Pistachio Baklawa

When I got home from work, a surprise was waiting for me.  Not a big surprise, but a nice nutty one. 

A friend brought over some baklawa that came to Hawaii via Lebanon.  This baklawa was made with pistachios instead of walnuts, and I heard this was more authentic than what we usually eat here in the states.  Can anyone tell me if this is true or not?  In any case, I savored every bite.  Now I'm wishing that there was more.

By the way, Augustus Gloop, of Grab Your Fork, asked for a baklava recipe a while back when I had made mention of it to her by way of a comment on her blog.  Augustus, I apologize for the delay, but the recipe and post will be up this Sunday, April 10.

**NOTE**

I initially stated that this baklava came from Greece, the post has been corrected to reflect it's true origin and name.  It's actually baklawa from Lebanon.

Comments

[AugustusGloop]

To Hawaii via Greece? You lucky thing.

I can't say I've seen baklava made like that before in Oz, although I've seen whole pistachios inside the birds-nest like baklava (I call them vermicelli baklava!).

And thanks for the recipe. I thought you'd forgotten =P (I'd much rather you send me some Greek baklava but ok, I'll take the recipe)

[Reid]

Hi AG,

No, I'm not really lucky. If I were, I would have been bringing them back with me! =)

You're definitely right about the birds nest type. I've seen it in the states, but not here before.

Don't worry, you'd never be forgotten here. I'm slow...it's called Hawaiian time. Just ask Santos and Anthony, they know all about it!

The baklava would be coming your way, but then again, it would come via Hawaii, so would that still make it Greek? =P

[MrsT]

Hey..Reid.. :)
The baklava looks too delicious.. :) I donch really know alot about it.. but i am writing an email to my ex-boss who is from Greece about it.. if i hear from him.. i'll let you know.. ;)

[AugustusGloop]

Hey Reid

No worries. We operate on "she'll be right mate"-time down here.

So obviously Customs isn't as strict in Hawaii as they are in Sydney. I'm sure the sniffer dogs would be all over any kinda of unpackaged baklava goodness.

[MrsT]

Hey..Reid,
This was the reply i got from my ex-boss.. Mr Tsingos.. :)
**************************************************
As you know Pistachio(Fistiquia in Greek) ls a tree which produces the pistachio
seeds ,and when try is like a tiny finger nail.Its taste is approx like a nut.

The Bakclava is a sweet originated from Turkey but very common in Greece

I remember my mother doing it.
Itis done in the oven. She used an oven tray .Firstly applied a small quantity of butter IN the metalic dish.
Then she applied a layer of puff pastry (available in the supermarket).The come in thin sheets.
On top of the pastry she applied a layer of granuated Pistachos.
Again another layer of very thin puff pastry and pistachos until you have a couple of inches high.
The top layer must be the pastry.
You put it in the oven till the top layer of pastry is brownish.
when out of the oven you pour a qood quantity of hot sugar syrup.
You may add some powder cinnamon on the top
Once the whole thin¡g is cold you cut it in pieces .
The pieces acording to my mother are cut of the shape of squares or rombos.
Manuela (my wife) tried but the result was disastrous
Good luck to you
********************************************

[Reid]

Hi AG,

Well, the sniffing dogs are around, but I'm not sure if they are trained to smell sweets that are packaged. This one actually came in a box with a lot of other treats, but this was the best tasting of the lot. =)

There was also the bird's nest baklava in there too, but I ate it before I decided to take a photo. =(

BTW...the recipe is up. Hope you have fun making it. =) I actually also gave some incorrect information. The box of treats came from Lebanon.

Hi MrsT,

Thank you so much for the information. Sounds like pistachio is more common than I thought. I wonder why we use walnuts here in the States. Maybe it's because pistachios are so expensive.

Thanks again!

[pinkcocoa]

all I can say is *yum* :-)

[zengin]

BAKLAVA is the TURKİSH pastry sweet,not Greeks.

look at this links.
'http://www.bigglook.com/biggmenueng/recipies/desserts/baklavawithwalnuts.asp

'http://www.baktad.org/
'http://www.hacibozanogullari.com.tr/index.html
'http://www.mymarmaris.com/turkishcuisine/baklava.phtml
'http://web.deu.edu.tr/atiksu/turkiye/26ani.html

thanks.:)

zengin.

[Reid]

Hi zengin,

Thanks for stopping by. Actually, I am aware of that baklava is of Turkish origin. I had originally mentioned, by mistake, that the box of baklava and assorted treats I got were from Greece. They had actually come from Lebanon. I had made no mention as to the origin of baklava.

Thanks again for the links and the information!

[Jo Rutherford]

Thank you Zengin! Question, what are the "non-english" websites saying? I took a look at the "BiggMenu" website, we are having kebab for dinner tonight and following up with baklava!

Question: the recipies on BiggMenu use "glass" as a measurement. How does that translate into American measurement? One of our standard measurements is a "cup" which is 8 ounces. Is there a conversion site that you know of?

Thanks!

[Reid]

Hi Jo,

By reading the recipe on that website, since the unit of measure is the glass, I'm sure that you can use any glass of your choosing to measure out the ingredients.

For the sake of simplicity, it seems as though an 8-ounce glass (1 cup) should work fine. =) I hope I'm right.

I've seen recipes before that call for ingredients to be measured out in coffee cups. Those were interesting to experiment with. =)