Greek Recipes

    Yogurt and honey has always  been a favorite combination for Greeks. Ancient Greeks used to make a thick milk product that was called piriáti (Greek- πυριάτη) . It was served as a dessert with nuts fruits and honey      Greek yogurt (γιαούρτι - yaoúrti) has become very popular worldwide because of its delicate balanced sourness, full taste and, of course, its thickness, something that makes it easy to use in many recipes, sweet or savory, as a replacement for double cream or other milk creams rich in fat. It's most visible characteristic compared to ordinary yogurt is its density, a result of it being double-strained. If you can't find Greek yogurt, you can strain thinner yogurt at home to thicken it and use it in recipes that call for Greek yogurt. To strain yogurt, place a colander lined with cheesecloth over a large bowl (to catch the liquid) and empty two cups of plain yogurt into the colander; leave it to drain for 2-3 hours. Two cups of plain yo...

Last time Tony and I moved house it was a rather stressful experience for us. I'd just sold my apartment and Tony and I were moving in together for the first time. It was all very rushed and we ended up choosing a house that didn't really suit our needs (like proper heating and somewhere to park the car). Call us crazy but three years later we are still living in this uncomfortable house. On the surface it's a beautiful, character-filled art deco home, but both Tony and I really struggle with the cold and living in a house with pathetic heating and no insulation is something we just can't do no more. It's also dark, the bathroom is a thousand years old and we have possums living in the ceiling. The only reason we're still here is because of our grand plan to move to Brisbane. We decided to stick it out until we were ready to move to sunny Queensland, and didn't want the hassle of making another move in between. Learning from our past mistakes, this time we a...

Around six weeks ago my dad Takis and his wife Julia left Melbourne for another 9-month stint in Limnos, Greece. For the last ten years they have been making this annual pilgrimage to spend their retirement years slowly restoring our old family house and generally enjoying the relaxed Limnian lifestyle. I've previously written a little bit about the Limnos family house here on the blog and thought I would talk some more about this very special place, especially given that Tony and I will soon be back in Limnos ourselves. I was a young teenager the first time I visited Limnos, way back in 1983. The house was then used as a holiday house during the summer months by my dad's sister Efterpi and her husband Andreas. For the rest of the year the house was occupied by families of mice and cats, and in winter was subjected to the many damages that ice and snow can bring to an old uninhabited house (yes, it actually snows in Limnos!). For many decades, the 150-year-old house had surviv...

Most of the dishes in agricultural regions were created with a simple rule: use what you have, but not all of your ingredients in one recipe . Cooking tasty dishes with simple ingredients is creative and challenging; creative because there are endless variations and techniques, proving that cooking is an art form and challenging because you might have to feed a crowd of hard to please...children. Let’s take an example, Greek salad. On hot summer days a tomato salad with onion, feta, oregano and olive oil can be an ideal lunch, but if you had some tomato fritters too, wouldn't that be more filling? Just finely chop, part of your Greek salad, mix it with some self rising flour and egg and you have ready to fry tomatokeftédes, as simple as it sounds! Tomato fritters were invented in Santorini. The volcanic soil and the dry climate of the island  combine to create some excellent quality products like their local tomatoes. Since we are not lucky to live in Santorini and taste these won...

I'm so excited about sharing this recipe with you! Crunchy and full of flavour on the outside, soft and melt-in-the-mouth on the inside. These oven-baked dukkah-encrusted zucchini fries are so good you'll wonder how you ever ate two whole zucchinis to yourself. I usually need to experiment with a new recipe idea several times before I get it right (sometimes I never get it right) but today I think I nailed this perfect snack dish on first attempt. I am in love with these!! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect them to crunch up so well and taste so amazing. I'm so excited about this I've just finished twirling around on my office chair about 12 times in a row… You may be familiar with Kolokithakia Tiganita (fried zucchinis) – a delicious Greek appetiser found on many Greek restaurant menus – well this is one of those dishes I've never been able to master. The zucchinis are usually sliced and dipped in a light batter then fried, and when done properly, they have a...

We are still freezing our bottoms off here in Melbourne, where the daily top temperatures average around 13 degrees celsius in July. It's usually cloudy and rainy, sometimes very windy. It even snows on occasion over the nearby hills, only an hour away from where we live. Morning frosts can be severe, but beautiful. As long as you are watching from a warm place. Which is something Tony and I can only dream about in our non-insulated, refrigerated house with practically non-existent heating. As you can imagine, we are willing down the days to both our trip to Greece next month, and our upcoming move to the warmer Australian state of Queensland later this year. In the meantime, we get through the days by enjoying soul-warming soups and comforting stews. In my last post I talked about the many recipes that are shared amongst Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. Imam Bayildi is a delicious stuffed eggplant dish that is found all over Turkey and Greece. The people of these two c...

Making your own dukkah is really easy and tastes delicious. Create your own mix of home-made dukkah and you'll never buy store-bought again. Dukkah is a gorgeous blend of nuts and spices that can bring just about any dish to life. My favourite way to eat it is simply sprinkled over a bowl of thick Greek yoghurt. This is a delicious way to enjoy a savoury yoghurt but be warned, it's severely addictive! Greece, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries all share something in common when it comes to food. They know how to blend herbs and spices to create absolutely stunning flavour combinations that are uniquely Mediterranean and Middle Eastern in flavour. Many dishes between these countries have similar tastes and textures because of the herb and spice blends they share. During the reign of the Ottoman empire the people of Greece and Turkey shared many recipes and cooking techniques. Imam Bayildi is the Turkish name for a delicious stuffed eggplant dish which has been widely enjo...