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Su Böreği

The sheets are boiled in water before they are layered, which is what the name means and what gives the soft pasta-like body.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

the sheets

the filling

between the layers

Method

  1. THE SHEETS ARE BOILED IN WATER BEFORE THEY ARE LAYERED, and that is both what the name means and the only reason this tastes as it does. Every other börek layers its pastry dry. Here each sheet goes into a wide pan of salted boiling water for forty seconds, comes out, and is dropped into cold water to stop it cooking -- so what is assembled is not pastry but something closer to a cooked pasta sheet. The finished börek is soft, dense and yielding, with layers that have fused into one body. Layered dry, the same ingredients give a crisp flaky pastry, which is a good thing and is not su böreği.
  2. FORTY SECONDS IS THE WHOLE WINDOW. Long enough that the sheet turns from opaque to supple, short enough that it still holds together to be lifted. Past about a minute a yufka sheet begins to disintegrate in the pan and cannot be got out whole, which is why they go in ONE AT A TIME and not in a stack.
  3. THE COLD WATER AFTERWARDS IS NOT OPTIONAL. Straight from the pan into a bowl of cold water, then lifted onto a cloth. It stops the carry-over cooking and it rinses off the surface starch that would otherwise glue the sheets into a solid block instead of distinct layers.
  4. ONLY THE TOP AND BOTTOM SHEETS GO IN UNBOILED. Two dry sheets, one underneath and one over, which crisp in the oven and give the dish its only crunch. An all-boiled börek has no contrast and a wet top; this is the arrangement that gives both.
  5. IT IS BAKED UNTIL THE TOP IS GOLDEN AND NO LONGER. 190°C for forty minutes or so. Everything inside is already cooked -- the sheets were boiled and the cheese needs only to melt -- so the bake is browning the two dry sheets and nothing else. Held longer it dries the fused layers back out, which undoes the boiling.
  6. The water brought to a rolling boil with the salt, and a large bowl of cold water set beside it.
  7. ONE sheet at a time lowered in for 40 SECONDS, lifted into the cold water, then onto a cloth.
  8. Two sheets held back UNBOILED, for the top and bottom.
  9. The butter and oil mixed in a jug.
  10. A deep tray brushed with the mixture and one DRY sheet laid in.
  11. Four boiled sheets layered in, each brushed generously with the butter mixture.
  12. The cheese and parsley spread over, seasoned with pepper.
  13. Four more boiled sheets layered and brushed as before.
  14. The second DRY sheet laid on top, tucked down the sides, and brushed well.
  15. Scored into squares through the top layers only.
  16. Baked at 190°C for 40 MINUTES, until the top is golden and crisp.
  17. TESTED: a cut square should hold together as one soft body with visible layers, not flake apart. Flaking means the sheets went in dry.
  18. Rested 10 MINUTES and cut through on the score lines.

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 Turkey · All recipes