Not long ago, I decided to try my hand at home-made cheese. My first attempt worked but was not very tasty. As I can't stand waste, I looked for a recipe which would take care of my cheese creation.
That's when I came across Borek.
I always thought anything to do with filo pastry was rather fiddly, as it goes, I was wrong. Now, I won't claim to have made filo from scratch, that would be a step too far, unnecessary too, as commercially bought filo is perfectly acceptable. Please note that a 'proper' borek should be made out of yufka: a large round pastry only slightly different from filo. However, this recipe is for 'No bother borek' and sourcing fresh yufka is not easy.
Borek can be made in several shapes, pies, triangles, small cylinders looking like cigars, or rolled into as a sausage which sometimes wound around itself. I used spinach, dill, chives and parsley but, any greens in season such as cavolo nero will do fine.
Spinach and Feta Borek
Ingredients
250g spinach
25g dill, chopped
25g chives, chopped
25g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
500g cheese, feta or ricotta -any similar variation will do fine-
2 medium eggs, beaten
1tsp ground nutmeg
400g filo pastry
100g unsalted butter, melted - don't be tempted to skip on the butter-
1tsp nigella seeds optional but these little black seeds make the borek authentic
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Line a baking tray with nonstick baking paper.
- Put the spinach and herbs in a large bowl. Add the cheese, eggs and nutmeg and season with black pepper and salt. Take your time of mixing the ingredients
- lay 3 sheets of filo on your work station, brush with the butter one at the time and layer together. Put a handful of the feta mixture near one of the short ends of the pastry and roll up. Squeeze the ends of the roll together to seal. Twist the pastry roll into a snail shape and put on the baking tray. Repeat until you run out of mixture.
- Brush the pastries with butter and scatter over the nigella seeds. Bake for 25-30 mins or until golden brown.
- If you fancy more recipes along the same lines
- Try this Greek recipe: Spanakopita
- For those of you who are watching the calories, why not giving Olga Pie a go
