Greek Recipes

      We call halvas confections made with semolina, oil, and syrup as basic ingredients. The result is a compact shaped bar. Halvas Rinas , though, is a very fluffy cake made with the basic ingredients of halvas but with the addition of eggs and milk and with the syrup added after baking.      This cake resembles  ravani , but it’s flourless and that produces an airy cake; at the same time the semolina, absorbs the syrup evenly. We made Halvas Rinas for the first time when looking for a dessert to enhance the taste of our new crop of almonds, and it turned out to be really good. Grand Marnier or any other liqueur you prefer gives an especially nice taste to the syrup.       Although I asked and even googled about Rina, the inventor of this cake, I found absolutely nothing, but her recipe has made her famous. For 18 squares (I used a 23x33cm baking pan) 5 eggs (yolks separated from whites) 150gr granulated sugar 250ml luke w...

      If we didn't like okra (sometimes called lady fingers or gumbo ) for their wonderful taste, we would surely grow them for their big beautiful flowers.      The okra harvesting period is from July to late September, and since they don't bloom all at the same time, you can enjoy their flowers all summer long.      In Greek okra are called bámies , and we use them in many summer dishes. They actually compliment both meat and poultry, but also other vegetables in summer stews. In fact, the most common okra dish is a simple stew with tomatoes, cooked the same way we cook green beans.      Many people don't like okra because they had a bad first experience with their gelatinous sauce, but if you toss them with vinegar and let them stand for an hour in a strainer, you will have a perfect result  no matter how you choose to cook them. For my taste the ideal combination for okra is chicken, a quite popular dish all ove...