Beef Borek with garlic yogurt and burned chilli butter

Couple of weeks before I made these beauties I saw a photo of ‘Kefta briouate’ that Andrew Smith from GBBO made, here is a link to those beauties. Instantly they reminded of a chicken filo kebap I used to order at a local restaurant when I was living in Istanbul more than a decade ago.

A week later when I saw Yosma's Hus Vedat on BBC Saturday Kitchen making borek with filo pastry, I thought I should finally make this long forgotten dish.

I slightly changed the original and made it with beef instead of chicken.

I followed Hus Vedat's recipe for borek but changed the filling to Beef.

Here is the recipe for my version of this borek;

Ingredients

Filling

1 tablespoon olive oil

300 grams 5% fat beef mince

1 onion diced

1 teaspoon Smoked paprika

Seasoning

Borek

1 pack of filo pastry, usually 7 sheets

2 tablespoons strained yogurt

1 egg yolk

Garlic yogurt

250 gram strained yogurt

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Salt

Water

Burned chilli butter

50 butter

1 teaspoon crushed chilli

Method

Filling

1. Put the olive oil in a pan on medium heat and add the beef and onion. Cook for 20 minutes breaking up the mice constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2. Add the smoked paprika, salt and pepper and cook for further couple of minutes. Then put aside to use for borek.

Borek

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and grease a baking tray.

2. In a bowl thin the yogurt with 2 tablespoons of water.

3. Lay a sheet of filo on worktop and fold it in two to make a fold line.

4. Carefully following the fold line brush one half of the filo with the yogurt mix, then fold the other half on to it so two layers are stuck together with the help of yogurt.

5. Place app 3 tablespoons of the filling on the top edge of the filo pastry and disperse it evenly along the edge with your fingers.

6. Start rolling the filo sheets to cover the filling into a long tube shape, then cut in the middle with a sharp knife.

7. Place these boreks in the baking tray ensuring that the free edge of the filo is tucked underneath.

8. Repeat until all the filo pastry is finished.

9. Brushed the tops with beaten egg yolk and bake in the oven 15-20 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Garlic yogurt

1. Simply mix the yogurt, crushed garlic and a pinch of salt and thin with water to a pouring sauce consistency.

Burned chilli butter

1. Melt the butter in a pan and add crushed chillies and continue cooking on low heat for 1 more minute

Put the dish together by placing boreks on a plate, pouring garlic yogurt and burned chilli butter on top. Garnish with parsley and enjoy.

Here is a link to the episode if you'd like to watch Hus Vedat making the borek.

Let me know if you make the dish.