Borek with mince meat filling

Borek is the common name for all baked or fried pastries, made from a thin flaky dough called yufka (filo) and filled with various ingredients. The sky is the limit when it comes to fillings but most common ones are feta, spinach, zucchini, potatoes, green lentils, leeks and mince meat.

Turks, love their borek and have created many different ways of making it. For example, we fill sheets of yufka with cheese and parsley, roll them into little cigars and fry them in oil to make sigara boregi, we poach them in boiling water before layering to make su boregi, we fold them into an envelope and bake them over sac (a large concave piece of sheet metal) to make gozleme, we stuff and roll them into individual spirals to make gul boregi or into one big continuous long spiral to make kol boregi.  

Traditionally yufka is made from a dough consisting of flour, salt and water; then rolled into large, thin and round sheets with an oklava (a long and thin rolling pin) and lightly toasted on sac over a wood fire. It requires a lot of practice to get the right consistency for the dough as well as perfecting the rolling process to get the roundness and thinness right.

As a child, I have spent many happy hours helping my grandmother roll her perfectly round and thin filo sheets in her kitchen. As the duster, my job was to stand up on a stool that she would place next to her by the marble kitchen counter top while she was rolling them and dust the filo sheets with flour, whenever prompted, to prevent them from sticking to the counter or the oklava. 

These days, not many people have the time, patience or expertise to make their own filo sheets any more. My sister-in-law is one of the few people I know who still rolls her own filo sheets. As for the rest of us borek lovers, there are special shops called yufkaci (filo sheet shop) in Turkey that solely sell freshly made yufka. 

I have searched all over Sydney long and hard to find a filo pastry brand that is similar to Turkish yufka.  There are so called "home made" Turkish style filo sheets in Turkish delis but unfortunately, these are not as thin and soft as the filo sheets in Turkey. The filo pastry that is sold in supermarkets are referred to as "baklava yufkasi" in Turkey and they are a lot thinner than the Turkish ones. As the name suggest, we normally would use them to make baklava.  

In all fairness, both options work fine but the first needs a lot more of the liquid mixture to soften and soak up, and the latter is more frustrating to work with as they are often hard to separate and dry out pretty quickly if left unattended.

Luckily, I have recently discovered the best alternative, the Antoniou thick style fillo pastry. If you can find this particular brand, it makes the preparation much easier. It can be found in the fridges of your Greek deli or probably in most supermarkets in Sydney's Inner West.

If you can find it, great, as your first borek making experience will be a lot easier. If not, then you can easily use Pampas or Borg's or any other brand of filo sheets you can find. You just have to be a bit more patient and careful with the separation of sheets or use two sheets at a time as I do. 

I prefer to cut my borek into squares, once I finish layering, and keep it in the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours before I bake it, merely because it gives the filo sheets time to soak up all the liquid mixture and soften nicely.

But if you are running short on time you can also bake it after resting it a little on the counter once you finish the layering. The easiest way to do this is by turning your oven on once you finish layering. By the time your oven is heated up, your borek would have rested enough to put in the oven. 

The onion to mince ratio might seem a lot at first, but the flavour and sweetness of the filling is only achievable by using a lot of onion, so do not cut down the onion as you will see in the end it was, in fact, just the right amount required. 

You can serve slices of borek on its own for tea time or serve it as lunch or dinner accompanied by a green salad with a simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing. My favourite way of eating it is with a spoonful of yoghurt on the side sprinkled with red chilli flakes. 

Kiymali borek (Borek with mince meat stuffing)

Ingredients:

1 packet of filo pastry                   

2 eggs                                          

1 cup of Greek yoghurt                

1 cup of sunflower oil                   

1/2 cup of water                          

 For the filling:

400 gr lean mince meat, 3 medium brown onions, 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste

Here is how:

Thaw the filo pastry.

Peel and purée the onions in a food processor. 

Place the oil and onions in a large frying pan and sauté them until slightly wilted. Add the mince and cook them stirring until the meat is browned. Add salt and pepper to taste and put the mince mixture aside to cool.

Place the eggs, oil, yoghurt and water in a bowl and stir to combine.

On a shallow baking tray (preferably the same size as the filo sheets), drizzle a tablespoon of oil and grease the tray. 

Unroll the filo sheets. (If you are using the regular store bought ones, than read the package instructions as you might need to keep a lightly dampened tea towel on the sheets to prevent them from drying. But be careful not to over moisten them as they would stick to each other more if they get wet.)

Place a layer of filo sheet to cover the base of the tray. If the tray is bigger than the filo sheet, use two sheets overlapping to cover the base. If the tray is smaller, then cut the edges accordingly or just fold them in.

Spoon 3-4 tablespoons of the egg mixture over the filo and spread evenly until all the filo is wet with the back of the spoon or a pastry brush. Repeat until half of all filo sheets are used.

Spoon the mince mixture on top of the filo sheets on the tray and spread evenly until all the base is covered with mince. 

Place a layer of filo sheet to cover the top of the mince and spoon  2-3 tablespoons of the egg mixture over the filo and spread evenly until all the filo is wet. Repeat until the remaining half of the filo sheets are used.

Cut the borek into even squares with a knife and pour any remaining egg mixture over it. Cover with a cling film or aluminium foil and rest in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. 

When ready to bake, take out the borek from the fridge and preheat your oven to 170 C (fan forced). (Take out the borek beforehand to ensure that it reaches room temperature while the oven is heating up. Do not put the cold borek into a hot oven.) 

Remove the foil or cling wrap and bake the borek about 20-30 minutes or until it is golden brown on top. 

Once baked, take it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 20 minutes before serving so it soaks up all the juices from the tray and settles in nicely. 

It would keep in the fridge for a few days and a couple of weeks in the freezer. 

Afiyet Olsun!