Courgette boregi with yoghurt pastry

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXBIhF0lekq/?taken-by=carl_legge

These are delightful warm, or at room temperature. They freeze well and are ideal for a snack, main meal, picnic or lunch. After I posted the picture on Instagram, I had lots of requests for the recipe. So I thought I’d pop it on the blog.

The recipe is from Arto der Haroutunian’s classic book: Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East which I highly recommend.

If you click on the picture below, you’ll be able to download a pdf version of the recipe.

My thoughts and variations

I recommend that you wrap the pastry in cling film or baking parchment and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. The pastry is quite sticky and difficult to deal with at room temperature.

You can re roll the cutting scraps of the pastry to make sure you don’t waste any.

We had some pastry left over when all the filling was used. So we rolled it out more thickly (say 3mm or so), cut them into biscuit shapes, pricked them with a fork, glazed with egg and baked for 20/25 minutes. They make excellent cheese biscuits. You could sprinkle the top with some salt flakes or seeds after you glaze them.

I lightly salt the courgettes after grating to help bring out the water so you don’t end up with a soggy filling.

As you can see, I’ve varied the filling ingredients with fresh herbs and added the courgette flowers. Dill, lemon thyme and pine nuts would go well too I think. Have a play with the ingredients while keeping to the ratio of courgette to cheese.

I’ve just remembered I’ve blogged about these before with a sunflower seeds and coriander filling #memoryfail