Tina's Bougatsa

My friend Tina is a one of a kind. She is a world traveler, a gourmand, an oinophile, and has a sense of humor like no other. If Tina had not become a school principal, she would have made a bundle of money as a stand up comic. My buddy has the most colorful language imaginable, and has her own unique and descriptive characterizations, which we call Tinaisms.

Of all the traits that epitomize Tina, the one that clearly defines her however, is her generosity of spirit. Tina has been extremely kind and generous to all her family and friends. I will never forget the number of times that Tina visited us in New Jersey when my sister Pauline was very ill. Tina was afraid that we would not have time to cook after running back and forth to the hospital, and that we would starve to death. So each time she visited, she brought food not only for Pauline and me, but for the whole family as well. Some of the foods were purchased from a Greek restaurant in Astoria, while others were homemade by Tina. The meals were sumptuous and mouth watering and included salads, appetizers, main dishes and dessert. The absolute highlight of the feast was Tina’s homemade bougatsa. Tina said that the recipe was from her sister Eftihia, but to me it will always be my friend Tina’s bougatsa. I remember the first time she came over with the bougatsa, she brought powdered sugar and cinnamon from her house, to enhance the presentation.

Tina’s bougatsa has become a staple in my house. It is simply extraordinary and is extraordinarily simple to prepare. Tina’s bougatsa does not require the tedious buttering of each phyllo sheet which is the case with other phyllo recipes. I have tweaked the recipe a bit for my own use. I use cream of wheat where Tina’s original recipe calls for cream of rice. I have also used fat free, 1% and 2% fat milk. In her recipe, Tina uses mugs, to measure ingredients; I substituted measuring cups for mugs.

Tina’s bougatsa is so popular that that my neighbors who have tasted it have requested copies of the recipe, and now I am happy to post Tina’s bougatsa on our food blog.


Tina’s Bougatsa
Adapted by Vivian

Ingredients
½ cup sugar
½ cup cream of wheat (farina)
2 sticks of unsalted butter (½ stick for the cream and 1 ½ melted sticks to add to phyllo)
1 quart of milk (4 cups)
4 eggs
¼ tsp vanilla
phyllo (I use 8oz of pre packaged phyllo)

Method
• mix the milk, cream of wheat, sugar, beaten eggs, ½ stick of butter, and a dash of vanilla in a pan.
• Cook over medium heat, for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly until the crème starts to thicken.
• Remove from heat and allow the cream to cool.

In the meantime, melt the remaining 1 ½ sticks of butter in the microwave.
Butter the bottom of a rectangular 9x13 baking pan. Add about 7 sheets of phyllo to the buttered pan, (Do no butter each individual phyllo sheet). Add about ¼ of the melted butter on top of the seven sheets of phyllo. Add the cooled cream layer on top of the buttered phyllo layer. Add the remaining phyllo sheets on top of the cream. (Again, do no butter each individual phyllo sheet.) On top of this layer of phyllo, add remaining butter.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour.
Let it cool and serve it with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Enjoy!!!!

VKA