Bourak (Assyrian Egg Rolls) Recipe

Bourak are referred to as Assyrian or Middle Eastern egg rolls. These spicy, cigar-shaped appetizers, are usually served as "mezze" along other popular dishes like Sambousek, Hummus, and Foul Medames.

About This Recipe

Most families have someone with a signature dish. In my family, that someone is my sister, Rosa. The dish she's known for is the focus of this post.

These days my sister Rosa and I rarely see each other. Although I make regular visits to Chicago to see my family, I don't get to see her.

Rosa currently works as a linguist out of the country. I could tell you more about her job, but I'd have to kill you!

Luckily, we were able to plan our trips to Chicago during the same period this time. I decided to take advantage of this rare occurrence by planning a day of cooking with her.

How to Make This Recipe

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet, breaking up any large clumps. Add minced onion to the pan, and saute until soft.

2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and remaining spices over the meat. Add parsley and cook for an additional minute. Set aside to cool.

3. When the filling is ready, place one egg roll wrapper in front of you. Add approximately two tablespoons of filling close to the bottom edge of the wrapper.

4. Lift the bottom edge of the egg roll wrapper over the filling. Next, fold sides of the wrappers over the filling and roll up into a "cigar." Seal the corner with a dab of water, and repeat.

5. Heat oil in a large frying pan to 375-degrees F. Carefully place a few bourak in the pan. Fry until golden brown, and do the same with the rest.

6. Drain fried bourak on a paper towel-lined plate. Serve while hot.

Bourak Varieties

While trying to decide how to spell the name of this recipes, I found many alternative spellings online.

Bourek, borek, and burek, are some examples. For the purposes of this recipe, I'll be referring to them as "Bourak." 

I also discovered a lot more nationalities make them than I originally thought. Some of these nationalities include Croatians, Algerians, Turks, Greeks, Arabs, and of course, Assyrians.

While my family mainly makes meat-filled bourak, there are some filled with cheese and herbs. There are also both savory and sweet varieties.

The origins of this dish date back to the Ottoman Empire. However, their "borek" was prepared as a fillo-layered cheese pie, sweetened with honey.

Although I plan to write a post for the cheese-filled variety in a future post, today I'm sharing my sister, Rosa's, recipe. Bourak are often served Tabouli.

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