What is the moustallia?

Moustalvria is a Greek dessert made of grapes that must, corn flour and traditionally wooden ash. This is best made in September, when the grapes are ripe for selection and the grapes must be fresh. After pressing it is necessary to juice from the grape, but before it was fermented. It can be purchased from special stores, but many Greek households do it from scratch. They are then crushed by hand or mills to extract the necessity. It is then sieved with a fine eye and separate the liquid from grape skin and seeds. Add a small spoon of ash from a fireplace or wooden oven and the mixture is boiled slowly for one hour.

The liquid then sifies and cools again. This is measured and added and added a suitable amount of flour or corn flour until the flour is dissolved. This mixture is cooked again, and as soon as Stverts it thoutter, the moustallia is poured into bowls, spilled with sliced ​​almonds and cinnamon and left to cool. The final result is a thick gel that is consumed with a spoon.

Traditionally, the ash was used in the production of Montalria with the result of fires initiated by wood taken from trees surrounding the rural village. Nowadays, because not everyone has a fireplace or access to clean wood, it may be replaced by a spoonful of soda or baking powder depending on the recipe. In some cases, if the grapes were very ripe and sweet, the addition of ash or edible soda is not necessary and the recipe can be reduced to grapes and corn flour or flour. The ash is added to reduce the bitterness of the wine and remove dirt from necessity.

Greek cooking is seasonally established and the freshest ingredients used in the season. For this reason, Méstalvria is in its best Durinug September and October, which are months of choosing grapes. Other sweets made using grapes must be a wrante or grapes must be biscuits and petimezopita, made of natural home sweetener Petimezi or cooked grapes. In the pastThose, before the arrival of sugar and artificial sweeteners, was stored in airtight containers and used breads, cakes, puddings and biscuits to match breads, cakes, puddings and biscuits throughout the year.