Cottage Cheese & Veggies Borek#BakingBloggers

Cottage Cheese & Veggies Borek is simple and flaky.  Can assemble this dish in advance and bake it two to three hours before your guest arrive.  

Serve it as an appetizer or even as a side dish on a party table.

Ingredients  

250 Grams Cottage Cheese - Homemade 
5 Small Cauliflower Florets 
1 Big Carrot
1 Big Potato
½ Cup Coriander Leaves
¼ Teaspoon Garam Masala powder
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Paprika powder
2 Medium Onions - finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 Tablespoon Oil
1 Teaspoon Ginger Garlic paste
Phyllo Pastry Sheets - Homemade - as required
Method 

In a pan heat oil, saute the onions , till translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute or two then add all the veggies, saute for a minute, add all the spices and salt to taste, saute and cover till veggies are done yet firm. Add the cottage cheese and coriander leaves mix well, Switch off the flame. Take it out into a bowl and let it cool completely.

To Assemble the Borek

In a well buttered Pyrex dish, layer a sheet of Phyllo pastry, brush it lavishly with melted butter, I layered 6 sheets and brushed each with melted butter. After the 6th sheet , spread the  filling evenly and press it lightly. 

Now add the remaining phyllo pastry 6 sheets, brushing each sheet with melted butter and then keep the next sheet.

 See the layers

After all the sheets are placed, brush the top lavishly with butter. 

Give cuts with knife , as per your desired size pieces right till the bottom taking care not the separate the sheets.  Now brush it with egg or milk wash.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 170 C, for 35 to 40 minutes or until it gets a nicely golden. 

Cottage Cheese & Veggies Borek  is ready to serve. These are flaky and scrumptious. A perfect party treat.

My Notes

While layering the sheets tend to tear or break, but do not worry since they will be covered with other sheets. You can use even the cut sheet or torn sheets for layering.
Labels : Cottage Cheese, Borek, Middle Eastern, Baking Bloggers, Phyllo Pastry, Homemade, Baked, Turkey

 

Baking Bloggers February 2020

Middle Eastern Baking
Apricot Pistachio Cake from Food Lust People Love
Basbousa Cake from Pandemonium Noshery
Cottage Cheese and Veggies Borek from Sneha's Recipe
Laffa Bread from Making Miracles
Lebanese Sesame Cookies from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Mana'eesh (Palestinian Flatbread) from Karen's Kitchen Stories
Maqluba (Upside Down Rice) from Palatable Pastime
Parda Pulao - Iraqi Parda Plau from The Schizo Chef
Roast Chicken Shwarma from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Umm Ali from Caroline's Cooking

Baked Chicken Borek#Foodieextravaganza

Turkish cuisine is famous for its  varieties of layered pies and pastries, called ‘Börek‘. Borek is a  made of thin layers of dough called yufka or phyllo, that can hold variety of fillings like cheese, spinach, meat or chicken etc. 

Borek often described as flaky  pastry pie ; made with several layers of yufka or phyllo sheets with oil or butter in middle of each layer.

This dish is best for your parties or tea times and this is a must try delicious recipe. Made this for my anniversary tea party with my trekking group. Made two of these one chicken and the other vegetarian one, which I will be posting later.
I have used the homemade phyllo sheets.. check this here Phyllo Pastry Sheets - Homemade

Ingredients  

12 Filo pastry  Sheets  or as required
For filling  

500 Grams Chicken Mince
2 Large Onions - finely chopped
1 Teaspoon Minced  Ginger  

1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic
Salt to taste

¼ Teaspoon Turmeric powder 
1 Teaspoon  Paprika powder
3 Tablespoons Finely Chopped Coriander leaves

2 Tablespoons Oil
For the pastry

100 Grams Butter  - melted 

A small Egg for brushing the pastry on top

Method

To make the filling  

Heat oil in a pan add the chopped onions and saute till they soften , now add the minced ginger and garlic and saute till then start to release an aroma.  Add chicken mince and turmeric powder  stir on high heat until  turns pink to white.  Add the paprika and salt, mix well and let it cook till  all the  juices evaporates and turns dry. Let it cool. Now add the coriander leaves and mix well.

For the layering 

Grease baking pan,  with melted butter well . Layer a sheet of filo pastry, brush it lavishly with melted butter, I layered 6 sheets and brushed each with melted butter.  After the 6th sheet , spread the chicken filling evenly and press it lightly.

Now add the remaining 6 sheets, brushing each sheet with melted butter and then keep the next sheet.  After all the sheets are placed, brush the top lavishly with butter.  

Now brush it with egg 

Give cuts  with knife , as per your desired size pieces right till the bottom taking care not the separate the sheets.  

Bake it in a preheated oven at 170 C, for 35 to 40 minutes or until it gets a nicely  golden. 

