[Sca-cooks] nafila fatima?

Wed Sep 17 03:40:21 PDT 2008

You know, I just had an idea...Dame Hauviette d'Anjou is in the throes of
finishing her ebook on period Turkish cuisine...if it's ok, I'll forward
this to her and see if she knows anything about it.

Kiri

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 6:50 PM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi and so nice of you all to come with comments and ideas!! The village
> where the special pastry (is a dessert) is made is named Vratnica and is in
> the mountains in Macedonia. A pure no mixed Macedonian village, descent
> from
> Alexander's macedonians. It is wrapped as a little envelope, not filled
> with
> custard but sticky of syrup. The dough is very tasty since it is done with
> one kilo butter and 15 eggs.
> It's not flaky as the millefeuilles but very compact.
> As I was told the recipe is an old Ottoman recipe but it's not longer made
> in modern Turkey. It's impossible also to buy it in the city of Skopje,
> it's
> made in the villages and it's consumed locally. I was lucky because I was
> invited to have lunch in the home of a lady whose mother lives in the
> village of Vratnica and sent to her the pastry-
> Ana
>
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 8:08 PM, Linda Peterson <mirhaxa at morktorn.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Ana, what did the Narfila Fatima look like when done? Bread? Dessert?
> Thin
> > sheet or piled up?
> >
> >  mirhaxa at morktorn.com
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, [ISO-8859-1] Ana Valdés wrote:
> >
> >  I had the Hortopita today in a restaurante near the monastary of Saint
> >> Pantelemon. Exquisite!! And later in my friend's place I had the pastry
> >> Nafila Fatima, made in a village in the mountains. My friends wife's
> >> mother
> >> lives still there and she is one baking it.
> >> Much better and tasty than any baklava or philodough I know.
> >> Thanks Huette!
> >> Ana
> >>
> >> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 1:54 AM, Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com
> >> >wrote:
> >>
> >>  The only nafila that I found on the internet was a Muslim prayer.
> >>>  Although
> >>> I am wondering if this is a Macedonian variation of Filo dough.  When I
> >>> put
> >>> in the words "Macedonia" "pastry" "recipe", I got this, which also
> >>> mentions
> >>> a very thin rolling pin or dowel:
> >>>
> >>> Hortopita
> >>>
> >>> My interpreter's mother (who was a commercial baker in Skopje,
> Macedonia)
> >>> used a dowel which looked to be about 3/8 to 1/2 inch in diameter and
> >>> about
> >>> 3 feet long to roll out her pastry. She used this to make the pastry
> for
> >>> her
> >>> Hortopita, which is a Greek/Macedonian baking-powder-leavened bread
> >>> stuffed
> >>> with spinach and feta cheese. It is simply fantastic the way she made
> it
> >>> -
> >>> rolling out the dough with her dowel in a long thin strip. Then she
> would
> >>> place the spinach/Feta cheese stuffing along the middle of the strip
> and
> >>> fold the dough over the stuffing. Then she would roll the stuffed dough
> >>> into
> >>> a spiral like a cinnamon roll, bake it and serve. It is no wonder that
> I
> >>> am
> >>> not weighing 500 pounds! Make it several weeks ahead, and freeze, then
> >>> thaw
> >>> and reheat it in a moderate oven. Serve it as an hors d'oeuvre or with
> >>> the
> >>> meal.
> >>>
> >>> SERVES 12 )
> >>>
> >>> Ingredients
> >>> 4 cups all-purpose flour
> >>> 1 teaspoon salt
> >>> 2 teaspoons baking powder
> >>> 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional
> >>> 2 leeks, white parts only, well washed, split, and cut into 1/4-inch
> >>> slices
> >>> 1 small onion, finely chopped
> >>> 4 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
> >>> 1 1/2 lbs spinach, well washed, dried, and roughly chopped
> >>> 1 cup parsley, finely chopped
> >>> 1/2 cup mint, finely chopped (optional)
> >>> 2 tablespoons dill, chopped
> >>> 2 1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled
> >>> 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
