[Sca-cooks] period baklava-like pastry was: Period Greek Recipes

Anne-Marie Rousseau dailleurs at liripipe.com
Sat Apr 7 00:07:58 PDT 2007


I am asked by the gentle Lilinah:
 [BTW, Anne Marie, what IS the Turkish baklava heresy?]

please remember that this is as explained to me by my VERY greek roommate
some years ago, and said with a smile on her face as she imitated the little
old ladies who make baklava for St Demetries festival every year.

The Turks do not make baklava, she would say imitating their thick greek
accent and sneer (once she even put a napkin on her head. I about lost it it
was so funny). It is too dry. And tasteless. It crumbles like dust (sniff of
derision). Baklava MUST have the syrup, and just the right amount of syrup
so that it is moist and perfect. 

There is apparently some debate on flavoring the syrup, and honey vs sugar.
We wont even go into what nuts are approved for baklava use. I am told that
family members have been disowned for less.

Me, I like it so the top is crisp and the bottom layers are just gooshy
enough that it holds together with a fork but not so gooshy it drips. I like
my syrup to be sugar, water, some lemon juice and a bit of cinnamon. I
prefer my nuts to be a mix of almonds and pistachios.

But then I'm not greek ;). (nor am I Turkish). That said, I do have my greek
roomies recipe for baklava and once I find the perfect pan (of course the
pan is EVERYTHING!) I'm going to give it a shot :)

--AM





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