As I told you in my previous post, we visited an exhibition on Lakonian products. The first part was all about olives and Greek olive oil.
I have taken many photos but as it is impossible to show all the exhibition, I have made a few collages so that you may see and find out about some of the local products.
Hilopites is a pasta made with eggs, Kritharaki is again a pasta shaped like rise and trahanas is dried cracked wheat mixed with milk and dried in the sun to be used in the winter to make soups or pites. Paximadia are rusks. You can get them in whole wheat, regular, anise flavoured, village type etc.
Ostrich products such as sausages and eggs. Herbs like dried oregano and thyme from Taygettus.
Honey and and other bee products such as pollen or wax. There were so many kinds of honey you did not know which to choose first. Honey from flowers, from coniferous trees, from herbs and best of all Thyme honey. Greek honey is undoubtedly the best honey in the world, characterized by its special aroma, rich flavour and density.
One other unique product is bee pollen. I had never tried it but as I was told it is a great source of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and more. You can eat it as it is or use it in recipes.
Lakonia is full of orange groves and there are a couple of factories making orange juices and orangades. Tsipouro is a distilled alcoholic drink made from the must-residue of the winepress. In other parts of Greece, it is called tsikoudia or raki.
Traditional folklore art: Hand woven carpets and other products like hand made carved wood, icons, candles etc.
Traditional sweets such as diples, melomacarona, kourabiedes, samousades and pastelli, which is made from honey, sesame seeds and sugar or honey and nuts caramelized together.
I wanted to buy everything but I couldn’t. We bought as many as we could carry back home as it is impossible to go to the city centre and park your car, so we used the metro. Among other things, I bought thyme honey, bee pollen, pastelli and combined them in my next recipe. Bee pollen is, of course, optional but if you do find some use it as it has many beneficial properties.
I recently bookmarked a Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies recipe from Recipe Girl. However, as we do not eat butter and eggs during fasting, I could not wait until after Easter to make it, so I made some changes. I divided the dough in three parts and added chocolate in one, sesame pastelli in the other and pistachio pastelli in the third. I baked the chocolate cookies first but they came out quite big so the next batch I made them quite smaller. The bigger ones were baked about 17 minutes and the smaller around 14. When baked they are still soft but after cooling they become hard.
All three kinds of cookies tasted great, especially where you could get a crunchy bite of the salt with chocolate and pasteli. Some of my friends who tasted them could not believe that they did not have butter or eggs.
Although I have tagged these cookies as vegan, I am not 100% sure if they are. Do vegans eat honey and pollen?
Honey, Peanut butter, Chocolate & Pastelli Cookies (Nistisima) – Recipe by Ivy
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 14 - 17 minutes each batch
Serves: 12 big ones with chocolate – 20 with sesame pastelli, 20 with pistachio pastelli
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Ingredients: |
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1 |
Cup |
Dark brown sugar (170 gr.) |
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1 |
Cup |
Sunflower oil (200 gr.) |
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100 |
Grams |
Peanut butter |
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1/4 |
Cup |
Thyme honey |
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4 |
Tbsp |
Lemon juice (1 small lemon) |
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1 |
Tbsp |
Cider vinegar |
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1 |
Tbsp |
Rind of 1 lemon |
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1/2 |
tsp |
Coarse sea salt |
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1 |
tsp |
Baking powder |
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1 |
tsp |
Baking Soda |
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360 |
Grams |
Self rising flour |
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40 |
Grams |
Quaker Oats |
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3/5 |
Couverture |
Chocolate (80 grams) |
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1 |
tsp |
Pollen (optional) |
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1 |
Sesame |
Pastelli (70 grams) |
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1 |
Pistachio |
Pastelli (60 grams) |
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|
|
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Directions |
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1. |
Preheat oven at 180 degrees C. |
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2. |
In the mixer bowl whisk together the oil, peanut butter, vinegar, honey, lemon juice and dark sugar. |
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3. |
In a separate bowl combine the lemon rind, flour, Quaker oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. |
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4. |
Add dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and mix well with a spatula. The mixture should not be sticky. If it is add more flour. |
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5. |
Divide the mixture into three parts. |
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6. |
Cut the chocolate into small pieces and mix in the 1/3 of the mixture. |
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7. |
Do the same for the other two pastelli. |
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8. |
Line a baking tin with parchment paper and bake each kind separately. |
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9. |
Bake between 14 – 17 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. The cookies should be still soft. |
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10. |
Allow to cool before removing from the baking tin and as they cool they become harder. |
This is my entry for Bookmarked Recipes, hosted by me this week and created by Ruth, of Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments.
Tags: Bee pollen, cookies and biscuits, Food events, healthy, Honey, Lakonia, Nistisimo, Pastelli, Sparti, Vegan, Vegetarian
April 1st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I would also buy as much as i can if i go to places like this.
I can imagine the excitment for shopping for all these delicous goodies and the cookies look really yumm.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
What a beautiful store! I’d buy everything if I went there ;-P…
These cookies are fabulous! A delicious treat!
cheers,
Rosa
April 1st, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Wonderful produce and even more wonderful cookies. These are amazing Ivy!
April 1st, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Thank you for trying these- how wonderful! The shopping looks like great fun!
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 am
What a wonderful market! And delicious cookies!
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
These sound so delicious and healthy as well. I avoid cooking with too much butter and these are definitely bookmarked.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
What Greek honey is from? Like we’re here in New Zealand, we have Manuka honey. Manuka is New Zealand native bush. Bees pollinate the flowers and farmers usually keep bees near the native bush. Other farmers usually use clover, which is a type of weeds that bees love the flowers. The honey produced is called Clover honey. In Indonesia, I just know people use wild bees in the rainforest and have no idea what they’re fed or feed themselves with. These people in the inland will then sell the honey or honeycomb along the main road, raw. It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?
I haven’t tried Greek honey.
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Thanks everybody for your comments.
Lisa, welcome I am glad to see you here as well.
Arfi, the special landscape of Greece makes flora so rich, that from the 7500 different species of plants growing in Greece, 850 of them are found exclusively here. That is the explanation why certain varieties of honey (e.g. Thyme Honey) do not exist anywhere else in the world. You will have to try Greek honey to see the difference.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I hopped over from Hopie’s blog when I saw your comment about Greek-style lentils. So glad to find your site!
I’m wondering, are the lentils you mentioned the Fakes Moutzentra recipe? Greek-style lentils sounds so delicious to me. I would love to make them.
Thanks!
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Ivy, lovely post. The products all sound so special. Thyme honey is my favorite–especially from Kalymnos!! I’ve tried others as well and the last two summers that I haven’t been able to visit Kalymnos, I have been bringing back thyme honey from Lefkada.
Your cookies sound fantastic.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Bravo Ivy! Another wonderful post detailing your visit to the Lakonian products expo! Thanks for sharing this, and the cookies look great!
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
These both sound delicious Ivy with your special twists:D
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:45 am
That’s mind boggling, Ivy. And so much is new to me.
You must have had the time of your life at the exhibition and shopping.
I liked these unusual cookies too.
April 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Fabulous photos Ivy, and your cookies look delicious.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Lovely pretty cookies Ivy..
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