Creamy Feta & Leek Borek

This recipe was part of a team Soupereasy/AJ Project.

We decided to spend an afternoon with phyllo dough and four fillings. The first two recipes came from Epicurious and the last from the Fine Cooking website (apparently from one of their cookbooks and not in the magazine). So this review is also posted under Epicurious. The fillings and links are listed below.

Goat Cheese and Red Pepper http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Goat-Cheese-and-Red-Pepper-Phyllo-Triangles-with-Olive-Frisee-Salad-106994

Zucchini with Basil and Pine Nuts http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Phyllo-Triangles-with-Basil-Zucchini-and-Pine-Nuts-316

Creamy Leeks with Feta Borek, and a variation of this using Blue Cheese instead.
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/creamy-feta-leek-borek.aspx?nterms=50150,50026,54286,50176

All the fillings are easily made in advance.

We found the goat cheese and red pepper nice but a trifle bland, so we added a little heat with some Thai-style sweet chili sauce and liked the result very much. This was probably my favorite one.

The creamy leeks, one batch with feta and a second with blue cheese (omitting the oregano in the blue cheese version), were both lightened and brightened with a dash of lemon juice. Of the two, we both preferred the leeks with feta (this was soupereasy's top pick), and agreed that the leeks with blue cheese would be better as a crostini topping.

There was nothing wrong with the zucchini-basil-pine nut version -- but nothing really special either. Good. Tasty. But not really memorable -- I think I like the more traditional spinach-basil-pine nut combo better.

We used two boxes of the phyllo dough and almost a pound of butter. We ended up with about 40 triangles, most of which are now in our freezers to be reheated for appetizers and snacks. A very fun day.