Bosnian Speciality

I love food   Especially food that is well made and let me tell you, here in Lumbarda, they do food well!

The following recipe, however, is not Croatian, but Bosnian.

It is called Pita… now some of you, I ‘m sure, are picturing pita bread… this is nothing like pita bread.

This Bosnian dish, which I have to say is one of my favourites, is a pin wheel pastry, filled with meat (burek), cheese(sir), or spinach(zelena).  I was pleasantly surprised when Edina made a mushroom(gljiva) version…so I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

Pastry-
2 cups plain flour
200 ml(+,-)water
1/2 teas salt

Cheese-spinach filling-
500g ricota
1 egg
1 teas salt
250 g spinach (blanched, frozen)

Other ingredients-
Oil, in a cup (cca 100ml)
Flour for dusting
Also needed -
tablecloth big enough to cover the entire table, rolling pin.

Method:
Make a soft dough from flour, salt and water. Dust with flour and let it rest for at least 25 min.
Prepare the filling by combining cheese, spinach, egg and salt (I always add a tbs of lemon juice, as I find European cheese is more sour, that ricota I usually by in Australia.)

Prepare the working surface by dusting the tablecloth with flour.

Place the dough on the table, dust with flour and start rolling out until 55-60 cm diametar. Dust with flour all the time, this will prevent sticking.
When you’ve achieved wanted size, spoon 3 tbs of oil around the dough, and spread with your fingers.

Now slowly and gently pull the pastry from the centre to the edge (Back of your hand is better to use – go around the dough. Round tables are perfect for this!)

 

Dot the fillings around edges, turn dough from outside edge to cover the filling.
With a spoon add some extra oil around the edges, and centre of pastry.

Start rolling the pastry towards centre, pulling gently at the same time towards your self – this will aditionaly stretch your pastry, ensuring thin, crisp apearence.
Cut the pastry in the middle and continue to roll inwards, until all is rolled up.
You will get a circle of made pastry/pita, which you need to cut and start rolling into a spiral form.

Oil the top of pita – spray is fine, and bake for 25-30 min.

You can serve with a plain yogurt, sour cream or kefir cheese.

Enjoy!