Greek delights: eating peinirli in Volos

Imagine something that is very much like my mushroom pie, just a lot bigger and stuffed with cheese instead of mushrooms. Now heat it up, cut it half-open, so you've got a pocket. Fill it with French fries and your favourite ketchup or yogurt sauce. Got that?

Well done! You've just imagined a Greek fast-food called peinirli. It looks like this:


A peinirli from "Rainbow", Volos

Peinirli is what my friend Anna and I had for a snack in the port town Volos one afternoon just over half a year ago. Although the main reason for my Greek trip last June was a wedding on Santorini, I had arrived a few days in advance in order to visit my Edinburgh friend Anna and her young family. When I asked Anna to introduce me to something that is typical to this specific Greek town, she took me to a popular peinirli joint, Rainbow.

Peinirly derives from a Turkish word 'peynirli', meaning 'cheesy', and came to Greece in early last century with the refugees from Asia Minor. Peinirli always has a cheese filling (usually a mixture of kefalograviera and kasseri cheese), but only the sky is a limit. You can add bacon, eggs, ham, minced meat or anything else you fancy into a peinirli. Whereas usually peinirli is an open boat-shaped yeast pastry with a filling (see here), then the Volos version is closed a la calzone, baked and then filled with stuff to order (above). Quite interesting - not something you'd eat every day, but a perfect snack after promenading on the seaside.

If you're wondering how come I write about something so summery in the midst of January, then let me tell you. It's snowing so heavily outside at the moment, that I could hardly see where I was going when I returned from lunch an hour ago. I thought it's a perfect opportunity to blog about something so distant and different and out of my ordinary to bring some warmth and sunny memories to my day :)

Rainbow
Iasonos 135
Tel. 35557
Volos, Pelios

Small Lebanese lamb 'pizzas' with pomegranate molasses and pomegranate seeds

Here's a recipe for some small lamb 'pizzas' that were on the table during yet another housewarming/welcome party back in December, alongside (though not necessarily simultaneously) with salmon & cream cheese canapés, grilled beetroot & suluguni cheese canapés (basically a non-rye bread no-goat cheese version of my contribution to the (in)famous Cheese Sandwich Day; Suluguni cheese was left over from hatchapuri), puff pastry sausage rolls with sesame seeds, small puff pastry & mushroom tartlettes, Molly's chocolate & nut blocks and raspberry marshmallows, among other things. These were really interesting - the pomegranate molasses adds a certain sweetness and depthness to the topping, and pomegranate seeds really make the dish sparkle. And believe me - cinnamon is the perfect pairing to the minced lamb..

The recipe is from one of the books by Sam & Sam Clark - the restaurateur couple I met in Edinburgh last March. It's a second dish from them on my blog in about a month or so - I also tried their chicpea salad with pomegranate seeds and saffron recently. Considering that I've bookmarked many other recipes, then the Clarks are probably going to make an appearance again soon:)

Small lamb 'pizzas' with pomegranate molasses & seeds
(Väikesed lambalihapirukad)
Adapted from Sam & Sam Clark's Casa Moro (p. 42, Flatbread with lamb, pine nuts & pomegranates)
Yields ca 40 small 'pizzas'



(On the top left corner you can see small salmon canapés that I first served on my birthday back in April; on the top right, small puff pastry sausage rolls with sesame seeds; at the centre at the far back, a bowl of wasabi peas)

The dough:
a batch of your favourite pizza dough or some other yeasted bread dough, using about 300 ml of liquid (I used half of the dough for my tiny mushroom pies)

The topping:
500 grams of lean lamb meat, ground
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp pomegranate molasses
50 ml water
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
peanuts

To garnish:
chopped fresh parsley
seeds from one large pomegranate

Prepare the yeast dough and let it rise according to your favourite recipe (or use half a batch of dough from here)

For the filling, grind the meat (I used the special food grinder attachment of the KitchenAid).
Heat the olive oil on a frying pan, add salt and onions and fry gently for about 7-8 minutes. Add the garlic, fry for another 3-4 minutes, until transluscent.
Add the minced lamb and cinnamon to the frying pan, increase the heat a little, and fry, stirring regularly, until the meat is browned.
Season with salt and pepper, add the pomegranate molasses and water and simmer, until water has evaporated. Remove from the heat.

When you are ready to start baking, then roll the dough thinly (ca 4 mm) on a slightly floured worktop. Cut out small circles ca 5-6 cm in diametre (I used a smallish drinking glass for that). Place them on a parchment-paper covered baking sheet.
Place a scant spoonful of lamb filling on each dough disc, pressing down gently. Sprinkle with pine nuts.
Bake at 230C for 10 minutes or until they're cooked and golden on edges.
Transfer to a metal rack to cool, then sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and lots of chopped parsley to serve.

Cheap & quick entertaining: a curried parsnip soup

A cheap and quick starter wasn't intentional last night, it just kind of happened. We had four guests (well, five, if you also count my friends' 6-month old daughter Matilda) over for dinner on Saturday night, eating smoked salmon & dill tartlets for starters, beetroot & blue cheese risotto for main course & chocolate souffles for afters. These all required attention and some last-minute TLC. On Sunday we had some guests over again, but this time we couldn't afford any hectic last-minute running-around. We visited my parents in the afternoon, didn't get back until late and there was just an hour to prepare a dinner in the evening.

We needed something quick and preferably something that could be prepared ahead. K, the pastry chef of the house, made some panna cottas in the morning (plus the guests brought along a mascarpone & cherry cheesecake!). I quickly decided to make Rachel Allen's Moroccan Chicken Tajine as the main course, but couldn't really make up my mind about the starter. Until I remembered those three chunky parsnips that I had bought before (gasp!) Christmas but never got around to making anything with them.

A cheap & simple curried parsnip soup was the resulting starter. Quickly made in the late morning and simply re-heated for a few minutes later. The guests arrived in the midst of a minor snow blizzard, so this heart-warming soup was spot on.

If you cannot find parsnips, then try this dreamy carrot & orange soup instead.

Curried parsnip soup
(Karri-pastinaagisupp)
Serves 6



2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 medium parsnips, cut into smallish chunks
3 tsp mild to medium curry powder
1 litre hot vegetable stock (Marigold is fine)
100 ml single cream
salt
freshly ground black pepper

To garnish:
fresh chopped parsley

Heat the oil, add chopped onion and garlic and fry gently for about 7-8 minutes, until the onion starts to soften. Add parsnip chunks, stir to coat with oil. Cover the saucepan and let the vegetables to sweat in their own steam for a few minutes.
Stir in the curry powder, add the vegetable bouillon and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Let the soup cool, then puree with a blender.
When you are ready to serve, add cream and re-heat gently.
Garnish with parsley.