Ofto Kleftiko

July 2, 1976, Kofinou. My mother married my father in 1968 in Agios Amvrosios, Kyrenia. Shortly after the wedding, she learned how to fire up the wood-fired oven. The displacement found her in Kofinou in 1975, facing a harsh daily life. She would wake up at dawn to feed the animals we kept in the backyard, and then go to the slaughterhouse to get fresh meat for our butcher shop. Next to the butcher shop was our family restaurant, where she would start her work long before sunrise. Meanwhile, my father would travel all over Cyprus at the same time to find and buy the best animals. Pistou's (my mother's) Ofto Kleftiko was therefore made with great soul and 'meraki' (passion), and that's why it remains one of her best recipes. When I was born on July 2, 1976, I had already smelled the aroma of Ofto many times. That's why I have a special connection with this recipe. It moves me, because within its ingredients, the human hope that is so evident in my Pistou's face is diffused.