As a nation of immigrants, all Australians have added to our melting pot of cultures. Eating together and sharing the diversity of food cultures, we take a step towards understanding each other.
Forty years after coming to Australia, Thea, with her daughter Cleo, bridged old and new cultures as they launched their business, Mumma’s Greek Cuisine, to show off Greek food to the Gold Coast.
The pair sell a range of authentic Greek sweets, biscuits and savouries so families can supplement their own catering for events and celebrations, and also for corporate functions. Even if you want to have a savoury for dinner or just a sweet or two to satisfy a craving, there’s no order too small.
Cleo shares with us her recipe for shamishi, traditional sweet pies from Cyprus that date back to the 19th century. These square vegan pies, served at wedding and feasts, are filled with a sweet semolina cream scented with orange or rose water and can be oven baked or deep fried before being dusted in icing sugar and/or cinnamon.
Shamishi
Ingredients:
1 packet of filo pastry (not frozen) 375 grams
3 cups of water
1 cup of fine semolina
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of icing sugar (for dusting)
3 tbsp rose water
Vegetable oil
Method:
- Mix together water, semolina, rose water and sugar. Then place the mixture in a pan on the stove on high and keep stirring. Once the mixture has thickened, (20-30 mins), turn it off. Set aside to cool.
- Cut 1 filo pastry sheet evenly into four pieces. Brush the top of each sheet with vegetable oil, then make a pile of four brushed sheets by placing them on top of each other.
- Place ½ tablespoon of mixture in the middle of the top sheet.
- Bring the corners of the sheets across the middle of the pastry, covering the mixture and slightly overlapping each other in an ‘X’ shape to form a square parcel. Then lightly brush the top of the pastry with oil.
- Once all shamishi are complete, place them on oven trays and cook at 180°C for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is golden.
- Take out of the oven and dust them with as much icing sugar as you like.
Mumma’s Greek Cuisine Ph: 0452 398 885 or Email: [email protected]
Read our article on Mumma’s Greek Cuisine here.
This article was published in The Sun newspaper on 27 June 2018.