I thought about how I should name this borek. Writing something like “Pastry with ground meat” would be unjust to this borek, so I decided to keep its original name.
Sarıyer is the name of a district in the far north of Istanbul in the European side. The place was a fishermens village, with its Black Sea and Marmara Sea coasts. It is still famous for its fish restaurants and the Sarıyer Borek. People come from all over Istanbul to have this rich, juicy borek.
This recipe is the home-made easy version. My son who is a fan of Sarıyer Borek has tasted and approved.
As usual I have written a step by step and detailed recipe, here are some additional tips.
Use baklava filo sheets. These are very thin layers of dough and tend to dry and get crumbly very quickly. Close any windows or doors and keep covered with a clean kitchen towel or cling film after you open the package.
For the stuffing chop the onions to tiny pieces and add to the ground beef when the beef is cooked half way.
Take four filo sheets on your working space, spread with the milky mixture thoroughly and place the ground meat stuffing in the longer side of the sheets. Then roll tightly like a long cigar.
Then place the rolled sheet onto your oven dish/tray curled and side by side. Then cooked until crispy. Serve sliced and while still warm.
The filling has currants and pine nuts, making it juicy and delicious. I hope you will have a go with this traditional borek.
Sariyer Borek
Ingredients
- 500 grams baklava filo sheets
Stuffing
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 300 grams ground beef
- 2 onions 300 grams before peeling
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoons currants
- 1 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Milky Spread
- 75 grams butter
- 200 millilitres milk
- 50 millilitres olive oil
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Stuffing
- Chop the onions to tiny pieces. Crush and mince the garlic
- Soak the currants for 5-10 minutes in boiling water. Then rinse before adding.
- Add the olive oil to a pot. Heat slightly.
- Add the ground beef, break into pieces. Start cooking while mixing occasionally, making the pieces smaller as you mix. Make sure there are no bulks of beef left by the time the ground beef is ready, use a sturdy spatula.
- When the meat is half cooked add the chopped onions and cook together until the onions are translucent and well done. Add the garlic.
- Add the currant, pine nuts, salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes more and set aside to cool.
Milky Spread
- Melt the butter, do not boil or burn. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs. On top add the milk and the olive oil, mix.
- Do no add the butter immediately after removing from the heat as it might cook the eggs. Mix while adding half of the butter. Save the other half for the very top.
Borek
- Take 4 sheets of filo on your working place, the longer side should be in front of you.
- Spread the milky mixture all around.
- Place the stuffing, lined up in the longer side and start curling. Curl until the very end.
- Transfer the roll to the oven dish/tray curled.
- Continue until all the rolls are lined up.
- Pour the remaining milky mixture on top. On top also pour the remaining butter.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180° Celsius until crispy on all sides. Should take about 20-25 minutes.
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