Sheftalia in Cyprus Pita

A few months ago I told you how I made Cypriot Pita Bread and how easy it was to make. Ever since I learned how to make them we have been enjoying them in all sorts of sandwiches especially with halloumi and lountza or eating them with dips, like hoummous, taramosalata, tzatziki or melintzanosalata but one of the best ways to use them is to fill them in with sheftalia, souvlakia or both "mixed" as we call them in Cyprus.

Probably 99% of the Greeks will be barbecuing or grilling as it is tradition to roast a whole lamb on Easter. I will be giving the recipes for the lamb and kokoretsi in the next few days but until then I would like to tell you how to make this Cypriot speciality and fill in your pitas.

Sheftalia, which is a Cypriot crépinette, is like an oval shaped meat ball but which is wrapped in caul fat. Caul fat is the membrane that surrounds the stomach and is transparent, fragile, and naturally fatty, although when it is finally grilled or barbecued all the fat melts away.

Ask the butcher in your neighbourhood for it. In Cyprus you can also find it frozen in supermarkets. I do get some in Athens from my butcher but whenever we go to Sparta there is a big butchery and the owner has a big pigsty. Caul fat from pigs are better because those from lamb have a lot of fat on them and are more expensive. So whenever we go to Sparta I bring a lot with me (did I say a lot) and after washing them I separate them and store them in the deep freezer and use them whenever I like. Apart from sheftalia I also wrap stuffed meat rolls with the caul.

If you decide to make them don’t add oregano, it’s biftekia, don’t add cumin, it’s soutzoukakia, don’t add mint it’s Cypriot keftedes don’t add rice, it’s dolmades, don’t add egg it’s something else and don’t use cooked meat, as I’ve seen that as well.

When we first moved to our house there was a take-away rotisserie just around the corner and I was so excited to see that he was selling sheftalia. I was already more than ten years in Greece and apart from a few Cypriot restaurants in Athens, you couldn’t find sheftalia anywhere else, so I hadn’t eaten any for a long time. The first thing we bought there from this rotisserie was sheftalia.

I was surprised at first to the size of them. Each sheftalia was like a giant burger but shaped oblong like sheftalia. When taking them home the first bite revealed chunks of meat (probably his leftover grilled meat) and chunks of peppers and whatever else he thought would go with it and wrapped them in the caul fat and baptized them as sheftalia).

Needless to say that I never bought his sheftalia again but I continued buying other grilled meat as they weren’t bad. Months later when got acquainted I asked him where he learned the recipe and he confessed that he served his military service in Cyprus years ago but could not remember exactly how they were, so he improvised.

This is my entry for The Root Source Challenge event, hosted by Brys Stephens of Cookthink.
This month’s theme is Pita.

Sheftalia in Cyprus Pita

Makes about 40 sheftalia

Preparation Time: 2 hours

Barbecuing or grilling: 20 - 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1,500 grams ground pork
• 3 onions, finely chopped
• 4 small tomatoes grated
• 1 cup of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• (Caul fat, called panna in Greek)
  
• the juice of 2 lemons
• extra lemon, parsley, onion to serve
• tomato and cucumber for salad

Directions:

Wash the caul fat well under running cold water and place it in a bowl, add the lemon juice and leave for 10-15 minutes. Rinse and let it drain.

In a large baking tin, knead together the ground pork, onion, parsley, tomato, salt, pepper and cinnamon thoroughly and form into small oval meat balls.

To prepare them, carefully unravel the caul fat and stretch it out over your work surface. Cut it into square pieces about 7x7cm. Place a spoonful of the ground meat at the edge and fold in the outside edges and roll it into a neat little package, shaping it with the palms of your hand just as we wrap dolmades.

Thread two metal skewers with 4-5 sheftalia lengthwise depending on the size of the skewers or place them inside la wire basket grill. Do not place too close to heat as sheftalia must cook fairly slowly so that the inside is well cooked and the outside nicely browned without being burnt. The panna melts during cooking, keeping the meat moist and adding flavour. Excessive flaring of fire can be controlled by a sprinkle of salt on the coals. Sheftalia are served as an appetizer or a main course.

We usually serve with home made pitta bread. Warm the pitta bread and slice it down one edge to form a large pocket. Slide two to three Sheftalia off the skewer into the pitta and add chopped tomatoes and cucumber, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, as much chopped onion as you like and season with salt and a lot of lemon juice.

Fantastic!!!

Note: Before barbecuing sheftalia can be frozen for up to 4 months.