saturday morning.

I like rituals.

Let me rephrase, I LOVE rituals.

When I lived in London, it was all about

The Sunday Times, brick lane and a bagel.

When I arrived to New York City it was all about

Ludlow St. a record shop and a vegan banana cake.

And when at home, it means one thing. And one thing only

Saturday morning, Spinach Bourekas and my grandma.

Really, doesn’t get any better than that.

My grandma was born in Edirne, Turkey. 

A fact which might help to explain on how ‘Bourekas’ 

or as they are better known in Turkey, ‘borek’, became a staple in our house.

The borek has been a staple in Turkish cuisine since the early era of the Ottoman Empire. Originally made almost exclusively out of home stretched phyllo dough.

Today it has many varieties; flaky pastry filled with cheese, phyllo ‘cigar’s filled with spinach, puff pastry ‘pie’ filled with seasoned meat

(check my recipe for that over here: http://agrainofparadise.blogspot.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-2012.html)

I choose to share with you today, a ‘snail’ shaped puff pastry with spinach and cheese.

Spinach Bourekas

600g Puff pastry

Beaten egg

Sesame seeds

For the filling:

200g washed and dried spinach leaves

200g crumbled feta cheese

50g grated mozzarella cheese

120g cottage/ricotta cheese

1 tbsp. flour

Finely chop the spinach leaves, and mix well with all other ingredients. On a working surface, cut the puff pastry to strips; 6cm by 24 cm.

In the center of each strip spread 2 tablespoon of filling,

Fold the puff pastry around the filling then roll. Hold the rolled strip and gently stretch it, from a 24 cm strip it should be 40 cm.

Roll the strip so it will be the shape of a ‘snail’ and place on a baking sheet. Carry on with the rest of the strips until you make one big ‘snail’

Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

In a 190c preheated oven, bake for 30 minutes or until it gets a nice golden color.

Serve straight out of the oven.

Serve with a hard boiled egg

and a finely chopped Israeli salad.

Your prefect weekend breakfast.

placing the filling and ready to roll 

rolling.. than stretching.. 

adding another strip to the snail shaped giant bourekas 

and another......

golden, puffed and ready to be eaten!!

you can use the same filling for a phyllo bourekas..