I have made this pastry almost 3 months ago, but I didn't get the chance to post it earlier, so I am posting it now.
The prehistory of this pastry is unfamiliar to me- who "invented" it, who "advertised" it so others can start baking it, I really don't know.
In my family though my Grandmother used to bake it for New year's Eve. She said it is called " zelnik" in Bulgarian, which literally means "made from cabbage", but there is no cabbage in the recipe. For a long time I've tried to find out why is it called that way.
In different places in Bulgaria this is prepared differently. Some say they call it "zelnik" because they prepare it with spinach and leek and they are green in color ("zelen" in Bulgarian is the color green, so the word is closer to "zelnik").
I cannot say that mine recipe is " the right way" to prepare "Zelnik", but this is the way it has stayed in the family for generations and we love to eat it, no matter how is called.
You can use store bought phyllo dough (you can find it in the freezer section even in Walmart, the most popular is Athens Food). If you do that skip the phyllo dough preparation explanation.
If you want homemade phyllo dough- the preparation is basically as the Turkish borek one. You can see it step-by-step here.
This time I used store bought phyllo dough.
For the filling-
1/2 lbs mashed potatoes
2 ans 1/2 cups cleaned and cut leek
2 eggs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup grated mixed cheese
For the topping-
2 eggs
4 tbsp yogurt
4 tbsp water
1/8 tsp baking soda
Boil the potatoes, peel and mash them.Let them cool for at least 20 min.
Add the paprika, salt, black pepper, nutmeg and eggs!
In a pan sautee the Leeks with a tbsp of vegetable oil until they change their color to bright green. . Remember, this will take no more than 3 min! The leeks are very delicate, you don't want them to "melt".
In a big bowl combine the potatoes and leeks. Open the phyllo dough and place a couple of sheet on the bottom of a greased pan.
Now you can preheat the oven at 350F.
Spread couple of spoons of the potato-leek mixture over the phyllo dough and sprinkle the cheese on top.
Roll 3-4 sheets of phyllo dough together ( as shown in the picture). You can add as much sheets as you like, I like to roll 3 at first and then "close" it with 2 more on top of the opening of the roll.
Over the sheets in the greased baking pan place the rolls in a spiral as show in the picture, until you have finished all the sheets and potato-leek mixture.
If you have some cheese left, add it to the topping and spread evenly over the pastry.
Bake at 350 F for 40 min or until golden brown on top. Enjoy!
Monday, April 28, 2008
" Zelnik" - Potato and leek phyllo dough pastry
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6 comments:
Hi!
OH MY GOD!!!! I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THIS FOR YEARS!!!!!!!
I'm Macedonian. My Grandmother used to make that, she called it pita, with all sorts of different fillings. When I was a little boy everyone else in the family liked it with cheese and spinach but I liked it with meat and leaks, so my grandmother would make an entire tray just for me.
My grandmother died around 11 years ago and I have never been able to find one the same way she made it.
My mother remembers how she made the filling that is no problem, but the dough is a different story. My mother has tried, and I have bought pita from various European delis, but the dough is never right.
Everyone else seems to have about millimeter thik dough, that is way too thick for me. My grandmothers looked just like yours, with super thin flaky dough.
My mother has tried using store bought dough, while it is this enough, it's not the same as homemade. If you could give me the recipe for the dough and explain the process of rolling it out to get it so thin you would make my father and I the happiest guys on earth.
My email address is dgalevski(AT)hotmail.com.
Thanks
Dan
Take a look at this posting ( it is my recipe on this blog for turkish burek). It's the same recipe and technique, you just have to roll it out a little bit thinner.
Good luck and let me know if it works out for you!
I'm going to try tomorrow. My mother says that the recipe in the link is almost the same as the one she tried for the dough, her's used oil instead of butter and did not include the egg.
Is it possible to get that dough as thin as the store bought stuff? I don't know if it was technique and 60 years of practice or a different dough recipe, but my grandmother got her dough at least as this as the store bought stuff, maybe thinner, it was like tracing paper.
Thanks
Dan
Yes, you can make it really thin, almost transparent, but this depends on the experience that the person who is rolling it out has, not the recipe. It takes time to learn to do that and I am not sure you are going to be able to do it the first time, but here is a suggestion- try rolling it out with a pasta machine first on the thinnest setting, then do it with the rolling pin on top. I think it is going to give you a good start with the thickness. Don't get discouraged if you can't make it right the first time, keep trying! My grandmother showed me how to do it a long time ago but it really takes time to get it right. For the Zelnik recipe I recommend after you roll out each sheet, let it rest for some time on top of big piece of paper ( or cloth). For the zelnik recipe you don't need to brush with butter or use egg. Just make the zelnik recipe with the dough from the Burek, the difference is the Zelnik sheets are thinner.
One other trick is when you roll the sheet ON the rolling pin, roll it outwards with your hands ON the table! This makes the sheet really thin, but it takes practice and you have to make sure you have sprinkled enough flour on top of the sheet before you roll it on the rolling pin, otherwise it will stick to itself when you try to roll it out this way.
Good luck and if you have any questions, write me!
That isn't Zelnik, that's BANITSA. In Bulgaria it's called BANITSA. The Zelnik is all Macedonian name because we DO use brinned cabbage in our filling (see wikipedia). Zelnik isn't made with comercially sheets of phillo, it's made with traditionally rolled phillo, and when it's roled up with the filling and everything, the rolles aren't placed all in the baking dish. In the center must be a hile which is filled with a lot of filling than closed with a phillo. I'm from Macedonia and I make Zelnik since I was 10, so I tell you that this is not Zelnik.
I'm very sorry if I caused some inconvinience, it's just I want the things to be right.
Best regards
PS.Your blog is very good.
According ( again) to Wikipedia, Zelnik is a type of Banitsa. So technically, we are all right. I have no idea how it is called in Macedonia, although my grandfather is from Skopje, but I am born in Bulgaria and in my region in Bulgaria this is called Zelnik ( I've explained why in the beginning of my post). Ask in a Bulgarian or Macedonia forum for a Zelnk recipe and watch to see how many different recipes you are going to get. I've tried it and counted around 34 different ways of making the so called Zelnik.
So as you see, each geographical region within a country can call it the way they want, let alone two different countries, and they still would be right for themselves.
As for the phyllo I've particularly mentioned in the beginning of my post it is not usually made from commercial phyllo dough ( I've eve posted step-by-step instruction on how to roll out yourself), but you have to agree that very few people would give the recipe a try if they can't substitute the hours of rolling out themselves. Is it the same in taste- definitely no, but I've mentioned that in the recipe as well.
I don't think this is so important though as to pay it that much attention as you did. Now somebody from Turkey would come up and claim they have Turkish name for the same pastry. So what? Does this make it less delicious? All the Balkan nationalities have been together long enough to be brothers by blood and use the similar ( if not the same) words for stuff. Don't you think?
It's not about " mine" and " yours", "right" and "wrong" it's about how our differences bring us closer.
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