This Beloved Savory Mediterranean Pastry Is a Spiraled Delight

All through quite a few visits to Türkiye, our Birmingham, Alabama–primarily based check kitchen colleague Renu Dhar was by no means removed from borek, a class of Mediterranean pastries formed from a skinny dough that’s crammed after which baked, fried, boiled, or steamed. Each morning, the aroma of recent, savory, crammed pastry wafted down the wandering outdated city streets of Istanbul. “I fell in love with consuming all types of borek in Istanbul from cigar formed to spirals, from fried to baked,” Renu says. She provides that the dish is a “celebration of flavors, textures, and aromas,” their crisp edges give approach to tender layers, after which melting cheese, or spiced meat, or the earthy chunk of herbs, all wrapped in sheets of delicate pastry. 

Impressed by her favourite Turkish borek, particularly the vegetable ones, Renu has developed her personal recipe. Her coiled model is full of a carrot, mushroom, and feta cheese filling. “This can be a stroll down reminiscence lane with a number of adjustments and on no account a standard recipe,” she notes. Making these savory carrot borek is a reasonably simple course of: Cook dinner and assemble the filling; unfold it atop layered sheets of the dough; roll into cylinders to create one giant spiral, then brush with an egg combination earlier than baking till golden and crisp. Learn on to study extra about borek and for the important thing strategies you may have to make this recipe.

All About Borek

Boreks—or borags, beregs, boregs, boeregs (they’re all pronounced the identical)—are buttery, crisp, multilayered pastry hand pies stuffed with cheese, greens, greens, meat, or some mixture thereof. They are often triangle-shaped, rolled and coiled, and even baked in a pan after which lower into squares. They’re beloved in Türkiye however are equally prized all through the nations that had been as soon as part of the Ottoman Empire, together with Armenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. 

The dough sometimes utilized in most types of Turkish borek is yufka—skinny, extensive sheets of pastry which might be usually bought at yufkacı, retailers primarily devoted to the pastry that may be present in almost each Turkish neighborhood. The sheets are sometimes rolled out into skinny sheets. Consider them as a extra rustic pastry dough that sits halfway between a pasta and phyllo in thickness and heft. To copy this conventional dough, Renu turned to phyllo, which is normally thinner and shorter than yufka however comparable in taste and simpler to search out within the US. 

Creating the Tangy Carrot Filling

For the borek filling, Renu pairs candy carrots with earthy sun-dried tomatoes and savory, woodsy mushrooms for a hearty, strong filling. The greens are first sautéed till tender (however not browned) earlier than tangy feta cheese, recent herbs like dill, parsley, and/or mint, chopped inexperienced olives, walnuts, a splash of purple pepper flakes, and an egg are folded in. The egg binds all of the components collectively right into a cohesive combination. To keep away from a gloppy, melty mess, make certain the cooked greens are cooled right down to room temperature earlier than folding the remaining components in. 

The carrots not solely convey sweetness to the filling, when shredded additionally they convey a welcome little bit of crunch to this borek. Renu recommends utilizing freshly shredded carrots somewhat than preshredded store-bought carrots, because the latter can usually be dried out and lack recent taste. You’ll be able to shred the carrots on the big holes of a field grater or by utilizing the shredding disk attachment of a meals processor. 

Ideas for Dealing with the Phyllo Dough

Assembling borek is comparatively straightforward, however working with delicate flaky phyllo dough with out tearing it may be a little bit of a problem, so Renu has a number of ideas and pointers for working with the pastry to gaurantee your borek holds collectively and stays crisp. 

1. Hold it frozen so long as potential. Because the phyllo turns brittle and dried out if left at fridge temperature for greater than a day or two, preserve it frozen for so long as potential. Whenever you need to use it, plan forward, as you may need to switch it to the fridge for at the least eight hours or depart it at room temperature for about 4 hours to thaw. When you thaw the pastry within the fridge, pull it out and let it sit coated at room temperature for at the least half-hour earlier than working with it to forestall breakage whenever you’re assembling the borek. Since most phyllo is offered in one-pound packages, you’ll be able to take what you want (plus a number of additional sheets in case one or two tear past restore), gently re-roll the rest, wrap the roll in plastic, place it in a zipper-lock bag, and refreeze for as much as two weeks.

2. Hold it coated whereas working. When layering the phyllo and filling and coiling every borek, preserve the stack of unused sheets coated with a bit of parchment or wax paper weighed down by a dry kitchen towel (don’t use a humid towel, regardless of what some recipes suggest as it will trigger the pastry to get soggy).

3. Don’t sweat the small tears. Lastly, take into account that minor tears or cracks gained’t be noticeable as soon as the borek is rolled up, curled, and assembled, particularly in the event that they find yourself on the within, so don’t fear an excessive amount of as you’re employed with it. When you do find yourself with a number of minor tears alongside the way in which, attempt to gently alter the pastry so an unbroken piece is layered on prime.

Ending the Borek

As soon as the spiral’s full, you may brush it with the remaining egg and milk combination, taking particular care to coat the highest and backside in addition to the seams the place the cylinders meet within the coil. It’s then sprinkled with seeds—Renu loves utilizing fragrant all the things bagel seasoning, however plain sesame seeds are additionally a fantastic choice—and slid on the baking sheet into the oven. Thirty minutes later, the börek is deeply golden brown and crispy-edged, and that acquainted aroma is within the air. All that’s left is to chop your self a slice and revel in it with a cup of çay, Turkish tea.

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