Crispy Rolled Börek with Beef and Vegetables

If you want something other than the usual börek on the table, this is it. Yufka rolled around a beef and vegetable filling, dipped in milk, coated in breadcrumbs and baked until crisp.

The name in Turkish is Çin böreği — “Chinese börek” — presumably for the spring-roll shape rather than any real connection.

Makes 24 rolls

Ingredients

3 sheets yufka (or 12 sheets phyllo)
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup milk

For the filling

5 oz ground beef
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
2 leeks
2 cabbage leaves
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Salt

Method

Make the filling

Melt the butter in a pan. Dice the onion and add it, then add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up.

While the meat cooks, grate the carrot and finely shred the leeks and cabbage leaves.

Once the beef has lost its raw color, add the vegetables.

Cook until everything is soft and any liquid has evaporated. A dry filling is essential here — moisture will make the pastry soggy before it ever reaches the oven.

Season with salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Let it cool completely.

Assemble

Separate the eggs. Put the whites in a bowl with the oil and whisk together. Keep the yolks for something else.

Lay out a sheet of yufka and brush it with the egg white mixture. Repeat with the second and third sheets, stacking them on top of each other.

Cut the stack into 8 wedges, like a pie.

Place a spoonful of filling at the wide end of each wedge.

Roll each one up, folding the sides in as you go so the filling stays put. Roll loosely rather than tight — tightly rolled pastry cannot expand and splits.

Coat and bake

Preheat the oven to 400°F and oil a sheet pan.

Pour the milk into a shallow dish. Dip each roll briefly — a few seconds only. Five minutes in milk will turn yufka to paste.

Roll each one in breadcrumbs until coated all over.

Arrange on the prepared pan, seam side down, spaced apart.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until deep golden and crisp.

Serve warm.

Chef’s note

If you cannot find yufka, phyllo works. Use four sheets in place of each yufka, brushing between layers as above.