The Greek Food

Tag: isli

  • My Mothers Isli recipe

    My Mothers Isli recipe

    Going back home for Christmas is something that is always a little bit of ritual. Like every celebration there are some things you need to do or expect from some. Like you expect to get some gifts or give some gifts or even eat a turkey or pork if you are in Greece. That is what i was expecting every time i was going back home…a lot of food and my mothers traditional isli desserts.

    Well, isli is a dessert that Greeks cook it during Christmas and has its roots from Turkey and far far before…  I am not so sure about the history to be honest but i do have learned that in Turkish  it means “that is worked”, basically meaning that is all worked with your hands as you need to do it to make it.

    Exhibit A your honour! The encrypted recipe!

    My mother is pretty well know in the family for making really tasty isli’s and rumours says many people ask her advice on how to cook them.

    Last christmas when i was in Greece i managed to write down the recipe from my mother with the purpose to get it out to the public…. And so i did it . Sorry mom, the secret is out!


    Ingredients for Isli Recipe

    For the dough

    1. 400gr of herbal butter
    2. 1 glass of orange juice (200gr) diluted with a bit of water
    3. 100gr of sugar
    4. Zest from orange
    5. 700gr  of  flour

    For the Sirop

    1. 400gr of Sugar
    2. 200gr of water
    3. 1/2 lemon juice + 1 lemon peel
    For the stuffing
    1. 250gr of walnuts
    2. 2 spoons of sugar
    3. Cloves
    4. Cinnamon
    5. 1 spoon orange zest

    How you Cook Isli cookies

    Take a pot and in medium heat add the butter and melt it. Add sugar and stir it with a spoon until it is half melted.

    Transfer everything to a deep bowl and add the orange juice with a bit of water.  Now its time to add our orange zest and stir with our hands. Lastly we add the flour and we stir everything with our hands creating our dough.

    For the stuffing we take the walnuts and break them in the multi taking care though not to “melt” them, adding the rest of our ingredients and mixing them up properly.

    isli
    isli sent from my mother…all the way from Greece

    Take a bit from the dough and create a small ball…now here comes the important thing.  At a moment when she was too tired my mother told me that in order to get this beautiful size on all of them she weighs each bit of dough to be exactly 45gr.

    Place it on your hand and open it up in a circle. Place one spoon from the stuffing and close it creating a small triangle. Turn it around so the seams are underneath and with a tweezers you pinch them to create the decoration on top. You can improvise..

    Place them in the oven for 25 minutes at 170c and leave them until they become red around. That is necessary so they don’t get soft when you pour the sirop on top.

    When they become red-brownish on top you remove them from the oven and you leave them on the side to cool down. Now its time to prepare the sirop.

    Add the water, sugar and the lemon in a small  pot and boil them in medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes. If the sirop thickens then add a bit of water to dilute and wait until you get the first boil.

    Pour the sirop on top of the isli and …enjoy!

    isli
    Traditional Greek Isli cookies for Christmas
  • Last food blog for ’11

    Last food blog for ’11

    isli
    isli sent from my mother…all the way from Greece

    To be honest its always difficult to say appropriate words to write for Christmas blogging. Its not my ideal style of article to write but it’s the most appropriate in this kind of time.

    This is going to be my 8th Christmas since I moved in to the UK but I won’t be having them in London as a lot of the previous ones. With my brother we will taste some of the local foods in Costa Rica and hopefully we will come back in one piece so I can write you about my stories.

    Since I made this blog I had the chance to make some really good recipes that I am proud of and some of them that ….well lets say it more politely…my brother didn’t approved when he was tasting them. 🙂

    Its all a learning process I guess and I have been enjoying it until now. To be honest as far food is concerned I never had Christmas really highly as food is concerned. I mean some of them enjoy the turkey and food during New Years Eve but that was never a great tradition in Greece. To be honest  I don’t think cooking a turkey in Christmas eve is a Greek tradition at all.

    Personally I remember my mother always cooked something special during new years eve rather than Christmas but generally things you could use for dips. Ok ok…there are some nice Christmas traditional things that Greeks always do.

    For example there are those nice sweets which you can see in the picture and called Isli which were sent all the way from Greece and my mother. Yes, she used my cousin that was coming to London…as an excuse to send us more food. Greek Mothers…ussually she sends them by post… (its not a joke 🙂 )

    If i was a little bit better as achef…maybe i could try to do them by myself. Well, maybe next year 🙂

    Despite all that I think I need to close this post not with the usual and typical wishes. Yes I do hope everyone is happy and healthy in the following year but as this is a food blog…I do hope everyone cooks a little bit more. Everyone tries to cook a little bit more and tries to cut down the junk food a little bit more also. I can certainly tell you that I am one of those people that does eat junk food from time to time…but a food that you have cooked is a 1000% times better than anything else..

    I am not a chef, even if I claim to be, but if the foods look tasty to you on the pictures…well there is no reason why you can’t cook them also.

    That’s all! Have a happy new year and all the best for 2012!

    Best wishes

    The chef …well kind of a chef..