Yufka can also be cooked on the open fire after rolling until crisp and stored for using like crispbreads or crackers.
Our food has received so many compliments and many people want to know how to re produce these traditional dishes for themselves.
So, as an experiment, I asked our local Breakfast restaurant if we could use their kitchen for cooking lessons for our guests; their kitchen is much larger than mine and super clean, so it is the perfect venue.
They agreed and we organised a small troop of eager chefs to walk up the track one afternoon to learn how to make baked courgette borek, a crispy delight made with courgettes, cheese. olive oil and gossamer thin Yufka pastry.
Mehmet Ali’s wife and mother in law prepared the dish in the trditional way, set into a large aluminium tray or tepsi and baked in the Tandoor, or outdoor clay oven.
We were shown how to first make the Yufka, using flour, olive oil and yogurt, then rolling it out on what looked like an tiny individual trestle resting on her knees, until it was about ten times the size of the walnut of dough she first took up. Such skill, but learned at her own mother’s knee, the resulting sheet of pastry wafted onto the tray in a few short minutes.
Layers of this pastry, interspersed with olive oil then grated courgette were carefully placed until the final coating of the oil finished the job. Cut marks to show the individual portions were then made and the whole was literally rammed into the wood burning clay oven and the door firmly wedged shut with an old shovel.
The resulting dish was crspy, yet moist, squares of happiness! We took the whole tray home and it was polished off in a matter of minutes.
Next time, Su boregi, and hopefully gozleme and thereafter stuffed peppers, can’t wait!
Leave A Comment