Borekitas - Savoury Pastries

It's been a while since I've written on my blog. The main reason being that I have had the pleasure of my Mother-in-Law staying with us for 5 weeks.

Whilst she was here, I took the opportunity to ask her to teach me how to make my ultimate favourite Sephardi pastries, borekitas. I have made a similar version to this in the past, called tapada, it's basically a large version of borekitas made with a lot less fuss fiddling around rolling individual parcels. I had tried and failed on so many occasions to make borekitas and what ever I did, they would just fall apart.

We organised ourselves to put aside a morning dedicated to baking. When I came home from the school run all the ingredients were on the table top ready to start. I told her that I needed to write down everything she is doing and the correct quantity. She told me that there is no correct quantity, she just bakes by eye. I explained that I couldn't write a recipe based on how it looks, I needed to write by weight and measurement. We started preparing the ingredients and whilst I was writing her instructions she started pouring the flour in the pan to make the pastry. I yelled out  "WAIT, how much flour did you put in the mixture?" she said "I don't know, I just put like that". She started kneading the pastry and told me "you can tell when the pastry is ready when the texture feels like your ear lobe". I then asked her if she had ever read a recipe in her life where it was written... put as much flour in until it looks right and knead it well until it feels like your ear lobe! She began to laugh but all joking aside, I had given up writing down the recipe. I told her that I would have to make them myself another time with her guidance so I could write down correct quantities. She still couldn't quite grasp the fact that anyone would need a recipe to follow.
So finally, another day came and we made them again, this time using weight and measurement. The result was perfect. At last I had learnt to make delicious borekitas. My favourite filling is with aubergine and cheese but they are also nice with potato and cheese, or spinach.

(makes approx 20)
Half a jar of roasted aubergine (350g)
60g Feta cheese
60g Grated cheddar cheese or any hard cheese
3 Tablespoons of oil for filling
1 glass of oil for the pastry
Half a glass of water
pinch of Salt
400g Plain flour

Make the filling first by putting the aubergine in a frying pan.

Add 3 Tbls oil and cook on a low heat until the oil evaporates. Keep stirring whilst cooking otherwise the aubergine will stick to the pan.

Add the feta and the grated hard cheese, stir in until melted, then turn off the heat.

Heat oven at 180c

Now for the pastry:

In another pan pour 1 glass of oil and half a glass of water, add a sprinkle of salt and bring to boil. Once bubbling, turn off the heat.

Add the flour 100g at a time and stir in. Let the mixture cool enough to enable you to handle it. Place in a bowl and knead well.

The consistancy shouldn't feel oily, if it does then add a little more flour. 

Remember, have a feel of your ear lobe to see if the texture feels the same!

Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface ready to roll out the pastry.

Take a small handful of pastry in the palm of your hand and roll it in to a ball, then squash it down and place on the work surface. 

Start to roll the pastry, you need to aim for a kind of oval shape, nearly the length of your hand and about 2mm thick. Take a teaspoon of mixture and place in the centre of the pastry.

Roll over one end of the pastry to meet the opposite end, press the sides down well so the filling doesn't come out and with your fingers puff up the shape like a pillow. Take a clean glass and place it around the edges to slice off the excess pastry. The shape should resemble half a moon and should be plump.

Place the pastries on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Wet the top of each borekita with a little water and sprinkle grated cheese on the top.

Place in the oven and bake until golden.

These pastry parcels can be frozen unbaked. Place in the oven from Frozen.

To make tapada just divide the pastry in half, roll out and place one half at the bottom of a baking dish, put the filling on top and then cover and close with the other half of pastry to make a pie.

This is a tapada I made with aubergine and feta cheese filling.

Tip:  If you have any left over aubergine you could make a creamy salad dip. Just add yogurt, mayonaise, add a little lemon juice and garlic if you wish.

If you have any left over pastry you could make boyikos, little pastry biscuits. Just shape them in to small squares or circles, sprinkle cheese and red pepper spice on top and bake.