Greek Recipes

It is birthday cake time in our house again, this time it was Mr K choice as to which cake he preferred. Even though I knew what the answer was going to be, I still asked the question and it was, as expected, semolina cake. Since I married Mr K, I have been on the search for the perfect semolina cake, or one that matches up to Mr K's childhood memories of his lovely Theia Katina's syrupy semolina cake. However, this time Mr K's request for a semolina cake came with a twist, "a pistachio semolina cake would be nice", he said. A few days ago, Mr K had been looking at some of our photos from a trip we made to the Greek Island of Ageina. Perhaps this had inspired the request for a pistachio cake, as Aegina is famous for growing some of the worlds best pistachios. While on our trip there, I think we nearly ate our own body weight in pistachios, of various forms. My favourite form were the fresh pistachios, cooked and soaked in the local wild thyme honey - best served o...

Spanakorizo, or spinach rice, is super healthy, very moreish and a hearty winter dish. It can be served as a main or side dish, and is ready in under 40 minutes. It is similar to a risotto (but with more greens than rice), spanakorizo can be accompanied by some feta cheese, a big dollop of sheep yoghurt or even a grating of aged mizyithra or kefelograveria cheese. If you are in need of extra "comfort" you can also enjoy it with a few slices of rustic home-style bread for a full meal. It also benefits from a healthy drizzling of olive oil over the top just before serving. As a primary schooler, Mr K can remember a big bowl of spanakorizio often being placed before him after a day at school. I can see why. This is a relatively inexpensive dish, especially if you have an excellent crop of spinach growing in your garden. It has beautiful fresh flavors of lemon and dill - and there is little preparation involved. The one bit of preparation that is absolutely essential though is ...

Tony and I are still in Limnos, enjoying the endless sunshine and warm weather. Soon we'll be back in Melbourne, braving the rest of the cold winter months that are still to come. As always, we have been having an amazing time, swimming in pristine waters, taking motor scooter rides to small villages, walking the narrow cobble streets, having long talks and lots of laughs with the family, and of course eating like we never do in Australia. I've taken way too many photos and still feel as though I haven't captured everything we see and do while in Limnos. My weekend in Lesvos a few days ago almost killed my camera it was such a picturesque place – might have to make that one a three-part series post! Speaking of series, the 'Limnos then and now' series is almost complete. I have one more photo to take and then I'm done. I've also been working on an 'Only in Limnos' series of images which has been a lot of fun. All coming to the blog soon! A...

There has been an outbreak of man flu in our house. The only way to contain the outbreak and bring a little warm cheer to the house (especially with the heavy relentless rain in Sydney this weekend) was with this delicious soup. 'Youvarlakia' is made with little herb, rice and vegetable filled meatballs, warming home made chicken broth and nourishing avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce). Normally the meatballs are made with beef, however I like to make a variation using chicken - so much so that this soup is very similar to the traditional kotosoupa avgolemono, but with meatballs instead of shredded chicken. In some regions of Greece, this soup is made using a tomato base - but I am a much bigger fan of the avglolemono version, which works so well with the fresh dill in the meatballs. Chicken Youvarlakia with Avgolemono (κοτοπουλο γιουβαρλακια με αυγολεμονο) The meatballs 500gr ground chicken ¼ cup rice 3 tablespoons of olive oil 1 small carrot, grated 1 medium onion, grated 1 tabl...

A little earlier this year, I posted a recipe for my mother in law's delicious Chickpea Soup, called Revithosoupa . After visiting my in laws this weekend, I suggested to Ma that I was keen to make another dish with chickpeas, a stew called Revithada (Ρεβυθάδα). Ma told me that her version is based on lemon and not tomato. It was very simple to make, with basically just chickpeas, onions and lemon. The lemon being the most important feature of the soup. You will notice in Greek cooking that it is very rare that lemon and tomato meet in the same dish. This rule has been born out of the fear of there being too much acidity in the one dish. It is usually always one or the other! While my mother in law's recipe for revithada sounded delicious, I had also been given a recipe for a tomato based Revithada. Oh the dilemma!! As I had run out of my stockpile of home-grown lemons and I had a basket full of fresh tomatoes, I decided to try the tomato version of this stew - stay posted for...

    Hot summer weather provides us with the tastiest fruits and vegetables for the flavorful dishes that make cooks so happy. And when I say dishes I don’t necessarily mean complicated techniques and time consuming recipes. Who wants to spend time in a hot kitchen in the middle of August?     All you need is a good variety of seasonal veggies and a little imagination to prepare a nutritious and filling salad. If you also add pasta you can turn any salad into a full, impressive, and no fuss meal. A classic Greek salad, for example, paired with rotini pasta makes a wonderful summer dish that everyone loves. It is easy to make and can be served chilled or at room temperature, making it  ideal for a picnic.  Greek, pasta salad Serves 6 500gr cooked and chilled rotini pasta 2 medium ripe tomatoes finely chopped 1 small onion finely chopped 1 small cucumber finely chopped 1 green pepper deseeded and finely choped 1Tsp dry oregano 100gr olive oil 200gr crushe...

This drug called 'Limnos' . . . it's good stuff! It puts you in a trance of heavenly bliss, keeping you hopelessly relaxed and carefree for the entire time you are exposed to this beautiful Greek island. Tony and I are both addicted. That's why we come here every year. And we don't care if we do nothing but eat, sleep and watch the Limnian world go by. Perhaps a little more 'eat' than we should but this is what the lure of Limnos does to us! A few nights ago we ate at a wonderful little port-side restaurant, Glaros Taverna, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted, for the second time on a Greek island menu, Vegetarian Moussaka! It was surprising enough to find one of these on the menu at Argo Restaurant in Santorini last year, but to find Vegetarian Moussaka in Limnos was nothing short of a miracle. Needless to say, the vegetarian moussaka at Glaros was delicious! Tony and I plan to visit again for lunch in the next few days w...