Kolokotes

Ingredients

Filling

• 800 gpumpkin
• peeled and diced small
• 150 gpourgouri
• coarse cracked wheat
• 150 graisins
• 1onion, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoonsground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoonsalt
• black pepper
• 3 tablespoonsolive oil
• 2 tablespoonssugar, optional

Dough

• 600 gplain flour
• 150 mlolive oil
• about 250 ml warm water
• 1 teaspoonsalt
• 1 teaspoonsugar
• 1 tablespoonorange juice, optional

To finish

• olive oil, to brush
• or 1 beaten egg
• sesame seeds, optional

To serve

• warm or at room temperature
• coffee
• in autumn

Directions

1. Brush them with oil rather than egg for those. Use a dense fleshed pumpkin or squash. Watery varieties give a wet filling. Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Cut it all into small even dice. Aim for about one centimetre across.
2. Toss the diced pumpkin with a teaspoon of salt. Let it sit for thirty minutes. Salt draws water out of the pumpkin. Others keep it for the pourgouri to absorb. Cover the raisins with warm water. Let them plump for fifteen minutes. Drain them well before they go in. Put the diced pumpkin in a large bowl.
3. Add the raw uncooked pourgouri to it. Add the drained plumped raisins. Add the finely chopped onion as well. Add the cinnamon, salt and pepper. Pour the olive oil over all of it. Mix it all thoroughly together. Cover the filling and let it stand. Give it about thirty minutes to stand. Put the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the middle of it. Pour in all of the measured olive oil.
4. Rub it through the flour with your fingers. Add warm water gradually as you work. Bring it together into a soft dough. Knead it for about five minutes. It should become smooth and pliable. Oil doughs need less kneading than butter ones. They also need much less resting.
5. Wrap the dough and let it rest. Give it about thirty minutes to rest. Divide the dough into several pieces. Roll each out on a floured surface. Take it down to about three millimetres. Cut rounds about twelve centimetres across. Use a bowl or a saucer as a guide. Filling them takes a light touch.
6. Put a good spoonful on each round. Set it on one half of the circle. Leave a clear border around it. Do not overfill any one of them. Brush the border lightly with water. Fold the round over into a half-moon.
7. Press the edges firmly together. Press the edge very firmly indeed. Fold the sealed edge over on itself. Pinch it into a rope as you go. Leave room for the filling to expand. Do not fill them right to the edge. Put them on a lined baking tray. Prick the top once with a fork. Steam builds inside as they bake. Brush the tops with olive oil.
8. Scatter sesame seeds over if you like. Heat the oven to one hundred and ninety degrees. Bake them for about thirty-five minutes. Turn the tray halfway through. Judging them takes a careful look.
9. Cover them with foil if they colour early. Let them cool for twenty minutes. The filling is extremely hot at first. Set them out on a serving plate. Serve strong coffee alongside them. They keep three days in a sealed tin.

Technique

• The pourgouri goes into the filling raw and uncooked, which is the clever part: pumpkin releases a great deal of water as it bakes and that water would make the pastry soggy, so the cracked wheat absorbs it and cooks in it inside the pasty. Adding cooked pourgouri would not work at all.
• The filling swells considerably as the wheat absorbs and expands, so leave room, do not fill to the edge, and press the seal very firmly; overfilled ones split every time, and one fork prick in the top lets the steam out.
• The dough is made with olive oil and no animal fat, which gives a crisp rather than flaky result and makes them suitable for Orthodox fasting days when brushed with oil rather than egg.

Substitutions

• Butternut or any dense fleshed squash works where watery varieties would not.
• Coarse bulgur is the same thing as pourgouri under another name.

Variations

• Some cooks drain the salted pumpkin water and others keep it for a moister filling.
• A little sugar goes into the filling in some households.
• The rope crimp is the usual Cypriot form, though a fork press is also used.

History

An autumn Cypriot pastry made when the pumpkin crop comes in, sold in every village bakery.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kolokotes?

Kolokotes is a bread & pastry from Cyprus: folded pasties of pumpkin, cracked wheat and raisins, baked crisp. An autumn Cypriot pastry made when the pumpkin crop comes in, sold in every village bakery.

How long does Kolokotes take to make?

Kolokotes takes 1 hour plus resting of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 16 pasties. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kolokotes?

Yes, within limits. Butternut or any dense fleshed squash works where watery varieties would not. Coarse bulgur is the same thing as pourgouri under another name.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kolokotes?

Brush them with oil rather than egg for those. Use a dense fleshed pumpkin or squash. Watery varieties give a wet filling. Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Cut it all into small even dice. Aim for about one centimetre across.