Greek Recipes

There's something about fresh mint and sweet tomatoes that makes my taste buds tingle with glee, but this taste sensation is one that is not easily found here in Australia. In recent years the quality and flavour of store-bought tomatoes in this country has been declining. They're usually dry, bland and tasteless – genetically modified to look good, but tasting like cardboard. Tomatoes in Greece are wonderfully sweet and juicy, like the fruit they are meant to be, and it was with family on the Greek island of Limnos that I first learned of the tantalising tomato and mint combination. Unfortunately, without enough room or sun in my back garden to grow my own tomatoes, my search for the perfect tomato in Australia is limited to hunting the stores. The closest I have come to finding sweet, fruity tomatoes are packets of Mini Romas and Grape Tomatoes. (I think that's often the way with vegetables – the smaller they are, the sweeter they are.) I chose Mini Romas for this salad r...

      In Greece we love both feta and bread and this pair, together with some olives, are the most common choice for a quick snack between meals. Tiró psoma , sold in every bakery across the country, are savory breads made from common bread dough with the addition of feta in the batter, making it an easy snack to enjoy while on the go.       These feta breads can be flavored with oregano, olives, or even sun dried tomatoes in a   ‘special’ version. When feta bread is made at home the list of seasonings, herbs, cheese or even flour is endless. Here I give you the basic feta bread recipe that we make at home.  You can be more creative and try various additions or just follow this classic traditional version. Feta bread For one big or two smaller loaves 500gr bread flour 8gr dry yeast 350gr lukewarm water 1tsp salt 2Tbsps olive oil 250gr grated feta In a medium sized bowl stir together the flour, salt, olive oil and yeast; stir in the chees...

My mum grew up in a fairly non-traditional environment. Her dad was a cotton merchant and was required to be on location for work, hence the family moved a lot. For a Greek family, tradition is usually fostered by stability and deep attachment with your surroundings. Many villagers have a strong connection with their region because they lived there all their lives, as did their fathers and forefathers. Generations remain in the same place and specific ways of speaking and of course cooking become strongly ingrained. Fifi (my mum) and her sister Rena never lived in the villages. Their family travelled from city to city, spending time in Egypt, France and sometimes Greece. Cooking influences ranged from middle eastern to French provincial, without a whole lot of Greek. However, as I discovered the other night when my mum was telling me this story, there are certain Greek traits that will always remain, no matter how untraditional a family may be. Marika, my mum's mother, enjoyed maki...

Until just a few hours ago, I'd never heard of Meatless Monday . I know I know. What vegetarian hasn't heard of Meatless Monday?! A luddite like me, that's who. I was over at Veggie Mama's blog drooling over her Roasted Corn Salsa and my eye caught the "linky" thing at the end of the post about the "Meatless Monday" thing. Hmmm, Meatless Monday. What's that. And what on earth is a linky? The technical jargon was just too much for me so I sought the wisdom of Veggie Mama herself and she kindly enlightened me. Meatless Monday is a worldwide movement and non-profit initiative to encourage people to reduce their meat consumption by 15%. Blogs like Veggie Mama have got on board with this and provide a tool for other bloggers to share posts of their Meatless Monday meals, which of course must be... meatless! The classic Greek dish Spanakopita contains no meat. It's a hearty, healthy spinach and cheese pie that goes really well with Greek salad an...

Thank you to everyone for your encouragement and good wishes for this blog. I'm really excited about sharing some of my thoughts, photos and of course recipes with you here. There are lots of Greek vegetarian dishes that people just don't know about, and so many meat-based dishes that can be converted into vegetarian ones with a little creativity and imagination. I can't wait to share all this with you. It goes without saying that this blog will also feature plenty of Greek desserts, and I thought I'd start with a favourite of mine that reminds me of my childhood. A thousand years ago I was a little kid living in the then very brand new anglo-saxon Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley. Our family was the only Greek clan in the street. My sisters and I (and one other boy) were the only Greek kids at our school. We kind of stood out a bit. My parents were on the 1956 boat to Australia, bound for a land that promised greater opportunities and freedom. They made a committmen...

      Most Greek pies (we call them pites), whether savory or sweet, are made either by  wrapping fyllo  pastry around the filling or by layering in many even layers. - alternating the fyllo  and then the filling.       There is, however, another type of pie that's made with torn up fyllo sheets baked in with the filling or batter, - a process that produces a fluffier and quicker result.        These are called  “Patsavourópites” literally ‘pites in rags’, partly to describe the pieces of torn fyllo and partly to suggest that they are the poor cousins of the more time consuming and elegant layered pies. Patsavourópites are very common in the Epirus region. The original version was a savory feta cheese pie but a sweet version was developed not long ago by some inspired housewife and the recipe has spread by word of mouth all over the country.      To make a sweet  portoka l ó pita  y...