The Great Cypriot Bake-Off!!

Although the weather is getting hotter and hotter I guess we are approaching our 'Autumn'.  Some of my beautiful plants are beginning to lose their blooms - the bougainvillea is a case in point but I rather like the debris that is produces - the paper thin 'flowers' a strewn like confetti after a wedding and are just so colour co-ordinated with my new cushion covers.

I have earmarked tomorrow for some time in the garden, early morning or late evening when it is definitely a bit cooler to do a little cutting back and tidying up.

The clock vine has made determined progress again this year and reached the top of the railings on the roof terrace - great but we had tried to persuade it to cover the gazebo under which we have our outdoor meals!!

The bottle brush tree which was a gift from John's Mum has gone wild in the aisles this year and has almost doubled in size - I need to cut it back but it does make me itch and I find gardening with gloves on quite difficult - if nothing else my hands get super sweaty which is very unpleasant.

We had been given some Anari the last time we bought Halloumi from the village and I had asked Argy what the Cypriots usually do with it other than Bourekia which is a sort of fried pastry filled with the Anari cheese which has been mixed with flavourings like cinnamon, sugar and rose-water (unfortunately I really don't like rose-water).

Anyway Argy offered for me to have a master class with her mum Kia to learn how to make them.  As you will see from the link Anari is sort of like Ricotta and as such can be used in both savoury and sweet dishes at it takes on the flavour of the other things you mix with it.

Argy and Kia made the pastry by hand which involved an awful lot of kneading and pummeling which we reckoned was probably very good for your bingo-wings or getting rid of any tension!!!

Argy said she uses something like a pasta maker to roll her pastry super thin but Kia did it by hand.  It needed to be rolled so that it almost ressembled filo pastry because when it was fried it needed to be light, crisp and airy.

Clearly we were feeding the five thousand as the pastry was prepared in a washing up bowl but as Argy pointed out this ensured that the dough mix didn't go everywhere which was an excellent point and one which I will take on board if I am ever making pastry for an Army garrison!!  Joking aside it was a good idea as there was a fair bit of oil and water involved when mixing - no other fat though so this pastry would be fine for anyone who doesn't do dairy.  The trick was to knead and knead and in between tear the dough into lumps and then bring back together until smooth - this apparently ensures the glutens are well broken down and air brought into the mix.

Our Anari was mixed with cinnamon and sugar until it resembled cottage cheese.  We were using a kilo of cheese!!!  Both Argy and I commented on the rather strong smell it had which probably meant it was predominantly made from Goat's milk.

My job was to make the little half moon parcels from the rolled dough and the cheese mix and ensure the edges of each little parcel were sealed and crimped with a fork - all of a sudden I was reminded of a classic sketch from Steptoe and Son where the old man crimped the edge of a pie with his false teeth!!!

Here are the finished articles - often dredged in icing sugar - we decided against as the filling is pretty sweet as it is.  Argy was not happy with them because of the cheese we had used - she didn't think we had managed to get rid of the earthy animal smell from them so hers are going to be consigned to the bin.  I am not sure and will try another before following suit.