Christmas is coming and wherever you may be in the world it’s about time to start getting into the seasonal spirit. We will be presenting various Greek chefs and barmen this month sharing their Christmas recipes, starting with a specially dedicated cocktail recipe by The Clumsies co-owner and barman Vasilis Kyritsis and a main dish by celebrity chef Argiro Barbarigou.
The Clumsies Christmas Cocktail Recipe
EXCLUSIVE FOR GCT READERS!
Vasilis Kyritsis is one of the owners and top barmen at the Clumsies, the Athens bar that has been awarded several times globally as one of the top bars in the world.
“We feel happy and honoured!” he says when I ask him how he feels about their latest award, coming in at number 6 in the World’s Best 50 Bars, making the Top 10 for the fifth year running. “At the same time for us, it’s as if nothing has changed so we continue to work and try hard exactly as we did from the first day we opened The Clumsies.”
Kyristsis, known for his alchemical powers of cocktail-mixing (The Clumsies is known for its many creative and innovative homemade infusions and syrups) has created ''fortified baklava wine'' for GCT followers.
“It’s a cocktail inspired by the Greek delight called baklava,” he says. “This one contains heart-warming, Christmassy spices like cinnamon. The recipe uses a naturally made wine made with mead (an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with water, sometimes also using fruits, spices, hops or grains). It’s macerated with baklava spices and fortified with aged rum fat washed with beurre noisette (butter browned in the pan to a hazelnut brown colour).
Fortified Baklava Wine
Ingredients
-Mead
-Aged Rum
-Beurre Noisette
-Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
Method
-Add ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake well. Sieve and serve in a wine glass.
Argiro Barbarigou’s Epirus-style Christmas Meat Pie
Argiro Barbarigou is one of Greece's most loved chefs and she has created her own version of the traditional Epirus Christmas Meat Pie, which features mince, cheese, and rice. It really is a delicious and comforting dish that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser over the Festive Season!
Ingredients
-Two packets of pizza dough
-2 tbsp butter
-300g Metsovone cheese and a few handfuls of gruyere
-6 finely sliced onions
-1kg mince (mixed)
-3/4 cup Karolina or Arborio rice
-6 eggs, beaten
-Pinch of salt
-Pepper to taste
-2 tbsp Metsovo butter (or plain butter)
Method
-Sautee the onions and mince in the melted butter on low heat. When the mince starts to brown, add a little water. Season and cover the pot, leaving the mince and onions to simmer on a low heat for 7-8 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed.
-Open the pizza dough and place them side by side in an oven tray. Make sure they cover the sides too so that the filling won’t pour out. Stretch the dough out gently by pressing with your fingers.
-Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool. Then add the beaten eggs and cheeses.
-Pour the filling into the dough in one layer. If you prefer it covered use two more pizza dough sheets on top and cover with the dough hanging off the sides. Add a few bits of butter on top.
-Bake at 180 C in a well-heated oven for around 50 minutes. If the dough starts to colour early on cover it with foil paper. Once you’ve removed from the oven wait for the pie to cool for 15 minutes and then slice.
*You can find more of Argiro's delicious recipes here.