Greek Recipes

          Searching the Internet for some info on edible flowers, I saw some beautiful pictures of cakes and other fancy desserts decorated with, among other exotica, small blue and yellow pansies and chrysanthemum flowers. Did we always eat pansies on our cakes and in colorful salads or is it one more innovation from Noma (with its inventive kitchen) that has been immediately adopted by all of us?        Well, in fact, dried flowers have been used for thousands of years as spices in cooking or in herbal teas for medicinal purposes. Their use in modern cooking today as decorative edible ingredients is really a rebirth of this very old tradition.  Roses and zucchini- squash flowers have never stopped being used in cooking.       In Greece we make rose petal jam and we use zucchini flowers in different savory recipes.  When I was a child, whenever my mother made stuffed tomatoes, there would always be some sp...

    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...

  Every summer housewives all over Greece make homemade fresh pasta. The hot weather helps it to dry naturally and it can then be used all year long for traditional cooking.  The most common type of homemade dry pasta is chylopites , so called because the final product is cut into many tiny flat squares. (The literal meaning is flat pies-layers of dough)  Nowadays dry chylopites can be found in every food store all over Greece so everyone can enjoy them, although it has to be said that homemade ones  always taste much better. Chylopites are used in soups or in savory pie fillings in order to absorb juices, but the most popular dish is chicken stew with tomato and chylopites cooked in the sauce. Traditionally a rooster is the preferred bird, but chicken is fine too.  Serves 4 4 big chicken legs (or a chicken cut in 4 pieces) 1 onion chopped 150gr  olive oil  300gr chopped fresh tomatoes (or canned) 1tsp tomato paste 5-6 cloves and a small cinnamon stick...

Moussaka (moussakás in Greek) comes from the Arabic word  musaqa‘h which, oddly enough, means something chilled.  The Greek version, however, comes hot out of the oven and is probably the most famous Greek dish of all.  Several variations and cooking methods are found in many Mediterranean cuisines. Most versions are based on sautéed eggplant and tomato, usually with minced meat. The Greek version includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a Béchamel ("white") sauce. Béchamel was another import - introduced in the late 1920’s to Greek cuisine by the famous Greek chef Nicholas Tselementes, a great admirer of French cuisine. He brought many more innovations to Greek cuisine and his influence is still felt. In the old days, before béchamel, moussaka was topped with a cream made with yogurt, eggs and a little flour.  Other variations include adding more sautéed vegetable slices.  Zucchini and potatoes are popular additions. Moussakás 4 medium size eggplants,...

Everyone loves the wonderful taste of sun dried tomatoes. When you pick a small jar of them in the super market it is hard to imagine just how many ripe tomatoes needed to dry out, in order to fill this small jar. Tomatoes are more than 90% water by weight. The prospect of reducing them is one of the reasons why some people seem to find store bought ones easier to use although the truth is that homemade sun dried tomatoes are tastier by far. At the end of August till late September we usually harvest many ripe tomatoes. They are at the peak of their season and although we use them in salads and give them away to friends, they are always too many to consume while perfect and ripe. This year we made ketchup, sauce for pasta and, of course, our favorite meze: sun dried tomatoes. The weather was hot (33 C) with low moisture so it only took 2 days for the tomato fillets to dry out. We only had the classic round tomatoes to work with so we cut four fillets from each tomato (you need skin-on ...

In Aegean islands like Sifnos and Kalimnos chick pea stews are a favorite dish all year long. Housewives there place their chick peas (revithia in Greek) in clay cooking pots specially made from local ceramists and bring them to the village bakery shop late in the afternoon where the stews are slow cooked overnight in the oven that is still hot from baking bread.  Slow baking is what makes chick peas really tender, so tasty, and easy to digest. I remember a friend who visited the island of Milos telling me of the cooking method a tavern there was using for their chick peas. Milos is a volcanic island and there are hot springs as well as areas where the ground itself  is still very hot. There, by the beach, a local tavern owner had dig a deep hole in the hot volcanic soil and in it had placed a few clay pots with his chick pea specialty and left them to cook naturally for several hours. Amazing!  You don’t need a special clay pot or even a volcano to make delicious chick ...

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...

    In classic Greek cuisine we don't use a great variety of spices, except pepper of course, cinnamon, cloves or allspice in tomato based sauces and, rarely, nutmeg in flour based sauces.       Some recipes, though, which have  an eastern origin but which have been completely incorporated in our cuisine contain different spices than we normally use. Soutzoukàk ia are meatballs flavored with cumin and cooked in a rich tomato sauce. What makes this dish different is the cumin, an exotic flavored spice used widely in the Middle East, India and Mexico; cumin is also one of the spices used in curry powder. If you eliminate cumin from this recipe you will simply have ordinary meatballs, not a bad thing but we all need something exotic every now and then.      Soutzoukàk ia are usually served with fried potatoes, steamed rice or mashed potatoes. Tzatziki is a matching side dish giving freshness to this meal. Believe it or not, soutzoukaki...

