Φοινίκια. Πηγή: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dates_10-8-09-101309_copy.jpg
Dates, with a distinctive sweet taste, are stuffed with almonds and preserved in syrup.
Name - Recipe
Γλυκό του κουταλιού φοινίκι.
50 fresh dates
1 kg of sugar
2 1/2 glasses of water
50 blanched and roasted almonds
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 cloves
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Peel the skin off the dates very thinly. In a pot, place them in water and boil them until they soften (about 15 minutes). Rinse them in cold water and drain them. Remove the pits with a skewer and replace them with almonds. Prepare the syrup and leave aside to cool off. Add the dates, cinnamon, cloves and boil in medium heat until the mixture turns red to brown. After boiling for 4-5 minutes, turn off the heat and leave aside. On the following day, boil the syrup again until it thickens. Before the syrup is ready, add the lemon juice. Fill the jars, cap them and turn them upside down for 3 minutes. (MANRE 2009, 7)
Boiling.
Boiling in syrup.
How do we know when the syrup is ready: Place some syrup in a spoon and let it drip away in the pot. When the syrup flows away easily, it means it is still watery and not ready. Keep on boiling for a few minutes and test again until the flow separates into drops. When a final drop remains hanging from the spoon, it means that the density is right and the syrup is ready. If not, that means that the syrup is not ready and needs a bit more boiling. Repeat the testing procedure again until the syrup has the right consistency.
If the syrup is properly thickened, then the spoon sweet can be preserved for a very long period of time in a cool, dry place without having to be kept in a refrigerator. (MANRE, 2009)
Additional information and bibliography
Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Agriculture (2009). Traditional spoon sweets and jams, Press and Information Office, Nicosia.
Varvara Yangou
Traditional Recipes
Baklava rolls with almonds
A delicious syrupy dessert with filo pastry and almonds (or walnuts) filling.
Traditional Recipes
Finikotá
A Christmas sweet, drizzled with syrup or sprinkled with sugar. In this recipe, the dates are pitted and stuffed with walnuts and then inserted whole in the dough.
Traditional Recipes
Macaroons
Sweets made from a mixture of sugar, ground almonds and rose essence. This particular delicacy, found in many countries of the world, was incorporated into Cypriot cuisine in later years. However,…
Traditional Recipes
Spoon sweets - Butternut squash
A delightful spoon sweet with its characteristic shape of a spring.
Traditional Recipes
Spoon sweets - Cherry
Special tools are used today to remove the pits. In the past, women used metal hairpins.
Traditional Recipes
Spoon sweets - Pear
"We peel the pears without cutting the stem. We heat the syrup, add the pears and turn them twice." (Eleftheria Valanidou, Agridia).
Traditional Recipes
Γλυκό περγαμόντ
A particular spoon sweet, bergamot is bittersweet with a delightful aroma.