This week, we’re off on holiday to the Greek island of
Symi, near Rhodes. I’ve been reading Tessa
Kiros’s lovely book,
‘Food from Many Greek Kitchens’ and I fell in love with the idea of ‘Fanouropita’, a cake traditionally made today, on August
27th, the name day of Saint Fanourios, the patron saint of lost things.
Women in Greek villages, particularly in Rhodes and the
neighbouring islands, bring the cake to church, where the priest blesses it
with a special ceremony. The congregation asks for the saint’s mother’s sins to
be forgiven, and then make a wish to Saint Fanourios for help to find something
– good health and happiness, lost items, lost relatives, peace, etc. It is also said to help unmarried women 'find' the name of their future husband. After the
Mass, the sweet cakes are cut and everybody shares pieces with each other.
Fanouropita can also be made at other times of the
year if someone wishes to ask Saint Fanourios to find something or someone for
them, or once you have found something lost you can bake this cake to show
Saint Fanourios appreciation for his help. To honour the tradition, you then
also need to distribute some pieces of the cake to friends or neighbours.
The cake must be made with seven or nine ingredients, as the
power of 7 or 9 is said to have prophetic or magical properties. The
ingredients are pure and nutritional Greek ingredients like olive oil and
orange juice, all of them suitable for the Orthodox fasting, so there are no
dairy products like eggs or butter in the recipe. Although Tessa Kiros’ recipe
doesn’t say so, other traditional recipes I’ve looked at say that, in keeping
with the tradition of 'finding things', the cake batter should contain nuts and
dried fruits, so that as you eat it, your teeth will 'find things' in it.
Here is my version of Fanouropita based on several
different traditional recipes. Mine includes sultanas soaked in orange liqueur
and a mixture of nuts – I used almonds and walnuts, as they are in keeping with
Greek produce.
