Börek
Börek or burek or byrek is a family of pastries or pies made in the Middle East and the Balkans. The pastry is made of a thin flaky dough such as filo with a variety of fillings, such as meat, cheese, spinach, or potatoes. A börek may be prepared in a large pan and cut into portions after baking, or as individual pastries. They are usually baked but some varieties can be fried. Börek is sometimes sprinkled with sesame or nigella seeds, and it can be served hot or cold.
Throughout the Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and Armenia it is commonly served with ayran or yogurt. It is a custom of Sephardic Jews to have bourekas for their Shabbat breakfast meal on Saturday mornings.
Etymology
The English name börek comes from Turkish börek, while burek is used in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Forms in other languages include: ; ; ; ; ; brick annabi; and.According to lexicographer Sevan Nişanyan, the Turkish word börek is ultimately originated from Turkic bögrek, from böğür. Nişanyan noted that the word is also used in Turkic languages">Turkic languages">Turkic languages such as Saqa as börüök. According to another theory, it may have come from the Persian , the diminutive form of or or, meaning "stew", and refers to any dish made with yufka. The Persian word goes back to the Middle Persian *bōrak. This word ultimately goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root *bher- which meant "to carve, cut, split". The name of another pastry, shekarbura, is also borrowed from the same Persian word. Nişanyan noted the possibility of Turkic origin for the Persian word.
One alternative etymological origin that has been suggested is that the word comes from the Turkic root bur- 'to twist', but the sound harmony for this proposal would dictate the suffix "-aq", and Turkic languages in Arabic orthography invariably write börek with an ك not an ق, which weighs against this origin.
History
One theory posits that the dish in general is a descendant of the pre-existing Eastern Roman (Byzantine) dish en tyritas plakountas "cheesy placenta", itself a descendant of placenta, the classical baked layered dough and cheese dish of Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman and Byzantine cuisine.Some types of borek could possibly have been prepared in Turkish cuisine, according to this theory, they have been developed in Central Asia before some westward migration to Anatolia in the late Middle Ages, or by nomadic Turks of Central Asia some time before the seventh century.
The dish was a popular element of Ottoman cuisine, and may have been present at the Ottoman court, though there are also indications it was made among Central Asian Turks; other versions may date to the Classical era of the eastern Mediterranean.
Regional variants
Even though borek is very popular in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, especially in North Africa and throughout the Balkans, it originated in Anatolia. Borek is also part of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish traditions. They have been adopted by the Ottoman Jewish communities, and have been described—along with boyos de pan and bulemas—as forming "the trio of preeminent Ottoman Jewish pastries".Turkish variants
The word börek in Turkish can be modified by a descriptive word referring to the shape, ingredients of the pastry, or a specific region where it is typically prepared, as in the above kol böreği, su böreği, talaş böreği or Sarıyer böreği. There are many variations of börek in Turkish cuisine:| Name | English name | Description | Notes |
| Su böreği | Boiled börek; lit. water börek | Sheets of dough are boiled briefly in large pans, then a mixture of feta cheese and greens, or other börek filling. The whole thing is brushed with butter and baked in a masonry oven. | |
| Sigara böreği | Filo rolls, lit. 'cigarette börek' | Feta cheese, wiener, potato or other filling wrapped in yufka filo and deep-fried | |
| Paçanga böreği | Pachanga pastry | Paçanga böreği is made with yufka filled with cheese, pastirma, tomato, parsley and pepper. Each material is chopped into thin or small pieces, and rolled in the dough as in sigara böreği, but larger. The pastries are fried and served hot. It is a specialty of Anatolia. | |
| Talaş böreği or nemse böreği | Lit. sawdust pastry | Small square börek mostly filled with lamb cubes and green peas, that has starchier yufka sheets, making it puffy and crispy. | |
| Kol böreği | Lit. 'arm börek' | prepared in long rolls, either rounded or lined, and filled with either minced meat, feta cheese, spinach or potato and baked at a low temperature. | |
| Sarıyer böreği | Sarıyer pastry | A smaller and a little fattier version of the kol böreği, named after Sarıyer, a district of Istanbul. | |
| Gül böreği | Rose börek, round börek, spiral börek | rolled into small spirals | |
| Çiğ börek | Chebureki | Half-moon shaped börek, filled with a very thin layer of raw minced meat and onion filling and fried in oil, very common in places with a thriving Tatar community, such as Eskişehir, Polatlı and Konya | |
| Töbörek | Another Tatar variety, similar to a çiğ börek, but baked instead of fried | ||
| Laz böreği | Sweet börek filled with muhallebi and served sprinkled with powdered sugar | ||
| Kürt böreği | Similar to laz böreği, without the custard filling. It is also called sade börek and served with fine powdered sugar |
Balkans
In the former Yugoslavia, burek is an extremely common dish, made with yufka. Burek spread from southern Serbia to Bosnia in the 16th century and later, after Yugoslavia was formed, throughout the rest of the northern Balkan peninsula. During the early 20th century it became popular in Croatia, where it was imported by Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albanians.Traditionally burek is made of layers of thin, nearly translucent dough, in a circular baking pan. Common fillings are cheese and spinach, meat, and potatoes. It is often eaten along with a plain yoghurt drink.
