♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] I'm in Ioannina today, the capital of Epirus in Northwestern Greece, where the region's pastoral traditions coincide with the urban sophistication of this beautiful city.

In the kitchen, I'm making clay-baked lamb with a show stopping pastry seal.

This dish with its Greek drama is definitely, a performance worth repeating.

Tiganopita, a thin, crispy skillet cheese pie.

Bread, feta cheese, olive oil.

Those are three of the world's most ancient ingredients, and they've always worked well together.

This is just a snack for all ages.

And overlooking the lake, I'll have a lesson in the famous baklava of Ioannina.

[Artemis] It's made with love, that's the secret.

[Diane] All secret recipes are made with love.

Join me on My Greek Table , as I explore the flavors and history of this fascinating gem of a city situated on Lake Pamvotida.

♪ ♪ [Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ [Diane] Ioannina...the capital of Epirus in Greece's remote, mountainous, Northwestern corner is at once a jewel and a city of ironies.

On the one hand, it's a small but bustling modern metropolis.

On the other hand, the remnants of its rich and glorious past are palpable everywhere.

(fire roars) Silversmiths, once the lifeblood of the city's commercial prowess, still ply their craft, hammering out cutlery, jewelry...and more.

The old city walls encircle the pristine remnants of Ioannina.

Narrow streets that wind and wend like a labyrinth within the confines of the stone perimeter.

Tight old houses built in characteristic Ottoman style, relics of its complex past.

Nature encroaches on Ioannina, perhaps more than it does in any other city in Greece.

The lush Pindus Mountains that surround it are everywhere visible.

And the lake in the midst of the city is still its heart and soul.

Ioannina is a great food city too.

Cheeses, especially feta, but also a vast array of sheep's and goat's milk cheeses are an integral part of the table.

Savory pies, the greatest culinary legacy of Epirus, are everywhere to be found.

Cheese pies can be dense and creamy with the flakiest of crusts, or thin and pancake like.

A special greens pie called "blatsaria" is a masterpiece of the cooking of itinerant shepherds who ply the Pindus Mountains with their flocks to this day.

Clay-baked meats, especially lamb, are a delicious tradition.

And freshwater delights, everything from river trout to frog's legs to eel baked in unique clay roofing tiles are some of the gifts of the lake and the region's rushing rivers.

On the dessert front, Ioannina's claim to fame is its unique baklava made with nuts and kataifi, a thread-like pastry.

Ioannina is truly a gem shining on its crystalline lake and sparkling amidst the densest mountain range in Greece.

♪ ♪ Today, I'm doing a Greek mountain meat dish, and it's a beautiful dish.

It's very easy.

It's called "arni steen stamna," otherwise known as "clay-baked lamb."

We have this beautiful Greek lamb here, you know.

Everyone thinks of Greek food, they think of lamb first, and there's a good reason.

Why?

Because lamb in this country's really delicious.

♪ ♪ So this is meat and potatoes, Greek mountain style.

And I've got my potatoes here.

We're gonna quarter them.

♪ ♪ Potatoes are going right in around the lamb.

Next in here, I have a very Greek kind of onion.

We call these "kokaria."

You can also use shallots.

They're small onions, we use them a lot in, you know, meat dishes that are really hardy.

And the next thing in is the garlic.

♪ ♪ And a little bit of celery also, for flavor.

♪ ♪ So, the next thing that goes in here, and it's a little bit unusual, these pickled peppers.

They add a really interesting acidity to the dish.

♪ ♪ We want to make sure to season this really well.

I'm using my favorite flaky Greek sea salt and a little bit of black pepper.

♪ ♪ Some fresh strained lemon juice goes in next.

I can't do this without extra virgin Greek olive oil.

And we want a fair amount of olive oil in here.

As you can see, I'm eyeballing it.

I'm not really measuring it.

And then, all these great herbs.

So, I have a little bit of dried rosemary, and I like to just rub that little bit between the palms of my hands.

Ditto on the Greek dried thyme.

♪ ♪ Something a little bit unusual here, dried sage.

♪ ♪ A little bit of fresh dill and a little bit of fresh parsley.

