Are you looking for a quick and easy dinner recipe that will satisfy your hunger? This is the best dinner and it takes only 25 minutes!
Burek
What is Burek?
Burek is a traditional pastry or baked good with origin in the Ottoman Empire, traced back to Turkey and Balkans. Depending on the regin and country you visit, the burek will go under different names; in Turkey they say börek, in Albania they say byrek or pita, in Greece they say bougatsa or spanakopita.
What can I fill it with?
Traditionally, people fill burek with minced meat, feta cheese, spinach or a combination of them, with feta cheese and spinach being the most common. In some countries they fill it with a sweet custard. Disregarding the traditional way of making it, you can basically fill it with whatever you want and experiment with different flavours and fillings.
How do you make burek?
First, burek is made with a sort of filo dough that is then kneaded out and stretched out very thinly. Next, once the dough is stretched out, it should be so thin that if you put a paper undernieth it, you should be able to read it.
Traditionally, people make burek with a special pan that is bigger and rounder than normal ones. We just ordered our from Amazon because we didn’t find it in any stores in our area. To buy a pan you can order it from here.
Phots from reddit and SBS Foodbank
It is important to have a good dough because it is the fundamental pice of making a traditional burek. It requires some patience and technique. Each place you go to and try it they will have their own unique way of making it based on tradition and cultural influences.
Instead, we made our burek with ready filo dough just because we dont have the bread mashine and when making the dough completely by hand can be difficult if you don’t have the mashine to mix it smooth in the end together to increase the strechability of the dough. Moreover, the problem with ready made filo dough it that while it is much crispier of the outside the fresh homemade dough taste so much better.
The Recipe
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
12-18 Filo Dough papers
2 Eggs
500g Feta Cheese
800g Spinach
Oil
Water
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- If you are using frozen spinach make sure it is unfrozen, take a strainer and press out the water from it.
- Put the spinach in a bowl and crumble the fets cheese into small pieces. Add two eggs and blend together.
- Take out one paper of filo dough and then place another one on top (Tip: if it is very dry, brush with water on it). On the top one, brush with olive oil and add the filling along one of the sides. Then roll it together tightening it with each roll. When it is as a sausage, roll it into a loop.
- Put it into the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until it got some golden brown color.
- Take it out and enjoy with some Ayran.
