You can enjoy kolokotes as snack, complemented with yogurt, labne, or fresh cheese; drizzled with honey, date or any fruit molasses they become a lovely dessert. 

Marilena Ioannides’ recipe is by far the best I have tried –and I did try lots over the years. She bakes the pies on camera –speaking Greek with no subtitles, unfortunately; but consulting my recipe below you can easily follow and understand how to make these simple, exquisite pies.

To collect the old, traditional dishes she included in her book Cyprus Food Treasures, Marilena traveled all over the island, even to the remotest villages, and managed to find some incredible dishes! Often they are the missing link between age-old foods we read about in old manuscripts and the more recent variations we still encounter in parts of Greece or in other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean.

NOTE in the video as she prepares the pies leisurely, in real time, she weighs all ingredients –even the olive oil and water– as she adds them, one by one in the bowl of the mixer, zeroing her electronic scale just before adding a new item. This is a wonderful trick that helps cooks use a minimum of  bowls and other measuring utensils. 

My recipe is adapted from Marilena Ioannides’ Kolokotes. I have increased the amount of raisins and doubled the pepper; also substituted fennel seeds for the fresh wild fennel she suggests.

Makes 6 large pies

For the DOUGH:

1 pound bread flour or a combination of pasta flour and all purpose flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

70 grams olive oil

250 grams very hot or boiling water —the secret to make smooth, elastic dough

For the FILLING:

2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

100 grams bulgur (medium not fine)

150 grams raisins

30 grams olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 -1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (I like it peppery)

1 teaspoon coarsely ground fennel seeds

Make the dough tossing the flour, salt, and olive oil in the bowl of a standing mixer. With the motor running pour in the hot water on the side, and work to obtain a soft, slightly sticky dough. Wrap in oiled plastic wrap and set aside. You can make the dough the previous day, refrigerate, wrapped, and bring to room temperature before proceeding further.

For the filling cut the squash in very thin slices, then in small cubes, matchsticks, or any kind of tiny bits. Add salt, olive oil and the raisins, then work with your hands to somewhat soften the squash.

Stir in the bulgur, cinnamon, pepper, and fennel seeds, and toss well to mix. 

Divide the dough into 6 pieces. (Marilena makes 7 pies but I find it difficult to divide the dough into an even number; I only use the scale for the filling).   

Preheat the oven to 150C  (about 300F) in convection mode. 

Roll each piece into roughly a 25 cm round, and place one sixth of the filling in the center, weighing all the filling  dividing the number into 6, then portioning and weighing 1/6th for each pie. Stir the filling each time before you take a portion as the moisture tends to go to the bottom.

Fold the round of dough to cover the filling; seal and crimp the edge, making sure the pie is completely closed so that the squash, bulgur etc. bake and steam inside the crust. Place the pies carefully on baking trays lined with parchment paper, and bake in the middle of the oven for 45 min to 1 h –until lightly colored on top and bottom.

If you bake both pans at the same time, change positions after 30 minutes, turning also the pans back to front.

Let the kolokotes cool on a rack or on thick kitchen towels before cutting to eat.

The flavor is infinitely better after they are completely cold, and I find that it is even better the next day! 

Keep on the counter for 2-3 days, if you manage to resist devouring them. You can also freeze and slowly reheat any leftover pies. 

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See also my previous recipe.

Frosso gave me the recipe she had gotten from Mrs Dandoura, mother of her class-mate and best friend Chrysouli who recently passed. Mrs Dandoura had learned to make kourambiedes from her mother and grandmother. They came from a wealthy, shipping Galaxidi family, a town 15 klm southwest of Delphi that had flourished in the 18th and through the 19th century as a result of maritime trade and commercial exchanges with the West due to its exquisite natural port.

Calculating the generations that baked these festive cookies, we concluded that the recipe must be at least 200 years old.  Thus kourambiedes were not, as the Greek version of Wikipedia cites “brought by prosfyges (refugees),”  the Anatolian Greek population who fled after the defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) from Smyrna (Izmir) and other parts of Turkey. Prosfyges did, indeed, introduce quite a few special foods to Palaioelladites —the local Greeks– but certainly kourambiedes were already part of the local festive table in many parts of the country.  

