Taste from Afar: Burek
For Dreaming of: the Quintessential Balkan Pie.
Recipes
We were driving across the Balkans in Serbia when I first had a taste of Burek: A wheel of lovely, browned phyllo encased twirls of rich spinach — simply served in wax paper from the local bakery. Now, I crave the buttery, crisp goodness of this dish...and it's very hard to find anywhere...unless of course, you make it. Burek reminds me of wandering though a road less trodden in Eastern Europe, where the lack of crowds allows us to savor more delightful details and simple pleasures, like this dish.
This recipe from a Turkish kitchen best approximates what I had that day. The chef has a great video carefully illustrating how to prepare everything. (As a short cut, I'd say you can also by-pass the making of the dough and use frozen phyllo sheets instead).
If you really want a super-duper short cut, Trader Joes has frozen cheese burek.
Photo and Recipe Source: Turkish Food Travel, Pick up Limes
Syllogi’s ‘Musings’ is a series helping you paint a picture of a destination while traveling from your living room. From relevant books and articles, inspiring movies and tv shows, to songs and even treats and dishes, our goal is to curate a sensory experience that will prepare you for an upcoming trip, reminiscence on adventures past, or simply to envision a place that exists in your bucket list fantasies.
