Emmetaler and Portobello Boreg

Book club is tonight! This month's selection is Catcher in the Rye, in honor of J.D. Salinger's recent passing. I'm looking forward to good company and good food. We're supposed to bring something inspired by the book. I love thinking up dishes that fit the criteria, like today's Emmetaler and Portobello Boreg. I'm sure Holden would rather eat my version than the boring old regular Swiss cheese sandwiches he talked about in the book.

My mother prepares a tray of boreg for just about every family gathering. Since before I could remember, Mom would ask me to help her put it together. I would layer and butter filo dough one sheet at a time into a baking tray. Once half a standard package of filo was used, I would add jack cheese. Then, I would layer and butter the remaining filo dough, paying special attention to the last piece which had to look perfect sitting on top. The last step for me was to carefully cut the boreg into squares right before Mom beat an egg with some milk and poured it over the top.


For this batch, I'm substituting the jack cheese for Emmentaler to make it more like a Swiss cheese sandwich. Since I can never leave well enough alone, I'm using half the butter Mom does (adding olive oil to make up the difference), and including sauteed portobellos in with the cheese. Hope it tastes as good as it looks.