Böreks: Invasion Earth!

LONG-TIME readers of these articles will know that I tend to keep things simple, recipewise, unless I’m in playful cheffy mood. There’s no point at all in my making you follow interminable instructions for tricky recipes when you can just go out and buy something just as good in the shops and get on with things.

While sometimes it’s nice for the enthusiast to tackle the more challenging elements of cookery, often these are just processes that help towards the final dish.

So, while I always add my recipe for, say, shortcrust pastry, because it’s relatively easy to knock up, sometimes I’ll ease back and allow you to buy puff pastry, because it’s a bit more fiddly and, if it’s not the real star of the dish, I think I can make peace with shop-bought puff.

In fact, quite often it’s very good indeed.

The same goes for filo pastry.

I can state now that I have never made filo pastry in my life.

Strudel pastry, yes, but never filo. There’s a reason for this; it’s bloomin’ difficult.

It needs acres of workspace, a deft hand and plenty of patience.

I’m sure that the resulting homemade filo would be infinitely superior to the shop-bought version, but there comes a point when one just says that life’s too short, and heads for the chilled pastry shelf.

And filo pastry plays a big part in today’s recipe, a wonderful snack or supper dish called Börek.

Also known as burek, byeurek, bougatsa and myriad other translations, a börek is a simple little filo parcel, filled with any number of ingredients, but most often it’s either minced meat (usually lamb or beef ) or else cheese.

They are cooked in the home, in restaurants and at food-carts all over the far end of Europe and into western Asia.

Originating in the Anatolian region of Turkey, they can now be found almost anywhere in the world – I had a spectacular spinach one in the heart of rural France once – and are the perfect snacking food, great for eating on the hoof or, as here, making for a crunchy and delicious supper, packed with flavour and texture.

Börek also come in many shapes and sizes; usually they are seen in the form of tubes, like spring rolls, but can assume almost any shape, from wedges cut from a ‘pie’ to samosa-like triangles or semi-circular pasties.

This particular recipe calls for a long snake-like construction, which is then gently eased (it’s not easy!) into a shallow pan and curls round like a Cumberland sausage.

I was particularly taken by the mixture of cheeses in this recipe, so I adapted it to make things a little more affordable (Balkan cheeses aren’t exactly thick on the ground in the UK) and it’s a terrific blend.

There’s the saltiness of the feta, the stretchy creaminess of the mozzarella, and the rich nutty flavour of the firm cheese (I found the Pyrenean classic Ossau-Iraty to work really well) along with the tang of the yoghurt and the texture of the spinach. The eggs serve to lighten the mixture as it bakes and help it set slightly, so you can slice it more easily. A drizzle of honey at the end adds a seductive sweetness, and is a brilliant authentic garnish.

Pop this together with a lovely Mediterranean-style tomato salad and you have a sunshine- filled vege-friendly supper that will really tickle the tastebuds.