I call them burek. You could call them Iraqi egg rolls — that is what they look like coming out of the oil, and it is the fastest way to explain them to anyone who has not had one. Spiced beef with browned pine nuts, rolled in egg roll wrappers and fried until the outside shatters. This is the full batch, about 48, because the whole point is having them in the freezer.
Ingredients
The Filling
- 4 lb ground beef or lamb
- 2–3 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium onions, finely diced
- ½ cup pine nuts
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 3 Tbsp biryani spice
- 2 Tbsp allspice
- 2–3 tsp salt, plus pepper
- Jalapeño, finely diced, to taste
To Roll and Fry
- 4 packages egg roll or spring roll wrappers
- Water, for sealing
- Neutral oil, for frying
Instructions
- Brown the onion. In the olive oil, until softened and taking color.
- Brown the pine nuts. Add them to the onion and keep going until they brown too. Do not skip this — raw pine nuts give you nothing.
- Add the meat. Cook until no longer pink.
- Season. Stir in the garlic, parsley, biryani spice, allspice, salt and pepper.
- Cool it completely. All the way cold before it goes near a wrapper. Warm filling steams the wrapper from the inside and you lose the crisp.
- Fill and roll. Spoon the filling onto each wrapper and roll tightly, sealing the edge with water. Add a little diced jalapeño before rolling to whichever ones you want hot.
- Fry. Oil hot before the first one goes in. Turn them once they brown, and lift them out golden and crisp.
- Cool before freezing. All the way to room temperature first, then freeze.
I put jalapeño in some of them and not others, so there is heat in the batch without it being in every single one. Mark the spicy ones or do not — that part is up to you.