Bosnian Meat Burek (Burek) — Coiled Beef Pie with Jufka

• 500 gjufka-style phyllo pastry (thawed if frozen, about 18 large sheets)
• 500 glean ground beef (85-90% lean)
• 300 gyellow onion (finely diced)
• 10 gfine sea salt
• 3 gground black pepper
• 120 mlcold water
• 90 mlsunflower oil (30 ml for the filling, 45 ml for brushing, 15 ml for the topping)
• 150 mlboiling water

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F and place a rack in the center. Lightly brush a 32 cm round metal baking pan, traditionally called a tepsija, with 10 ml of the measured sunflower oil.

2. 2

   Combine the ground beef, diced onion, 10 g salt, black pepper, 30 ml sunflower oil, and 120 ml cold water in a mixing bowl. Knead the mixture by hand for 2 minutes, because authentic burek filling should be moist and spreadable rather than packed like a meatball.

3. 3

   Unroll the jufka-style phyllo pastry and cover it with a clean, slightly damp kitchen towel. Keep the sheets covered while you work, because dry jufka cracks and makes the burek difficult to coil neatly.

4. 4

   Lay 2 sheets of pastry on the work surface with the long side facing you, overlapping them slightly if needed to make one broad rectangle. Brush the top with about 5 ml sunflower oil, then scatter 55 to 60 g of the meat filling in a thin line along the lower long edge.

5. 5

   Roll the pastry away from you into a long, loose rope, enclosing the meat without compressing it. Coil the rope in the center of the oiled tepsija, then repeat with the remaining pastry and filling, continuing the spiral until the pan is full.

6. 6

   Brush the top of the coiled burek with the remaining sunflower oil reserved for brushing. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the pan once after 15 minutes so the pastry browns evenly.

7. 7

   Stir the 150 ml boiling water with 3 g salt and the final 15 ml sunflower oil to make the hot topping. Pour it evenly over the browned burek, return the pan to the oven, and bake for 7 minutes more so the crust becomes crisp on top and tender underneath.

8. 8

   Remove the burek from the oven and cover the pan with a clean kitchen towel for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve it warm in wedges, with plain yogurt or kiselo mlijeko on the side, and remember that in Bosnian usage a cheese pie is sirnica and a spinach pie is zeljanica, not burek.