General Chat

Pastizzi Dough

8 oz. flour (use common flour)
6 oz. margarine cut into half-inch cubes
6-7 tbs. cold water
dash of salt

First, here are a few secrets you need to know if you are to be successful making this dough!

The key one is that everything you use must be cold! The dough must also be kept cold at all times. The best working surface for the dough is a slab of marble since marble tends to stay cool. Always store the dough covered with a damp cloth in your refrigerator, but before storing it, make sure you remove any loose flour. Always sprinkle the working surface, the rolling pin, and the dough with flour before you start working the dough. Never turn over the dough while you are working it. Instead, turn it flat on the board (or turn the board itself) clockwise before each rolling and always in the same direction. This is one of the hardest doughs to make and you may have to try it a few times before you get it right!

Sift flour and salt together. Divide the margarine into half-inch squares. Drop margarine squares into flour making sure not to squash them. Mix lightly until all margarine cubes are covered with flour (make sure that the cubes remain intact.)

Add water and mix lightly with a knife again making sure that the cubes remain intact. If some flower is left loose, add a teaspoon of cold water at a time until all the flour is used. The resulting dough should be very soft.

Sprinkle the dough and the working surface with flour. Work the dough into an elongated shape using your finger tips. Sprinkle some flour on the rolling pin and roll the dough until it's about eight inches long and not more than five inches wide. Now do the steps below exactly.


Fold the lower third toward the top. Now fold the upper third toward the bottom on top of the first fold. You should end up with a three-layered rectangle. With light pressure from the rolling pin, seal the three edges.
Remove any extra flour. Now turn the folded dough anti-clockwise so that the right side is at the top. Roll the dough lightly until it is nine inches long and six inches wide.
Repeat steps one and two.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth and store in the refrigerator for twenty minutes.
Repeat steps one through four, four times.
The dough can now be rolled out to the desired thickness and used for pastizzi or even Timpana



Sources: Anne and Helen Caruana Galizia. 1999. The Food & Cookery of Malta. Malta: Pax Books

Pastizzi

Pastizzi, is probably the most universally eaten Maltese pastry and few visitors to Malta or Gozo will leave without at least consuming one. The origins of this pastry are probably rooted in Sicilian, Arab and/or Turkish sources. The most likely origin of Pastizzi is of Arab origin. The roly-poly method of making pastizzi pastry is a typical example of Arab culinary traditions.

Pastizzi is an extremely popular small boat shaped delicacy of either ricotta cheese and egg or peas and beef, wrapped with thin crisp pastry, something between filo and puff. They are sold on street corners and in village bars everywhere and eaten hot. The Maltese normally take them as a snack with tea or coffee or Kinnie, a local non-alcoholic bitter-sweet herb drink.



Pastizzi making is an art form, and it is said that it takes many years to perfect one's pastizzi making. A common sight in Valetta until not very long ago was of young waiters emerging from small bars carrying trays of hot pastizzi and tall glass tumblers of tea or coffee for office employees. The best way to learn to make pastizzi is to watch them being made: in St. Paul's or Merchants Street in Valletta, or in Rabat, Hamrun or Msida. While there are many shops that sell pastizzi, very few of them actually make the treat on the premises.



Rikotta Cheese Pastizzi

2 lbs. flaky pastry dough
2 lbs. ricotta cheese
salt
2 eggs

Mix the rikotta cheese with the two eggs until the eggs are thoroughly mixed into the rikotta cheese. Add a bit of salt to the mixture for taste.

Roll out the dough (do not make the dough too thin.) Cut the dough into three- to four-inch circles.

Put one tablespoon of the rikotta cheese mix in the middle of each circle. Fold each circle from the top and the bottom to the centre and squeeze the edges together so that the pocket is sealed (the horizontal ends should be formed into points.)

Put the pastizzi on a margarine greased baking sheet. Bake in a moderate oven (350-425 degrees) for about one hour.

