Tatar Böreği

Boiled rather than fried or baked, which is what separates it from every other börek.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

the dough

• 300 g plain flour
• 1 egg
• 120 ml water
• ½ teaspoon salt

the filling

• 250 g minced beef
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

to serve

• 400 g thick yoghurt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 60 g butter
• 1 tablespoon dried mint
• 1 teaspoon ground sumac or chilli flakes

Method

1. IT IS BOILED RATHER THAN FRIED OR BAKED, which is what separates it from every other börek. A börek is pastry: layered, filled and put in the oven or into fat. This one is a thin unleavened dough wrapped round meat and dropped into salted water like a pasta, served under garlic yoghurt and mint butter. Nothing about it crisps and nothing is meant to. That is also why it is the one Turkish-Cypriot dish on this list that could not be written from the pan-Turkish börek article: the article describes a different kind of object.
2. THE DOUGH IS ROLLED VERY THIN AND KEPT UNDER A CLOTH. Two millimetres or less -- thin enough to see the board through. It cooks in four or five minutes, so thickness is the whole difference between tender and doughy. And it dries out fast: the sheet not being worked on stays covered, or the edges will not seal.
3. THE FILLING GOES IN RAW AND IN SMALL QUANTITY. Half a teaspoon per parcel, no more. Raw mince cooks through in the four minutes at this size and tastes far better for it; pre-cooked filling goes dry and grey. And an overfilled parcel bursts in the water, which empties it and clouds the pan.
4. THE EDGES ARE SEALED DRY, WITH PRESSURE AND NOT WATER. Fresh egg dough is tacky enough to seal against itself if it is pressed firmly all round. Wetting the edges of a dough this thin makes them slippery and they come apart in the pan -- the opposite of what happens with a fried pastry, where a wet seal is right.
5. THEY GO INTO WATER AT A BARE SIMMER, NOT A ROLLING BOIL. A rolling boil knocks thin parcels against each other and they split. The surface should barely move, and they are lifted out with a slotted spoon rather than drained in a colander.
6. THE BUTTER IS BROWNED AND THE MINT GOES IN OFF THE HEAT. Butter cooked to a nut brown, then the pan pulled off and the dried mint stirred in -- it blooms in the residual heat without scorching. Mint in hot butter on the stove goes black and bitter in seconds.
7. The dough made: flour, egg, water and salt worked to a firm dough, kneaded 8 MINUTES, and RESTED 30 MINUTES under a cloth.
8. The filling mixed: raw mince, finely chopped onion, parsley, salt and pepper.
9. The yoghurt beaten with the crushed garlic and a little salt, and left at ROOM TEMPERATURE so it does not chill the dish.
10. The dough divided in two and one piece rolled VERY THIN -- 2 mm or less. The other kept UNDER A CLOTH.
11. Cut into 5 cm squares.
12. HALF A TEASPOON of raw filling placed on each, and the square folded to a triangle.
13. The edges PRESSED FIRMLY all round, DRY -- no water.
14. A wide pan of salted water brought to a BARE simmer, the surface barely moving.
15. The parcels lowered in in batches and simmered 4 to 5 MINUTES, until the dough is tender and they float.
16. Lifted out with a slotted spoon into warm bowls.
17. The garlic yoghurt spooned over generously.
18. The butter browned to a nut colour, taken OFF the heat, and the dried mint and sumac stirred in. Poured over at once and served.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Cyprus · All recipes