Probably the word kourabies (plural kourabiedes) derives from Qurabiya a Persian and/or Arabic word with many variations, used for similar short-bread cookies throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and north Africa. Often sprinkled or with the addition of rose or citrus-flower water, I have not seen any version of these cookies that contained so many spices, and I just imagine that the cosmopolitan Galaxidi merchants were maybe inspired by the festive European/Grerman cookies. But this is my assumption, as I am also baking Pfeffernüsse and Lebkuchen these days…

Paula Wolfert in her wonderful 1988 book ‘Paula Wolfert’s World of Food‘ has a version of kourabiedes she calls ‘Greek Butter-Almond Cookies’ and over the years she kept telling me how amazing they were. As she wrote in the headnote she served them in her wedding, as many Greek families do.  

Makes about 30 large or 40 small cookies.

1 1/3 cup butter, or a combination sheep’s milk and regular butter, oftened

 1/4  cup confectioner’s sugar, plus about 2 cups to coat the baked cookies

1  egg yolk

2  tablespoons mastic-flavored liqueur, ouzo, Pernod, or any anise-flavored liqueur 

1  cup un-skinned almonds, toasted in the oven for about 20 minutes and coarsely chopped 

2 1/2 -3 cups unbleached cake or all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (optional)

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

About 1/4 of a nutmeg, freshly ground

1/2  teaspoon ground cinnamon

About 1/4 cup citrus-blossom water to sprinkle the cookies

In a food processor or electric mixer, beat the butter for about 6 minutes until very light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and the the egg yolk, and continue beating, then add the liqueur or ouzo and process for 2-3 minutes more.

Sift the flour with the baking powder, and the spices.

Fit the processor with a dough hook and gradually add the flour. Process the mixture for just a couple of minutes, until a soft dough forms. Add the almonds and process until the dough is smooth again, about 1 minutes more.

Preheat the oven to 350º F (180º C).

Shape tablespoons of dough into round, oval, or crescent-shaped cookies, and place on a cookie sheet, leaving about 1 inch between the cookies so that they won’t stick together as they expand.

Alternatively flatten the dough on the work surface making about 1/3 inch thick squares, and with small cookie cutters cut rounds, squares or crescents. Collect and flatten the leftover dough, then cut into shapes again.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until pale golden. Cool for 5 minutes then sprinkle with the flower water.

Spread 2 cups confectioners’ sugar on a large serving plate. Very carefully, because they break easily, roll each cookie in the sugar, and place on a rack to cool.

Proceed with all the cookies, adding more sugar to the plate as necessary.

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You can whip them up in minutes.

Feta in Phyllo

I first had this feta package in Eumelia, the Organic Agrotourism Farm in southern Peloponnese. Marilena, the owner, cook, and instructor, served us a large, home-rolled phyllo and feta package, which as she explained, she prepares in advance, freezes, and then briefly fries in hot olive oil whenever she needs to present a quick snack or meze. Her twist on the common phyllo triangles served at most taverns is that the thin slices of feta inside the frozen package are adequately heated through as the package is fried, becoming particularly delicious. The soft cheese does not disintegrate inside the crunchy phyllo, as in the most common versions of this appetizer. Uri Eshet at Kea Retreat serves the packages with sliced figs, and you can pair them with various fresh fruit and or fruit preserves.

Drizzled with honey or any syrup, and sprinkled with sesame seeds or nigella, I bet that this very easy, convenient, and amazing morsel, whipped up with commercial phyllo, will become your next favorite appetizer.  

Bouyourdi

This absolutely irresistible meze is a somewhat recent addition to the summer menu of Greek taverns. It probably has its roots in the fried or grilled peppers with batzos – a quite pungent, semi-hard cheese from Thessaly and Macedonia. The irresistible meze was probably first served in taverns in Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, and was eventually adopted by home and restaurant cooks all over Greece.

The name of the dish is itself significant in its insignificance – it really means nothing and has no relation to the meze or its ingredients. Bouyourdi – from the Turkish buyrultu (petition or written order) – is a word that has been incorporated into our vernacular since Ottoman times and has a quite unpleasant ring, mostly used in expressions like ‘I got the tax bouyourdi,’ implying that one must pay lots of taxes.

But this bouyourdi has nothing to do wuth taxes, and everyone loves to place and receive this meze order!

RECIPES:

Feta Fried in Phyllo Packages     

Bouyourdi: Roasted Feta with Tomato and Peppers

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Chef Uri Eshet at Kea Retreat serves the packages with sliced figs; you can pair them with other fresh, seasonal fruit and/or with fruit preserves. Drizzle with honey or any syrup, and sprinkled with sesame seeds or nigella, if you like.

