Greek Recipes

Our garden's first mint shoots of the season... “ And the Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. ” --- The Sensitive Plant , Percy Bysshe Shelley The weather here in Toronto has been exceedingly pleasant of late. Spring has quickened the dormant life energies in the earth, and the sun’s growing light lengthens the days. Persephone has returned from the shadowy realm of Hades , her mother Demeter rejoices and paints Gaia with the most exotic adornments. Yesterday, I stepped out to inspect the small kitchen garden plot we have running the length of one side of our home. I was so excited by what I saw that I ran to fetch my camera. The first tender shoots of our mint patch had appeared! Mint is my favourite of all the herbs and not without good reason. It is a universal ingredient in Greek food and...

Tsoureki… Greek Easter Bread Yesterday, in preparation for the Greek Orthodox Easter (or Pascha ) celebration, I made the traditional braided Greek Easter Bread known as tsoureki . I baked three loaves, one for my wife and I, one for our goddaughter, and one for our godson. As is typical, along with the bread, I dyed a dozen hardboiled eggs red. There is nary a Greek home anywhere on the planet that will not have these two elements present in the Holy Week to come. Easter is the most important religious celebration in Greece , and the customs and practices related to this period of the calendar are as diverse as the topography and regional differences within Greece . Yet, the dyed eggs and the plaited bread are universal. The reason we braid the tsoureki is to symbolize the Resurrection of Life that comes with springtime. The wedding of this symbolism to the Orthodox Christian Calendar and the figure of Jesus Christ is not a coincidence. The tradition of plaiting bread is old; ...

The moussaka I would be proud to serve up to the Queen of England... Having reserved for myself the prerogative of reflecting upon Greek Food as a Subject on this blog, I wish to briefly examine the matter of Presentation. This discussion is exploratory and not meant to offend nor excite, so please take it for what it is: a prolegomenon about matters which I deem interesting and that pertain to Greek Food & Gastronomy. Why is it that some people believe that Indian food can (and must) look like Indian food, but Greek food has to look like some kind of variation on a California nouveau cuisine theme? As I am an essentialist by nature, and as objective as I would like to be about this topic, I cannot help but suppress a wry smile at the very thought… So, it is with some amusement that I shake my head whenever I read or hear about the “new Greek cuisine”; as if we were already so overly familiar with the “old Greek cuisine” that we needed to re-interpret and re-present ...

Greek Lemon Potatoes fresh out of the oven… I thought I might share my all-time favourite recipe for perfect Lemon Potatoes. This dish is simple to make and simply delicious! You can serve it as an accompaniment to a wide variety of meat or vegetable mains, or you can eat it on its own with a salad and a generous piece of real Greek feta cheese. And if you have some fresh crusty white bread handy you can use it to wipe up the excess lemon oil straight from the pan… As for the potatoes, I use (and recommend you use) the Yukon Gold variety as their yellow flesh bakes in and absorbs the lemon juice and olive oil wonderfully well, and yet they retain a nice cruchiness around the edges. When I'm in Greece, I only use Arcadian potatoes. The oregano has to be Greek, and only the highest quality Greek extra virgin olive oil will do. Now, follow my directions to the letter and you will enjoy a pan of perfect lemon potatoes! Recipe: 2.5 lbs. (1 kg.) potatoes washed and peeled. Juice from 2 ...

There's nothing like some Big Fat Greek Potato Pie! One of the most distinguished and yet least well-known figures of Modern Greek and European History is the Corfiote (i.e. from the island of Corfu), Ioannis Kapodistrias . He was born in the year of American Independence, 1776, when Corfu and the rest of the Ionian Islands were still under Venetian dominance. As one of his ancestors had received title from Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy , Kapodistrias was a hereditary Count whose family name was entered in the Libro d'Oro of Corfu in 1679. At age 21, he left home to study philosophy, law, and medicine at the University of Padua in Italy; from there he went on to establish himself as one of the foremost figures in European diplomatic history of the early 19th century. Count Kapodistrias was the arch nemesis of the legendary Austrian “Fox” Prince Metternich , and he was directly responsible for the diplomatic recognition of a neutral and independent Switzerland (even...

Rizogalo... my Greek rice pudding recipe in all its glory Rice has been known and consumed in Greece since ancient times. The first mention I could find in the historiography is a reference to one of Sophocles ’ lost (to us) plays. The Poet is quoted as mentioning a type of bread made with rice called « ορύνδου » (O-REEND-thoo). The noun « ορύζης » (O-REE-zis) in ancient Greek is the root of our modern English word “rice” ( Oryza sativa … not to be confused with other types of sativa... ;-). Then, as now, rice was mostly imported to Greece from climes that were better suited to the intensive wet-paddy agricultural environment required for its cultivation. For the ancients, rice was considered a rare luxury and it fetched a handsome price in the markets when it was available. It was not until Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East that rice became a relatively more common element in Greek gastronomy. Thus, although both the ancient Greeks and later the Romans were familia...

Grandma would be proud of my variation on her Greek 'risotto' recipe. I will never forget the first time I tried a Risotto dish at an Italian restaurant. My vegetarian date was all aflutter about this particular Italian recipe called ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ so it was the must-have dish on the menu for me that night, and it was not cheap! Now, when the ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ arrived at our table, I could not suppress a quick laugh. Immediately, I recognized the dish as similar to my grandmother’s recipe for ‘ Domatorizo ’ (pronounced “Doe-ma-TOW-reezo”). But, my grandmother had never been to Italy, and in fact, I would have been surprised if she would have been able to point Italy out on a map… About all that my grandmother knew about Italy and Italians was that they had attacked Greece along with the Germans in the Second World War, when she was a young woman. So, I ate the ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ that night and it was tasty enough, but with the memory of my grandmother’s...