In challenging times, we often turn to food. We seek the comfort of memories of foods past in old family recipes, in familiar flavours and smells. This autumn has been quite turbulent both personally and collectively, and we hope that this recipe we have for you today will offer some solace and joy. Food is after all what makes us find ourselves, even when life feels hard.
This recipe comes from Mrs Kalliopi, Marianna’s mother. It is a traditional Greek cake, soaked in a sweet syrup and with the aroma of mastic (mastiha). Mastiha is a natural, aromatic resin in teardrop shape. It is produced on the island of Chios, carrying a PDO status. It is made in the ‘mastiha villages’ (Mastihohoria), which are monuments of cultural heritage. You can read more about the story of mastiha here. It has a very unique aroma which I’m sure you will love in this dessert. There are plenty of recipes with mastic coming up, so stay tuned.
2 cups coarse semolina
1 cup fine semolina
1 cup white caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp mastic tears or 2 drops of mastic oil
1 cup yoghurt (you can replace this with orange juice)
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla essence
olive oil (to grease the pan)
almonds (to decorate)
Syrup
3 cups of water
3 cups caster sugar
lemon peels and/or 3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp vanilla essence
First prepare the syrup. In a pot bring the sugar, lemon juice/zest, vanilla and water into a boil. Let it simmer for 10-20 min. Set aside and let it cool down.
Preheat the oven at 180C.
Using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder, grind the mastic drops, together with some of the sugar. Mastiha has moisture, so the sugar will help you with grinding.
Add all your dry ingredients in a bowl: coarse semolina, fine semolina, sugar, baking powder. If using ground mastic, add it now. Whisk all your dry ingredients together.
In another bowl, mix together the yoghurt (or orange juice), water, vanilla. If using mastic drops add them now.
Mix together the dry and wet ingredients until incorporated.
Grease the pan with olive oil and add your mixture. Let it rest for a couple of hours, so that the semolina absorbs all the moisture from the wet ingredients.
Score the cake in diamond-shaped pieces and add an almond on top of every piece. Bake at 180C for 30-45 min or until inserting a toothpick comes out clean.
Drizzle your warm cake with the syrup. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Serve with Greek yoghurt.
