Bosnian meat burek (Burek)

1. Chop the onions very finely (or grate them) and work them thoroughly into the minced meat by hand with salt, pepper and 3-4 tablespoons of water; don't brown the meat first – it goes into the pastry raw.

2. Spread out the filo sheets and drizzle each lightly with oil; lay two sheets on top of each other.

3. Put a strip of the filling along the long edge of the double sheet and roll it up into a loose, long rope.

4. Coil the ropes side by side in a spiral, starting from the centre of an oiled round baking tin (the characteristic snail shape of Bosnian burek), until the tin is full.

5. Brush the top generously with oil and bake in an oven preheated to 200 °C for 40-45 minutes until golden and crisp; at the end, sprinkle with 100 ml of hot water, cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes so the pastry softens inside.

6. Serve in slices with cold yoghurt – in Bosnia, yoghurt and burek are inseparable.

Tip: In Bosnia and Herzegovina only the meat version is called burek; with cheese it's sirnica, with spinach zeljanica and with potato krompiruša. Don't let the filo dry out before baking – keep it under a damp tea towel.