"Glendi" Greek for celebration!

It's that time of year again! Summer is finally here (back home that is!) and the Greek Festivals have begun! You're always in for an awesome time when surrounded by great food, music, and people. Especially when those people dress up their adorable little kids in traditional costumes and get them to perform dances!!

Just look at how cute they are! Who could resist?!

I still remember spending my summers as a kid learning the dances to perform, helping make baklava, and laughing at the expression on the faces of first-time Greek coffee drinkers! (If you haven't ever tried Greek coffee now is your chance!)

Kicking off this year's string of festivities is the one and only Glendi Greek Festival! From July 19th-21st Beaverton, Oregon's St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church will be holding their 5th annual Greek Festival <http://www.glendigreekfestival.com/> and I'm so gutted not to be there. It'll be a fun way to spend a day and who knows, maybe you'll be the one to win the trip to Greece! I can already hear the Greek Islands calling your name...

Unfortunately I don't get to enter the raffle because at this moment I am on the other side of the world, impatiently waiting for Sydney's Greek Festival to come! That being said I'll never pass up the opportunity to blog a Greek recipe, so here I go. One of my favourite dishes to get at the Greek Festival, well, apart from the Loukoumades... but no one can resist those... is the Bougatsa!

And what a great way to use my lone vanilla bean, quietly waiting in my cupboard for his day to speckle :)

I've done a little research and although everyone says their village/island/mother makes it best, my favourite recipe comes from the island of Corfu on the western side of Greece. I like it best still warm in the middle 20 minutes out of the oven. It is great any time of day as a snack or dessert, but Greeks definitely like their sweets and in Greece it is most often eaten as breakfast! Shove off Weet-Bix, I have bougasta!

Bougatsa

And take a look at those VANILLA SEEDS!!

8 sheets phyllo dough
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup fine semolina
2/3 cup white sugar
4 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp cold butter






To start with, make sure your phyllo dough is completely defrosted. I take mine from the freezer and keep it in the fridge overnight to be extra sure everything defrosts nice and slowly.

Next in a big bowl beat the eggs with the semolina and sugar until evenly combined.

Take the vanilla bean and cut it in half lengthways. Using the back of a small knife scrape the seeds into a large heavy-bottomed pot with all the milk. Throw the beans in the pot too because they still have flavour! Heat up the milk with the vanilla bean until just before it boils (that's called scalding the milk).

At this point ladle the hot milk into the egg mixture one spoon at a time to temper the eggs. Once you have 3/4 of the milk mixed with the eggs you can dump everything back together in the pot. Over medium low heat, constantly stirring with a heat-proof rubber spatula, bring the mixture up to a boil and boil for 30 seconds. At this point your filling should be quite thick and look like this:

Turn off the heat and all that's left to do is add the cold butter to the custard. I chop it up into about 4 small cubes. The butter needs to be cold at this stage. This technique adds a richness and velvety texture to the custard without giving it a greasy mouth-feel.

Pour your filling into a bowl and cover the surface directly with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Place it in the fridge and chill until completely cool.

Once your filling is cool you can start to work your phyllo dough! Now I'll admit that phyllo isn't traditionally used for bougatsa. It's more like a handmade puff pastry than phyllo dough, but this is my dessert and this is how I like it best so that's how I do it :) I just can't resist the crispy crunchy flakiness of phyllo!

All you have to do is layer one sheet of phyllo, brushed with melted butter, one sheet of phyllo, brushed with melted butter, etc. until you get to the last sheet of phyllo which doesn't need butter because it's going to hold the filling!

Plop it on in a rectangle. Brush the edges of the pastry with butter to help seal it, and fold it up into a nice and neat package.

I score the top of mine, not all the way through to the filling, because it gives the phyllo pastry even more room to flake up during baking. Transfer your masterpiece to a parchment lined baking tray and bake at 375F for 35-45 minutes until the phyllo looks golden brown and the bottom is cooked through. No room for undercooked soggy phyllo in my kitchen!

Take it out of the oven, sprinkle with equal parts cinnamon and confectioner's sugar, and you have a delicious, and surprisingly not too sweet treat! Beautiful isn't it?!?!

I use a super sharp serrated bread knife to cut mine so that the phyllo doesn't shatter and the filling stays nice and neat inside the pastry, not sploodged out the sides.

And want to know the best way to have it? Drizzled with honey of course!

Don't you just want to take that drop of honey off with your finger? Sometime I even surprise myself with my food styling! haha

So keep your weekend free and spend some time celebrating and soaking in the happiness at the Glendi Greek Festival next weekend! Mention you read this blog and see if you can get one token off the price of a BOUGATSA! It's worth a try :)