Balaclava, Baklava, and Balalaika

Tonight was balaclava riding weather:

Now if I only had some baklava and a balalaika, I'd be set!  Since I don't, I'll just reminisce.

Growing up in DeKalb County, I had the privilege of attending the Atlanta Greek Festival a number of times.  What a spectacular way to experience Greek music, food, clothing, and culture as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church.  In more recent years, they added a Greek cooking class.  I was all over that!  From there I received recipes for Greek salad, domadakia (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita (spinach and feta filled phyllo pastry), and of course the quintessential Greek dessert - baklava!

These days I rarely eat dessert, but when I do, I want it to be something worthwhile, like baklava.  Baklava really isn't too hard to make.  You just have to have a little patience and handle the phyllo dough carefully.  Here's the recipe from the Atlanta Greek Festival:

Baklava

(recipe may be halved)

1 1/2 lb. shelled pecans and almonds
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 lb. phyllo pastry*
1 lb. butter, melted and clarified

Grind nuts coarsely.  Mix with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Line two 10" x 15" x 2" baking pans with a sheet of phyllo and brush each generously with butter.  Continue this process until you have six phyllo sheets in each pan, each generously buttered.  Sprinkle top phyllo sheet with a layer of nut mixture.

Add a pastry sheet, brush with butter, and sprinkle more nut mixture over phyllo.  Repeat, alternating buttered phyllo and nut mixture, until all nut mixture is used.  Place remaining phyllo sheets over this, each individually brushed with butter, about 8 sheets of phyllo per pan.

Cut into desired shapes (e.g., diamonds or triangles).  Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes.  Reduce heat to 250 degrees and continue baking for one hour.

Spoon cooled syrup (see below) over hot pastry.

Syrup

4 C sugar
2 C water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 stick cinnamon
1 jigger brandy
1/2 C honey

In medium saucepan, bring all ingredients except honey to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes.  Stir in honey and cool.

Yield: 30-36 servings per pan

*Phyllo dough can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store.  Thaw according to package directions.  Keep thawed pastry covered with a damp cloth while preparing the baklava, re-covering the unused phyllo sheets as you go.


The balalaika is a distinctive Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body:

I was first introduced to the balalaika as a teenager when my mother took me to a balalaika concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.  The concert featured not only wonderful music but also marvelous Russian dancing, the traditional kind where the men kick their legs out in all kinds of impossibly aerobic ways.  Balalaikas and Russian dancers in the Egyptian Room of the fabulous Fox Theater - such aa vividly memorable night!