I love eggplant so much that I could perhaps even eat it raw (though, it may be an exaggerated move!). I also love anything with phyllo. Therefore, naturally, the combination in this börek satisfied me a lot!

 

 

About 3 weeks ago, in Juhannus (Midsummer Eve), we got together with some friends and had a very nice, collective Juhannus late lunch. Everyone contributed to the meal with something and I brought this börek with me – I tried it for the first time for that occasion. The result was delicious!

 

 

This is a very easy börek (Turkish name for salty pastry of this kind), but it takes a bit of time because of cooking eggplant first. Once you prepare the filling though, the rest is easy and fast, especially once you get a hold of it.

 

This recipe is almost the same in idea with another börek I posted 2 years ago (see the recipe here). The filling is different but the process is same. Using the same base and process, you can make a variety of pastries with any kind of filling you like.

 

 

 

The peppers I used in the filling are long and hot green peppers. These ones were really hot. However you can use any kind of hot (or not) green peppers. I also added chili pepper flakes to make it even spicier, you can keep it mild by skipping this entirely. Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: ★★☆ (Medium)
(makes 1 pastry in an oven dish which is 26cm in diameter)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium size onions, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
5 hot green peppers, diced (feel free to use sweet pepper if you like)
4-5 eggplants (about 1 kg), diced, soaked in salted water for 15 to 30 minutes, then drained
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1-2 tsp chili pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it to be)
1 package of phyllo sheets (about 14-15 in total)*

 

Sauce to moisten the layers:
1 egg
4 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp yogurt
a little water in room temperature, to thin the mixture up

 

a bit of vegetable oil to grease the oven dish
6-8 mini cubes of butter to put on top while baking

 

*Take the phyllo package out of the fridge when you start cooking the filling. Do not open the package yet as the phyllo tends to dry fast. Only open the package when you are ready to make the börek rolls.

 

 

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1. In a large pan, put olive oil and heat in medium high heat for about a minute. Add onions and saute until they get translucent.

 

 

 

 

2. Add tomato paste and continue to cook while constantly stirring, for half a minute.

 

 

 

3. Add green pepper and continue stirring for about a minute.

 

 

 

4. Add drained eggplant and continue cooking by stirring frequently, until the eggplant starts to soften and cook.

 

 

 

5. Add garlic and continue cooking by stirring frequently.

 

 

 

6. When the eggplant looks cooked, add salt, black pepper and chili pepper flakes. Stir and cook for about 1 more minute, then take away from the heat and let the mixture cool down.

 

 

7. While the filling is cooling down, preheat the oven to 200C. Grease a round oven dish (26cm in diameter is best for these measurements).

 

8. In a small bowl, put egg, vegetable oil and yogurt and whisk well. Add some water to thin it up, to have the consistency of a mixture as seen in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

9. Open the phyllo package. Take one sheet and brush with sauce. Put a second sheet on top. If you feel that your sheets are too thin, feel free to do this step as: 2 sheets, sauce on top, 1 more sheet on top.

 

 

 

10. Spoon filling on the phyllo sheets parallel to the long side as one line. Roll the sheet over the filling, as tight as possible. Cut a bit from the sides to get rid of empty (without filling) ends.

 

 

 

 

 

11. Make a spiral from this roll and transfer it to the greased oven dish. Continue to add the rolled sheets to the end of each previous roll and fill the whole dish as one big spiral. Try to fit as much as possible, making the spiral as tight as possible.

 

 

 

12. Brush the top of the big spiral with more of the sauce. Put a few mini cubes of butter on the pastry. Put in the oven, in medium rack and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden brown. When ready, take out of the oven and let it cool for about half an hour at least. Serve with tea or coffee, or as a main dish for lunch/dinner, with simple fresh salad. Enjoy!