Have you ever tried Burek? I was lucky to eat it for years thanks to my ex’s family, Egi is a master in this field. Her Burek was spectacular, crunchy, and super stuffed. The Burek or Byrek is a savory pie typical of Turkish and Balkan cuisine, layer after layer of phyllo dough, it can be filled with spinach and feta as in my case or with other vegetables or meat. It mainly depends on the country of origin and therefore on the typical local cuisine. Phyllo dough is the base of many Albanian recipes, both for sweets like Baklava, or Burek like in this case. As I was saying, the main ingredient of Börek (from the Turkish) is the yufka, which is a very thin sheet of phyllo dough. The most traditional börek is with cheese, minced meat, spinach. However, other vegetables should not be excluded. Before baking the Burek, you can brush the last layer of phyllo dough with egg yolk. In my case, I always only used extra virgin olive oil.
My recipe is made with phyllo dough bought already rolled out in sheets, while Egi’s Burek of course included homemade dough preparation. I am not very familiar with phyllo dough; I only tried once to prepare it with Eddy for the Baklava and we spent hours and hours rolling out thin sheets to make all the layers of this delicious and typical Christmas sweet.
Having bought phyllo dough a few days ago to make Stuffed Rolls I decided to finally prepare the Byrek with spinach and feta. I had wanted to do it for years but always postponed, now that I am on a diet and feta has become an always-present ingredient in my fridge, I could no longer postpone.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 10 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Albanian
- Seasonality: All seasons, Fall, Winter and Spring
- Energy 180.08 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 18.99 (g) of which sugars 0.37 (g)
- Proteins 6.05 (g)
- Fat 9.45 (g) of which saturated 2.82 (g)of which unsaturated 2.00 (g)
- Fibers 2.22 (g)
- Sodium 443.42 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 150 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Burek
- 10 sheets phyllo dough
- 10.5 oz spinach
- 1.75 oz feta
- 1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
Tools to prepare Burek
- 1 Baking dish
- 1 Knife
- 1 Stove
- 1 Pot
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Brush
- 1 Small bowl
- 1 Oven
Steps of the Albanian Burek recipe
The first ingredient to cook for preparing the Byrek is spinach. Boil water in a pot and add salt. When the water reaches a boil, add the spinach. You have two choices in this case: fresh spinach, which should be washed previously, or frozen spinach cubes. If using the latter, you can add them to the boiling water while still frozen.
Once the spinach is cooked, drain them and let them cool in a colander so that they lose all excess water.
While the spinach is cooling, we can proceed with the preparation of the Byrek. Preheat the static oven to 350°F to 390°F. Using packaged phyllo dough, we don’t have excessive preparation times for making our Burek. In fact, we can lay out the phyllo dough sheets on a work surface and with the help of a kitchen brush, we brush each layer with extra virgin olive oil. In many recipes, recommended layers range from 6 to 8. I spoke with Egi yesterday afternoon, and she told me that in hers she only uses 4 layers of dough, I did a middle ground. Five layers of phyllo dough below and 5 layers to seal the Börek.
After brushing the baking dish with oil, I laid the base of phyllo dough in the mold. I squeezed the spinach well and placed them on top of the dough. As seen in the photo.
At this point, I added the feta, cut into not too large pieces. I brushed another five phyllo dough sheets, joining them together and then placing them over the spinach to seal the Börek. I sealed the edges with my hands, cutting any excess phyllo dough with scissors. I baked and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Our typical dish of Turkish and Balkan cuisine will become golden on the surface, so you’ll know it’s ready. Serve the Burek only after it has cooled a bit. You need to allow time for the spinach inside to settle post-cooking. All that’s left is to wish you a Good Appetite!
Storage:
You can store the Burek in the refrigerator in a container for a few days. If you consume it on the same day, simply seal the baking dish you used for oven cooking with aluminum foil.
Variations:
As indicated in the introductions, the variations are numerous. Have fun choosing the filling: with meat, vegetarian, with fish, with vegetables, so as to have a different Byrek each time. My favorite is ricotta and spinach or with feta. Among those I like the most, there’s also the version with spinach, cherry tomatoes, and ricotta, very delicate.