Chicken Borek is ready to serve.  

These were flaky and scrumptious, enjoyed by all.

My Notes:

While layering the sheets tend to tear or break, but do not worry since they will be covered with other sheets. You can use even the cut sheet or torn sheets for layering. Even I have used the some pieces of sheets or torn sheets for layering.

Labels : Chicken, Borek, Turkish, Foodie Extravaganza Party, Phyllo pastry, Homemade, Baked

Sending this to the event for this month of Foodie Extravaganza, the theme is "Pastry". Our Host of the month is Caroline Williams. Thank you Caroline for hosting this event.

Foodie Extravaganza is a monthly food fest, where a group of bloggers all create and share a recipe around one of the monthly food 'holidays' as detailed in The Nibble. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out HERE.

See all the other recipes being shared today: 
Baked Chicken Borek by Sneha's Recipes
Cheesy Asparagus Potato Tart by Food Lust People Love
Cornish-Style Steak Pasties by Karen's Kitchen Stories
Garlic Herb Chicken in Puff Pastry by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Kolache cookies by Caroline's Cooking
Puff Pastry Apple Cranberry Strudel by Veggie Fun Kitchen
Raspberry Pistachio Palmiers by Palatable Pastime

Phyllo Pastry Sheets - Homemade

Phyllo is the dough used in a variety of Greek and Middle Eastern sweet and savory dishes, appetizers and snacks to main dishes and desserts.  One of the most famous sweet treats made with this dough is Baklava.

Phyllo prounouncation is "Fillo", which is not available in India, hence,  have freshly made phyllo dough. Let's make these pastry sheets .

Ingredients

2.1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon White Vinegar

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

2 Tablespoons  Olive oil
Water as required to make a soft dough
Flour for dusting

Method 

Place the flour, white vinegar, olive oil, and mix well  till it's distributed in the flour. Slowly pour in the water into the flour and knead to a soft dough.  Place this dough in an well oiled container and let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour at least. 

The should be soft and stretchy like the above pic. 

After an hour take the dough out from the refrigerator and turn the dough out onto your work surface  and divide it into 5  to 10 equal balls, according to the size of your baking pan.

Working with one piece at a time, roll  the dough, 

flouring the work surface well, roll it to a round and  paper-thin  disc. Cover it with a damp tea towel and continue rolling the remaining dough.  

Even if the sheets tear as you are rolling do not worry, as these are covered with many layers.

I make this pastry sheets fresh whenever required since its so easy and quick to make.
Check this  recipe with this sheets. 
Iraqi Parda Plau - Phyllo Pastry Wrapped Biryani

Labels : Homemade, Phyllo pastry, Middle Eastern, Continental Cuisine

Iraqi Parda Plau - Phyllo Pastry Wrapped Biryani

This month’s challenge with the MENA cooking club, the recipes chosen are from Iraq. One is Lis'an El Qa'thi and the other is Pardah Pellau. While surfacing the net , found it difficult to find the correct recipe for the given challenge by Mena, cause the each one had the same method by different names like Iraqi Parda Plau , Perde pilaf or some pronounce it as Parda Palaw. 

This Iraqi dish, which literally means - Phyllo Pastry Wrapped Biryani, wherein the biryani rice, is entirely enveloped in crispy flaky phyllo pastry. Though it sounds complicated and lenghty this is recipe is very easy to make, simple and requires hardly any time assemble it together . For this dish can use leftover biryani.

Ingredients
10 Sheets  Phyllo pastry - Homemade
1.1/2 Cup  Air fryer Chicken Biryani 
40 - 50 Grams Butter - melted

Method

I have made a healthy  biryani in the Air fryer hence the name, recipe of Phyllo Pastry and Air fryer Chicken Biryani will be posted soon. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Shred the chicken from the briyani and keep aside.  The biryani should be cold ( from the refrigerator). Hence leftover biryani can be used. 

Brush well the bottom and sides of an oven-safe dish with butter.

Begin to layer the phyllo pastry over the bottom and the sides, leaving an over-hanging portion 

Remembering to brush with melted butter between each layer.  

I used five sheets at the bottom.  Then fill the phyllo lined dish to the brim with cooled biryani.   

Cover the top with two sheets of phyllo and brush each sheet with melted butter before laying the other one, brush the top with butter and  then fold over the over-hanging pastry, and brushing the top with melted butter. 

Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes until piping hot and of a golden crispy texture.

Carefully invert on the serving dish.

Cut into portions and  serve. 

This was an amazing dish, crispy and flaky out side with delicious rice and chicken filling. This is quite heavy and filling , enjoy. 

Labels: Baked, Chicken, Continental Cuisine, Rice, Iraqi, Mena Cooking Club, Middle Eastern, Phyllo pastry
Check the recipe of Phyllo Pastry Sheets - Homemade and Air Fryer Chicken Biryani