Cooking with Koula Part III - Kreatotourta, Pilafi & Stamnagathi

This past Saturday we made meat pie, pilafi and horta. Well, Koula made it and we watched, although we did chip in and contribute some soft labor like pulling the mint leaves off the stalks, brushing the pan with oil, etc. In addition to Luella and I, Debra Papadinoff, the president of the CIC, was there. I had exchanged several emails with her regarding an article of mine that they published in the CIC Times, and it was nice to finally meet her in person. As soon as I saw her I realized that she had been on the March 28 CIC trip that I attended, but we had never been formally introduced.


While we waited for a goat's leg to boil, we enjoyed some coffee, bread, cookies and chit-chat.

Once the leg was cooked, Koula set about tearing the meat into bite-sized pieces.



The mixture called for two different types of cheese - malaka (yes, that's actually what it's called, for those of you familiar with the derogatory Greek term), and mizithra. Salt, pepper, mint, oregano, cinnamon and lemon juice also went into the mixture.




And the mixture goes into the pan, which is lined with a dough that was made using yeast and eggs. This is the first time we've made dough like this during my lessons with Koula.





The mixture is then liberally "dotted" with staka, a 100% fat cream in clotted form.






The dough for the top crust is rolled on, cut around the edges, tucked in and then covered with two beaten eggs and sesame seeds.





Straining the broth from the goats leg into the pan in which the pilafi will be made. Pilafi is a traditional Cretan rice dish served at weddings, and seems a whole lot like risotto to me (although there are subtle differences, and pilafi seems easier to make).




Stamnagathi, a type of horta (wild green). I've been eating a lot of this since coming here. It's usually boiled (as it was here) but I've also steamed it to good effect. It's then served with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.




As someone who doesn't even hit the 5" mark, I can appreciate this shot of Koula standing on a chair to reach the dishes in the cupboard. Story of my life!




Meat pie, fresh out of the oven. My salivary glands really kicked into action at this point.






The cooked horta.







The pilafi simmering on the stove.








This isn't the wine we had with lunch, but Koula wanted to share a taste of this rose which her uncle made (at least I think that's who she said made it...please leave a comment to correct me if I'm mistaken, Koula!). It's a blend of Kotsifali (red) and Vilana (white) grapes, and the color was a gorgeous, pale amber-salmon. This was just harvested last fall, so it still tasted very tight, but given a few months I think this will turn into quite a nice wine.


The table is set...










And then we ate:-D







Koula sent us each home with some goodies:

Wild sage, which I bundled and hung in my kitchen and have since used to mix with mountain tea...yum!








And cardamom pods that her sister brought back from a recent trip to Egypt. Luella suggested mixing the seeds from one of the pods into my coffee grounds, which I have done and which tastes SO nice. I'm afraid this might become habit-forming!



Koula sent us home with a copy of the recipe for the meat pie, except it wasn't really a copy because her printer had run out of ink or something, so she hand-wrote it out for each of us! Although I feel bad that she went to all that work, it's kind of cool to have an original, handwritten recipe from a published author of a cook-book:-)