> >>> salt, to taste
> >>> Directions
> >>> 1)Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of two
> >>> 12-by-18-inch baking sheets.
> >>> 2)In a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add
> 1
> >>> cup cold water and 2/3 cup olive oil, and process until smooth. Remove
> >>> the
> >>> dough from the food processor, knead it into a ball with your hands,
> and
> >>> wrap loosely in plastic film. Let it sit for 10 minutes or until ready
> to
> >>> use.
> >>> 3) In a large sauté pan, heat 1/2 cup of the oil over medium heat. Add
> >>> the
> >>> leeks, onion, and scallions, and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add
> >>> the
> >>> spinach, and sauté, stirring until slightly soft, about 3 minutes.
> >>> 4) Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a medium bowl, and
> >>> add
> >>> the parsley, mint (if using), dill, feta cheese, and salt and pepper.
> >>> Taste,
> >>> and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
> >>> 5) Divide the dough into 4 pieces. On a floured surface, roll out each
> >>> piece of dough into a very thin rectangle. Brush each piece with the
> >>> remaining oil, and spread 3/4 to 1 cup of filling along the length and
> >>> center of each rectangle. Starting at one long side of each rectangle,
> >>> roll
> >>> the dough around itself to enclose the filling.
> >>> 6) Place the rolled dough seam-side down on the baking sheet, bending
> >>> each
> >>> piece to form a spiral. Brush with olive oil, and prick the surface
> here
> >>> and
> >>> there with a fork to allow steam to vent. Reduce the oven temperature
> to
> >>> 375
> >>> degrees, and bake until golden, 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven,
> and
> >>> cool slightly, cut, and serve.
> >>>
> >>> I don't think this is what you were looking for, but I was having a
> hard
> >>> time finding any recipes online that claimed to be Macedonian.
> >>>
> >>> Huette
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --- On Sun, 9/14/08, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>  From: Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com>
> >>>> Subject: [Sca-cooks] nafila fatima?
> >>>> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,
> >>>>
> >>> "sca_subtleties" <sca_subtleties at yahoogroups.com>
> >>>
> >>>> Date: Sunday, September 14, 2008, 3:48 PM
> >>>> Hi, I am in Skopje, Macedonia, in a meeting, and I am often
> >>>> invited to eat
> >>>> homemade food in people's places. Today I ate one of
> >>>> the most tasty pastry I
> >>>> ever had, it's called NAFILA FATIMA (IBeautiful Fatima,
> >>>> my hosts told me)
> >>>> and it cames from the Ottoman empire but it's no longer
> >>>> made in modern
> >>>> Turkey. It's a very rich pastry made with 15 eggs, a
> >>>> kilo butter and little
> >>>> flour. It's takes several hours to bake it, they use a
> >>>> very thin roller pin.
> >>>> I searched the Florilegium but didn't find anything
> >>>> similar. I searched in
> >>>> Google for the name but didn't got any hit.
> >>>> Do someone know what I am talking about?
> >>>> Ana
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> http://www.ekopolitan.com Grön sajt/Green
> >>
> >> http://caravia.stumbleupon.com
> >> http://www.crusading.se
> >> Gondolgatan 2 l tr
> >> 12832 Skarpnäck
> >> Sweden
> >> tel +468-943288
> >> mobil 4670-3213370
> >>
> >>
> >> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
> >> your
> >> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
> >> long
> >> to return.
> >> — Leonardo da Vinci
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> >>
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>
>
> --
> http://www.ekopolitan.com Grön sajt/Green
>
> http://caravia.stumbleupon.com
> http://www.crusading.se
> Gondolgatan 2 l tr
> 12832 Skarpnäck
> Sweden
> tel +468-943288
> mobil 4670-3213370
>
>
> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
> your
> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long
> to return.
> — Leonardo da Vinci
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