Greek Recipes

Traditionally, pork or rooster (and sometimes both) are served as part of Greek family meals on New Year's Eve or Day. Pork Loin stuffed with Kefalograviera cheese and mushrooms. Click to enlarge image. Yesterday marked our second wedding anniversary and Sophie and I spent a quiet evening entertaining at our home. The table was set for six; the guests included our Best Man and Lady, along with another couple who are also very dear friends. According to my version of an ancient custom, I rarely invite more than nine guests to an indoor dinner symposium. I call it the “933 Rule” and it really is quite a successful play when entertaining guests over the Holidays. The company, in order to be close yet not unmanageable, must never exceed the number of the Muses (nine), nor ever be fewer than the number of the Fates (three). Nor should anyone present consume more cups of wine than there are Graces (also three). Now, three glasses of wine may not sound like a lot, but it is the

Pistachios are quite popular in Greece. They are used in all manner of recipes, and Greeks also enjoy eating them roasted with salt (as pictured below) or raw. In point of fact, there is hardly a Greek home during this holiday period which will not have a bowl of roasted and salted pistachios sitting out on a table for guests to nibble on. Pistachios are used in Greek baklava; they are made into brittles, added to cakes, cookies, and any number of baked goods and bonne bouches . Roasted & salted pistachios from Aegina. Click to enlarge image. As far as I have been able to ascertain, the pistachio seed has been a part of Greek food culture since at least the 2nd Century B.C., and likely much earlier. The English word pistachio is derived from the ancient Greek word pistákion (πιστάκιον). The ancients credited the origins of the pistachio tree to Arabia and Syria. Today, the island of Aegina and the region around Megara are the traditional epicentres of pistachio cultivation

My Greek Christmas bread in all its glory. Click to Enlarge Image. The many centuries-old custom of the Christopsomo or ‘Bread of Christ’ is a universal Christmas Greek food tradition. Today, all over Greece and throughout the Diaspora, Christopsomo loaves will be baked and set aside for the breaking, which depending on where you are from in Greece is performed at either Christmas Eve dinner or lunch on Christmas Day. This bread is a sweet yeast bread, and is characteristically decorated with the symbol of the cross which is usually embossed overtop of the loaf with two dough strands that intersect and divide the bread into four segments. Other standard decorations include walnuts in their shells and sesame seeds (white and black). More elaborate designs are also traced on the surface of the loaf in some regions of Greece, as in Crete, where ornate symbols are carved into the surface of the bread. Usually these symbols are associated with the livelihood of the family. For instance,

As for Greek desserts, this is one of my favourites.  It is easy to make and tastes great. I posted the original recipe in March and it has generated numerous email responses from people thanking me for sharing it. I decided to publish it as a video recipe to underline the simplicity of making this pie. . As mentioned in the video, variations of this recipe can include phyllo pastry as a pie shell, the addition of vanilla extract/flavour to the mix, as well as fruit preserves or other spreads as toppings; cinnamon can also be sprinkled overtop. I sincerely hope you will try this recipe and let me know how it turned out for you.