Greek Recipes

This week saw the name day of my dearest Mr K, who was named after his paternal grandfather, Konstantinos. In Greek culture, name days are much anticipated and more significant than birthdays. Name days originate from the Greek Orthodox Church's calendar of Saints - people celebrate on their particular saint’s day with a special feast or party. Traditionally, the person celebrating their name day offers sweets or drinks to family members, friends and work colleagues and in return they are given the blessing of 'Hronia Polla' meaning ‘many happy years’. Given that my Mr K is a seafood connoisseur, what better way was their to celebrate than with one of his favourites - sardines. The choice to prepare one of Mr K's favourite fish was made even easier by the fact that the fishmonger at my local market that sells them fresh, already filleted in a neat little packet. While sardines are lovely dipped in flour and fried simply in olive oil with a big squeeze of lemon - a name ...

In Greek mythology, Cynara was a beautiful nymph who, having declined to live on Olympus with Zeus, was thrown to earth by the angry god and transformed into the tasty artichoke plant that we all love. His loss! The Peloponnese and Crete are the main regions where artichokes are commercially cultivated because they hate frost and need a mild climate in order to survive. In our garden we grow some wild thorny artichoke plants with a superb taste, but the common varieties found in most markets are bigger, lack thorns, and have a milder flavor that is still very tasty. In our area, fresh artichokes are served raw with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil as a meze for ouzo or wine. Really fresh artichokes, have a crunchy, slightly nutty flavor that resembles the taste of raw chestnuts. I wanted to try them as a salad main course, so I used spring herbs for extra flavor, bulgur wheat to give bulk, and feta for some more protein and taste. The result was an aromatic flavorful dish which c...

Sometimes what I need more than anything is a little time away in the country - even if that means actually only just a short 40 minute drive away home. And that is how I came to find myself, with Mr K and the Zen's, at Glenbernie Orchard at Darkes Forest on a bright crisp autumn day, picking apples. The Apple Shack of Glenbernie Orchard is a 4th generation family owned farm where you can purchase fresh fruits, juice, cider, honey and preserves - if you visit in the right season you can also pick your own apples, persimmons and raspberries. The season for apple picking runs from from about November to April, so we made it right at the end of the 'pick your own' season. The apples on the trees were incredibly beautiful and of spectacular quality - the pink lady apples tasted fresh, tangy and sweet. With a few kilos of fresh apples in my kitchen, I decided to make a milopita (Μηλόπιτα) or Greek apple pie for Mother's Day - which is this coming Sunday in Australia. Milopi...