Albanian Vegetable Pies (Byrek)

Albanian pies are generally made of thin pastry leaves which can be rolled out at home or bought as FILO dough at a supermarket. Most of the pies prepared by Albanian cooks are not sweet; instead, pie fillings are almost always salty. Thus, a piece of such a pie may well serve as the main dish of a meal.

Spinach Pie (Albanian Name: Byrek me spinaq)

Ingredients:

1 cup oil, preferably olive oil
1 1/2 packets (or about 30) pastry leaves (Filo Dough)
1 1/2 pounds spinach, chopped
1 cup diced feta cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 eggs
salt, half teaspoon
(NOTE: A medium-sized, round baking pan is recommended because it's more authentic but any medium-sized baking pan will do).

Cooking Instructions:

Brush the baking pan with some of the oil, and start laying the pastry leaves inside. First, lay two leaves, sprinkle or brush with oil, then lay two other leaves, and repeat the procedure until half of the leaves are laid. Make sure that they cover the pan by hanging them about one inch over the edges of the pan.
Sprinkle spinach with salt, then mix well by hand. Add the feta cheese, oil, onions, eggs and salt, and spread this mixture over the already laid pastry leaves. Finish by covering the spinach with the rest of the pastry leaves repeating the first-half procedure and then roll the hanging edges of the bottom leaves over the pie (think of a pizza crust), sprinkle top with oil and bake moderately at 3501_F for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanied with buttermilk, or beaten yogurt, thinned down in cold water or with chilled stewed prunes.

Source: http://www.albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html

Fried Meatballs (Albanian Name: Qofte të fërguara)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground meat
1 slice stale bread
1 small onion, finely-grated
2 tablespoons chopped Feta cheese
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper
Mint
Oregano
1 cup flour
1 cup oil (olive oil recommended)

Cooking Instructions:

Soak bread in water and squeeze hard to drain. Add ground meat, bread crumbs, oil or melted butter, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and mint. Mix thoroughly, and form into 1-inch thick patties, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oregano. Roll in flour and fry in hot oil. Serve hot with French Fries or mashed potatoes.

Source: http://www.albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html

Flour Hallva (Hallvë)

Ingredients:

1 glass flour
1 glass margarine
1 1/4 glasses granulated sugar
5 glasses water

Cooking Instructions:

Heat the margarine in a saucepan very gently, and Sauté the flour until golden brown in the margarine for 40 minutes over low to moderate heat. When the flour turns light golden, put the sugar and water in a separate saucepan and make syrup by boiling gently. Add the syrup to the saucepan with flour and simmer for 20 minutes, and then take out small pieces of the Hallva with a wooden spool, form into balls and place on a serving plate. Serve warm.

Fried pastry with Syrup (Tullumba)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted margarine
1 glass flour
3 tablespoons water
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 glasses olive oil
Syrup: 2 glasses sugar
1 3/4 glasses water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Cooking Instructions:

SYRUP:
Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan, and after melting the sugar by stirring, allow it to boil until moderately thick. Set aside to cool.
PASTRY:
Heat the margarine in a saucepan, add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and add the flour at once. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spool and continue until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. This should take 6 minutes, then remove pan from heat and set aside to cool.
When cool, add the eggs and knead for approximately 10 minutes, using a pastry bag with a large nozzle, put 7-8 pastries in a pan containing the heated olive oil. Start frying the pastry over low heat, increase heat when pastry puffs up a bit and fry until golden. Remove fried pastry with a perforated spoon, draining away the oil, then put into the syrup. Strain off the syrup, place Tulumba on serving plate and serve cool.

Cookies (Kurabie)

Ingredients:

1 cup of yogurt
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 packs of vanilla or the peel of half of a lemon
1 kg (about 35 ounces) of flour.

Cooking Instructions:

Mix the baking soda in the yogurt, add the above mentioned products one by one and prepare the dough. With hands covered with melted butter take pieces of the dough and shape into ovals about the size of a walnut, then place them on a butter covered baking pan and leave spaces in between each piece of dough. From above cover the pieces of dough with beat eggs, sprinkle sugar and cook in a medium-heat oven.

Source: http://www.albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html

This Page Last Updated: Tuesday, July 07, 2009