Turkish Silverbeet & Feta Gozleme

During a recent trip to Sydney we found ourselves in a market place in Roselle and I was fascinated by a food stall where three Turkish ladies were very skillfully preparing giant Gozleme. I say skillful because even though it appeared a very easy concept when I prepared my own I realized that the transferring of a large soft filled dough was trickier than it looked. I would recommend making smaller sizes at first or get an extra pair of hands to help you lift the filled dough to pan.

So what is a Gozleme? It’s a pizza like dough rolled really thinly then filled traditionally with spinach and feta cheese or spicy minced meat. Of course you could add your own fillings but I would recommend starting with the feta and spinach, or Silverbeet as I have here and build on that. We added cumin seeds and spring onions to our first one but hubby is keen for the spicy meat filling next time we make it. You will been a large frying pan, flat griddle plate or the flat plate on your BBQ. I have made round Gozleme because I was using a caste iron pan but I have given the method for rectangle because it is a little easy.

Ingredients – makes 4
3 cups high grade flour
1.25 cups luke warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
One bunch of Silverbeet, finely sliced
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tsp cumin seeds
200g feta cheese, crumbled
Olive oil for frying

Method
Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
Put the yeast into the well and pour the warm water over the yeast and leave to dissolve for a 2 minutes until dissolved.
Stir together and knead into a soft dough and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is glossy.
Divide dough into four and place each piece on a floured tray with plenty of space for dough to double in size. Cover tray with a plastic bag and make sure the bag doesn’t touch the dough.
Stand in a warm place for 20 minutes or until dough doubles in size.
Roll each piece of dough into rectangles so that the dough is paper thin, approx 12 x 6 inches.
Divide the silverbeet, feta and spring onions into four and top half of each dough rectangle with the ingredients, feta first then silverbeet and onions.
Sprinkle cumin seeds over each filling.
Fold dough over to enclose filling and seal edges together.
Heat a griddle or barbecue plate or caste iron pan over a medium-high heat.
Place a thin layer of olive oil on the griddle and place the Gozleme on top.
Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until base is golden.
Brush uncooked side of gozleme with olive oil.
Turn over and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden and crisp.
Remove to a serving plate and cut into wedges.
Serve with lemon or lime wedges.