Turkish Food Passion: Borek with Ground Beef (Kıymalı Börek)

For the Filling:

1 lb ground beef
1 medium white or yellow onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
½ cup parsley (chopped)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp paprika
½ tsp ground black pepper

For the Outer Part of the Borek:

1 package phyllo dough sheets
1 cup yogurt
½ cup olive oil
1 egg

Preparation of Filling:

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick pan. Add the onions and sautee for 3 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and the ground beef. Cook until the beef takes a brownish color stirring constantly. Add the parsley, salt, black pepper and paprika and sautee for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Putting All Ingredients Together:

In a deep bowl, add the yogurt, olive oil and egg. Mix vigorously until all three ingredients are mixed well.

Using a brush, spread a small amount of this newly created mixture in a large Pyrex dish. This is to prevent the Phyllo sheets sticking to the Pyrex dish.

Open the Phyllo dough package. Place a damp cloth on top so that the Phyllo sheets do not dry out. The Phyllo dough sheets can be found in the frozen section of most markets. These are the same dough sheets that are used for baklava.

Place one sheet of the Phyllo dough in the Pyrex dish on top of the yogurt, olive oil and egg mixture spread. Dip your brush in this mixture and brush the Phyllo sheet. Do this one by one until half of the Phyllo sheets are used up. (Some people brush the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture on every 3-4 Phyllo sheets, but I have found that it turns out better if you do it one by one). After you have layered half of the phyllo dough, spread the meat filling on top of the Phyllo dough. Add another sheet of the phyllo dough and butter it. Continue the process of brushing each Phyllo dough sheet and placing them on top of each other until all the Phyllo sheets are used up. If you have any of the yogurt-olive oil-egg mixture left over, pour it on top and spread it evenly with a brush.

Bake at 350º in the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A couple weeks ago, I was tagged by Pixen. As a result of being tagged, I am supposed to reveal 7 facts about myself and tag 7 other bloggers. I had previously been tagged through e-mails but these things never got my interest, so I have never followed up. I will however follow up with this one. Here we go…7 facts about myself:

1. I never thought I’d ever have so much interest in cooking when I was young. I always thought my mom would be cooking for me for the rest of my life. Although, if I had lived in Turkey, she probably would. My mom’s food would be great but, I am also very pleased with discovering my new hobby.

2. Snakes? Keep them away; I have a snake phobia which developed in the past couple years. I cannot even stand to see a snake on TV. Therefore, I cannot spend any time in forests hiking during the summer, something I really used to enjoy. I am even getting goose bumps right now just as I write these words involving the S…. word!

3. The first and only time I flew to Turkey with a non Turkish Airlines was when I was a student and that airline offered options for a meal. Just out of curiosity, I ordered the “muslim dinner” (whatever that was supposed to mean) and I was so disappointed even though I didn't know what to expect. Not to mention, my food tray came much earlier than everybody else’s! It was weird.

4. I love reading, but I only read non-fiction books. I do not remember the last time I read a fiction book. Maybe I take life too seriously, but I like to learn things when I read. I know that kind of takes the fun out of it... Although, I enjoy learning.

5. I used to work with someone who did not even own a stove because she thinks cooking is a waste of time! (I know this is not a fact about me, but it’s a fact that I knew this person) Does that count?

6. I have written some things in the past with the intention of creating a book, but I lost interest and left it alone. Not sure if I’ll get back to it, but I also found out that I like writing poems.

7. I am more of a listener than a talker. Although if you ask my husband, he’ll probably tell you just the opposite. I have to admit, he may be right sometimes.

Here are the 7 bloggers I am tagging (I won’t be offended if you do not play, but I hope you have some fun):

Get to know Croatia
Mimi Cooks
Organically Cooked