Potato and Onion Bourekas

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Wrapping Dough

1. 1
   Cook the potatoes in their skins in boiling salted water, until tender.

   StovePot
2. 2
   Peel the potatoes and mash them.

   Masher
3. 3
   Thaw the puff pastry in the fridge overnight, until pliable but still cold.

   Refrigerator

   💡Work with store-bought dough while it's cold: warm puff pastry gets sticky and won't puff in the oven, and phyllo sheets dry out fast, so keep the waiting sheets covered with a damp towel.

For the Pastry Filling

1. 4
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
2. 5
   Add the onion and fry for 8–10 minutes, stirring, until the onion is soft and deep golden.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 6
   Add the cumin and fry about half a minute, until fragrant.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
4. 7
   Add the potatoes, salt and black pepper and mix well.
5. 8
   Let cool before filling.

   💡Fill with cooled filling: hot filling softens the dough and steams it from inside, and the pastry opens while baking.

To assemble

1. 9
   Roll out the dough on a work surface and cut into into squares of about 10 cm.

   Knife
2. 10
   Place a spoonful of cooled filling in the center of each piece, fold into a triangle and seal the edges well with a fork.

   💡Seal well and press with a fork all along the edges, and don't overfill: a pastry that opens in the oven loses its filling, and in the fryer it fills with oil.
3. 11
   Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

   Baking panParchment paper

   💡Brush with an egg beaten with a teaspoon of water: the glaze turns shiny and golden, and the sesame sticks to it.
4. 12
   Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C (390°F) 22–25 minutes, until the pastries are puffed and golden underneath too.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.