Soğanlı Çıtır Börek or Flaky Filo Pastries with Onion and Parsley

flaky filo pastries with onion and parsley

Börek-  apart from sigara böreği - is something I have resolutely stayed away from all the years I’ve  lived here and now I wonder why.  

Well, I do know why: they are so delicious, we’d put on kilos! But they are so much part of the Turkish cuisine especially at teatime – remember, teatime here is taken very seriously with both savoury and sweet goodies always on the table – and I know that TT’s dream food  is a slice of warm, flaky börek with a glass of çay. This is indeed the way to a Turkish sevgili's heart!

Didem's börek

 But what is börek?

It’s layers of yufka or filo pastry filled most commonly with cheese, meat or spinach. This one is slightly unusual as the filling is made with onion. You can ring the changes according to the way you cut and roll the yufka. Börek, usually baked in the oven on an oven tray or tepsi, is perfect for a hungry crowd and

Ayşe B's börek

much easier and quicker than making a quiche!  Traditionally, housewives used to’open’ the pastry themselves but nowadays we buy our yufka from a special yufkacı if we are lucky enough to have one in the neighbourhood. Failing that, it’s sold in packets in supermarkets but it definitely won’t be as good.

this is how yufka comes when you buy it
 from the local yufkacı

Börek is not strictly confined to Turkey: it’s very popular in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire stretching widely from North Africa to the Balkans.  Different regions in today’s Turkey all enjoy their own special form of this delectable savoury pastry and when you are out and about, you will see places devoted solely to selling it. So easy if you don’t feel like making it yourself ....but you will once you see how easy it is!

a very modest  but typical börek place in Pangaltı, Istanbul

Ingredients for Soğanlı Çıtır Börek/Flaky Filo Pastries with Onion and Parsley

Serves 6-8

3 yufka (Turkish yufka measures 60cm/2ft in diameter) Filo can be used as a substitute but not in single layers as it is so much finer

100g/3 ½ oz melted butter

2 tbsp sunflower oil

For the filling:

1 kg onions

½ bunch parsley/maydonoz (this means a really good handful ie a lot)

Salt & Pepper

Flaked red pepper/ pul biber

To glaze:

1 egg yolk

Sesame seeds/susam OR nigella/çörekotu

Method

·         Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F.

·         Peel the onions and chop in the food processor. Don’t totally pulverise them.

it's a lot of onion!

·         Melt the butter in a pan and gently sauté the onions until soft. Season with the salt, pepper and flaked red pepper and mix. Remove from the heat. Add the chopped parsley and leave to cool.

adding the seasoning

·         Take the first yufka and brush with the combined butter and sunflower oil.  Spread the cooled onion mix all the way to the edges and then roll evenly into a long shape.  Continue in the same way with the other sheets of yufka. Cut into pieces roughly 3 fingers wide.

spreading the onion mix on the yufka

..and rolling it up

·         Grease an oven tray or line with greaseproof paper.  Place the börek on it and brush with the beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds or nigella. Bake until nicely browned. Don’t be afraid of over-cooking them! They’re very sturdy.

glazed and ready for baking

I promise you will absolutely love these!  Really! Perfect as a little starter or even with drinks.  You can cut them bigger or smaller as you wish, don’t forget.

fresh out of the oven and smelling divine

You can’t help but love’em!

Afiyet olsun!

su böreği: literally water börek, a classic