♪ ♪ And last but not least, chunks of Greek feta.

Now, this is all gonna cook very slowly together.

So, the feta's gonna melt into this, too.

♪ ♪ And we want to mix this a little bit, so that everything is very, very well blended.

This will bake for about three and a half to four hours.

♪ ♪ (hits the spoon on the side of the pan) This is done, (closes lid) but we're not finished yet.

I have a little surprise for you.

This is the surprise.

I'm gonna make the seal.

I'm making a very simple dough.

This is just gonna be used to go around the dish.

A lot of these dishes from Northern Greece evolved out of a couple of different historical reasons.

A couple of hundred years ago during the Greek Revolution, people were fighting in the mountains and they needed to create dishes that they could cook without revealing their positions.

So, we find several types of meat dishes that are somehow concealed so that none of the steam escapes while the food is cooking.

This is exactly the texture we want in the dough.

It's firm, but it's also still pliant.

And I'm gonna roll this out into a nice rope that's gonna go right around the rim of the pan.

♪ ♪ Let me just see if it's the right length.

Just gonna start in one place, kind of like that.

We want to be sure that the dough is attached to both the body of the pot, the deep part of the pot, and the lid.

You know, that's basically what seals it in.

I'm just gonna walk it over to the oven.

It's already set at 275 Fahrenheit and it's gonna bake for a long time.

About four hours.

Even before opening this, I can smell it and it smells great.

This is my kind of Greek drama.

Beautiful, impressive, the kind of thing you want to serve guests and you know, kind of wait for the compliments.

The main character is this dough right around here.

So, it's all crisped and baked, and about to come off.

(dough falls off) A moment of truth.

Wow, it looks amazing and it smells even more amazing.

It's rustic, but it's also really sophisticated in its own way.

One of the things I really love about this dish is what happens to the feta after like, three or four hours of slow cooking.

It loses moisture, so it's got a very different texture, but it's almost smoky.

♪ ♪ Okay, ready to taste the clay-baked lamb.

Get a little bit of that feta that I sang the praises of.

Mm.

You know when they say, "It melts in your mouth?"

This really melts in your mouth.

The first thing I got was the brininess of the feta cheese, but also that unique texture of it from having cooked for so long.

It's a little bit almost, it's almost crunchy, almost smoky.

And the herbs are very subtle, but I'm getting all of them, especially the rosemary.

The onions add this beautiful sweetness to it.

So, this dish with its Greek drama is definitely a performance worth repeating.

I'm pairing this with a wine from another part of Greece, not from the North, made with the Agiorghitiko grape.

It is produced in the area of Nemea, which is about an hour and a half south of Athens, one of the main wine producing regions of Greece.

And in fact, one of the oldest Appalachians in the world.

It's a medium bodied, you know, dry red.

And if you like that sort of wine, you're gonna like this too.

Learn how to say it, Agiorghitiko, and I've always loved a little trick, which is eye-your-he-ti-ko.

Eis ygeian.

Cheers.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Kaliméra.

[Woman] Kaliméra.

[Diane] One of the most delicious details about life in Epirus are the cheeses, made with the sheep's or sheep's and goat's milk.

This is called "Kapnisto Metsovo" and it's a sheep and goat's milk cheese that's smoked.

Mm.

And what I love about this cheese is that even though the smokiness kind of is the dominant flavor, I can still taste all of the flora in the milk.

This is a local graviera.

And what I find interesting, and I can't wait to taste, is that they've dotted it with these local blueberries called myrtilo.

♪ ♪ Mm.

And this is amazing, very subtly sweet, but the cheese itself is both sweet and nutty at the same time, and it has this beautiful kind of medium firm texture.

And it's, I can taste the milk.

That's how you know a cheese is really good.

And I'm gonna taste the feta next.

Mm.

It's sweet.

It's also salty a little bit, not too much.

But again, it's that milk.

I can taste the milk.

What I love about all these cheeses is that they're all very different and they're also very representative of the region, even though they're so different, one from the other.

And they're just, they're beautiful.

