Baked Pastry Rolls With Pastrami: Moist And Delicious Paçanga

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This is one of my favourite boreks; Baked Pastry Rolls with Pastrami / Fırında Paçanga Böreği. Traditionally it is prepared fried. Now that I have tried and tested several times the baked version I hope to prepare it more often. It comes out so crispy and delicious it would be hard to understand whether it has been fried or baked.

The Turkish name of pastrami is pastırma it had been derived over the word bastırma which means pressed down. This takes us back to the times when Turks were not settled yet and were mostly on horses travelling around Asia to find the right place to settle. Meat, which they thought was needed for energy and power – was dried between their legs and the horse. Now pastrami is prepared in a similar way. If you want to prepare it at home you actually can. There are many video’s you can watch and learn. This is the one that I find reliable Aynur’s Pastrami Recipe. You do not really have to understand the Turkish. All you need is patience and a lot of salt to cover to start with and a discipline for a good follow-up. It takes about 6-8 weeks to obtain a good pastrami. It is similar to bacon. You can have pastrami as it is or with eggs or in a baked pastry like Paçanga.

Start with preparing the stuffing. Chop all the ingredients to small and similar sizes and mix gently until well combined..

I have used round yufkas. Open wide the yufka fold in the corners to obtain a rectangular shape. If your yufka is already rectangular you can just go ahead.  If your yufka is triangular, it will do as well. Spread with olive oil and butter. Then add the filling on the longer side as in the picture below. Curl until you reach the middle. The roll should be somewhat loose. Then cut diagonnally to three or four pieces. You are ready to soak now first into whisked eggs, then to fine bread crumbs.

Then line all the rolls into an oven sheet and cook in a preheated oven at 200° Celsius, until crispy and brownish on all sides. It will take about 15-20 minutes. Serve warm, as it will be the best then.

I am pretty sure your guests and family will enjoy this delicious börek. Looking forward to read your comments.

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5 from 1 vote

Baked Pastry Rolls with Pastrami / Paçanga

Similar to Chinese Dumplings, prepared with Turkish pastrami, vegetables and cheese.

Course Doughs

Cuisine Turkish

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12 pieces

Calories 132kcal

Ingredients

Main ingredients

• 2 sheets phyllo sheets yufka
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 100 millilitres vegetable oil corn, olive, etc

Stuffing ingredients

• 200 grams fresh kashar cheese
• 1 tomato
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper

To soak up

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon fine bread crumbs

Instructions

• For the spread mixture; melt the butter and mix with the 100 milliliters of liquid oil. Set aside, this will be used on the phyllo sheets/yufka.
• For the stuffing; separate the pastrami one by one as they might have sticked to one another. Make sure you discard the chemen. Chemen is the coat of the pastrami made of cumin seeds, red pepper and garlic. It is better to separate and consume elsewhere as the chemen is extra spicy and will dominate this borek too much. Cut the pastrami to julienne slices.
• Peel and cut to small cubes the tomato and add to the pastrami.
• Wash, discard the seeds and then cut julienne the red and green peppers. Add to pastrami.
• Grate the cheese on the coarse side of the grater or finely chop and add to the pastrami. Mix all together gently and set aside.
• If using a round large yufka, open the yufka wide in a working space. Grease generously with the butter spread mixture. Fold the corners inside and grease the folded sides too. You will have obtained a square shape. Then cut into half horizontally.
• On the longer side put ¼’th of the stuffing material in a line and roll as a large cigar. Then depending on the length cut diagonally to 3 or 4.
• Do the same with the other half.
• Do the same with the other yufka.
• Whisk the eggs in a rectangular bowl.
• Put the bread crumbs in a rectangular bowl.
• Soak each borek piece first into the egg mix and then to the bread crumbs.
• Use a non-stick oven liner; if not available grease the oven tray.
• Place all the borek pieces side by side, but not touching each other.
• Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200° Celsius for about 20 minutes. All sides should be brownish and crispy.