I bet that this easy, convenient, and delicious morsel, whipped up with commercial phyllo, will become your next favorite appetizer.  The pieces are quite filling, so one per person is enough.

To make 9 feta-phyllo packages

About 1 pound feta, or more, cut into somewhat less than 1 cm (about 1/3-inch) slices –no need for perfect slices, it doesn’t matter if fata breaks into smaller pieces

6 sheets phyllo dough, preferably thick

1/3 cup or more Olive Oil, as needed, to brush the phyllo

Honey, maple syrup, or agave syrup for drizzling

1/3 cup Sesame or Nigella seeds to sprinkle (optional)

Fresh mint leaves, for serving

Spread a piece of parchment paper on a light a cutting board that can be transferred to the freezer.

Lay 1 sheet of phyllo on the work surface and brush with olive oil. Place another sheet of phyllo on top of the first, brushing with olive oil as before.

Cut the sheets crosswise in two and then cut each half lengthwise into three equal strips.

You now have 6 strips, each about 3 inches wide. (Note: When working with phyllo, keep the sheets covered and moist. To do so, stack the phyllo sheets on a work surface and cover with plastic wrap and then a damp kitchen towel.)

Place 1 or more pieces of feta, to make about a 7 cm (3-inch) square on one end of a phyllo strip. Gently roll it over to wrap the cheese in phyllo. The wrapped piece will have two exposed sides. Now place it on a second strip of phyllo and roll up to completely encase the feta in phyllo.

Repeat with the remaining feta slices and phyllo. Lightly brush the tops with olive oil and transfer to the freezer. After 24 hours you can transfer the frozen, hard phyllo packages to a zip log bag. They keep for up to 4 months.

Just when you want to serve, brush a nonstick skillet with olive oil, heat it and fry the packages about 3 minutes on each side, until well browned. Serve immediately drizzled with honey or any syrup, and sprinkled with seeds, if you like, and fresh mint leaves.  

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I have changed it very slightly, and it has become part of our family’s permanent repertoire, one of our favorite casseroles. The name briani or briami, probably comes from the Persian biryan, which is also the ancestor of the more well-known Indian biryani. In the traditional Greek briami there is no rice, just a medley of summer vegetables baked in the oven.

Maria Kaneva in her book The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery, describes a baked rice, potato, and tomato piryan —the Bulgarian name— and writes that there are many versions of the dish, which can be traced to the Balkans in the Middle Ages. The Albanian version is much more interesting for me, because the rice is basically cooked in milk, and feta, along with peppers are giving it an additional flavor kick!  

My friend Stamatia Stylou, a Greek-Albanian makes yet another version of the dish, with scallions and dill, instead of peppers, and no feta, which she served on the side.  I make it often following her recipe, which I included in my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts. Our friends love it as much as her young grandsons, who ask her to make it for them every time they visit. 

Both these are ‘poor-man’s’ versions, but the flavors are rich despite their humble, vegetable ingredients. When lamb, kid or chicken were available, Stamatia said that they cooked and boned the meat, mixed it with the rice, and then baked it with a combination of broth and milk.  It was customary to flavor the meat versions with chervil and green fenugreek instead of dill.

Briani was also made with chopped lamb’s liver and other innards. Stamatia’s grandmother even cooked briani with eel , whenever they happened to catch one in the local stream! The chilies in the variation are my humble addition to this dish.  I always prepare it well in advance and let it cool before serving, which allows the flavors to come together.

RECIPE: Albanian Briani: Baked Rice with Milk, Feta, Peppers, and Dill 

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Make the mousse a day ahead, or even a couple of days before. When you are about to serve the dessert, assemble the pre-baked puff pastry and serve the mousse on the side.  

Serves 6-8  

About 15 -20 apricots, halved, pitted and roasted in the oven until soft. If they are unripe and sour, sprinkle with some sugar, if you like.

Pre-baked Puff pastry

1 1/2-2 cups  apricot jam, preferably homemade or good quality store-bought

The Mousse

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

6-10 rose geranium leaves or more, to taste, or use a few teaspoons store-bought rose geranium syrup, to taste

1 1/2 cups full-fat Greek yogurt

3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Apricot Jam for serving

Coarsely chopped pistachios for serving

Make the Mousse: Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup milk in a small bowl and let stand for 2-3 minutes to soften.