You will need to experiment a bit with the oven temperature and the cooking time. The pastizzi should be a golden-brown colour when they're ready. They're best eaten when they are warm with a cup of good coffee or tea

Meat Pastizzi

2 lbs. flaky pastry dough
1 or 2 small onions
1 lb lean ground beef
2 cans of pees
2 teaspoons tomato paste
half a teaspoon spices

Mince the onions and fry in a bit of oil. When the onions start turning dark in colour add the hamburger. Cook for a bit and then add the tomato paste and the spices. Mix well and then add the pees. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Roll out the dough (do not make the dough too thin.) Cut the dough into three- to four-inch circles. Put one tablespoon of the meat mix in the middle of each circle. Fold each circle from the top and the bottom to the centre and squeeze the edges together so that the pocket is sealed (the horizontal ends should be formed into points.)

Put the pastizzi on a margarine greased baking sheet. Bake in a moderate oven (350-425 degrees) for about one hour.

You will need to experiment a bit with the oven temperature and the cooking time. The pastizzi should be a golden-brown colour when they're ready. They're best eaten when they are warm with a cup of good coffee or tea.



get cooking Jo lol

Just googled and found this lol

Pastizzi (cheesecakes or peacakes) are ricotta or pea filled pasties which are the most popular and best known culinary export of Malta.

Pastizzi (singular: pastizz) are popular amongst Maltese people, and are also produced amongst the immigrant communities of Maltese in Australia, the US and Canada. Pastizzi lend their name to "pastizzerias" - the dozens of fast food outlets dotted around Malta which primarily sell pastizzi (along with pizzas, qassatat, timpana and sausage rolls). In recent years, an inter-family chain "Maxim`s" has taken a dominant share of the pastizzi market, though must pastizzerias are still small, local family concerns.

Pastizzi are typically cooked in batches of 30 on wood furnaces on black metal trays. Pastizzi come in the two standard ricotta and pizelli (pea) varieties, with the ricotta version notably the more popular of the two. A slightly different puff pastry version of the snack is sold at more stylish cafes. Pastizzi are particularly popular snacks on Sundays in Malta, with vendors all over the islands opening in the early hours to cater for late night clubbers. Pastizzi have a particular place of pride in Maltese culture and are light-heartedly considered one of the nation`s unique achievements. Locals consider no visit to Malta to be complete without eating some pastizzi. (OH I AGREE LOL)

THIS BIT MAKES ME LAUGH :
Pastizzi in the Maltese Language
Such is the ubiquity of pastizzi at the heart of the Maltese psyche, the term `pastizz` has multiple meanings in the Maltese language. The term `pastizz` has sexual connotations, with its oval/diamond shape often humourously likened to the female sexual organ. `Pastizz` is also slang for "idiot" or "buffoon". The term `pastizzi` also replaces `hotcakes` in the Maltese version of the English expression "Selling like hotcakes". Something which is said to be "selling like pastizzi" would seem to have inexhaustible demand.


I could just eat some now...

xx

pmsl Joanna

Yes I am sure I have one someone sent me and you can find the recipes for lots of things on line.

Lizx

Yes, Margaret. It is all to do with market research. On the Continent we have found that British products, although having the same name, do not taste or smell the same as the product sold in the UK.

Did you know that Cadbury chocolate have different flavours in some Countries?.
Im in NZ a rellie was here and enjoyed Cadburies Black Forest. After she got back to England she enquired at Cadbury's to see if she could get some. She was told it wasnt available in England and given the above reason.
Sadly Cadbury has closed the Dunedin ( NZ) factory and the chocs are brought in from Australia.
Not as nice now. Not as nice when bought in Australia so nothing to do with shipping etc.

Whatever makes you think that I can remember Wilfred Pickles and Mabel?? xx

(You have a recipe now for cheesecakes?)

