Going Greek with the Girls

Life is good with food, and it's even better when friends help you make that food! Today I spent the better half of my late morning into the evening cooking, and then eating, with two friends. One is Amelia, who is my World Vision 'boss', a BC-born, Ontario-bred Canadian girl. The other is Ontario born and bred Becky, Abby's homeroom teacher.

For weeks Amelia and I have been planning a Greek meal with a Mediterranean twist, and I just love it when plans become reality. Our menu consisted of pita bread, focaccia bread (not sure where that fits in but it was a delicious afterthought!), hummus, babaganoush, tzadziki, greek salad with REAL calamata olives (yum), and rosemary-marinated

chicken skewers. Amelia brought the fixings for sangria (my first time to try it) and although we're really not sure where this drink originated, today it was Mediterranean!

To finish it off we made an incredible honey-dripping, butter-soaked baklava. Not a bad menu for all the unusual items we had to find. This is when I am extra thankful for bags of nuts brought from home, whether via

visitors or our trip home this summer. There have also been a lot of great foreign foods in a few of the larger grocery stores in Jakarta, like phyllo pastry and calamata olives, things that sometimes are difficult to find.

Hands down, the baklava was our favourite of all the recipes we tried today, and I'd like to share the recipe with you. For years I was afraid of phyllo, thinking it was too difficult to work with. What I've discovered is that if you cover the sheets with a slightly damp towel when you are not working with them, the pastry stays moist and pliable. If you leave them in the air, they dry out quickly and tend to crack as you work with them.

Baklava Recipe:

Ingredients:

750 g phyllo pastry

2 cups chopped almonds/walnuts (we combined them)

500 g (2 cups) melted, unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

cinnamon and cloves to taste

Use a 9x13 pan. Trim the pastry to the size of the pan, and keep the leftovers for later. Using half the pastry sheets, begin by greasing pan, then laying down 2-3 sheets of pastry. Brush butter on every 2-3 sheets.

Combine the nuts, sugar and spices. Once you've used 1/2 the pastry sheets, sprinkle the nut mixture over the top. Cover the nut mixture with the leftover pastry pieces before beginning to lay down the 2nd half of the pastry. Continue to butter every 2-3 sheets until sheets are used up.

Cut into squares using a sharp knife BEFORE baking, making sure to cut through to the base.

If any butter remains, pour it over pastry, then bake at 350F approximately 1 hour or until golden brown. Immediately pour hot syrup over the top and let cool, approximately another hour.

Syrup:

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best)

a few grates of lemon zest

cinnamon stick

Boil approximately 10 minutes.

Delicious! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Highly recommended with a cup of tea.

Thanks for reading.