      If we didn't like okra (sometimes called lady fingers or gumbo ) for their wonderful taste, we would surely grow them for their big beautiful flowers.      The okra harvesting period is from July to late September, and since they don't bloom all at the same time, you can enjoy their flowers all summer long.      In Greek okra are called bámies , and we use them in many summer dishes. They actually compliment both meat and poultry, but also other vegetables in summer stews. In fact, the most common okra dish is a simple stew with tomatoes, cooked the same way we cook green beans.      Many people don't like okra because they had a bad first experience with their gelatinous sauce, but if you toss them with vinegar and let them stand for an hour in a strainer, you will have a perfect result  no matter how you choose to cook them. For my taste the ideal combination for okra is chicken, a quite popular dish all ove...

Stuffed tomatoes are called gemistà in Greek. Red, ripe tomatoes with their natural sweetness can turn this humble dish into a wonderfully flavored summer meal. As a kid I remember we would cook this dish at home, mostly in August, when the tomatoes from our garden were ideally ripe. Rice and finely grated vegetables together with herbs is the classic stuffing for gemistà. In some parts of Greece, raisins and pine nuts are used to give a festive touch to the dish.  Another version calls for minced meat in the stuffing, but it’s not nearly as popular.  Gemist à    c an describe not only tomatoes but also other stuffed summer vegetables such as aubergines, green peppers, and zucchinis. Serves 4 8 medium sized ripe tomatoes 150gr round grain rice or rice for risotto 1 small zucchini grated  2 tbsp chopped parsley 5-6 mint leaves finely chopped 1 cup olive oil (200gr) 1 medium onion chopped salt and pepper to taste 3 medium size potatoes, peeled and cut length-wise...

     Eggplants and tomato; tomato and feta!  Add some basil or oregano and this chain reaction can give an explosion of taste in your mouth.      Slices of eggplant covered with tomato sauce, and topped with feta can easily become a filling summer dish, served either as a first or as a main course.      In Greece we season tomatoes with oregano, but basil is a classic Mediterranean companion for tomato as well;  so  it’s up to you. Cooking this dish, won't take you more than 20-30 minutes. For the tomato sauce: (my favorite pasta sauce) 300gr peeled and diced ripe tomatoes (canned tomatoes work fine too) 4 Tbsp olive oil 1 garlic clove crushed 1Tbsp sugar salt and pepper to taste    In a saucepan, over medium heat, add all the ingredients and simmer for 10 min until the sauce thickens. Set aside. Meanwhile prepare the eggplants: 3 medium eggplants (about 300gr) 1 cup olive or vegetable oil  salt to taste   ...

   The first day we would go to our summer house, my mother always had to do a lot of cleaning, so there wasn't much time for cooking - Scordomacárona was the answer!    This simple pasta made with tomato paste is probably the first dish I ever learned to cook, because it’s easy to prepare and very tasty at the same time. We use tomato paste a lot In Greece and a can of it is always available in every household fridge. Santorini island makes a very special paste because they use the local heirloom ‘dry’ tomatoes which are grown in the volcanic soil of the island without ever being watered.  The plant absorbs water from the night breeze which brings moisture from the sea. Its taste is unique but the limited production makes it a bit difficult to find. Serves 4-5 500gr spaghetti 6Tsps olive oil 4 garlic cloves 3Tsps tomato paste 1Tsp sugar (or to taste) salt and pepper to taste Cook spaghetti in boiling water with salt to your taste (either al dente or more). Str...

       This classic beef stew with tomato sauce is usually served with pasta or fried potatoes. However, in hot weather there are many tasty seasonal vegetables that can take the place of pasta and fried potatoes making a lighter dish with a summer touch.       The stew can be made with beef or with any other meat or poultry. Zucchinis, eggplants, sweet peppers and potatoes( or carrots) are the most popular summer vegetables chosen for this dish.        We usually serve kokkinisto with graviera cheese as a side dish. It is a lightly salted yellow hard cheese with a sweet aftertaste. If you can't find graviera, then gruyere could be a good choice. Serves 4 1kg fillet of beef, top loin or sirloin 150gr olive oil 300gr chopped ripe tomatoes 1 Tsp tomato paste (optional) 1 Tsp sugar 1 medium onion, chopped 1-2 garlic cloves chopped 1 cinnamon stick Salt and pepper to taste 1 litre hot water 2 small zucchinis 1 medium eggplant 1-2 sweet ...

              Beans are widely used in Greek cuisine. Small ones are used for soups and salads but those bigger in size are ideal for cooking in the oven. When I say bigger I really mean “giant beans”!!! Giant beans (also referred to as ''elephants'') are called butter beans in English and are cultivated mostly in northern Greece because they thrive in cooler mountainous regions.                They would look funny in a soup but many recipes for baked giant beans have been invented all over the country according to each region’s eating habits. The most common version is to bake the beans in tomato sauce with carrots and celery. This is the version commonly found in houses and taverns; other versions with spinach or sausage are found in northern Greece where the climate calls for spicy food. Giant beans are also a classic meze for ouzo.                Cabbage with its n...