Greek Recipes

As a kid there were three sweets that I loved most, all of them made with sugar and water: cotton candy usually found on during festivals, lemon flavored candies found just about everywhere, and  a vanilla soft fondant served on a teaspoon dipped in a glass of ice cold water. Because it was submerged in water, we called it submarine (ipovrichio in Greek). Summers in Greece are hot, so it is quite usual to take a nap for an hour after lunch until the hottest part of the day has passed. I never liked sleeping during the day, especially during school holidays when free time is plentiful but never enough. The only thing that could keep me in bed for an hour was the promise of sweets when the adults would have their coffee after the siesta. There were no ice creams in the little village where our cottage was so unless mom made chocolate mosaico for me, submarine was my favorite alternative.. This sweet was always store bought and it came in vanilla or mastic flavor; I had never hear...

Beautiful, tender green beans cooked slowly in a tomato-based sauce is the perfect companion for a wonderfully light but protein-rich serving of Greek baked ricotta . This is my new favourite meal at the moment. I'm absolutely going green bean bananas for it! Stewed green beans, or Fasolakia, is a delicious winter warmer that can transport you to a place of comfort and happiness :) I've been cooking beans this way for a while but never had I appreciated their amazing accompaniment abilities until I served them up with baked ricotta. There are so many different types of vegetable stews in Greek cuisine, most of them slow cooked and often served with feta cheese crumbled over the top so it's no surprise that ricotta goes so well with Fasolakia. Slow cooking Fasolakia sweetens the onion and tomato and tenderises beans. Putting this stew together is easy – it just requires a bit of patience while it's cooking as it needs more than an hour to cook. The upside is that you ca...

We have been fortunate enough to have had some sunny days this week but with temperatures barely reaching double figures, the sun has struggled to make a dent on the temperature inside our freezing house. I envy those of you with good heating and insulation, and even more so, those of you in the midst of summer right now. But with our Winter Solstice ticking over yesterday it's comforting to know the days will now be getting longer, and hopefully warmer! I find it fascinating that in some parts of the world the winter days can be as short as a few hours, and in summer the sun can shine for almost 24 hours. Here in Melbourne the earliest that we will reach darkness on a winter's evening is 5.30pm. It's way too early for my liking but I shudder to think how it must be for those living in midday darkness in the far northern parts of the world. Perhaps we take for granted our relatively even days and nights here in Australia, but I always feel just a little bit happier once we ...

It's been raining every day for almost two weeks here in Melbourne where we live. We're right in the depths of a miserable winter in our part of the world and I can't wait for it to end. And end it will on August 17 when my partner Tony and I get on a plane to go to Greece for a four week holiday. Both Tony and I are freelancers working from home – Tony a software developer, me a graphic designer and photographer. Weekends blend into week days and it's rare for us to find time to just relax and hang together. Tony's always been crazy busy, but for me this is all new. Before I took a redundancy package from my previous employment I was twiddling my thumbs at work. Hence the redundancy package. But since February this year I've been working pretty much every day solid as a freelancer. The jobs just keep coming. But the best thing about working so hard is that it makes me appreciate how important it is to take holidays :) Tony and I are literally counting down the ...

  Vines are probably the only plants in Greece where every part of the plant except the roots are used in cooking.  In May fresh stems are pickled and used in salads or served as a meze and the vine leaves themselves are stuffed with rice (dolmádes), meat or fish.  Juice from unripe grapes is used in mountainous regions as a seasoning early in summer when lemons are not available and, of course wine, is a classic ingredient in cooking everywhere. In February and March, the season of pruning, some of the dry vine branches are collected and are used all year long in a special cooking technique: the dry vine branches are arranged in a layer at the bottom of a baking pan, and the lamb meat is set on them, so that during cooking the juices don't come in contact with the meat. This way the meat browns all over.      Here I present the recipe for classic dolmádes (ντολμάδες), stuffed vine leaves with rice and herbs, a dish cooked in spring with fresh vine leaves ...

I have a lot of love for mushrooms. Especially portabella or Swiss brown mushrooms. Did you know Swiss browns (or creminis) are just small portabellas? I only found this out a few weeks ago. I know, I'm so unworldly. But no matter how uneducated I may be about mushrooms, I do know something, and that is that I do not like oyster mushrooms . Definitely NOT a lot of love for those rubbery things let me tell you. Admittedly, my exposure to oyster mushrooms has been limited to the way they are prepared in Greek restaurants. Namely Limnian Greek restaurants. You may know about the  family connections  I have in Limnos and the annual pilgrimage Tony and I make to the island to get away from Melbourne's bitter winter, if only for a few weeks. We are counting down the days to our next trip over there in August – for the warm days, the time spent with family and the wonderful food. In Limnos lunch is usually enjoyed with the family out on the shady terrace of the old house, b...

When I was asked by one of my favourite bloggers, Kiersten from Oh My Veggies  to write a guest post for her "What I Ate This Week" segment, I was over the moon. Not just because of the honour to contribute to such a widely respected blog, but also because it gave me the opportunity to blog about some of the food I eat when I'm not eating Greek food! Like this Stir-fried Tofu and Walnut Crumb Salad. Head on over to Kiersten's blog to see what I ate this week and to also discover (if you haven't already) a truly wonderful and inspirational blog with a huge selection of the coolest vegetarian and vegan recipes and ideas.

Ever since discovering the brilliant recipe for low-carb moussaka , Tony and I have been wanting to experiment with one of the dish's key ingredients, the humble turnip. Having never eaten a turnip before, we were pleasantly surprised by both the flavour and texture of this amazing vegetable and its incredible likeness to potato. The turnip worked brilliantly as a potato replacement for the moussaka so I was keen to see how it would perform in other potato-based goodies like rosti, cheesy mash and, of course, traditional Greek mezes (appetisers) such as skorthalia (garlic dip), tiganita lahanika (fried vegetables) and keftethes (fritters or croquettes). Skorthalia is a strong, garlic-flavoured dip that traditionally uses a soaked bread or mashed potato base. If you love a good hard garlic bang in the face, you'll love skorthalia. Of course you can regulate the amount of garlic that goes in but you ought to know, a big garlic hit is the big Greek way. More importantly though is ...