[Sca-cooks] nafila fatima?

[Linda Peterson]

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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>
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