(classical music)
- Okay is that too big of a slice?
No.
Hey guys, it's me, Jasmine.
And today I'm gonna be challenged to recreate
a vacation through food.
I've been receiving letters from people
who've had to cancel their vacations because of COVID.
So I am going to help them live out their vacation
through an authentic recipe given to me by a local,
so they can at least go on a taste bud trip.
The first postcard comes from Tiffany,
who had to cancel her trip to Greece.
- [Tiffany] "Dear Jasmine,
"I was supposed to go to Greece this summer for a wedding.
"I was really looking forward
"to eating all the authentic Greek food
"my body could handle, and I absolutely love desserts.
"Can you show me how to make an authentic Greek dessert?"
- Yes, I can.
Greek cuisine often uses oregano, dill
mint, bay leaves and a few others,
but I want Tiffany to have the most authentic
taste bud trip possible.
So I am enlisting the help of Greek local
Madame Ginger, who knows the ins and outs of Greek cuisine.
- Hey Jasmine, Madam Ginger here,
and I'm really really happy to help.
So everyone thinks that in Greece,
we only eat souvlaki, or moussaka.
Yes, we do eat those and we really love them.
But every local would know how special
and traditional orange filo pie is.
In Greece we call it portokalopita.
That's why today I'm giving you my recipe
for this delicious Greek dessert.
You really, really need to try it
- I've never made orange pie before,
I've never even heard of it.
And I think I've got my work cut out for me today.
Let's do this.
So one of the star ingredients in this cake is filo dough.
So using our hands we're just gonna rip
our filo dough into uneven pieces,
but it's gonna be important that we separate the layers
because we don't want them to dry in chunks.
It could be as uneven as you like,
because we're gonna crush 'em up anyway, so no big deal.
I do this when it's still frozen
so it's easier to work with.
Once it starts to defrost, you can get some extra moisture
in there which makes it harder to work with.
You just wanna fluff them up
because you don't want them to stick together.
Make sure to aerate them pretty nicely,
and don't forget to separate the layers.
This is kinda therapeutic,
I am quite enjoying this.
So once you've stripped them into these uneven pieces,
go ahead and aerate them again
and spread them out evenly onto the pan.
Once you have something that looks like this,
we're gonna bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes
until they're lightly toasted and hardened.
So the next step is to whip the eggs and sugar together
until they're light colored and fluffy.
I feel like recipes are sometimes so specific,
yet oddly so vague.
Like what does light colored mean?
What does fluffy mean?
Is that soft or is that thick?
I'm not really sure.
So we're gonna give Kelly a call.
Kelly is our wonderful culinary developer on Tasty,
and she's gonna give us a quick egg whipping 101.
Hey Kelly.
- Hi Jasmine.
- I need some help.
- Okay.
- I was wondering if you could
give us a quick egg whipping 101.
I am looking at the recipe and it says to whip the eggs
until they're light and fluffy.
What does that mean?
Are there do's and don'ts?
What should I be looking for?
- First off, are your eggs room temperature?
- Yes.
- Okay perfect.
What you wanna do is put your eggs and sugar in a bowl
and whip them with a hand mixer or a stand mixer
over a medium high speed until
they've like doubled or tripled in volume.
Their color will change from like a darker yellow
to a pale yellow color.
And they'll be thick,
not like a mayonnaise, but maybe like in between
a sour cream and a mayonnaise consistency.
Don't over whip it because then you can't go back,
and also you'll know it's done
when you pick up your whisk and some of it falls down.
And if it sits on top of the other batter
in the bowl and creates ribbons,
that's when you know it looks perfect.
- Okay, got it.
Thank you so much.
You're a lifesaver.
- You're welcome.
I can't wait to see the finished product.
- Bye.
Now that we've gotten our lesson from Kelly,
I feel pretty prepared.
Got our room, temp eggs here.
Gonna add them all in.
And now we're gonna whip them
until they're light and fluffy.
So after about five minutes of mixing,
we now have these gorgeous ribbons
that don't sink in immediately.
And now we're gonna add in our sunflower oil,
baking powder, vanilla extract.
So for the zest,
you only want this outer layer of the orange.
(grating orange)
The white spongy part in the middle over here,
that is called the pith.
And that's very bitter, so if you start zesting the pith
and including it in the cake,
you might get some bitterness to it.
So the zest we're adding in is from unwaxed oranges.
And what unwaxed oranges means is organic.
And then we're gonna add in our full fat Greek yogurt.
I'm gonna mix this in a little bit
before we use our mixer again
to mix it up until it's nice and smooth.
We're gonna grab our filo dough that we dehydrated earlier,
and we're just gonna crush it up into small pieces
and then fold it into our mixture.
I am taking my greased baking dish
and I'm just going to add it in there.
Oh my God, it smells like butter, orange, and vanilla.
Oh my goodness.
I'm so excited to try this.
I'm just gonna spread it so that it's nice
and even in the baking dish.
(upbeat music)
(exhaling)
Smells heavenly, I'm so excited to put this in my body.
Okay, into the oven it goes.
So while the orange pie is baking in the oven,
let's go ahead and make our syrup.
We're just gonna add in our orange juice.
(pouring juice)
Freshly squeezed.
Our water.
(pouring water)
Juice from one lemon, an orange peel, and our sugar.
Let's give that a good stir.
And we're just gonna let this simmer
for about 10 to 12 minutes until the sugar dissolves
and the syrup thicken.
The orange pie is finished,
so we're gonna poke these holes into the pie
so that it can absorb the syrup
when we pour it in afterwards.
So after you've poked your holes into the orange pie
we're gonna slowly ladle our syrup over the cake
until it slowly and fully absorbs all of it.
I've let the pie cool for about an hour, still warm,
and that's why I wanna cut it now
because I do still want it when it's nice and fresh.
You can see that it already absorbed all the syrup.
Okay, is that too big of a slice?
No.
Oh my gosh it looks so moist.
Sorry if you hate that word.
Oh, look at that.
Ho my goodness.
Let's try it, cheers.
(eating)
That might be one of my most favorite things I've ever made.
That is so good.
The zest that we added makes the pie taste so fresh.
The filo dough inside is so good.
It's almost custardy,
and you can actually feel the filo dough inside,
and it adds different layers within the pie
to create a different texture.
This is so good.
Tiffany, you're gonna be so happy.
(laughing)
Okay, guys, we have taken our taste buds
all the way to Greece today
with this delicious portokalopita.
I really hope I said that right.
Make sure to take a picture and tag me on Instagram
when you make this.
And if you love traveling through food
as much as I do make sure to head over to Bring Me
and check out our latest series
where we unbox surprise country themed snack boxes.
See ya.
- [Man] Oh yes.
(upbeat music)