Pourekia with Anari Cheese "46 moments of my life"
1977, Kofinou. I am just one year old and I am blowing powdered sugar off my mother's freshly baked pourekia, while simultaneously eating the pastry, especially the crispy edges. I don't remember this image, but my mother often tells me about it to explain the weakness I still have for her pourekia. As a small child, in primary school, I used to help her make pourekia. My siblings and I would wake up at 4:00 AM to open the restaurant for the hunters who stopped there to rest and have breakfast. Two huge pots, one with avgolemono (egg-lemon soup) and the other with trahanas (fermented wheat soup), kourpes (a type of pastry), and pourekia—this is what breakfast consisted of. The pourekia were large. My mother would roll out a large round pastry, about 16-18 cm, put plenty of anari cheese with its aromatics inside, and fold it in half. Then she would press the edges with a fork. I remember they were snapped up immediately!
INGREDIENTS
For the Dough
- • 1 kg hard flour (Village style)
- • 1 teaspoon (8g) salt
- • 2 tablespoons (20ml) lemon juice
- • ¼ cup (60ml) rose water
- • 2 sachets (20g) vanilla powder
- • ½ cup (115ml) sunflower oil
- • 1 ¾ cups (430ml) room temperature water
For the Anari Filling
- • 1 kg unsalted anari cheese (myzithra)
- • ⅔ cup (160g) sugar
- • 1 well-filled teaspoon (5g) freshly ground cinnamon
- • ¼ cup (60ml) rose water
- • 2 sachets (20g) vanilla powder
- • Cornstarch (Niseste) for rolling out the dough
- • 2 cups (460ml) sunflower oil, for frying
- • Powdered sugar for dusting
METHOD
For the Dough:
- 1. In a bowl or the mixer bowl, place the flour and salt and mix. Add the lemon juice, rose water, and vanilla and mix. Make a well in the center of the flour, pour in the sunflower oil, and 'rice' it. That is, rub it with our palms until coarse crumbs form, or mix with the mixer hook.
- 2. Gradually add the water and knead for 5 minutes or until you achieve a soft dough.
- 3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it 'rest' for 1 hour.
Making the Anari Filling:
- 1. In a bowl, place the anari cheese and mash it with a fork. Add the sugar, cinnamon, rose water, and vanilla. Mix well. Divide the dough into 4-5 pieces. Shape them into balls. Sprinkle the surface where you will roll out the dough with cornstarch and place the balls on top. Take one ball of dough and roll it out with a rolling pin or with the pasta machine, depending on the size you want your pourekia to be. If we roll it with the machine, take a piece of dough, roll it slightly with the rolling pin, and then roll it through setting 2 of the machine and then setting 5. (My machine's setting 1 is the thickest dough and setting 7 is the thinnest). If we roll it with a rolling pin, then we roll out a large rectangular sheet about 14 cm wide.
- 2. Place about 1 well-filled teaspoon of anari filling in the center of the dough, and the next ones about 7-8 cm apart. Fold the dough over, so it meets the anari filling. Press lightly around the filling to seal the edges of the dough. Cut with a round cutter, or with the special tool, forming a half-moon shape.
- 3. If we prefer, we can cut our pourekia into squares or circles. Press the edges with a fork. Pour the sunflower oil into the pan; it should cover the pourekia halfway. When the oil is hot, fry the pourekia for 2 minutes until golden brown on one side, then turn them over to brown the other side. Remove them onto absorbent kitchen paper to drain excess oil. Serve by dusting with powdered sugar.
