The origin of this dish, goes back to the Cypriot freedom fighters of the 19th.Century that lived in the mountain. They had to prepare their stolen meat, the Kleftiko, neither that some could smell it, nor that it could be seen. Though they baked it closed in special earthenware pottery, that they had buried under the ground.
I had this beatiful dish in Cyprus, I'll have another when I visit Greece this year for the first time.
Apparently there are two spellings, Kleftiko & Kleftika, the former being food.
"Kleftika", means kleft-songs. "Kleft" means thief, and refers to the brave men that lived in the mountains during the Ottoman occupation, fighting their oppressors.
These songs originate from Parnassos, the south Peloponnese and Pindos and were youthful ones about fighting back, bravity, the klefts lonlieness and the solitude of shepherds.
To this day, just as then, the songs are sung "kathista", sitting around a table and they have certain rules:
• Each musical turn represents a textline and a half
• The beginning of the second textline is thus repeated twice
eg. "The young lad was yearning freedom, and he said
and he said, let's get together"
• Meaningless sounds and consonants are added in the lyrics
eg. lelele, dididamdamdididididam