cumberland House Publishing).
Is it any wonder that she gets some of the most celebrated local, national and international food-o-philes as her guests?
The following is Dara Bunjon’s adaptation of a New York Times recipe.
Dara Bunjon’s Feta And Phyllo Torte
Equipment
- Food processor
- Large bowl
- Rubber spatula
- Damp kitchen towel
- Sharp knife
- Bundt pan — 10 cup capacity
- Half sheet pan
- Large serving plate
- Serrated knife
Ingredients
- 1 pound crumbled feta cheese
- 3 cups cottage cheese (24 ounces)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
- 2 Tablespoons grated romano cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 10-ounce bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1 1-pound box phyllo dough, thawed
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted (10 ounces)
- honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In the food processor bowl, add feta, cottage cheese, eggs, dill, Romano cheese and ground pepper. Pulse the ingredients. You want the mixture to be well combined but still slightly chunky. (Depending on the size of your food processor bowl, you might want to divide each of the ingredients in half and process.) Turn out ingredients into a large bowl.
- Add the defrosted and well-drained chopped spinach and golden raisins to the other ingredients in the large bowl and mix well.
- Unroll your phyllo dough and with a sharp knife, in the center of all the sheets, cut an X. Take 1 sheet at a time and place the cut X over the center of the Bundt pan to line it. Turn the pan a quarter turn and take the next sheet. Continue to turn the pan a quarter turn and add a phyllo sheet until you have used up all the phyllo sheets. Since phyllo dries out quickly, keep a damp towel over the sheets that are waiting to line the pan. The phyllo dough sheets should overhang the edge of the pan.
- Add the cheese filling mixture into the Bundt pan and fold the overhanging phyllo edges to cover the mixture. Cut into the dough on top, a minimum of 20 times, with your sharp knife to create small holes that reach the bottom of the pan. Place the Bundt pan on the ½ sheet pan. Carefully, pour the melted butter over the top of the torte. Butter will remain on the top of the ingredients, and some will go through the holes cut to the bottom.
- Add the sheet pan holding the Bundt pan into the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Look for a golden-brown color on the phyllo, it should appear slightly puffy.)
- Once removed from the oven, cool the torte in the pan a good hour and a half to 2 hours before turning it over onto a large serving plate.
- Use a serrated knife to cut slices of the torte. I highly recommend that you drizzle honey over the slices.
Randi Rom is president of RJ Rom & Associates. She is a freelance columnist and writer who represents some of the region’s top restaurants and food-related events. Contact her at randirom@comcast.net.
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