Cigars (Meat-Filled Pastry Rolls)

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Wrapping Dough

1. 1
   Thaw the phyllo dough in the fridge overnight, until pliable but still cold.

   Refrigerator

   💡Work with store-bought dough while it's cold: warm puff pastry gets sticky and won't puff in the oven, and phyllo sheets dry out fast, so keep the waiting sheets covered with a damp towel.

For the Pastry Filling

1. 2
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
2. 3
   Add the onion and fry 5–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 4
   Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.
4. 5
   Raise the heat to medium-high and add the meat. Press it flat over the bottom and leave it for 2–3 minutes without stirring, until a brown crust forms.

   Stove

   💡Brown ground beef in the pot without pressing it: leave it as one 'cake' for a few minutes until a brown crust forms, then break it into chunks. Deep browning = deep flavor.
5. 6
   Break it up with a wooden spoon and fry for 8 more minutes, stirring, until no pink is left and the meat browns.

   StoveWooden spoon
6. 7
   Add the cumin, paprika, salt and black pepper and fry another 1–2 minutes, until fragrant.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
7. 8
   Remove from the heat and cool the filling completely, about half an hour.

   💡Fill dough only with completely cooled filling: a hot filling softens the dough, makes it hard to seal and makes the pastry soggy inside.
8. 9
   Stir in the parsley.

   💡Fresh herbs and egg go only into a filling that has cooled: that way the herbs stay green, and the egg doesn't cook but binds the filling.

To assemble

1. 10
   Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).

   ⚙ Preheating the OvenOven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 11
   Brush a dough sheet with olive oil and fold it in quarters.

   Pastry brush
3. 12
   Place tbsp of the filling at one end and roll up into a log tightly, tucking in the ends. Repeat with the rest of the sheets and filling.
4. 13
   Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced apart, and brush with beaten egg.

   Baking panParchment paper
5. 14
   Bake 20–25 minutes, until the dough is golden.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.