Yugoslavian Burek Food

TRADITIONAL ROLLED BUREK (BOREK) RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Heat a large frying pan over medium-low to medium heat and add the oil.
• Sauté the onion until soft and then add the ground beef, allspice , paprika , salt , and pepper to taste.
• Cook until the meat is crumbly but not dry. Cool completely before you continue. While ground beef mixture is cooling, preheat oven to 375 F.
• Once cooled, lay one sheet of phyllo dough on the counter. Keep the remaining sheets of phyllo dough covered with a damp kitchen towel, and work quickly to prevent it from drying out.
• Brush sheet with some of the melted butter. Place a heaping 1/3 cup of meat mixture on the sheet along the long side, 2 inches from the edge.
• Fold the bottom over the meat mixture and roll into a snake shape. Cut the roll in half and coil each roll into a snail shape.
• Place rolled dough and ground beef pinwheel on a nonstick baking sheet and butt the end up against the edge of the pan to prevent uncoiling. Brush with additional butter. Continue until you've used all the ground beef.
• Bake in a preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes or until just golden. A hint for handling phyllo dough: Be sure the dough is at room temperature before you open the box. Place the sheets of dough on a large cookie sheet and cover them with plastic wrap and then a heavy towel. In this way, they will not dry out while you are working with them. Work fast for best results and do not have the butter too hot when brushing the dough. Recipe Source: The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors by Jeff Smith (Wm Morrow) Reprinted with permission.

BUREK

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Brown ground beef in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain fat; stir in allspice, paprika, salt, and pepper. Transfer beef to a large bowl and stir in potato and onion.
• Unroll phyllo pastry and transfer 2 sheets to a work surface; stack sheets. Spoon 1/8th of the ground beef mixture down one long edge of the phyllo pastry. Roll phyllo into a tube, encasing beef. Shape the tube into a coil (snail shape). Place the roll on an ungreased baking sheet; brush with melted butter. Repeat, placing finished rolls up against one another to keep them from unrolling.
• Bake burek in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.

ALBANIAN BYREK

Steps:

• Prepare the dough with flour, 1 and a half cups of cold water, 1 spoon of oil, 1 spoon of vinegar and half a teaspoon of salt, so that the dough may obtain average solidity.
• Press and mix the dough well, then divide in two equally sized pieces. Then divide the pieces into 10-12 ball shaped pieces.
• Spread the balls in well-shaped circles of the size of a plate. Place the circle-shaped dough on top of one another so as to obtain two large pies.
• Cover each pie with melted butter and leave for about half an hour to 1 hour.
• During this time wash a bowl of spinach, dock or sorrel, cut thin, add salt and leave in salt for about 15-20 minutes, then squash.
• Mix the spinach, dock or sorrel with half to 1 cup yogurt and 2-3 eggs.
• You can replace the yogurt with crumbled feta cheese. Cover the baking pan with melted butter.
• Spread one of the dough pies to cover the entire pan and gently pull up the ends, then sprinkle melted butter on it and spread the spinach on it uniformly.
• Spread the second dough pie on top of the spinach.
• Cut the byrek in square slices, sprinkle with melted butter and place in a hot oven until cooked.
• Byrek is served hot accompanied with yogurt.

YUGOSLAVIAN BUREK

Steps:

• Heat a large frying pan and add the oil.
• Saute the onion until soft, and then add the beef, spices, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Cook until the meat is crumbly but not dry.
• Cool completely before you continue.
• Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough on the counter.
• Brush with some of the butter.
• Place a heaping 1/3 cup of meat mixture acrosss the sheet along the long side, 2 inches from edge.
• Fold the bottom over the meat mixture and roll into a snake shape.
• Cut the roll in half and coil each roll into a snail shape.
• Place on a nonstick baking sheet and butt the end up against the edge of the pan to prevent uncoiling.
• Brush with additional butter.
• Bake in a prheated oven at 375 degrees for 15-20 min or until just golden.
• Keep the remaining sheets of phyllo dough covered with plastic, and work quickly to prevent in from drying out.

FILDZAN BUREK

Steps:

• In a large skillet, sauté onion in olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Add minced meat and sauté for 5-8 minutes over medium heat; with a flat-topped wooden spoon break up the meat lumps into small pieces. Stir in cumin, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
• Mash the potatoes; add to the meat and mix to combine.
• Cut the filo pastry sheets into 6 approximately equal squares. Place two squares into the filcan or small coffee cup (or a similar shape) so that the sheet ends overhang above the cup edge.
• Fill the pastry with the meat and potato mixture, fold the pastry edges over and brush to seal with the egg, milk and oil mixture.
• Turn over the filcan with the small burek onto the baking sheet lined with silicone or parchment paper. Brush with the remaining egg, milk and oil mixture, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake in the oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes.
• Take bureks out of the oven, baste each with the water and oil mixture; return to oven and bake 10 minutes at 180°C, or until golden brown.
• Serve hot or slightly warm with dollops of sour cream or plain yoghurt.