Zucchini & Basil Komat
The basic recipe for this flaky and fatty traditional Macedonian pastry comes from my grandma Stojna. I decided on this very un-traditional filling when I made this back in August, after I found some really nice zucchini in the Rogers Park farmers’ market.
Ingredients
500g zucchini, very thinly sliced
1 handful of basil leaves
Sour cream & lemon juice, to taste
600g flour, plus some for surface
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sunflower (or other neural) oil
125g butter, melted
small pinch of dry yeast powder
Make the filling
Pour a few glugs of oil in a pan, set heat on high, and add the sliced zucchini. Sautee for 10-15ish minutes, stirring only occasionally, and leaving the zucchini untouched for a few minutes at a time to char on the bottom. After the zucchini is very soft and slightly charred, turn the heat off. Blend the basil with the sour cream, lemon juice, salt and spices to taste. Mix the basil cream and zuchinni and put filling aside (Step 1).
Knead the dough
Mix the flour, salt, sugar, oil, and yeast in a large bowl (Step 2). Add 300ml lukewarm water, and start mixing. Once mixture is holding together, flour a clean surface and start kneading the dough until it forms a relatively smooth and bouncy ball (Step 3). Cut the ball in half, and knead each ball separately. Leave the dough to rest 15-30 minutes (shorter if your kitchen is warmer), until the dough rises a bit and is softer on the touch.
Create layers
Roll one of the dough balls into a rectangle, such that one side is about 3 times longer than the other one. With a brush or spoon spread a thin layer of melted butter (Step 4). Do a “letter fold“: fold the left third of the dough onto the middle third, and then the right third onto the middle third again. This results in a rectangle with 3 layers. Now grease the 3-layer rectangle with melted butter and repeat the fold, resulting in a square with 9 layers. Repeat with the other ball, and let the 9-layer squares rest for 15-30 minutes again (Step 5).
Fill
Grease a 40cm X 30cm rimmed baking sheet. Stretch one layered dough square into a (roughly) 30cm X 45cm large rectangle. Spread half of the filling into an even layer, and do the letter fold again, resulting in a 15cm X 30cm rectangle (Step 6). Place the rectangle on the greased sheet lengthwise, and press the edges of the rectangle with a fork, nicely enclosing the envelope. Repeat with the other half of the dough (Step 7).
Bake
Bake on 200C (400F) for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown (Step 8). If you want a crunchier crust, grease the top again with the melted butter, and return in the oven for 5 more minutes. Let rest 10 minutes, slice, and enjoy with some fermented dairy drink!
