I have been remiss in posting a recipe for Penerli, a fried cheese boreg, sent to me ages ago from Mark Gavoor, an occasional reader of our blog/website and self-proclaimed eater. (Forgive me, Mark!) He suggested we preserve and document this amazing recipe. I intended to prepare the recipe in order to have a photo to attach, but fried foods and I don’t get along, and the opportunity to make it for others never came to be.
Since I am not one to let a delicious-sounding recipe fall by the wayside, I am posting it sans photo. However, if a penerli photo becomes available, I will include it at a later date.
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| Mark Gavoor |
Gavoor, a musician and poet, played a gig with his band a while back at St. Hagop Church, Racine, Wisconsin, where, he said they make and sell an amazing cheese puff/beoreg called ‘penerli’.
Mark sent me the following recipe, saying:
“The recipe is in the very well done and historical cook book from St. Hagop Church, 4100 N Newman Rd, Racine, WI 53406. Daughters and granddaughters lovingly provided a bio. and photo of their mother and grandmother along with the recipe the 1st generation lady was best known for. Miranie Munagian’s specialty was Penerli. Here it is and it is quite simple. I hope I am not wasting your time but the deep frying does make it quite tasty when eaten immediately.”
Penerli (Fried Cheese Boreg – or Armenian Fried Ravioli!)
Dough:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
Filling:
1 lb. brick cheese
5-6 sprigs parsley chopped
Directions:
Melt butter and add warm water. Mix in eggs and salt. Add flour gradually and knead until flour is (workable), ~5-10 mins. Let rest, covered with plastic for about an hour. Place dough on floured surface and roll out to about 36" in diameter. Grate brick cheese, add chopped parsley and mix. Place cheese mixture in mounds on half of the rolled out dough. Bring the other half over the mounds of cheese and cut out squares or circles (whatever you prefer). Crimp edges with fork or fingers.
Deep fry in (hot vegetable) oil. (Brown on both sides.) Drain on paper towels. Enjoy.