Mosaic of Flavor: Bosnian Burek and Paradajz Salata

This monthly series is a collaboration with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. Our first class of the 2017/2018 season will be a night of Bosnian comfort food. We will be making Burek, a delicious savory stuffed pastry, and Paradajz Salata, a traditional Bosnian salad of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and cream. Burek has many variations and is a popular dish throughout the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and western Asia. Most likely originating in Turkey and brought to Bosnia during the Ottoman Empire, this Bosnian version will be thin, hand-stretched dough filled with a flavorful combination of seasoned ground beef and onions. Our class will be taught by mother and son duo, Safija and Midhat Hadzic. Midhat came to Vermont in 1999 from Doboj, Bosnia and is the Kitchen Manager at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. His mother, Safija, lives in South Burlington with her daughter, Amela, and her family who came to Vermont in 2003.