“As kids, when my mother would make burek, the dough was so big that she would spread it in an empty room on the floor. The door of that room would remain open and we children, playing and running around the house, would end up stepping on the dough. I will never forget how many screams and slippers flew out in my direction every time this happened!”

Burek is a Turkish traditional dish, also widespread in the Balkans, based on phyllo dough and meat.
Its vegetarian variant is called pita (made with fresh cheese), or krumpiruša if made with potatoes.

Spreading out pita dough is an art and every artist has his own technique and touch. The canvas is a tablecloth reserved only for the laying of the dough, oil is the only color allowed. Each time the artwork will be different and this will depend on the atmosphere and the diners.
My favorite artist is called Mubera, watching her performance was a complete experience combining cooking with tradition, art and the history of a huge personal baggage that finds expression in a dish that is absolutely amazing.

Ingredients:

1 kg of flour
Water
Seed Oil

for the filling:
1kg fresh cheese
180 g of sour cream
4 eggs

Procedure:

Sift the flour and add the water slowly, work the dough until it becomes very soft. For space reasons, divide it into two balls and leave them to stand. In the meanwhile prepare the filling  mixing all the ingredients for the filling.

Spread a clean tablecloth on the table and take one of the two balls.
Flour a piece of baking paper where you will roll out the ball with the rolling pin and some flour until the baking paper is covered.
Sprinkle the dough with seed oil and leave to stand again. Repeat the procedure with the other ball.

Start rolling out the dough by tapping with your fingers on the edges and pulling it a little at a time. This operation must be performed until the dough is very fine and will cover the whole table.

Fill the two long sides with the filling using two spoons. Once done, cover the filling with the dough dangling down from the table and oil it a little bit. With the help of a tablecloth, roll the filled side on itself up to half the table and do the same thing on the other side. Cut for long to form two long stuffed strips and remove the ends. Then cut each strip into three equal pieces (or more pieces if you want smaller portions), roll each piece into a spiral shape and put it in a baking pan.

When the pan is full, sprinkle the pieces of pita with a cream made with sour cream, seed oil and water to taste.

Bake at 250° for 15min and then continue baking for another 25min at 200°.

Eat it accompanied by sour cream, salad and onion, exclusively raw! 🙂

Dobar tek!