A friend of mine attended a Greek wedding recently and returned with some great stories about the culture. Growing up Italian, I love learning about other traditions - and I love learning about the food that other cultures enjoy. And of course, being a Greek wedding, she told me about the delicious baklava. Of course, my mouth watered. I've always loved this treat but never tried to make it before, so I set out to remedy that.
I went to Emeril for advice, and ended up using his recipe. It's really a very simple dish, calling for a pound of phyllo, walnuts, cinnamon, salt and butter for the dough and filling. The syrup is a combination of sugar, honey, water, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest, cloves and cardamom. When you lay out the first layer of phyllo, make sure they fit your baking dish. I had to trim mine to make them fit. Make sure if you leave them out you cover with plastic wrap and a damp towel while you're getting everything else ready.
Once your filling is mixed (nuts, cinnamon and salt, and you can use your food processor to chop the nuts), brush your phyllo with melted butter and begin layering the nut mixture on the sheets, continuing until you've used all your sheets. Bake for about 40 minutes, then drizzle your syrup over the finished product. Perfection!
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