Greek Recipes

     For thousands of years, people used wild yeast cultures as starters to leaven their dough and bake their daily bread. These cultures are a mixture of wild yeast and bacteria such as lactobacilli- so named because they produce lactic acid which contributes to the sour flavor.      In the early 20th century, researchers selected and isolated single strains of yeasts that could leaven bread dough very quickly and this innovation made bread a suitable  product for mass production. As if that wasn't enough, the baking industry has developed chemicals that can change the bread’s physical characteristics, characteristics such as texture, taste and appearance. Probably all that remains of the bread of yesteryear after all these refinements is just the name: bread.      I come from an agricultural community where we have always baked bread in traditional hand built clay ovens, like the one we have now for the restaurant.  If you would ...

Today I'm guest blogging again, this time over at  Simple Living and Eating , a blog written by Diane Balch about simple living and healthy eating with the Mediterranean diet. While we freeze our toes off here in wintery Melbourne, Greece is basking in Summer sunshine where people all over the country will be enjoying Yemistes Domates (stuffed tomatoes) and Greek Salad. These are the two recipes I've featured today on Diane's blog. Go take a look at Simple Living and Eating for lots of recipe ideas, weekly menu plans and to learn more about the philosophy behind healthy eating, the Mediterranean way :) I will be back again soon with three very exciting little Greek dishes that I've been experimenting with, using the humble and often overlooked turnip! I'm linking today's post once again with Veggie Mama's endlessly inspiring Meatless Mondays link-up. Hop on over to see how she made perfectly crispy barbecued potatoes.

I'm not going to pretend making your own filo pastry is easy as pie, because it isn't. Just as well the two pie dishes with which I chose to practice making home-made filo pastry are forgivingly rustic and don't highlight pastry failings in the way a croissant might. Two classic Greek dishes, Spanakopita (spinach pie) and Prasopita (leek pie) kindly allowed me to use them to experiment with some filo-making techniques. The traditional technique mastered by Greek yia yias (grandmothers) involves hand stretching the dough over a large round table until it is paper thin and bigger than the table itself. I wasn't going anywhere near that technique. Unfortunately no one in my family could impart any knowledge on home-made filo pastry, so I did a bit of research online and I kept coming across a very popular method where by the pastry is carefully rolled, buttered and folded several times to create the layers needed. This sounded like a pretty easy method so I decided this wo...

Wow, that went fast! One minute I was working myself silly with freelance work coming out of my ears, the next minute Tony and I were holidaying in Darwin (in the northern tropics of Australia) and now I'm back here at my desk with a list of things to do so long I could write a novel with it. Luckily I'd prepared a guest post for Liz, the girl behind the very cool sustainable living blog  I Spy Plum Pie , before everything caught up with me! On Liz's blog today you will find the recipe for a very simple and traditional dish, Fava (yellow split pea puree) and a little bit about my favourite Greek island, Limnos. I Spy Plum Pie features inspiring stories about Liz's journey towards living as sustainably and happily as possible, as well as lots of great vegetarian recipes, eco-living resources and reviews, and a very interesting insight into living in the house where they film the popular Australian television series, Offspring. And now I must go back to the task of sla...

Pastéli was probably the first energy bar ever made and it was made with honey.  In fact,   honey with dried fruits and nuts was the most common dessert in ancient Greece. Honey was consumed   both as a sweetener, and as a medicine in the belief that it could promote both virility and longevity. In Greek mythology it was the food of the Gods.      Honey contains invert sugar which has the quality of providing instant energy when consumed. The composition of honey includes sugars such as glucose and fructose and also minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium, iron and phosphate. Depending on the quality of the nectar and pollen, the vitamins contained in honey are B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3.      Sesame seeds, our other ingredient, have been cultivated for more than 5000 years. The ancient region of Mesopotamia was the first place where it was widely cultivated and then it spread to the rest of the world. These seeds have many vita...

After finding some born-again love for artichoke to make Vegetarian Magiritsa (Greek Easter soup) last Monday, I've been inspired to do more with this interesting little vegetable. Sometimes I find strongly-flavoured marinated artichokes a little overpowering, so for the Magiritsa recipe I went out and bought fresh globe artichokes for the first time in my life. A quick search on google gave me all the instructions I needed to prepare an artichoke for cooking. What I didn't realise is how much of the artichoke needs to be removed before you finally pare it down to the little edible chunk in the centre of the vegetable! At $2.50 each I felt slightly ripped off, especially when you can get a whole jar of marinated artichokes for around $2. So I've been thinking that I could try rinsing marinated artichokes to remove the strong pickled taste, reflavour them with lemon juice, olive oil and cumin seeds and toss them in a salad with some leafy and crunchy things. I did this for ...

I had huge cooking plans for the weekend just passed, but a persistent cold has kept me out of the kitchen and under the covers of my big purple blanket. That's when I'm not keeling over in the midst of one of my gut-wretching, organ-uprooting coughing fits. Yesterday was Greek Easter Sunday, a day for feasting and celebration. Our family is not overly traditional, but there is one cousin of my dad's that likes to celebrate Greek Easter every year with a bang. Foto is an incredible cook and she will spend all of Friday night and all day Saturday (that's right, no sleep) preparing a ridiculously enormous amount of food to be launched upon by hungry family members at the stroke of midnight on Saturday night. Each year we are invited to celebrate Greek Easter with Foto and her extended family, but this year Foto gets a well-deserved break as she is spending Greek Easter with her daughter in Sydney. So I thought that a scaled-down Greek Easter feast just for Tony and I woul...

I'm super excited this morning to have written my very first guest post for Maria Hannaford on her lovely blog Econest . I've featured two of my favourite recipes: Lentil Stew with Roast Vegetables and Flomaria Pasta with Hearty Mushroom Sauce and talk a little about how healthy the Mediterranean diet really is. Maria also has a plethora of ideas and advice about maintaining a healthy, sustainable lifestyle so please take some time to meander through her blog. This weekend I'm planning on giving home-made filo pastry my best shot with a recipe for Cheese and Leek Pie (Prasopita). Wish me luck!

I'm such a sook when I'm sick. I'm like a baby. I'm even wrapped up in a big purple rug, all squished into my chair here. My desk is a mess with screwed up tissues and empty cough lolly packets everywhere. My cat is making a nest for himself somewhere in my lap, deep down in the folds of my rug. He's keeping me warm as the rain pelts down outside and the skies get darker with the early evening approaching. Luckily I've already done the photos for today's dish. The light is now terrible for food photography! Too bad I missed the deadline to submit today's recipe for the Meatless Monday A–Z challenge (this week was C for Cabbage ), but I still loved making this dish. After two days of high fever, body pains and a blisteringly sore throat, this morning I suddenly felt a lot better. But more than better. It was almost euphoric, lasting for a few hours (does anyone else get that when they're sick?) before it all went downhill again, so I took advantage ...