Water Pastry (or Turkish Lasagna)
This is one of the recipes that requires some expertise in the kitchen. Even though, there are some alternatives, like using lasagna sheets, which make life a lot easier, it is more delicious if you prepare your own dough.
This time, my mother helped me to prepare the phyllo.
Ingredients (for 6 people):
3 eggs
1/2 cups of yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cups warm water
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast
Approximately 4 cups of flour
2 regular phyllo dough
Filling:
1/2 lbs of feta cheese
2 tbsp of chopped parsley
1 cup of cooking oil
or
1/2 lbs of ground beef
2 tbsp of chopped parsley
1 tbsp of cooking oil
1 tbsp of tomato paste
spices
1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
2. Mix all the ingredients and make a dough. The dough should be soft but should not stick to any surfaces.
3. Cover the dough and rest it for half an hour.
4. Divide the dough to 12 pieces, and make a phyllo using a roller pin. The thickness should be between 1/16 to 1/8 in. Place the phyllo over a table cloth and rest until the sides start to curve.
5. In the mean time fill a cooking pot with water, add some salt and bring it to boil. Also place another cooking pot with cold water in it, next to the boiling water, and mix feta and parsley in another bowl. (If you are preparing non-vegetarian filling, saute the ground beef, mix rest of the ingredients for filling and cook everthing)
6. Spray oil to a baking dish. (14 inch, round baking dish, with at least 2 inch thickness. If you have a smaller baking dish, the depth of the dish should be higher.) Place one of the regular phyllo dough to the dish.
7. Place the first phyllo dough you prepare into the boiling water, and cook approximately 30 seconds, or until the dough starts floating.
8. Transfer the dough to the cold water, and let it cool down. Drain the excess water.
9. Place the dough on top of the regular dough in the baking dish you prepared, and spread some cooking oil (about 1.5 to 2 tbsp) on top of the dough.
10. Repeat steps 7 to 9 until you finish half of the dough. On top of the 6th phyllo dough, spread the filling instead of the oil.
11. Repeat steps 7 to 9 until you finish the dough.
12. Place the last regular phyllo dough on top, and spread some oil on top.
13. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.
14. Cook the pastry until both of the surfaces become golden brown.
15. Let it cool down, and slice it afterwards.
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