Pasteli (Παστέλι)

Ever wondered what sorts of foods the ancient Greeks ate? Here is a recipe for a healthful chewy snack that has satisfied and pleased children and adults alike for millennia.

My Pasteli triangles - Click to Enlarge Image.

Pasteli, the mere mention of the word will bring a smile to any Greek’s face. An all natural confection, in its simplest form, pasteli is composed of two ingredients: sesame seeds and honey. The addition of nuts such as walnuts, pistachios, or almonds is also common in some versions of pasteli.

Sesame has been an ingredient in the Greek pantry since time immemorial. Mention of it is made in Linear B tablets found at Mycenae dated to the 14th Century BC. Indeed, the English word “sesame” is itself derived from the Greek word σησαμη or sēsámē.

This combination of honey and sesame seeds to form wafers of chewy wholesome goodness is one Greek food concoction that has been around - quite literally - for ages. In the Archaic age and later in the Classical and Hellenistic periods this confection was known as “itrion”. Indeed, it appears that among the ancients this type of flat-cake was a delicacy popular enough to warrant its own class of peddler, these were known as “itriopoleis” i.e., the ‘itrion-sellers’.

Some commercially available Greek pasteli bars - Click to Enlarge Image.

Today, pasteli is inevitably included in the homeward bound luggage of Diaspora Greeks returning to their respective homes outside the fatherland. As a child, whenever some family member or close family friend returned to Canada from Greece, I always eagerly anticipated the pasteli that would have invariably been sent along for me by some relation back in the ancestral homeland. It is one of my most cherished childhood memories of travel to and from Greece.

Pasteli is easy to make and keeps for long periods. It is also a very nutritious and fast-friendly or vegan snack. This most ancient Greek food item is a very popular treat for children in our modern era, and will likely continue to be enjoyed by all age groups for many more generations to come.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups of sesame seeds
1 ½ cups of Greek honey
½ cup raw almonds (or pistachios or walnuts)* - optional
Orange blossom water

1. Add the honey to a saucepan and heat over a medium low heat until it starts to bubble and ball.
2. Add sesame seeds and almonds* (optional) to the pan and mix well to incorporate with the honey. Cook slowly while continually stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon until it achieves a rich golden-brown colour, about 10 minutes or so.
3. Prepare a marble or glass cutting board surface by sprinkling it with some orange blossom water and spreading it to cover the working surface.
4. Pour the hot honey-sesame mixture onto the working surface and spread it with a spatula to a uniform thickness of a ½ inch or so.
5. Take a sufficiently large piece of parchment paper and cover the outspread pasteli mixture with it, then, use a rolling pin over top of the parchment paper to further thin and spread the mix into a rough rectangle of uniform thickness, about a ¼ inch or so.
6. Remove the parchment paper (do not throw it out), square the edges of the pasteli with a spatula or icing tool and let stand to cool.
7. Equally divide and cut the outspread pasteli into full-length rectangles using a large sharp knife. Further divide and cut the rectangles into squares, and then cut the squares at a 45 degree angle to achieve the triangular pieces depicted in the photo above.
8. Use a metal spatula to remove the pasteli triangles from the marble/glass working surface and place the pieces in an airtight container (lined with the parchment paper from step 6 above) for storage. Do not refrigerate, simply store in the cupboard/pantry and serve the wafers as a snack, or dessert element.
   

Yield: Approximately 24 pieces.

Note: You can also toast the sesame seeds and almonds/nuts in the oven before using them in this recipe. Simply spread them on a baking sheet and place them in a moderately pre-heated oven (350°F /180°C) for about 5 minutes or so. Make sure not to burn them.

Pánta Kalá (Always Be Well),

Sam Sotiropoulos
Greek Gourmand™
http://www.greekgourmand.com
Greek Food Recipes and Reflections
Copyright © 2008, Sam Sotiropoulos. All Rights Reserved.

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My Greek Pistachio Story - Fystikia (Φυστίκια)

Pistachios are quite popular in Greece. They are used in all manner of recipes, and Greeks also enjoy eating them roasted with salt (as pictured below) or raw. In point of fact, there is hardly a Greek home during this holiday period which will not have a bowl of roasted and salted pistachios sitting out on a table for guests to nibble on. Pistachios are used in Greek baklava; they are made into brittles, added to cakes, cookies, and any number of baked goods and bonne bouches.

Roasted & salted pistachios from Aegina. Click to enlarge image.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, the pistachio seed has been a part of Greek food culture since at least the 2nd Century B.C., and likely much earlier. The English word pistachio is derived from the ancient Greek word pistákion (πιστάκιον). The ancients credited the origins of the pistachio tree to Arabia and Syria.

Today, the island of Aegina and the region around Megara are the traditional epicentres of pistachio cultivation in Greece; with more recent production also taking place in Phthiotis, Boeotia and the Aegean island of Euboea (Evia). The pistachios of Aegina are considered the best and have attained preeminence in Greek marketplaces and in popular preference; they are referred to as fystiki Aeginis (pronounced: fee-STEE-kee ay-YEE-nees). However, I have found that the Megarian pistachios are equally good and they do not command the same premium in price, even though Megara is quite close to Aegina. Greece is the largest producer of pistachios in Europe and the sixth largest exporter of pistachios to the world; the bulk of global pistachio cultivation takes place in Iran.

Pistachio spoon sweet from Aegina. Click to enlarge image.

The first pistachio I ever tasted was immature and raw, just like the ones used to make the spoon sweet pictured above. I remember my grandmother was irrigating one of our plots in the lower plain of the village and I had gone along for "company". At ten years of age, I was a rather willful child and in constant need of curiosities to occupy my attention.

So, as I was not off flipping rocks in the nearby river to find and collect crabs in my grandfather’s cap (my favorite village pastime), I was nosing about her feet and right in my grandma’s way no matter which way she turned. At some point, the old woman hastily plucked a branch of what looked like a bunch of unripe grapes from a small tree and handed them to me, instructing me to eat them and be still.

Now, I cannot say that I was immediately taken with the flavour as it was actually rather “green and somewhat piny” (which is the best way I can describe it), but there was something to the texture which made it amenable to my young palate; also, I liked the way I had to pop the inner seed from its immature outer shell and right into my mouth, just as my grandmother had shown me how to do it.

To this day, I have a thing for pistachios in any form. Though, I have to admit, my all-time favourite pistachio preparation remains the spoon sweet which is a specialty of the island of Aegina. Earlier this evening, my wife and I consumed the last two spoonfuls of my zealously guarded hoard of the stuff. We still have some of the roasted variety from Aegina to carry us through to the New Year, but they will not last much beyond the next couple days. Thus, all good things come to an end, in order to make room for more good things to replace them in the future.

Cleaning out the cupboards, pantry, and fridge for the New Year, I leave you with that for now.

Pánta Kalá! (Always Be Well),

Sam Sotiropoulos
Greek Gourmand™
http://www.greekgourmand.com
Greek Food Recipes and Reflections
Copyright © 2008, Sam Sotiropoulos. All Rights Reserved.

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