Discovering Roots

Passport & Plate - Cabbage & Potato Burek

Croatia | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 6 photos

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 to 8 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 pound cabbage, cut into thin strips (about 2 cups)
1/2 pound potatoes, boiled and smashed
3 tablespoons white vermouth or wine
10 to 12 sheets phyllo

 

How to prepare this recipe
In a large saute pan, add olive oil and 1T of the butter over medium-high heat. When butter has melted, add onions, salt, and pepper to pan and cook until onions are soft and starting to brown. Add cabbage and stir to wilt. Once wilted, add smashed potatoes. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables start to stick to pan. Add vermouth to deglaze, scraping up any brown bits. Once vermouth has evaporated, add about 1/2 cup of water, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook mixture, stirring occasionally, until cabbage & potatoes are very soft and easily smashed with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool. To form the burek, lay phyllo sheets out - cover with a damp dish towel. Melt the remaining butter over low heat. Set out 2 pieces phyllo on the countertop, with the longest edge running horizontally. Brush the entire top sheet with melted butter. Stack two more sheets of phyllo over the first sheets. Brush melted butter over this entire second layer. Cut the phyllo in half so you have two sheets about 8 inches wide and 13 inches high. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place cabbage-potato filling in a row across the short end of the phyllo, about 1 inch from the bottom edge. The filling should be no more than 1 inch wide and should leave a 1-inch allowance along the side edges. Fold the bottom flap of phyllo up over the filling and brush melted butter over the fold. Roll the pastry into a long cylinder. Brush melted butter over the top of the phyllo as you roll, ending with the seam facing down against the countertop. Starting from one side, snake the phyllo into a loose coil—be sure not to bend the creases roughly. Place the phyllo coil in a 9-inch baking dish. Continue making stuffed phyllo coils in this fashion until you run out of filling. Place the coils in the baking dish in a circular pattern, brush with leftover melted butter and bake until deeply golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.

 

The story behind this recipe
I think of this dish often and with longing. I tasted burek on my first trip to Croatia. My grandfather immigrated to the US from Croatia in the 40s. I do not come from a family of travelers - they eat, sleep and breathe the east coast, NYers to the core, but no one had ever been to Croatia to see where grandpa grew up. When I was in my late 20s I decided to go.

I wanted to taste, smell and eat anything that was "Croatian". I went to the farmers market and made hand signals about what I wanted. On the way to the market each week, I’d pass by a fast-food looking place that was always busy. People were in and out quickly, never lingering. They carried platefuls of pastry-like food and it was cheap. It looked like the sort of place my English would not fly – not for tourists. They were serving burek, I later learned, as I dragged my cousin into town to order one for me.

Standing at that countertop eating the flaky pastry crust that encased super flavorful mince meat, I instantly knew why the place was so busy. Filling, delicious and economical, burek is a traditional pastry eaten in the morning or afternoon that is stuffed with meat, cheese, potatoes, cabbage, or even apples. It’s the ultimate meal-on-the-go, a Croatian version of a sandwich. I ate one every day.

These days, I eat a burek immediately upon arriving to Croatia, thinking of which I'll order on the plane. When I visit my cousin in Krk, I take a bus from Zagreb and there is a big bakery there serving many different versions of burek. It is both my welcome dish and my send-off food, as I come through the bus station both from and to the airport. I think of this burek in my dreams.

I now know many cultures produce burek/bureki/borek in some form. For my recipe, I improvised using phyllo dough is used to wrap a savory filling of cabbage and potatoes, then rolled and pressed into a baking dish. Each burek bakes up golden brown and crispy and can be eaten hot or at room temperature. Try it! You will love.