In a saucepan, over moderate heat, bring the remaining milk, the rose geranium leaves and all the sugar to a boil. Simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the gelatin mixture and turn off the heat. Stir vigorously on the stove until the gelatin dissolves completely. Pour the mixture into a metal bowl, add place it over an ice-water bath to cool rapidly.

Let cool for 15-20 minutes, stirring often until cold. Remove the leaves, if you have used them, add the yogurt and whisk to incorporate. Taste, and if you had not geranium leaves, add a couple of teaspoons rose geranium syrup, to taste.

Whip the heavy cream with a hand-held mixer until it gets a good amount of body. Fold the cream into the cooled milk-yogurt mixture. It must be completely incorporated. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes, or until it starts to set.

You can let the cream set overnight in the bowl. Take out of the refrigerator and stir the cream a few times before assembling the mousse.

The Tart: On a square or rectangular plate place a piece of the pre-baked puff pastry. Spread generously with apricot jam and place one more piece of baked puff pastry on top. 

Spread generously with more apricot jam and arrange the roasted apricots on top. 

Sprinkle generously with pistachios and serve with the mousse.  

Assembling the mousse:
Add 1-2 tablespoons of apricot jam at the bottom of each serving glass and then divide the chilled mousse evenly among them. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.

Serve sprinkled with pistachios, if you like.

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Two pieces 13.5-inch X 11.5-inch (34X30 cm)

1 package (500 grams) good quality frozen puff pastry

About 1/2 cup or more coarsely ground almonds (optional) 

Take the frozen pastry out of the freezer and let on the counter for about 20 minutes, just to soften somewhat, but not completely.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (375 F). 

Line a baking dish with parchment paper, and if you like, sprinkle with half the almonds.  Carefully unroll the pastry but still hold it with the plastic it is rolled with, as you lay it carefully on the parchment-lined baking sheet, then unpeel and discard the plastic. 

Place a sheet of parchment paper over the pastry and gently press with your palms to even it and help the almonds stick to the bottom of the pastry. If you like, sprinkle more almonds on top of the pastry, before covering with the paper.  

Cover with a baking sheet that fit right on top of the parchment-topped pastry and place the two baking sheets in the middle of the heated oven.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes of more, until the puff pastry is golden brown and fully baked. 

Uncover and let cool, then cut in half and use as base and/or a layer to make seasonal fruit or pastry cream sweets in minutes.

STORAGE: When completely cold, wrap the baked pastry in parchment paper, and keep in a cupboard, sealed in a plastic bag. Keeps for a month or more.

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Since the water jar has a small opening, small pieces of meat and vegetables were inserted in the jar, which was then sealed with dough and slow-roasted in the wood-fired oven.

On the other hand, ‘Arni Kleftiko’ (Guerillas’ Lamb) is a variation of the previous recipe. It was a simpler dish the guerillas prepared and baked in holes in the ground, where just a few charcoals warmed the stones keeping a slow, smokeless fire that didn’t betray their position, as they roasted pieces of lamb or goat wrapped in leaves and goat or lamb skin. ‘Kleftiko’ included small pieces of aged, spicy cheese, and is flavored with lemon and herbs. Unfortunately the Kleftiko most taverns make today, has lots of mostly melted cheese and it is far from the original recipe, I feel. 

The version of ‘Arni Stamnas’ I puiblished in my first book was given to me by Electra Kalamboka from Kavalla in northern Greece, and it is obviously a more contemporary recipe with tomatoes, which came to be a common ingredient in Greek cooking around the end of the 19^th cen. after Greece became an independent country.  

Somehow merging the two previous recipes, to cook chicken wrapped in parchment paper. Placing the wrapped food in a clay pot enhances the flavors, as it slows the roasting even further.

Serve with bulgur pilaf, or with plain olive-oil-and- pepper spaghetti or orzo, dousing the pasta with the delicious Kleftiko juices.

Serves 4-5

About 650 grams boned and skinned Chicken Thighs

3 medium carrots, sliced lengthwise and cut into 3-4 inch pieces

1 medium purple onion, halved and sliced

3 small eggplants –about 800 grams

5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1 lemon, halved to remove the pips then thinly sliced, PLUS more lemon juice as needed

3 bell peppers (red, green and yellow) seeded and cut into strips

150 grams hard, aged goat’s or sheep’s milk cheese cut  into small pieces (I used some leftover  Manoura of Sifnos (the cheese that ages in wine dregs) BUT any hard, spicy & salty goat’s or sheep’s milk cheese is fine –try the very hard aged mizithra, or aged, hard Pecorino. 

