Boureki - Cretan Baked Dish

I have been traveling to Greece for quite a few years now and I love their cuisine. During my last trip, I decided to join a cooking workshop run by a local Cretan lady and her mother at their farmhouse in rural Crete. Follow this link to read my article about Cretan food and this one to read about Crete.

I had the most amazing time with them. I spent a lot of time understanding the local ingredients and understanding their cooking techniques. They let me cook a lot of the food so I could really understand the basics like folding vine leaves, layering etc. 

Cooking is truly a science and an art. It is only when you get your hands dirty and get about doing things from scratch that you really begin to truly appreciate the food on your plate. This Boureki has humble ingredients (easily available in supermarkets) and is relatively easy to make but it requires patience (mainly because of the baking time) so I would schedule this as a lazy weekend dish or a Friday evening dish.
Hope you enjoy making and eating this Cretan delicacy. 

Ingredients

2 big potatoes peeled 

2 zucchinis 

1/2 glass whole fat milk

1 big tomato ground

 150 - 200gms Cretan Mizithra/ Feta cheese crumbled ( Feta has salt so it's your choice how little or how much you want to add. I add 150 gms and it's tastes great. If you like more cheesy flavours, then 200 gms is great)

1/2 mid-sized bundle of spearmint chopped. Substitute with mint if you can't find spearmint. 

5 tablespoon ground pepper 

8 tablespoon dried oregano

80 ml olive oil (The grandma used a LOT of it but I am being conservative. Feel free to use lesser if you want but not too less because the vegetables need to be moist inside)

Salt to taste (add very little salt if using Feta)

Method

Slice potatoes and zucchinis into rings. Not too thin and not too thick. 

In a big bowl, mix oregano, ground pepper, potato and zucchini slices. If you intend using feta cheese, then don't add salt. If you like salt, you can add just half teaspoon.

In a fairly deep oven proof vessel, add approx 5 ml oil to cover the base.

Layer the bottom of the pan with potatoes.

Top that with one layer of zucchini. 

Add some of the spearmint/mint, Mizithra/feta and tomato pulp.

Add yet another layer of potatoes and zucchini.

Add the mint, feta and tomato pulp.

Keep layering till you finish the ingredients.

Now pour the milk and the remaining olive oil over this. 

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 2 hours at 200 degrees C.

The top should be nice, crispy and roasted and the cheese should be bubbling.

Drizzle some olive oil on top and serve with wine.

If you like this recipe and would like to spend time learning Cretan recipes when you are heading to Crete, send me a message so I can give you the contact details of the workshop I attended.

For comments/feedback, please leave me a comment or send me an email at aajisthaali@gmail.com