Zeljanica is a spinach- or chard-based burek common throughout the Balkans.
Albania and Kosovo
In Albania, this dish is called byrek. In Kosovo and a few other regions, byrek is also known as pite. Byrek is traditionally made with several layers of dough that have been thinly rolled out by hand. The final form can be small, individual triangles, especially from street vendors called byrektore who sell byrek and other traditional pastries and drinks. It can also be made as one large byrek that is cut into smaller pieces. There are different regional variations of byrek. It can be served cold or hot.The most common fillings include cheese, ground meat and onions, spinach and eggs, and milk and eggs with pre-baked dough layers. It can also be made with tomato and onions, peppers and beans, potato or a sweet filling of pumpkin, nettles, or kidney beans, popular in winter.
There are mainly two categories of Albanian byrek: house byrek and triangle byrek, the latter being mostly found as street food.
Lakror is an pie dish from southern Albania. The pie is sometimes called a type of byrek pastry. Lakror is generally filled with a variety of greens or meats. Another related dish is fli, from the north of Albania and Kosovo. It is made up of layers of a flour and water batter, cream and butter. Traditionally, it is baked on embers like lakror.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2012, Lonely Planet included the Bosnian burek in their "The World's Best Street Food" book. Eaten for any meal of the day, in Bosnia and Herzegovina burek is a meat-filled pastry, traditionally rolled in a spiral and cut into sections for serving. The same spiral filled with cottage cheese is called sirnica; with spinach and cheese, zeljanica, with potatoes, krompiruša. All of them are generically referred to as pita. Eggs are used as a binding agent when making sirnica and zeljanica.Bulgaria
The Bulgarian version of the pastry, locally called , is typically regarded as a variation of banitsa, a similar Bulgarian dish. Bulgarian byurek is a type of banitsa with sirene cheese, the difference being that byurek also has eggs added.In Bulgarian, byurek has also come to be applied to other dishes similarly prepared with cheese and eggs, such as chushka byurek, a peeled and roasted pepper filled with cheese, and tikvichka byurek, blanched or uncooked bits of squash with egg filling.
