Albania: Byrek me Spinaq - Spinach Burek
I had my first burek in Bosnia & Hertzegovina and I never looked back. My first trip to the Balkans was summer 2017 and I spent a month travelling between Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia. I then went back to Croatia in September 2019 and introduced my partner to burek. He loved them just as much as I did - we ordered three one morning from a food vendor in Dubrovnik and were back later in the afternoon to get more.
There are many varieties of burek - typically you can have them with meat, spinach, or cheese. In Albania they have another one that uses Greek yogurt but because I was using yogurt already in my kulaç, I opted to go for something else. I like spinach, it's easy and versatile and I love that when you cook it, you can eat way more than you could if you were eating it raw.
My first mistake was that I forgot to half the recipe in my mind when I was buying ingredients. I was following a recipe from online and their recipe makes 8. I ended up buying five bags of spinach. FIVE! I'm not sure what was going through my head but clearly I'm a complete idiot. I still have three bags of it in my fridge so I know what we'll be eating for the next 10 days!
This recipe did not match up with the borek I had in the Balkans. I don't know what I did wrong, but it wasn't good. Maybe instead of trying to wrap them individually I should have just done one big pie. But, as with any food experiments and trying new recipes, it's all a trial and error process. I added more feta to mine which maybe I shouldn't have done. Maybe the pastry was out of the fridge for too long. Maybe I didn't use enough pastry! Actually, I just think that the amount of spinach that was in the recipe was a bit overpowering. Sadly, it was boring. I should have added more salt and pepper. Or more cheese. The pastry was definitely a bit crumbly and I wasn't able to wrap it into the traditional horseshoe or spiral that they usually come in, as the pastry would tear.
I feel like there is a lot to learn here, and it's important to remember that sometimes food just doesn't work out. The burek wasn't bad, but it was nowhere as good as I was hoping.
Oh well. Live and learn. I'm not including the recipe for this one, because I didn't enjoy it. It will be something that I come back to (eventually) because burek can be oh so delicious. Or maybe I'll just leave it to the pros.
There are many varieties of burek - typically you can have them with meat, spinach, or cheese. In Albania they have another one that uses Greek yogurt but because I was using yogurt already in my kulaç, I opted to go for something else. I like spinach, it's easy and versatile and I love that when you cook it, you can eat way more than you could if you were eating it raw.
My first mistake was that I forgot to half the recipe in my mind when I was buying ingredients. I was following a recipe from online and their recipe makes 8. I ended up buying five bags of spinach. FIVE! I'm not sure what was going through my head but clearly I'm a complete idiot. I still have three bags of it in my fridge so I know what we'll be eating for the next 10 days!
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| The finished product, fresh from the oven. |
This recipe did not match up with the borek I had in the Balkans. I don't know what I did wrong, but it wasn't good. Maybe instead of trying to wrap them individually I should have just done one big pie. But, as with any food experiments and trying new recipes, it's all a trial and error process. I added more feta to mine which maybe I shouldn't have done. Maybe the pastry was out of the fridge for too long. Maybe I didn't use enough pastry! Actually, I just think that the amount of spinach that was in the recipe was a bit overpowering. Sadly, it was boring. I should have added more salt and pepper. Or more cheese. The pastry was definitely a bit crumbly and I wasn't able to wrap it into the traditional horseshoe or spiral that they usually come in, as the pastry would tear.
I feel like there is a lot to learn here, and it's important to remember that sometimes food just doesn't work out. The burek wasn't bad, but it was nowhere as good as I was hoping.
Oh well. Live and learn. I'm not including the recipe for this one, because I didn't enjoy it. It will be something that I come back to (eventually) because burek can be oh so delicious. Or maybe I'll just leave it to the pros.
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| At least they looked good! |
I had these in Turkey 1991 Cigara Boreke. Love the bl9g
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