♪ ♪ About 25 miles outside of Ioannina, in the mountains, on the way to the Stone Forest and Stone Bridges is the stone town of Monodendri.

And a memory of a feta filled skillet pie, Tiganopita, that comes from a famous place, Kikitsa's.

Thin, crispy, with a wonderfully briny and flavorful feta cheese.

It's the inspiration for the next dish.

♪ ♪ This recipe brings back so many memories from a trip I made to Monodendri outside of Ioannina in Northwestern Greece, in Epirus, many, many years ago to a very famous taverna called "Kikitsa's."

This place was known for a feta cheese flatbread made in a frying pan called "Tiganopita."

So, I'm recreating it here today.

Let's get started.

It's a very easy dish to make.

I've got my flower measured out here, just all-purpose flour, some baking powder, and a little bit of salt.

♪ ♪ Basically, mix the dry ingredients together, make a well.

♪ ♪ I've got warm water here and a little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil.

♪ ♪ And I'm gonna get that kneaded.

We want the dough to be malleable and pliant.

♪ ♪ So, this dough is unctuous because of the olive oil.

It's very soft.

It's got a beautiful, silky feel to it.

That's exactly what we want.

It needs to be kneaded for a few more minutes.

And I'm just gonna do that on the cutting board.

It's a little bit easier.

Let me just flour up my board a little bit.

Epirus is a place where savory pies are really big part of the local tradition.

And in fact, most of the bread bakers actually are from Epirus.

The guy here in my neighborhood is from Epirus and makes really good bread and really good pies.

This is pretty much done.

I'm gonna get two pies out of this.

Break that in half.

So, what we want to do now is roll this out a little bit.

You want to roll a circle just about the size of the inner circumference of the pan.

This was something I used to make for my kids often.

It was kind of a quick and easy after school meal.

♪ ♪ We want to take a little bit of feta.

It's crumbled, but it's in pretty large pieces.

And what I like to do is, I basically, just kind of get that into a crescent.

You press this down.

And then, you roll it out again.

I'm gonna try to make it round because it just looks a little bit nicer.

Don't worry about it, if it's not perfect.

Okay, I'm gonna get going on the other one.

There are all sorts of treats like this all over Greece.

In traditional communities where bread was baked, you know, maybe, once a week in the outdoor bread baking oven, there'd always be a little piece of dough left at the end and the grandmother or the mother or the aunts or whoever was baking, she'd take a little bit of dough and fill it with something, you know, feta cheese or maybe herbs, or sometimes fry it up and sprinkle a little bit of honey or sugar on top.

I'm just gonna get the pan ready, heat it, get a little bit of olive oil in there.

And when the olive oil heats up and it'll start to shimmer a little bit.

We're gonna let this cook for a few minutes.

You don't want the oil to be too hot.

You don't want to burn the outside of the dough and not give it enough time to cook on the inside.

So, it's kind of a medium heat.

You want it to cook evenly throughout.

This is ready to flip.

♪ ♪ I can't resist cutting a little piece off.

You can serve this any which way, you can keep them whole and serve them as individual pies.

When my kids were young, these wouldn't last more than a few seconds.

They'd come running into the kitchen and basically tear them apart.

But I'm gonna cut a little piece off just so you can see the inside as well.

So, this is nice and thin.

It's totally cooked through, which is exactly what we want.

The feta cheese has kind of melted into the dough, and I'm gonna try some.

Mm.

This is a great snack.

This tastes of timelessness.

Bread, feta cheese, olive oil.

Those are three of the world's most ancient ingredients, and they've always worked well together.

This is really flaky, It's crispy.

I get the saltiness and a little bit of the brininess of the cheese, but it's also quite subtle because of the dough.

This is just a snack for all ages.

So, enjoy.

♪ ♪ Hello from the shores of Lake Pamvotida, in Ioannina.

I'm here with Artemis Kolionasiou, whose family is among the most famous baklava makers in all of Greece.

She's going to show me how to make a traditional Gianniotiko baklava, which is the baklava from this city, Ioannina.

Okay, so show us what we have here.

[Artemis] So, we have almonds.

[Diane] Mm-hm.

