Tag Archives | Turkish savory pastries

Lamb Kebab with Peas, Carrots and Onions, Wrapped In Puff Pastry – Talas Boregi

Talas borek; lamb chunks with vegetables, wrapped in puff pastry

The spread of the Ottoman Empire into Europe resulted in influences from different cuisines. For instance, the use of puff pastry in this kebab reflects a French influence in the Ottoman and today’s Turkish cuisine.

These delicious pastry parcels are lovely served as an appetizer (the miniature versions would also make great finger food for dinner parties, like the little one made by my daughter :). You can also serve them as a main course with some steamed vegetables by the side. (I like Ghillie Basan’s way of serving the cooking liquid of as a sauce by the side too). The cucumber & yoghurt dip with mint, Cacik, would be also a great accompaniment.I hope you have a go at them sometime; they are easy to make, impressive and delicious!

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 35 minutes

225gr/1/2lb lamb, cut into small cubes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely diced
60gr/2oz peas
10ml/2teaspoons tomato paste
15ml/1 tablespoon olive oil
5ml/1teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
4fl oz/ 1/2 cup water

345gr/12oz puff pastry, thawed
1 egg yolk, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan. Add the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes, until they are softened. Add the lamb and cook for further 3-4 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in the carrots, peas and tomato paste, mix well. Season with salt and pepper and add the red pepper flakes. Pour in the water and give it a good mix. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the liquid of the meat mixture to be used as a sauce later. Leave the meat mixture to cool.

If the puff pastry is frozen, please take out of the freezer 2 hours before using and bring it to the room temperature. If it is kept in the fridge, take out the puff pastry 20 minutes before using and remove its carton. Just before using, take off the outer plastic wrap and unroll the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the pastry into a thin sheet of a rectangle. Cut out squares, about 13cmx13cm (4x4in).

Place a little of the meat mixture in the center of each square and fold over the edges to form a packet.

Place the packets, seam-side down, in the baking tray. Brush the egg yolk over the pastries and bake them in the oven for about 35 minutes or until puffed up and golden brown.

Warm up the reserved liquid of the meat mixture and serve as a sauce by the side of the kebabs in puff pastry. You can also serve them with steamed vegetables and some Cacik (yoghurt, cucumber and mint dip) as a main course.

Talas borek; lamb and vegetables wrapped in puff pastry; easy and delicious

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

A Delicious Cheese and Parsley Tray Pastry; Peynirli Tepsi Boregi

By Ozlem Warren on January 18, 2011 in Savory Pastries, Turkish Breakfast, Turkish Street Food 0

This wonderful pie has to be the most popular and loved pastry in Turkey. It has been cooked at homes often, and you can eat almost in every café or restaurant at home. I use the fillo pastry sheets for this recipe and it works well (traditionally, we use the fresh paper thin pastry sheets called yufka and it is wonderful, if you can find it). If frozen, you need to defrost the fillo pastry overnight in the fridge and leave at room temperature about 2 hours before using. I like to combine the feta cheese with mozzarella in this recipe to make it moister.
At home, boreks, savory pastries are a very popular snack with ladies’ tea time gatherings and immensely popular with children. This Tepsi Boregi is also a popular street food at Turkey, and sold in pastry shops and street stalls. It also makes a wonderful lunch or appetizer with a little green salad by the side.

Serves 6-8
Preparation time – 25 minutes Cooking time – 35 minutes

150gr/7oz feta cheese, mashed with a fork
115 gr / 4oz shredded mozzarella
2 eggs, beaten
120ml/4fl oz/1/2 cup milk
15ml/1 tablespoon olive oil
24 sheets of fillo pastry (24cmx25cm/about 9″x10″)
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

For the egg&milk; mixture:
2 eggs, beaten
120ml/4fl oz/1/2 cup milk
30ml/2tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 180c/350 F/gas mark 4

In a bowl, mix the feta cheese, shredded mozzarella, parsley and two of the beaten eggs. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining eggs, olive oil and milk (for the egg&milk; mixture).

Grease a rectangular baking dish with a little olive oil. Lay the pastry sheets along its long side and trim or cut if needed, as the size of the sheets vary in each country. Open the sheets only when you are ready to use them and cover the rest with a damp towel so that they don’t dry out.

Lay two sheets in the greased baking dish. Pour a little of the milk-olive oil-water mixture (about 3 tablespoons) all over the sheet. Repeat this layering until you reached the 12th sheet. The pastry may look like swimming in the milky mixture a little, don’t worry, that’s the way it should be. Once cooked, the pastry will absorb all this moisture and you will have a lovely, moist pie.

Spread the cheese filling over the 12th sheet evenly. Continue laying two sheets of fillo, pouring over each the milk mixture, until you reach 24th sheet. Sprinkle the milk mixture on the top of the pie.

Bake the borek or the pie in the oven for about 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Serve hot, cut into pieces. This dish can be successfully reheated. A glass of cay (Turkish tea) goes very well with this borek!

Peynirli Tepsi boregi; cheese and parsley tray bake with fillo sheets; it goes so well with Cay, Turkish tea.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Important tips: If you would like to cut back on the amount of the eggs, you can omit or decrease them in the cheese filling. 2) Once cooked, if you keep the pie covered with flax or parchment paper, this will keep the pie moist. 3) This pie freezes wonderfully. Once cooled, put the pie in a freezer bag and seal. When you’d like to reheat (at 180C/ 350 F for about 15 minutes), put the pie in a greased baking tray and sprinkle the top with a little milk and water mixture to give some moisture.

