ραβανί (ravani)...

Greeks love desserts soaked in light-scented honey or sugar syrup. I can remember how much I enjoyed Ravani and today, I just could not help it and had to try to bake one. Was hesitating between all the great recipes like "Baklava", "Galaktobouriko", "Bougatsa" or a good "Yiaourtopita me Karythia kai Fystikia Aiginis" (Greek yogurt, walnut and pistachio cake with syrup)...but after roaming my fridge I settled for a Ravani.

The smell that invaded my kitchen reminded me of all the time I spent in Greece and how much I miss it. I hope you'll enjoy baking it as much as I did!

καλή όρεξη!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of fine semolina
• 1-1/2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of margarine or butter, softened
• 6 eggs, separated
• 1 cup of whole milk
• 1 teaspoon of grated lemon peel
• 2 tablespoons of water

Syrup:

• 3-1/2 cups of sugar
• 3 cups of water
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• Vanilla

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Sift the flour and whisk with semolina, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In the processor mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add egg yolks, sugar, and grated lemon peel and continue to mix until light and creamy.
4. Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with the milk, until completely blended.
5. Remove from processing bowl and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Whip the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of cold water to the stiff peak stage, and with a wooden spoon, stir carefully into the batter until thoroughly distributed.
6. Transfer the cake batter to a lightly greased baking pan (I have used a baking pan that you can throw away after as I couldn’t find the right size. This aluminium baking pans can be found at any supermarkets) and spread evenly with a spatula.
7. Bake at 180°C for approximately 45-50 minutes. Cake will pull away slightly from the sides of the baking pan when done.
8. Remove from the oven and allow cake to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before starting the syrup.
9. Cut cake into small squares or diamond-shaped pieces.

Prepare the syrup:

1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Boil for 10 minutes.
4. Stir in lemon juice, remove vanilla and pour the hot syrup over the lukewarm cake, evenly and very carefully to avoid collapsing the cake, starting at the outside edges.
5. Allow to cool completely.
   

Fire Situation in Greece

Having worked nearly 3 years with an NGO in Greece, when I see what is happening, I feel utterly upset with what is going on. Feels like my own home is burning to the ground!

The perception we have (at least in Switzerland) from what "perspires" from the Swiss and French press is a total lack of organization of the Greek government. One piece of news they keep repeating is: "help promised by the Greek government to the "victims" of the fires has still not arrived". This piece of news has been repeated for the last 2 weeks now!!! What is delaying help? How come 1 million can be offered by the Government in reward for anyone who has any information on who set the fires and the promised help get stuck somewhere???

Foreign press gives an idea of total indifference. Press around here never show images of the Prime Minister visiting the devastated areas. So my question is, has he ever been there? Has he fully evaluated the needs and anger of the Greek population? What is even worse, nothing done, foreign press gives an idea of total indifference. No official request for aid has been filed…seeing the magnitude of the disaster, one would expect such to happen.

But then, this is Europe and people think it is a region rich enough to deal with its own problems, other areas of the world deserve more attention. I don't deny help is more than needed elsewhere (having worked for many years in the NGO field, I know what it means to "need help"), but we are forgetting about ourselves while on our pursuit to "save the world" (or is it that this is not a big enough "complex emergency" which would focus the attention on NGOs and therefore bring fame and money?)

Being Portuguese I used to worry each time I had calls from family mentioning huge fires were raging during summer. Then 2 years ago, Portugal nearly completely burnt to the ground (if I can use the image). The Portuguese government seemed to think that "enough is enough" and decided to take what, in my view, is a very sensible and intelligent measure, they changed the law in a way that burnt land could not immediately be exploited by building companies and see buildings pop-up like mushrooms instead of trees! Such requests by building contractors are now studied case-by-case based on the "history" of the land area.

In 2005, the Institute for Nature Conservation (ICN), established in its report the following topics as the main priorities in terms of the protection of the forests against fire: decrease the burnt area, especially in "priority" areas for nature conservation as the most valuable ecological areas, reduce the number of ignitions, reduce the vulnerability of these areas and (most important in my opinion) monitor and restore burnt areas. There is also a greater awareness and commitment of public and private institutions in promoting a greater surveillance effort.

Therefore, "tree land" that could not be exploited because of its specificity, is now "non-building zone" if it was ravaged by a (natural?) fire!
Has anyone heard of huge fires in Portugal ever since? Compared to 2 years ago, this was a very, very calm year "summer-fire" wise.

Should Greece contemplate such a solution? Appropriate mapping of burnt land which would provide statistics on if "tree" land was yes or no changed into a "building zone" and at what rate would bring correct answers to the summer fire problems. One could then compare how many fires were "accidental", man induced and why if man induced as well as keep a track record of what was "forest zone" and what was "building zone" to avoid buildings to pop-up where they shouldn't!