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| Fresh Anari |
‘Anari ‘ is a Cypriot cheese made from whey. The whey is usually a by-product from the production of halloumi cheese. The whey is brought to boiling point by which time curds will have formed, which are skimmed off to produce this soft cheese.
Anari is not generally known here in the UK yet, but we keep our fingers crossed! I remember when I was a child the same could be said of halloumi, which we brought back by the suitcase-load from holidays in Cyprus, probably illegally!
However if you live near a Greek/ Cypriot grocer I’m sure he could get his hands on some for you if you ask nicely enough.
Anari is available salted or un-salted, once crumbled it resembles slightly dry cottage cheese curds (Though cottage cheese is made from curds and not whey)
I’ve made these bourekia in the past succesfully using ricotta cheese, though if you do try this recipe with ricotta, please try and get the genuine, good stuff from an Italian deli/grocer, the texture will be much more similar to anari. The ricotta I’ve bought in the past from supermarkets has been more cream-cheese in appearance, though even this produces good bourekia – I mean how can anything deep-fried and then covered in sugar and syrup not taste good, right?!
Bourekia are small, half-moon pastries, filled with a mixture of anari, sugar and cinnamon, deep-fried and then dipped in a simple-sugar syrup and sprinkled with granulated sugar.
And as I’d brought some anari back from Cyprus……
1. I crumbled a pack of un-salted anari (300g) and mixed it with 1 scant tbsp cinnamon and 2 level tablespoons of sugar.
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| Crumbled anari, cinnamon and sugar mixture |
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| pastry rounds |
3. I filled each round with a heaped tsp of the anari mixture, folded the top over into a semi-circle and crimped the edges with a fork (there’s no need to wet the edges with water)
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| Filling with anari |
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| little ‘pasty’ shapes |
4. I then deep fried the pastries in vegetable oil, on a low/ medium setting (so that the pastry cooks before they turn a golden colour)
While I was frying the pastries I made a simple sugar syrup using a cup of sugar and a cup and a half of water, which I simmered for 5 minutes.
After I’d fried all the pastries, I dipped them briefly in the sugar syrup, then sprinkled them with granulated sugar…
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| Bourekia |
Makes about 30, which is a good job because I could wolf down half of them in one sitting, lol !!!
……..Yummy!…….Do try them…….
At Anna’s Kitchen Table 
Anna, these sound and look so delish! Mariax
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Wow, they look amazing! There is something similar in Italy made with ricotta and they are drooltastic so I'm sure there are too… Hear hear on the 'real' ricotta too, like mozzarella, the stuff in supermarkets is nowhere near the same as the real thing – even better if you can get it from Buffalo milk…Claudine xx
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I have an awful feeling that I could manage the whole lot!!!
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I'm intrigued to see what anari is like as I don't think I've ever seen it in the shops here-or perhaps I'm not looking hard enough! 🙂
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oh my god – that last photo of the sugar dusted pastries. I'm typing about a foot away with my arms out straight – it's the only way I can avoid drooling on the keyboard!
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That looks delicious, Anna! Here I find haloumi, feta and manouri. I love manouri!
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Hello Anna and Christos Anesti!Nice finding your blog through your comment. Your bourekia look amazing. I wish I could find anari in Holland but I'm afraid it's not going to happen. I can barely find feta!Magda
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Oh yes, fried pastries with cheese and cinnamon – I can't think of many things I'd enjoy more. Had no idea you could make cheese out of whey, very interesting.
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Thankyou all for your comments..I'm hoping to get a pasta machine soon to enable me to make super-fine pastry!
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Hi,Anna!I am glad you visited my blog so I could visit yours!I have never tried this cheese,I will look for it!Your bourekia seem really yummy!Greetings from Greece,dear!
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Lenia, welcome! I think anari is similar to mysithra.
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Anna, these look and sound amazing – I would LOVE to try them!
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Oh, those look soooooo good!!! Definitely will be trying this!By the way, with blogger being down all day yesterday and it deleting all my comments from my post yesterday, I could not answer your question on Sriracha… but.. now I can :)Sriracha is a hot chili sauce – here's a linkhttp://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htmorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce
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Thanks for taking the time to do that Jenn! :-)Gemma, thank you for commenting yesterday..but blogger has somehow eaten up your comment so I can't post it here. 😦
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Hi Anna, your bourekia look delicious!!! Tantekiki.blogspot.com
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Exquisita receta muy sabroso el relleno y bien elaborada,me encanta,me gustan tus recetas,me quedo en tu cocina,mi cocina es auténtica y tradicional de Chile de comidas y dulces Chilenos,cariños y abrazos.
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look delicious! yammy
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hi, i tried this recipe and i used honey instead to sprinkle powdered sugar and my kiddos love it… thanks a lot..
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They look amazing! I just bought Anari & can't wait to try & make them! Efharisto 😉 x
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try adding some rose water to your anari mix thats how we do it here in cyprus it really improves the taste and we sprinkle with icing sugar just delicious
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