84 bbcgoodfood.com APRIL 2020
DIANA HENRYGood Foodcontributing editor Diana Henry
is an award-winning food writer. Her latest
book isFrom the Oven to the Table, (£25,
Mitchell Beazley). For more of Diana’s
recipes, go tobbcgoodfood.com.
@dianahenryfoodFILO PASTRY
T
he last time I baked galaktoboureko – a Greek
pudding made with an orange-scented batter
and handfuls of dried, flaked filo – I posted
a picture of the filo on Instagram asking people to
guess what it was. It could have been a bed of white
blossom, finely shaved coconut or a beautiful,
minimalist type of confetti. Nobody guessed what
it was. Usually, when working with it, the idea is not
to let the filo dry, as it shatters and you can’t shape it,
but these petal-like pieces were lovely to handle.
When I look at what the Greeks do with filo, I could
weep. There are more Greek pies in my repertoire
than British ones whether buttery, golden or sesame
seed-strewn, filled with bulgur, feta, big handfuls of
pine-flavoured dill, or eggs, black olives and roast
tomatoes. They’re easy to make and endless in their
variety. You can imagine their invention; a resourceful
Greek mamma looking at what she has in her garden
or her haul from the market. Bitter greens? Leeks?
These will do very well.
The weeping is to do with how badly we, in contrast,
often treat filo. It used to be di cult to get hold of,
certainly outside London. When we finally got our
hands on it we didn’t make Greek pies, instead we
shaped sheets around chunks of camembert, added
a dollop of cranberry sauce and baked little parcels.
For years this was considered an ‘easy dinner party
starter’. We were more seduced by filo’s ease, andthe fact that you didn’t have to make it yourself,
than we were by its singular qualities.
The first time I used it was to make edible
Christmas crackers. The recipe – for those who
remember those heady days when we got turned
onto food – was in a 1980s gastroporn magazine
calledA la Carte. Mincemeat and candied peel
were rolled in buttered sheets of filo, pinched
at each end, doused with more butter and baked
until the pastry crackled as soon as gently touched
by a fork. With a light snowfall of icing sugar, they
were quite magical, and showed filo at its best.
Filo can be used for strudel-like pastries as well
as Greek ones, though it’s not the same as strudel
dough (which is di cult and time-consuming to
make, though Julie Jones’s latest book,The Pastry
School, has a very good recipe for it). However, it’s
a good substitute, and gives you scope – you can
make as many savoury strudels as there are
vegetables to go in them.
Some cooks are nervous about handling filo, but
just keep a tea towel over the sheets once they’re
out of the packet so they don’t dry. After that, it’s
just butter, butter, butter. Melt plenty and forget
about calories (or eat something else). It’s a very
forgiving pastry. If it breaks, patch it up – you can
never see the joins. Just – please – don’t stu it
with camembert and cranberries.Diana Henryshares three new recipes using laky ilo
recipesDIANA HENRY photographsNASSIMA ROTHACKER