Pumpkin & Fennel Pie (Greek island style)

Portrait of Irene by Bill Cook

My sister Irene Gevezes has been living on Ikaria, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea for almost 40 years. Among her many skills and talents, Irene has become a formidable cook and during a previous visit to the island, I filmed Irene as she prepared a number of traditional Greek dishes including purslane salad, lemon-peel spoon sweet, and goatsmilk cheese.

Now that I am back on the island for an extended stay, I have started filming more recipes with her, and these will be added to my YouTube channel as each is completed.

In the video below, Irene is making a traditional slice, or pie, using ingredients sourced mostly from her home garden. Even the grated goats milk cheese she uses in the pie is made from the milk she gets daily from her own goats.

Pumpkin & Fennel Pie

Main Ingredients:

Pumpkin, fennel, spring onions, silver beet, plain flour, two eggs beaten, grated goat milk cheese.

Herbs & Spices:

Mint, lemon balm, turmeric, cumin, salt and pepper, 8g yeast,

Also:

Water, olive oil, vinegar, Raki or Ouzo as needed.

Preheat oven to 180C (Irene uses an electric oven)

I am not going to give a detailed description of the preparation and cooking processes here. You can see those in the video. I will say though, that the whole process―from 'go to whoa'―will take several hours, which includes preparation and cooking time.

Early in the video I say to Irene that she has not "measured" any of the ingredients. Of course, throughout the preparation and cooking process Irene does measure the ingredients, although not by weight. Mostly she is measuring by quantity. For example, we see a large colander full of fennel, and a large orange plastic bowl full of diced pumpkin and chopped silver beet leaves. Also, when Irene places all the ingredients into the large saucepan it is filled to the brim.

If you are going to make this pie, or slice, don't worry about preparing too much filler or pastry. As Irene points out in the video, she simply freezes any excess filler and pastry for later use (the left over pastry makes a great pizza base as well).

If you don't have access to homemade goat milk cheese (and how many of us do?), substitute grated feta cheese, mozzarella, or other white cheese of your choice.

Finally, in the early part of the video Irene uses the expression "wilt it" while preparing to cook the fennel. What Irene means by this is to simmer the fennel (and later the pumpkin) on low heat until thoroughly cooked.

If you have any questions. Don't hesitate to ask them via the Comments section below. I will pass them on to Irene and add the answers in the same manner.

Friday Photos: Ikarian Landscape

Is this the way Greek legends and myths are created? On seeing the stark, forbidding landscape on the southern windswept side of the Aegean island of Ikaria, my nephew, by way of explanation told me that local lore had it that when God finished creating the world he dumped all the left over stones and boulders on Ikaria. Walking over and around some of the thousands of massive boulders that dot the landscape here, I can well believe that story.

It takes a hardy people to create a life out of this landscape

Moon rocks have got nothing on this rock strewn landscape

How many years did it take to create this monster?

Many boulders are larger than the average American SUV―and God knows they can be massive! The largest of these monsters dominate the landscape like nothing else on the island, and one can only guess at the eons it must have required for the combined effects of wind and rain, and heat and cold to wear down and smooth the surface of the largest boulders.

Putting them in perspective

Boulders bigger than your average SUV

 One of the strangest rock formations is that seen in the image immediately below. The locals have dubbed this the 'cannon', due to its obvious similarity in outline to military weapons of this type. My comment on seeing this was, No wonder the Turks have not invaded Ikaria, if they can see this with binoculars from Turkey, they will think it is a massive cannon of the type used during the Second World War, and stay well away! 

The 'cannon'

I'm sure I will return to this theme of the Ikarian landscape in future posts as I wander further afield across the island.

Mother’s Day, Greek Island Style

Waiting for the dance to begin

I wonder if the children and adults participating in the Mother’s Day celebrations held in the Ikaria village of Kampos, understand how truly important maintaining their traditions are, not just for the islanders and their island, but for the maintenance of their national culture and identity?

I was pondering this as I watched and filmed some 25 traditional dances over several hours during the evening of May 11, 2014. There were six groups of dancers ranging in age from seven or eight years through to teens and adults. Ikaria, by the way, is a small island in the Aegean Sea, not far from the Turkish coast.

The island boasts a local culture that steadfastly clings to the traditions of the past, while at the same time enjoying the many rewards and benefits of modern life. Every year, beginning in May and running right through until late September, the islanders organise a series of festivals (paniyiri) that start late, and finish even later. I’m talking 9:00pm to 9:00am, for those participants with the most stamina. The less hardy, generally older members of the community, will head home any time between 2:00am and dawn, but many have been known to match it with the young generations.

Anyway, the Mother’s Day celebrations started early-ish, and ended well before midnight. I filmed the whole event, and I have put together a video compilation of many of the dances that occurred during the night. I was positioned about ten feet above the dance ‘floor’, off to one side of the village square. It wasn’t the best position to film the participants, but I’m more than happy with the birds eye view I had of the whole event.

The celebration was as formal as you might expect for an open air, village celebration. That is to say, there were a couple of speeches followed by much dancing, hand clapping, vocal encouragement for all the dancers, constant chatter from the audience, kids running around the dance area and sometimes between the dancers themselves. The village square is located next to the main road that runs through the centre of the village, so there was a constant stream of cars, trucks, motorbikes and assorted foot traffic passing by throughout the event. None of these distractions disturbed the dancers in the least. In fact, they are part and parcel of any island celebrations.

But what I especially love about these island celebrations and traditions, is that they are embraced equally by the very young as well as by the very old. No one shouts at the kids to sit down and keep quiet, or to stay out of the way of the performers. The whole square seems as if it is being rearranging constantly by an invisible hand that manages to keep dancers, children, organisers and visitors out of each others way, as the evening progresses.

The video below provides a composite look at Mother’s Day, Greek style, as celebrated in Kampos, Ikaria on the evening of May 11, 2014.