Albania is an interesting country as its cuisine is heavily influenced by Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Popular vegetables in Albania include leeks, eggplant, and peppers and one of the more common dishes is a vegetable pie, byrek or burek depending on where you look for the proper spelling and what country you're in. A byrek was not like any kind of vegetable pie I had ever encountered before, it is kind of like a quiche in the sense that requires quite a bit of eggs, but the similarities kind of stop there. The byrek recipe that I discovered was a leek byrek mostly consisting of eggs, cottage cheese, and a little feta encased in either phyllo or a thick pastry, depending on the region. One major characteristic of Albanian food is that it is not heavily spiced, in fact there are very few spices in their dishes and they seem to follow a very strict “one spice per dish” way of thinking. Not exactly something I’m used to and coming from all the Asian and Middle Eastern food I’ve been cooking, it was strange to only hunt the spice cabinet for one thing. Even when I cook for myself, I use more than just one spice!
Due to the difficulty of scaling down an entire vegetable pie for just one, I decided to cook enough for the family this time around. In my opinion (not my mother’s) the dish came out beautiful with thick golden crust. My mom said it looked bizarre, although I can’t see why since it just looked like a kind of pie, you’ll have to be the judge yourself. My mom was served first and before I could even serve myself she had taken a bite and declared that she didn’t like it. Instant rejection, ouch. I was a bit worried at that point, what if nobody liked it and my Albanian adventure was a huge flop? I mean it’s one thing for me not to like a dish, but what if the entire family hated it?
My dad was next and said that if a little less leek was used it would be spot on. I was more encouraged to take a bite at that point. Contrary to my mom, I really liked this dish. However, I really like leeks as well whereas I decided that she didn’t since she isn’t a fan of potato and leek soup either which is one of my favorites. Overall my mom gave the recipe a 2 (ouch), my younger brother gave it a 7, and my dad gave it an 8. I give it an 8 as well, mostly because I was not too crazy about this “one spice” business and could see how other spices could really enhance the flavors. I was most surprised by my brother who liked it much more than mom, I mean this is the kid who lives off Hot Pockets and corn dogs and here he was eating Albanian food without complaint! Overall, the dish averaged a 6.25, my mother’s critique bringing down the score quite a bit (would have been a 7.7 without her input).
Everyone else had second servings leaving few leftovers. The second round we added a little bit of hot sauce called TapatÃo, which really added a lot to the dish. I have to agree with my dad that in the future I would cut the leeks down from the two large leeks used, as I realized not everybody likes leeks as much as I do. I could see myself cutting down the leek content and adding more feta to balance the flavor better. In the end this dish may not be one my mom will be making again but it did make its way into my cookbook and I am excited to try adding new things to the dish. If you don’t like leeks maybe try it with spinach.
One thing I enjoyed more than the dish itself, was sharing it with other people and being able to talk about it at the table – even if it was just my family this time. I suppose this is what dinner parties are about, talking about food. Even if everyone did not like the byrek (ahem, mom), it still provides a topic for conversation and made dinner a little more interesting. From this experience I learned to be less afraid of people liking the cuisine, and more open to cooking for more than just me and seeing what others have to say, even if it’s not always positive. Cooking for just myself and having only my perspective to go off gets a little boring and it’s nice to think of a “dinner party” as another option in this little adventure.
Servings: 6
ReplyDeleteLeek Filling
2 large leeks, cleaned and very thinly sliced (use only the white/light green part)
6 eggs
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or regular yogurt strained for 30 minutes)
1 lbs. cottage cheese, strained for 30 minutes
4 oz crumbled feta cheese
1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme, or dried thyme, ground
salt, to taste (keep in mind that feta is salty)
1/2 tsp pepper
Pie Crust
1 package puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients, except for leeks. When the mixture is smooth and blended, add diced leeks. Set aside. Roll one sheet of puff pastry into a 15″ circle. Place pastry on the bottom of a 9″ pie dish. I honestly didn’t bother with the circle business and just stuck it in the pie dish and pressed down cutting the excess from the edges. Same with the top. Fill pie dish with leek mixture. Roll second sheet of puff pastry into a 15″ circle. Cover the pie with the pastry lid. Press the edges together and roll up to seal in the juices. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash. Bake for 45 minutes or until dark golden brown. Let cool 1 hour before slicing or the filling will fall apart. Eat slightly warm or at room temperature. This dish is not meant to be eaten while piping hot, if you cut it too early you will have a very sad and droopy pie.