Turkish Rose Ravioli – Gul Manti or Sosyete Mantisi

By Ozlem Warren on May 26, 2010 in Savory Pastries 5

This scrumptious coiled pastry with minced meat filling with garlicky yoghurt and spiced olive oil is one of our favourite for dinner parties – it is called also referred as Sosyete mantısı (roughly translated as society or posh mantı) at home, an easier yet equally delicious version of mantı, Turkish dumplings. Found memories of having them with cay, Turkish tea at my mother’s ladies’ afternoon tea gatherings.

In Türkiye, fresh yufka sheets are used for the pastry – filo pastry sheets work just as well here, to form the elegant rose shaped pastry. The trick with filo pastry sheets is that they need to be kept under slightly damp towel so they don’t dry out. Take one sheet at a time to make the coiled shape and work fast. The milk and olive oil sauce works like magic to keep the pastry intact while coiling. They can be made ahead of time and freeze well after baking. If freezing, reheat at preheated fan oven at 180C/350F for about 10 minutes.

You can also make a vegetarian version, using spinach and feta in the filling, as in Ispanakli peynirli gül böreği from my cookery book SEBZE – you can get a copy here worldwide.

Ispanakli gul boregi, from SEBZE cookery book

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do,

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Turkish Rose Ravioli - Gul Manti or Sosyete Mantisi

This scrumptious coiled pastry with minced meat filling with garlicky yoghurt and spiced olive oil is one of our favourite for dinner parties – it is called also referred as Sosyete mantısı (roughly translated as society or posh mantı) at home, an easier yet equally delicious version of mantı, Turkish dumplings. Found memories of having them with cay, Turkish tea at my mother’s ladies’ afternoon tea gatherings. In Türkiye, fresh yufka sheets are used for the pastry - filo pastry sheets work just as well here, to form the elegant rose shaped pastry. The trick with filo pastry sheets is that they need to be kept under slightly damp towel so they don’t dry out. Take one sheet at a time to make the coiled shape and work fast. The milk and olive oil sauce works like magic to keep the pastry intact while coiling. They can be made ahead of time and freeze well after baking. If freezing, reheat at preheated fan oven at 180C/350F for about 10 minutes.

Author: Ozlem Warren

Recipe type: Savoury pastry

Cuisine: Turkish cuisine

Serves: makes 7 coiled pastries

Ingredients

7 filo pastry sheets (I use Jus Roll) (if you are using thin filo sheets, I suggest using 2 sheets for each coiled pastry)
For the pastry filling:
750g/1lb 10 ½ oz minced beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3tbsp double concentrated tomato paste
1tbsp pomegranate molasses
1tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the milk and olive oil sauce:
60ml/2fl oz whole milk
1tsp olive oil
For brushing:
1 medium egg, beaten
2tsp olive oil
For the garlicky yoghurt:
450g/1lb whole milk yoghurt
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Sea salt to taste
For the spiced olive oil:
60ml/2fl oz olive oil
1tsp pul biber
1tsp dried mint

Instructions

Combine the yoghurt with the chopped garlic and season with sea salt to your taste. Cover and set aside to bring to room temperature. Take the filo pastry sheets out of the fridge to bring to room temperature, 20 minutes before using, for the best results.
Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
Pour 1tbsp olive oil in a wide, heavy pan and stir in the chopped onions; sauté for 4 minutes over medium heat. Stir in the minced meat to the pan, combine with the onions and sauté for further 8 minutes then turn the heat off. Stir in the tomato paste and pomegranate molasses, season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, combine well. Place the filling in a large bowl and set aside to cool.
Preheat fan oven to 180C/200C/400F. In a small bowl, combine milk with olive oil, to brush the filo pastry sheets. In another small bowl, combine beaten egg with olive oil, to brush the finished rose pastry.
Once the filling is cooled down, open pack of filo sheets. Lay the sheets on a dry, clean surface and cover with a slightly damp towel. To coil the filo successfully, the filo sheets need to be kept moist. Only take one sheet at time and keep the rest covered.
Take 1 filo sheet out and place on a dry surface lengthways. Working fast, brush the sheet with the milk and olive oil mixture. Then place about 110g filling in a line, along the edge near you, leaving 2cm at each end of the pastry filling free (try not to overfill, so the pastry don’t break while coiling). Gently roll up into a cylinder. Brush the pasty edge with the milk and olive oil mixture. Starting from one end, gently wind the filo into a coil and place on the tray with the baking paper on. Brush over and sides of the coiled pastry with the milk and olive oil mixture to seal the end (this helps to patch up any broken pastry too). Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the 6 filo pastry sheets and place the coiled pies side by side with about 1 inch space between them. Make sure to brush the top and sides of the coiled pastries with the milk and olive oil mixture, to keep them intact.
Brush the top and side of the pastries with the egg and olive oil mixture. Bake in middle shelf of the preheated fan oven for 25 – 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and cooked through.
Pour olive oil on a small sauté pan and warm over medium heat. Stir in the pul biber and dried mint and gently infuse for 30-40 seconds, turn the heat off.
To serve; spread about 4tbsp garlicky yoghurt on an individual serving plate and place a rose pastry over the top. Drizzle pul biber and dried mint infused olive oil over the hot rose pastry, and drizzle a little more garlicky yoghurt over if you like too. Alternatively, serve the rose pastry plain with a zesty salad aside.