Moroccan all the way with gozleme and carrots

If you have read any of my other blogs, you know that I could live on Asian food, meatballs and pasta. Add Moroccan food to that list. Perhaps I should simply say that I could live on food. Mind you, it is pretty difficult to live without food. Ok, I could live on good food with beautiful seasoning. 

My favourite seasoning combo varies with time. For a long while it was oregano, basil and parsley, alongside tomato puree. That is still in the top threes and I use it a lot. At the moment deeper flavours are however taking the top spot in the shape of cumin, coriander and paprika. Mention those three and you have my attention. That's why Moroccan food is so tempting. Sometimes turmeric is added and that only adds to the perfection.

When elbowing my way through the Pinterest jungle, trying to weed out the good recipes from the bad ones, I came across something that looked interesting. It didn't actually mention the special spice combo, but it said Moroccan seasoning and I instantly knew what to go for.

I'm well aware that the recipe looks involved and quite time consuming. I suppose it is, but it wasn't difficult. One step at the time and you'll get there. Although I haven't tried, I think the gozlemes can be frozen, which means you can make a bigger batch and save yourself cooking another day. The recipe said 'makes 4' but they would be far too big. I made 6, but if you want to make these as snacks for an outing or as part of a buffet, I would recommend making 8 smaller ones.

Dough

 1 cup Greek yogurt

2 cups self raising flour or plain + 1 tsp baking powder

Filling

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

500 lean mince, (I used venison)

3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

2 cups spinach leaves, roughly chopped

cumin

coriander

paprika

olive oil

1. Mix the flour and yogurt and work into a dough. It will feel similar to shortcrust pastry.

2. Prepare the mince, onion and garlic.

3. Soften the onion in a little oil. 

4. Add the garlic and mince and cook until the meat is no longer pink.

5. Get the power trio out.

6. Season the mince to your liking and cook until done. Set aside to cool down.

I'm pretty sure I used salt and pepper as well. That kind of goes without saying.

7. Mix the spinach and feta cheese.

7. Add the cheese mixture to the cold mince.

8. Cut the dough into the amount of gozlemes you want to make. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a thickness of approx 2 mm. Try to keep it fairly even, so it can be folded. Cover one half with filling, leaving space around the edge.

9. Fold the dough over and nip the edge close. 

I folded the edge over to ensure it would stay closed.

10. On a low to medium heat, fry the gozlemes in a little oil.

11. Gently flip them over, taking care not to split them open.

Yes, I split one of mine, hence the warning. It is easily done. While cooking the rest of the gozlemes, I placed the done ones on a meshed baking tray.

I found that the nipped edges remained a big doughy after frying, so I tried finishing them off in the oven for approximately 10 minutes. That did the trick and the edges crisped up nicely.

12. Serve with a salad.

I opted for a carrot & feta cheese salad with chickpeas, pistachios, lemon juice and Moroccan seasoning. This was also a Pinterest recipe, one that I have used many times.

13. Enjoy!

This meal was declared a winner by my family and I'm bound to agree. I will definitely make them again. The dough was so easy to make and it could be used for all kinds of different fillings.