Greece
In Greece, boureki or bourekaki, and Cyprus poureki are small pastries made with phyllo dough or with pastry crust. Pastries in the börek family are also called pita : tiropita, spanakopita, and so on. Galaktoboureko is a syrupy phyllo pastry filled with custard, common throughout Greece and Cyprus. In the Epirus, σκερ-μπουρέκ is a small rosewater-flavoured marzipan sweet. Bougatsa is a Greek variation of a borek which consists of either semolina custard, cheese, or minced meat filling between layers of phyllo, and is said to originate in the city of Serres, an art of pastry brought with the immigrants from Constantinople and is most popular in Thessaloniki, in the Central Macedonia region of Northern Greece. Serres achieved the record for the largest puff pastry on 1 June 2008. It weighed, was long, and was made by more than 40 bakers. In Venetian rule|Venetian] Corfu, boureki was also called burriche, and filled with meat and leafy greens.Serbia
The recipe for "round" burek was developed in the Serbian town of Niš. In 1498, it was introduced by a famous Turkish baker, Mehmed Oğlu, from Istanbul. Eventually burek spread from the southeast of Serbia to Macedonia and Bosnia, and later to the rest of Yugoslavia. Niš, the in official capital of burek, hosts an annual burek competition and festival called Buregdžijada. In 2005, a 100 kg burek was made, with a diameter of 2 metres and it is considered to have been the world's biggest burek ever made.Slovenia
In Slovenia, burek is a recognizable and widely available fast food, particularly among students and in urban nightlife settings. While it enjoys popularity in certain contexts, it also carries complex cultural associations linked to its Balkan origins, and is not universally embraced as part of mainstream Slovenian cuisine.Moldova and Romania
The regional cuisine of the Moldavian West bank of the Pruth still yields a type of dumpling-like food called burechiuşe which is described as dough in the shape of a ravioli-like square which is filled with mushrooms such as Boletus edulis, and sealed around its edges and then tossed and subsequently boiled in borscht like soups or chorbas. They are traditionally eaten in the last day of fasting at the time of the Christmas Eve. It is unclear if the burechiuşe derive their name from the Turco-Greek börek, so at the receiving end of cultural and culinary influences coming from them, or it takes its name from that of the mushroom Boletus by the pattern of the ravioli, which were named after the Italian name of the turnip with which they were once filled.In Romania, the plăcintă is considered a variation of the phyllo-wrapped pie, with the dough traditionally stuffed with cheese. In Dobruja, an eastern territory that used to be a Turkish province, one can find both the Turkish influence—plăcintă dobrogeană either filled with cheese or with minced meat and served with sheep yoghurt or the Tatar street food Suberek—a deep-fried half-moon cheese-filled dough.
Other countries
Algeria
In Algeria, this dish is called bourek, a roll of pastry sheet stuffed with meat, onions, and spice, is one of the main appetizers of Algerian cuisine.It is a starter served when receiving guests and especially during Ramadan evenings during the round meal of the holy month, usually accompanied by Algerian Chorba or Harira. Other forms include bourek packed with chicken and onions, shrimp and béchamel sauce, or a vegetarian alternative usually made of mashed potatoes and spinach.
Another Algerian variant of Bourek is called Brik or Brika, a speciality of Algeria's east, notably Annaba. It is a savory entree made from brik leaf, stuffed with mashed potatoes and a mixture of minced meat, onions, cheese and parsley. The whole is topped with a seasoned raw egg which cooks once the sheet of brik has been folded and soaked in boiling oil.
Armenia
In Armenia, byorek or borek consists of dough, or filo dough, folded into triangles and stuffed with spinach, onions, Armenian cheeses|Armenian cheeses], or ground beef. The most widespread variants are panri borek, msov borek, and spanakhov borek.Israel
Burekas have long been part of Sephardic Jewish cuisine, ever since the migration of a large portion of that community to the Ottoman Empire following the Expulsion of Jews from Spain. The name "burekas" is the plural form of the original Balkan dish, as conjugated in Judaeo-Spanish. The name refers both to larger varieties and smaller varieties. Burekas were later introduced to Israel by Sephardi immigrants from communities in Turkey and the Balkans during Ottoman rule. They are now sold commonly in bakeries, as well as dedicated market stalls, throughout the country.Israeli Burkeas may be prepared with a variety of different fillings; although meat is less-commonly used because of Jewish dietary laws - specifically the prohibition against mixing milk and meat. Many types of burekas prepared and sold in Israel are made with Margarine-based doughs rather than butter-based doughs, in order to make them Parve - allowing them to be eaten as part of any type of meal. The most popular fillings are salty cheese, spinach, eggplant and mashed potato. Other fillings include mushrooms, sweet potato, chickpeas, olives, mallows, swiss chard, and tomato sauce. Burekas are traditionally offered as snacks during large gatherings and even office meetings. Multiple locally-made brands and varieties of pre-made, frozen burekas are commonly sold in grocery stores.
Other related pastries traditionally consumed by Sephardic Jews include bulemas and boyoz, which are also popular in the Turkish city of Izmir.