Ingredients
2 kilos of flour
3/4 glasses of water (nearly 150 gr)
4 pieces of hellim
1 kilo of onion
salt, water
Hellim pastry is one of the indispensable tastes of Cypriot villagesThis amazing flavour that requires a lot of labour to make is unfortunately falling into oblivion. Although it is sold in some places in North Cyprus, both the smell and the flavour of home-made pastry is something else. Accompanied with a glass of tea or lemonade, this pleasure is truly irresistable!
In this issue, we are visiting lady Zarif from Kyrenia for the hellim pastry recipe. We are both conversing with lady Zarif who is spending a day during the weekend for pastry making together with her children and grandchildren, and learning about the key parts of making hellim pastry
Mature hellim suits hellim pastry the best!
Lady Zarif who is originally from Göçeri and has lived in Kyrenia for the last couple of years learned about pastry-making from her mother when she was 12-13 years old. Since then, she has been exhibiting her talents and providing notable flavours for her loved ones. As she is kneading the dough she narrates the recipe for us: “I cut the onions in circles and boil them for a bit. Later I fry them for a while as well. Then I add the grated hellim to the pan with onions.” She tells us that she uses mature hellim as it adds an extra flavour to the pastry. She says “mature hellim suits hellim pastry better.” Moreover, she makes the mature hellim sit in water the night before, so that its salt is reduced...
It takes talent to knead the dough
Of course it does not end by preparing the inner ingredients of the pastry. The hardest part that requires the most talent is kneading the dough. Dough is kneaded with water and salt. Then it is rolled out. The secret of super thin dough of lady Zarif is that she uses starch when rolling out the dough. Then we place the mix of onion and hellim in pieces on the dough that we laid in the middle. After placing nearly 30 lumps of the mix on one half of the dough, we cover it with the other half of the dough. Then we cut these into pieces in a way that the lumps will stay in the middle.
Pastries are cooked in a domed round iron plate
You can cook the pastries you prepared either in hot oil or an iron plate preheated in the oven. Lady Zarif’s daughter in law Konce cooks the pastries carefully prepared by her in an iron plate. This part of the process also requires talent. Both sides of the pastries should be cooked in a fast manner. Konce gets full points from lady Zarif for cooking the pastries. Meanwhile, delicious smell of the pastries is spread to the whole street. Do not forget to put the pastries in a pot whose bottom is covered by paper towels right after they are cooked in the pan to prevent them from drying up. I recommend you to eat the pastries by dipping them in honey or molasses when they are still hot!
