Goat Milk

Jul 24 2023

Chorizo, Goats Cheese and Cumin Borek – Popular Gourmet Recipe

Treat yourself to a Persian feast with this chorizo and goats’ cheese filo pie.

This wonderful combination of smoky, spiced chorizo and cumin-spiked, creamy goat’s cheese is a winner. Nigella seeds are used all around the world but are originally from Southern Asia. Widely used in Indian and Middle Eastern cookery, they have a bitter and peppery taste and are often used in savoury breads.

Chorizo really is such a fantastic ingredient and its capability to deliver bags of flavour to anything it comes into contact with always makes it a crowd-pleaser.

The recipe requires less than 30 mins Preparation time, 1 to 2 hours Cooking time, Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 tsp cumin seeds (toasted)
2 x 200g/7oz cured chorizo sausages (not cooking chorizo), skinned and cut into chunks
350g/12fl oz rindless soft goats’ cheese, broken into pieces
vegetable oil, for oiling
6 sheets filo pastry (each about 48 x 25cm/19 x10in)
1 tbsp full-fat milk or water
1 free-range egg, beaten, to glaze
1 tsp nigella seeds

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Dry fry the cumin seeds in a frying pan until aromatic. Remove from the heat.
Put the chunks of chorizo into a food processor and process until they are minced as finely as possible. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the cooled cumin seeds and goats’ cheese and mix together until evenly combined.
Brush the base of a 24cm/9½in round ovenproof dish or cake tin with a little vegetable oil. Lay a pastry sheet lengthways in the dish or tin with the ends overhanging the sides, then lay another pastry sheet widthways in the same way.
Divide the chorizo filling in half. Add one half to the filo base and smooth it right to the edges to cover the base evenly.
Fold another pastry sheet in half to create a double thickness and lay it over the filling, then repeat with a second pastry sheet to form a thick pastry layer.
Brush the pastry with the milk or water, then top with the remaining filling, pushing and patting it into place to evenly coat the pastry layer. Fold the overhanging pastry into the centre, then gently crumple up the remaining 2 pastry sheets and arrange them on top.
Brush all the exposed pastry and edges with beaten egg and sprinkle over the nigella seeds. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until deep golden-brown. Serve the borek immediately.