Cheese Souffle with Kataifi Pastry

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A week ago my brother’s mother in law brought us from Crete graviera cheese. Crete, as I have told you before, is the biggest island of Greece and is situated on the southern part of it. It is a beautiful island with beaches of exquisit beauty. My brother’s mother in law lives there and now that she came for holidays, she brought one of the cheeses Crete is famous for: graviera. Cretan graviera has a sweet and salty taste that resembles to gruyere cheese. As I was looking for ways to consume all this quantity, I came across a recipe on marmita.gr with kataifi pastry souffle. Kataifi (is pronounced ka-ta-e-fi) is a pastry like hair and is used basically for kataifi sweet. The readers from Middle East know exactly what this pastry looks like and can find it easily in their local markets. For the other readers around the world, if you cannot find this particular pastry you can substitute it to the classic phyllo pastry. I made some changes to the original recipe that called for 5 eggs. Unfortunately, as years go by we must be more careful and make recipes as light as possible. Also, I used margarine instead of butter and increased the quantity of milk. But let’s go and make it. It was really very tasteful and soft. I will definately do it again, especially if I have guests, since it is very easy and serves many.


Cheese Souffle with Kataifi pastry

Ingredients
1 pack kataifi pastry
2 eggs(original recipe calls for 5)
500 ml milk (originally 300 ml)
Salt, pepper and 1 tsp ground nutmeg
250 gr grated cheddar
250 gr. grated graviera (you can use any cheese you like)
pieces of margarine

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175C.
Pull kataifi hair off . Butter a pyrex of 25cmX35cm or a little bit larger and scatter a few pieces of margarine in the size of a die. We spread 1/3 of the kataifi quantity. Above it we spread 1/3 of the cheeses. We again spread another 1/3 of kataifi pastry and above it another 1/3 of cheeses. Finally we place the final third of the kataifi pastry and finish with the last third of cheeses. Above it throw again a few pices of margarine in the size of a die. In a bowl we whisk the milk, the eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. We throw it above the cheese and pastry. Place the pyrex on the lower part of the oven and let it bake for an hour or until golden. Next time I will add some ham too. I believe that it will add to its taste. Because graviera is a salty cheese, I did not add any salt, but if you need it more salty, you can always taste and add some salt.