So, I mix the breadcrumbs with the almonds.

[Artemis] We are going to add the walnuts.

[Diane] Okay.

Kind of just break them by hand?

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] Oh, okay.

That's easy.

Gianniotiko Baklava is famous all over Greece.

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] What makes it different from other baklava recipes?

[Artemis] The secret recipe.

It's made with love.

That's the secret.

[Diane] All secret recipes are made with love.

[Artemis] Yes.

And I guess, the rolls.

[Diane] So, it's always rolled.

And I also see the kataifi.

I always thought that was what defined the baklava from Ioannina.

[Artemis] Exactly.

[Diane] Okay.

So, is this good?

[Artemis] Yeah, it's good.

[Diane] What do I do with the kataifi?

[Artemis] We can take it.

We do it like this.

[Diane] So, you break it apart, you just layer it like that, place it down like that?

[Artemis] If you like.

[Diane] Okay.

[Artemis] Have the same amount... [Diane] Everywhere.

[Artemis] ...everywhere.

[Diane] So, there's a little bit more in the center.

[Artemis] Yes.

Now, we take the mix.

[Diane] Okay.

[Artemis] With the almonds and walnuts, then we put it in front of it.

And...up.

[Diane] This is very simple.

So now, what do we do?

[Artemis] We take two.

[Diane] Two sheets.

[Artemis] We fold it, and then we roll it.

[Diane] Okay.

That's easy enough.

[Artemis] Yes.

You want to do the second one?

[Diane] Sure.

♪ ♪ And now, you do the next.

I'll give you the kataifi, so I feel like, I'm doing something.

[Artemis] Okay.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Ah, I see your technique.

Now, I got it.

[Artemis] You know my secret.

[Diane] Okay.

Now, what do we do?

[Artemis] Now, we take the three of them, we cut the ends.

[Diane] Okay.

[Artemis] Just like that.

We don't need them.

And then, we cut it in small pieces.

♪ ♪ [Diane] So, we put this in here?

[Artemis] Yes.

Without butter.

[Diane] Without butter.

Okay.

That's also very, very different to me.

[Artemis] Without any butter.

Yes.

We add all the pieces.

[Diane] Okay.

This is pretty easy.

[Artemis] Yes.

I told you that the secret was love.

[Diane] Okay, now what do we do?

[Artemis] Now, we take the butter, melted butter, and then we spread it all over the baklava.

[Diane] I think, the secret besides love... [Artemis] Yes?

[Diane] ...Is to have very good ingredients.

Really good almonds, really good walnuts.

[Artemis] And a lot of butter.

[Diane] And a lot of butter.

Don't tell that secret.

(they both laugh) Shh.

Now, we bake this, right?

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] For how long and at what temperature?

[Artemis] About two hours at 150 Celsius.

[Diane] So, that is about 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about two hours.

And then, we take it out of the oven.

Hot baklava.

[Artemis] Hot baklava, cold syrup.

[Diane] Perfect.

Let's go.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ Artemis, these have settled now, right?

The syrup has settled.

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] It's cool.

[Artemis] And ready to eat.

[Diane] Let's have a taste.

[Artemis] Yes.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Should we just eat with our hands?

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] Okay.

[Artemis] Just a bite.

[Diane] So, we have a taste now.

♪ ♪ Mm.

Crispy.

[Artemis] Mm-hmm.

[Diane] This is super buttery.

The kataifi, that shredded wheat, the angel hair in the middle, gives it a really, really unique texture.

The almonds and the walnuts come out, come through beautifully.

But most of all, it's the texture that's really special about this.

[Artemis] Yes.

[Diane] It's that really crispy, crunchy texture.

And what makes it different from every other baklava in Greece is that addition of kataifi, and also the fact that it's rolled.

And it's really delicious.

And these bite size pieces are very tempting, I have to say.

[Artemis] Thank you so much.

[Diane] Really glad that I learned how to make this.

[Artemis] You can make it in New York.

[Diane] Now, I will make it anywhere.

(laughs) For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

[Announcer] Diane's cookbook's "My Greek Table" and "Ikaria" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com Or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