Greek Recipes

I receive several requests every month for a Tzatziki sauce recipe, so I finally decided to oblige and provide my own take on the famous condiment.   Creating a recipe video is always a learning experience. This is my first cameo appearance in an instructional Greek cooking video (I have to admit, I was a little nervous), so there is much room for improvement from a presentational, technical, and production value standpoint. On the other hand, I believe my recipe for a classic Tzatziki sauce leaves very little room for improvement, as the result is simply excellent - even if I do say so myself. Rich and creamy, with a bold garlicky flavour mingled with the freshness of the cucumber and dill, this sauce (or dip, or salad) will have you, your family, friends, and guests coming back for more. Just make sure to refrigerate it well before serving as the flavours need some time to coalesce in order to impart the full gustatory sense of this "salad" that eats like a sauce.  

I thought I might get a headstart on everyone and send out my Greek Food Holiday Wishes via a Video Card: Wishing You and Yours the Very Best for the Holiday Season ; may your tables be filled with Greek food and your hearts with Love and Peace. And if you live where you may need one, keep those shovels handy; shoveling makes for good exercise after a holiday meal with all the fixings...

The quince and the Greek honey melded into a translucent paste delight, freckled with slivered blanched almonds. Click to Enlarge Image. This Greek dessert is a specialty of the island of Kefalonia. Long before chocolates and other modern sugar-based confections appeared on the scene in Greece, Greeks were fond of this autumn harvest sweet; one used to be able to find it everywhere from bakeries to street kiosks, wrapped in quaint little folded parchment paper packets. Alas, times have changed and it is no longer so widely available. If you do find it, it is usually made with sugar as using honey exclusively would make it prohibitively expensive to sell competitively in the agorá . But believe you me; one can taste the difference in the finished product. The sugar-based versions are far too sweet for my palate. Greek honey is world renowned for its quality, flavours, and therapeutic benefits. Indeed, honey is a universal medicine in Greek households. As far

  Barrel of Mavrodaphne wine from 1873, the world's second oldest extant wine at 135 years. (Photo courtesy of Sotiris Blatsis ) A Stifado is essentially a savoury onion-based stew with meat and is an excellent comfort Greek food for those of us who are anticipating the winter doldrums. One can use rabbit, chicken, lamb, pork, beef or veal in this quintessentially Greek dish. Stifado can even be made with deer and moosemeat. In this video recipe for a Beef Stifado , I use a Greek wine vinegar which can just as easily be substituted by a unique Greek red wine called Mavrodaphne (or Mavrodafni). Indeed, fellow food blogger Hank Shaw from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook swears by Mavrodaphne in his Stifado recipes, and I agree that it definitely adds another dimesion to the meal . But, for those of you who may have a hard time finding some Mavrodaphne, the wine vinegar will do just fine. For those of you who do happen to have some Mavrodaphne on hand, use it in r