I too never got round to making the cheesecakes Jo, will have a go another day maybe, I have the recipe now so no excuse.
I love timpana, must make some of these things and get my lad round to try them out when o.h. is on late shift so we don't have to share lol

Have a go, Jo, get cooking lol

Lizxx

Oh, we are off on cheesecakes again!!
Oh, those cheesecakes! One day, Liz, one day I WILL have a go at making them - and might inflict one on you.
Now you have reminded me, I haven't made timpana for ages - yum, I will get cracking on that. And those lovely meaty fish dishes; we used to have fish sellers coming to the door, and we used to let down the basket from the balcony - just like everyone else.
For some reason I can't really remember much about the bread out there. I have a feeling Mum used to make most of ours, but of course, we did have the NAAFI.
The one thing which still surprises me every time we go back is that now the food does not give you Malta Dog!!
My parents would not have believed it.
I shall go and find my Maltese cookery book now. xx

My friend takes lots of stuff back to Germany.

Maggie, where did you live in Malta?
When you say black bread, was it white bread in an unsliced loaf but with a black burnt crust? I mainly get authentic Maltese food etc when we visit my son's grandmother, she is very traditional as is her daughter who still lives with her. We had the little marrows that she cooks in a soup, they looked like dumplings but were little marrows and sometimes she will serve them with a main meal or seperately as a starter or snack, or in with the soup. My favourite things are the cheesecakes, first thing my son and I went to get when we were there.
I love their mince and pasta meal, baked macaroni or baked rice or timpana and also beef olives. Lampuka is great and the swordfish - oh am making myself hungry just thinking about it all, it's a year ago since we were just home from there.
Sorry, I digressed but you got me thinking then Maggie, lol

Lizxx

Live In Germany and really miss things like sausage and cheshire cheese, make sure I get basic things in like Sarsons vinegar and bisto gravy granules.
It has got better here though, and we have a few British shops where we can stock up on things, cost 2 - 3 times the price but it worth it :O) especially for things like mincemeat at Christmas :O))

Julie there is quite a good shops in Düsseldorf that does mail order goods you can even have things like sausage, cheese and pork pies sent out to you.......

We lived in Moscow in the mid 60s.
We really missed fresh fruit and veg in the winter months. There was a little shop in the British Embassy and that did its best and there was a Diplomatic shop in the city for foreigners and high ranking communist party members but that sold jars of things like Bulgarian preserved fruits........ and the fresh fish were still swimming in a tank.

I'd miss Marmite and brown sauce too if I were abroad. I also like my real loose leaf tea.

Sue
x

Evening Liz,

When out in Oz i so missed Oxos and good old British Choccies.

Hope you are well.

xxx

Liz - strange you mention what you miss in Malta.
I lived there as a very young child and was given some 'black' bread - so much nicer than the sliced 'Mother's Pride' we used to eat!!
As soon as I could walk & talk, I would get up early and knock on the (Maltese) neighbours door asking (in Maltese) for 'black' bread. Moved to Scotland when I was 4. I have longed for it for over 45 years.

In June this year my sister & I, our children, their partners and their children all went to Tuscany on holiday. My eldest's partner is a chef and when he saw the pizza oven in the wall outside he was in 7th heaven. The first thing he did was make bread - and it turned out just like 'black' bread!! I was in 7th heaven then! It was gorgeous.
Now all I need is some Italian flour and a wood oven...................

tesco's ready salted chipsticks lol

We lived in West Australia for a while and I missed English sausages. I hated the ones there - sure they were made of kangaroo! My young son missed fish fingers, theirs were nothing like ours here in England.

When I lived in Italy I had Walkers crisps and PG Tips posted out to me weekly.... crisps were usually mashed but still yummy!!

:o)

Mince and tatties (honest)

Frys turkish delight--any supermarket in Ayia Napa will have it (strange-but whatever!)
What I really miss is smoked haddock and real kippers--so I pig out on them when I'm back -can't pack them in suitcase to bring a whole lot through ,(can you imagine a delayed/lost suitcase half full of smoked haddock?)

i would miss my favorite tea bags