How to Make Börek

This is a yummy dish that can be made with spinach, meat, cabbage, or cheese. My hosts in Konya were gracious enough to let me photograph them while they made it. Now you can make it, too! It's really quite easy. Here's how to make the spinach variety:



First, chop enough clean spinach to fill a large bowl.



Then add a special kind of cheese called lor, that is a bit like feta without salt or oil. Also add a few dashes of red pepper flakes and salt and mix it.



Now, take your packaged yufka (a very thin and slightly cooked dough composed of flour, water, egg, butter, oil, sugar, and salt--not to be confused with filo dough) and separate the thin circles very carefully. To keep them from taking up too much space, fold them into squares and place them to the side. Lay one piece out at a time slice it down the center to make a semi-circle. Seperate one egg. Mix the white part with a bit of milk and oil. Dribble some on the dough. Sprinkle a bit of the spinach mixture onto the long end of the dough, then roll it into the form of a snake, starting at the spinach end. Then roll the snake into a spiral and place it on a pan.



When all your boreks on the pan, mix the egg yolk with some oil and paint them tops. Bake until golden brown on the edges. After you take it out of the oven, sprinkle a little water on them and cover until cool. You can use any ripped yufka to repair your spirals. If you don't want spiral borek, you can cover the bottom of a deep glass pan with a layer of yufka, dribble on the egg-white mixture, and put in a layer of spinach. Add a few more layers of yufka and paint the top layer with the egg-yolk mixture. The rest is the same.

Emine Hanim made this the day before for Bayram breakfast, the first daylight breakfast after the month of fasting. We all went over to her mother's for this special meal. Selvinur told me they go over there every year to celebrate her grandmother's Bayram.

You should have seen the pile of shoes outside her grandmother's apartment! (Turks don't wear outdoor shoes inside the house as a matter of cleanliness.) Selvinur's little cousin, Ayshe, was there and she was most adorable. As a matter of respect to elders, one is to kiss the top of their hand and press it onto your forehead. Everyone did put Ayshe's hand through the motions and then gave her some money. I think the money is generally given to kids when they are young. They are also given sweets since the name of this Bayram is called Sheker Bayrami or "sugar bayram".

We then all feasted on the most delicous breakfast I've had in a while. Olives, jelly, toast, 2 kinds of cheese, sausages, eggs, borek, and tea. Mmmmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. It was really cool to experience this with a family, as I felt this meal was as important as Chritstmas dinner is to Christians.

After breakfast, half the family packed themselves into a small car with my luggage and whizzed me off to the bus stop. Next stop, Nevshehir in Cappadocia. Woo hoo!

But next time, I'll write a bit more about the mystic Sufis. Promise.