Romanian & Bulgarian · Breakfast
Banitsa sas Sirene
- Intermediate
- 35 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a silken, spoon-slow texture.
Ingredients
- 450 g thin filo pastry, about 12 sheets
- 400 g sirene, Bulgarian brined white cheese
- 4 eggs
- 200 g kiselo mlyako, Bulgarian yoghurt
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 50 g butter, melted
- half tsp bicarbonate of soda
- black pepper
The skills inside
Tempering a custardHandling phylloBrining & curingMashing & puréeing
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Crumble the sirene by hand into rubble the size of peas; mash it to a paste and it will melt into the custard and set rubbery.
- Whisk the eggs with the yoghurt and bicarbonate of soda until the mixture foams and lifts, then fold in the cheese with a good grind of pepper.
- Lay out a sheet of filo, brush it lightly with the mixed oil and butter, spread a line of filling along one long edge and roll it into a loose rope without tightening it.
- Coil the first rope in the centre of an oiled round tin and spiral the rest around it, leaving a finger's gap between the turns.
- Brush the top, bake at 190C (375F) for 40 to 45 minutes, until deep bronze and hollow when tapped, then rest it 10 minutes under a cloth before cutting. 45 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Tempering a custard 59 recipes
- The hot liquid went into the eggs a little at a time with constant whisking, and only then did everything go back to the pot.
- The heat under it stayed gentle throughout and it was never allowed to boil.
- Stirred continuously and right into the corners of the pan, where it thickens first and sets unnoticed.
- Judged by behaviour: it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a clean line when a finger is drawn through it.
- Taken off before it looks finished, and strained. Residual heat carries it the rest of the way, and a custard held on the heat until it looks right arrives past right.
Where it goes wrong The hot liquid went in too fast, or the pot went back over full heat to save time. The yolks set into threads before they could thicken smoothly, and a scrambled custard does not come back; straining hides a little of it and nothing hides the rest.
Brining & curing 88 recipes
- Fully committed either way: in a wet brine nothing floats clear of the liquid, and in a dry cure every face carries salt, seams and cavities included.
- The time was measured against the weight and the thickness rather than the recipe’s convenience, and it stayed cold for all of it.
- The change is visible and can be felt: the flesh is firmer than raw and its colour has deepened or gone more translucent, rather than still being slack and pale.
- Rinsed and dried as the recipe asks, and anything meant to crisp afterwards has a surface dry and tacky to the touch before it goes near heat.
- Cooked and tasted, it is seasoned right through to the centre rather than merely salty at the surface, and not so salty that the dish cannot be eaten.
Where it goes wrong It sat in the brine well past its time because a few extra hours seemed harmless; the surface is over-salted and the texture has gone from firm to spongy and wet, and no cooking takes salt back out.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Mimosa (weekends only)
- Also Right
- Cava, straight
- From the Taps
- -
- Zero-Proof
- Fresh orange juice & café au lait
Morning food wants brightness and bubbles, or honest coffee: nothing that argues before noon.
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