About 1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, preferably the one with the seeds

Ground coriander seeds, cumin, salt and lots of Aleppo pepper)

A few branches of thyme and/or oregano, and dried Greek oregano to sprinkle at the end

Preheat the oven to 175 C (350 F).

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss well, then cut two large pieces of parchment paper placing them one on top of the other in the pan –clay or Dutch oven that you plan to roast the food in.

Close the paper to cover the food and place the cover on top of the pan.

Bake for about 3 hours, opening after 2 hours to check and maybe taste the juices, correcting the seasoning with more salt, pepper, or olive oil.

When everything is almost fully cooked, open the parchment paper and continue roasting to get some color and caramelize the top of the vegetables.

Sprinkle with oregano and serve.

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Cut into chunks a couple of small, longish, tender eggplants, some peeled butternut squash, one or two bell peppers, add a sliced onion and a couple of garlic cloves and douse them all with olive oil; sprinkle with some cumin, ground coriander seeds, oregano or thyme, plenty of Aleppo (or Maras) pepper flakes and of course salt, and bake in the center of the oven for about 45 minutes, tossing once after 30 minutes or so.  

For my 15×12 inch (37×32 cm) deep pan I used about 1 1/2 pounds squash and more or less the same weight of tender (no seeds) eggplants.

I find that squash and eggplant complement beautifully each other! But by all means, if you want to use any other seasonal vegetables, the same formula more or less works for zucchini, or with sliced fennel bulb instead of the squash etc. 

A medium onion, thickly sliced, and a couple of coarsely chopped garlic cloves are essential. Add 2 or 3 bell peppers, any color you like, and drizzle with plenty of olive oil –I would say that I used about 1/2 cup. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cumin, plus about 2 tablespoons ground coriander seeds, and 2 teaspoons oregano or thyme. Add salt and pepper of course and toss very well –your hands or 2 large spatulas are needed here. 

Bake in a medium-high oven (about 400F, 200 C) for about 45 minutes.

Just before serving, sprinkle with plenty of fresh or dried thyme or oregano. Adding it at the end enhances the aromas and flavors tremendously. 

Don’t forget to line your pan with parchment paper so that cleaning it afterwards is dead easy!

These roasted vegetables are great hot, warm or room temperature. If you refrigerate the leftovers, heat in a low oven or in the microwave. 

You can also use them as the base to make an omelette, especially my favorite Frittata-stratta. 

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Lemon zest and plenty of coarsely ground pepper give the dish a lovely kick, while crumbled feta adds a very welcomed tanginess.

This is the more conventional and elegant way to make the dish, besides the One-pot version with Fava, Asparagus, and Spinach that I posted last year.

Serves 3-4

About 1/3 cup (70ml) fruity olive oil, more for drizzling

3 spring onions (scallions) –white, plus most of the green part, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

About 1 ½  pounds fresh fava pods, cut into 2 cm (1-inch) pieces; shack  the larger pods, keeping only the very fresh fava pods whole

2 tablespoons ground coriander seeds

1 cup white wine

Salt, to taste

2 ounces (360 grams) linguine or spaghettini

A good bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped –leaves and tender stems

3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or more, to taste

Zest of  ½- 1 lemon

½-1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, or more, to taste 

Crumbled feta cheese, for serving (optional)

In a deep skillet or sauté pan warm the olive oil over medium-high heat and briefly sauté the scallions and garlic. Add the fava, toss and sauté for 5-8 minutes, stir in the coriander and gradually add the wine and a little water, just half a cup or so, until the fava is almost cooked. If it is tender, like ours it does not take long.

Until this point you may prepare the pasta ‘sauce’ a few hours in advance.

About 20 mnutes from the time you plan to serve, bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil and cook the pasta at least 2 minutes less than the recommended ‘al dente’ time.

Keep the skillet with the fava over low heat, and ass soon as the pasta is ready, transfer with tongs to the fava, or drain it, reserving 2 cups of the cooking water before dropping it to the fava, adding the parsley, lemon juice and 1 cup pasta water. Toss over medium heat, adding salt and pepper, along with half the lemon zest. Taste and if you think it needs to cook more, add more pasta water.

Correct the seasoning, drizzle with fruity olive oil and serve at once, sprinkling with the rest of the lemon zest, and crumbled feta, if you like.

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