Bourekas with fennel and cheese
This is relatively simple and very tasty dish from Israel. The Middle East has been a melting pot of different cuisines with unique flavour sensations.
Bourekasare a popular Israeli pastry of Sephardi Jewish origin. It is understood that the Turkic tribes migrated from Central Asia to what is now Turkey to form the Ottoman Empire. They brought with them their cuisine. This included a dumpling called bureg. The name of this dish may have contributed to the name of bourekas. Bureg later evolved into a pastry called börek and was similar to the empanadas, a Sephardic Jewish pastry.
There was a major wave of Zionist immigration to Ottoman Palestine between 1881 and 1903.During this time Sephardic Jews moved to pre-state Israel. They brought with them their traditional cuisine, and this included bourekas.
The Sephardic Jews created a new dish which adapted börek to their kosher dietary laws, and combined it with their traditional empanadas. The two pastries together to create the bourekas.
Ingredients
Packet of filo pastry
50g melted butter
1 fennel bulb
1 medium onion
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
150g feta cheese
150g ricotta cheese
50g parmesan grated cheese
250g baby spinach or cut spinach leaves
2 eggs
One zested lemon
Salt and pepper
1 egg with 1tsp cold water beaten
1 tsp nigella seed
1 tsp sesame seed
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tsp yellow mustard sees
This will make up to ten triangles
Method
Trim stalks from fennel bulb and remove the lacy green foliage for later use. Removing the woody core and cut the bulb and onions into thin slices. Cook onions and sliced bulb in oil and with thyme. Add vermouth or water if it starts to dry out. Add spinach and cook them briefly until wilted. Put this into bowl and add the three cheeses, lemon zest, fennel greens, 2 eggs beaten, salt and pepper.
Fold in the ingredients in the bowl.
Layout sheet of filo pastry on bench, paste with melted butter. Add another layer of filo and repeat the pasting add another and repeat with a third sheet. Cut 5 rectangular strips down from narrow side.
Place a large spoonful of the mix in the bottom of the rectangular strip. Fold over a triangle starting from the bottom. Keep folding about 3-4 times to form a triangle. Baste with egg and water mix and sprinkle the mix of nigella, sesame & mustard seeds and chilli flakes mix.
Place on butter basted tray 3cm apart and put in oven heated to 180◦C. Bake for 20-35m. Check regularly and take out when lightly browning of pastry.
Time Prep about 30-40m cooking time about 20 minutes
Cost about $20 makes about 22 About a dollar
Serves 7-8 with salad
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