Shiamishi Kyprou (Σιαμισί Κύπρου)

Shiamishi Kyprou are Cyprus's fried festival pockets: thin dough folded around a firm semolina cream, scented with mastic and rosewater, then fried until gold and dusted with icing sugar. They belong to the panigyri (πανηγύρι), the village saint's-day fair, where a sweet like this is eaten warm, standing up, with sugar on your fingers.

The filling decides the pastry. Cook the semolina until it stands thick in the pot, then spread it shallow and let it cool completely before it goes into the dough. A loose warm cream leaks in the oil. A firm cooled cream sits obediently inside while the pastry blisters crisp. That's the whole trick.

The dough is plain because the perfume is in the cream: flour, oil, water, a little vinegar, rolled thin enough to crackle but strong enough to hold. I keep the mastic quiet, only a pinch, because Cyprus knows restraint when the sugar comes at the end. A recipe written down is a recipe saved, and this one should come out of your pan alive, not just out of an old notebook.