That Translator Can Cook: Bourek
A handheld, deep-fried pastry: phyllo dough wrapped around chicken, potatoes, cheese, parsley, nutmeg, and green olives.
I’ve never had bourek before, but I’m down to try it! I chose to write about bourek even though I’ve already wrote about brik (both originate from börek) because I wanted to show that North Africa (and the Middle East) is not one homogenous region.
Bourek originated from the Turkish pastry börek, as did the Tunisian brik that I’ve written about before. According to History Today, ethnographic research suggests that börek was invented by the nomadic Turks of Central Asia before the seventh century, and börek reflects the harsh life of a herdsman: it requires only the limited utensils and foods that they had on-hand. If you would like to follow börek’s story in detail throughout history, please read here (it’s quite interesting, but very long). However, I will simply summarize how it came to North Africa.
Börek was adopted by the Ottomans because they loved it and because they wanted to integrate with their conquered populations. As the Ottomans conquered new territories, they spread their customs, which included their love for börek; and Algeria was among these territories. Today, there are many different variants of börek (which is called bourek or brik in Arabic), even within Algeria because while the Ottomans may have brought börek to Algeria, Algerian cuisine is also influenced by Arab, Amazigh, and French cuisines.
Algerian bourek is typically made with ground beef or chicken, and I chose the chicken recipe-there was a surprising amount of chicken bourek recipes-thinking that chicken was the healthier option, but apparently, I thought wrong. While consuming a large amount of processed meat (i.e. sausage) and red meat (i.e. beef) has been linked to colon cancer, poultry (i.e. chicken) isn’t necessarily healthier than red meat.
Despite the widespread belief that red meat contains more saturated fat and is worse for blood cholesterol levels than poultry, a 2019 study suggests otherwise. There didn’t seem to be a difference in the rate of weight loss or blood cholesterol levels when comparing the intake of poultry versus red meat; however, there was a significant difference when comparing meat intake versus nonmeat intake (vegetarian diet). So if you want to truly be healthier (don’t eat deep fried pastries haha), you could eat a potato and cheese version.
Here is how to make Alergian chicken bourek baked in the oven (recipe and pictures belong to Elissa [أليسا]).
Ingredients
1 package of bourek wrappers
1 medium potato
1 small onion
Garlic
200 g (~7 oz.) of chicken breast
Green olives to taste
50 g (~2 oz.) of cheese, melted
Parsley
Salt
Nutmeg
Red chili peppers
Olive oil
Steps
Pan-fry the chicken (in a frying pan), then cut it into small pieces and drizzle with olive oil. Next, add the finely minced onion, salt, nutmeg, and red pepper on top of the chicken.
Peel and boil the potato, then shred it with a fork.
Add the cheese, olive oil, a dash of salt, minced parsley, and sliced green olives.
Add the chicken on top of that and mix well until the mixture is well combined.
Put a little bit of the filling on a wrapper and start to roll it into a cigar-shape as shown in the photo. Or fold them into triangles.
Place the bourek on a pan, brush a little bit of olive oil on them, and put them in the oven at 240°C (~465°F) for 20 minutes. After that, turn the oven up and let them brown a bit.
Take the bourek out of the oven and let them cool. Serve in a serving platter. Bon appetit!
Translators’ Discussion
Instead of saying “fry the chicken in a frying pan”, I went with “pan-fry the chicken.” Do you think this conveys the same meaning? (I’m looking at you, food translators!)
I had some trouble with “ندخله الفرن على درجة حرارة 240 لمدة 20 دقيقة بعدها نشعل الفرن من فوق ونتركه ليحمر قليلا”, specifically “بعدها نشعل الفرن من فوق”, and I translated it “After that, turn the oven up…” Is this an accurate translation?