This is my personal bastardization of a recipe whose original source is long forgotten. The end product is a batch of spicy, salty, cheesy, flaky, crunchy Mexican/Greek hybrid pastry triangles that will deliver you unto joy. That is, of course, if you survive the personality shattering experience of working with the filo. Note that I am not a chef nor do I play on on TV and this recipe describes what I did when I finally seemed to 'get it right' and it has proved to be repeatable. Someone once told me that tiropetes may or may not be Greek for "triangle."1
Look Ma, I'm COOKING!!!
* - These ingredients are optional depending on your experience and facility in dealing with filo.
Filling Preparation:
If you are using frozen filo, move it from the freezer to the refrigerator and allow it to thaw for about 24 hours prior to use.
Trim the stems from the serrano peppers and place them aside. Thoroughly coat the skillet with olive oil and place it on a low heat. Wilt the spinach in the skillet ensuring that the spinach acquires a film of olive oil, adding more olive oil as needed, and transfer the spinach to a bowl. Replenish the olive oil coating on the skillet if necessary and raise the temperature to a medium heat. Roll the serrano peppers in the skillet long enough to lightly brown the skin of the peppers and remove them from the heat. Crumble the feta into the food processor bowl with a fork and then unceremoniously dump the cottage cheese, eggs, spinach, Serrano peppers and dill in after it. Set your food processor achoppin' until the mixture is smooth and set it aside.
Assembly:
The tiropetes will be formed with a two-layer triangle fold. Remove one sheet of filo and place it on your working surface. Lightly brush the sheet with the melted butter. Place a second sheet on top of the first sheet and lightly brush this one with the melted butter. Use the pizza/pastry dough cutter to divide the sheet stack lengthwise into four individual strips. You may or may not need the scotch and/or the Valium during this step.
Place approximately one tablespoon of the feta filling at the bottom of the strip and perform a triangle fold on the filo strip.
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Brush the top facing of the folded portion of the filo strip with melted butter halfway through the folding and then brush both sides when the folding is complete. Repeat until you are out of filo, filling or sanity.
Place the fruits of your labor on a greased baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 375 degrees. Let them cool a few minutes if you are a pansy.
Don't share until you are bloated.
1 According to tdent, "tyropita" is Greek for "cheese pie" and "trigono" is Greek for "triangle." Muchas Gracias!