This Beloved Savory Mediterranean Pastry Is a Spiraled Delight

All through quite a few visits to Türkiye, our Birmingham, Alabama–based mostly take a look at kitchen colleague Renu Dhar was by no means removed from borek, a class of Mediterranean pastries formed from a skinny dough that’s stuffed after which baked, fried, boiled, or steamed. Each morning, the aroma of contemporary, savory, stuffed pastry wafted down the wandering outdated city streets of Istanbul. “I fell in love with consuming every kind 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 option 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. “It is a stroll down reminiscence lane with just a few adjustments and under no circumstances a conventional recipe,” she notes. Making these savory carrot borek is a reasonably easy course of: Cook dinner and assemble the filling; unfold it atop layered sheets of the dough; roll into cylinders to create one massive spiral, then brush with an egg combination earlier than baking till golden and crisp. Learn on to be taught extra about borek and for the important thing strategies you will 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 full of 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 international locations that had been as soon as part of the Ottoman Empire, together with Armenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia.

The dough usually utilized in most types of Turkish borek is yufka—skinny, large sheets of pastry which are usually bought at yufkacı, outlets primarily devoted to the pastry that may be present in almost each Turkish neighborhood. The sheets are usually 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 duplicate 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, sturdy filling. The greens are first sautéed till tender (however not browned) earlier than tangy feta cheese, contemporary herbs like dill, parsley, and/or mint, chopped inexperienced olives, walnuts, a touch of pink pepper flakes, and an egg are folded in. The egg binds all of the elements 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 elements in.

The carrots not solely carry sweetness to the filling, when shredded in addition they carry a welcome little bit of crunch to this borek. Renu recommends utilizing freshly shredded carrots relatively than preshredded store-bought carrots, because the latter can usually be dried out and lack contemporary 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 simple, however working with delicate flaky phyllo dough with out tearing it may be a little bit of a problem, so Renu has just a few ideas and pointers for working with the pastry to gaurantee your borek holds collectively and stays crisp.

1. Maintain it frozen so long as doable. For the reason that 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 doable. While you need to use it, plan forward, as you will need to switch it to the fridge for a minimum of eight hours or go away 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 a minimum of 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 just a few further 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. Maintain it coated whereas working. When layering the phyllo and filling and coiling every borek, preserve the stack of unused sheets coated with a chunk of parchment or wax paper weighed down by a dry kitchen towel (don’t use a moist towel, regardless of what some recipes suggest as this may trigger the pastry to get soggy).

3. Don’t sweat the small tears. Lastly, needless to say 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 just a few minor tears alongside the best way, attempt to gently alter the pastry so an unbroken piece is layered on high.

Ending the Borek

As soon as the spiral’s full, you will 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 an amazing possibility—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 luxuriate in it with a cup of çay, Turkish tea.

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