Eggplant and Feta Bourekas with Parsley Tehina Sauce
You can put anything in puff pastry and it will taste amazing! I dare you, name one thing that wouldn’t taste good in a puffed up piece of buttery dough?! I had a time in my life where puff pastry was the enemy. I had a huge aversion to puff pastry after making it from scratch in culinary school. Puff pastry is made with so much butter (or if it’s parve, margarine) you can’t even imagine! It puffs up because the butter that is folded into each thin layer of pastry dough creates air pockets.
Nonetheless, I don’t want to deter you from using puff pastry, but like anything, eat in moderation.
This recipe is from my demo at Kosherfest. Bourekas in Israel are like donuts in America, you can find them everywhere! This recipe screams Mediterranean with the combination of feta, roasted eggplant and tehina all wrapped up in puff pastry! If you want to go parve, I use sweet potato’s instead of feta as a variation to this recipe.
Eggplant and Feta Bourekas with Parsley Tehina Sauce
2 Sheets Puff Pastry Dough
2 Eggplant, roasted, peeled and cut in small pieces
2/3 C. Bulgarian Feta Cheese, crumbled
1 Egg, Beaten
Salt and Pepper
Egg wash (yolk + 1 tsp. water)
Sesame Seeds
Zaatar
Roast eggplant (pierced with knife) at 450 for 30 minutes. Remove the pulp discarding the seeds and squeezing out the liquid. Preheat oven to 350. Mix together the eggplant pulp, feta and egg till combined. Flour a surface and roll out one sheet of puff pastry dough (roll out thin, but not transparent). Cut the dough in circles with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Put about a teaspoon of filling in each and close in half circles by pinching slightly the dough, wet the edges if necessary. Place on parchment paper and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and zaatar. Bake until golden 20 -30 minutes.
Parsley Tehina Sauce:
1/2 C. Sesame Paste
1 C. Water
2 lemons, juiced
4 Garlic Cloves, roughly chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 C. Parsley
Salt, to taste
Place sesame paste, water, lemon juice, garlic cloves, parsley and cumin in a food processor. Pulse to combine, then process until the mixture has the consistency of thick cream. Transfer to a bowl and add salt to taste.
