Greek Recipes

There's nothing like some Big Fat Greek Potato Pie! One of the most distinguished and yet least well-known figures of Modern Greek and European History is the Corfiote (i.e. from the island of Corfu), Ioannis Kapodistrias . He was born in the year of American Independence, 1776, when Corfu and the rest of the Ionian Islands were still under Venetian dominance. As one of his ancestors had received title from Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy , Kapodistrias was a hereditary Count whose family name was entered in the Libro d'Oro of Corfu in 1679. At age 21, he left home to study philosophy, law, and medicine at the University of Padua in Italy; from there he went on to establish himself as one of the foremost figures in European diplomatic history of the early 19th century. Count Kapodistrias was the arch nemesis of the legendary Austrian “Fox” Prince Metternich , and he was directly responsible for the diplomatic recognition of a neutral and independent Switzerland (even...

Rizogalo... my Greek rice pudding recipe in all its glory Rice has been known and consumed in Greece since ancient times. The first mention I could find in the historiography is a reference to one of Sophocles ’ lost (to us) plays. The Poet is quoted as mentioning a type of bread made with rice called « ορύνδου » (O-REEND-thoo). The noun « ορύζης » (O-REE-zis) in ancient Greek is the root of our modern English word “rice” ( Oryza sativa … not to be confused with other types of sativa... ;-). Then, as now, rice was mostly imported to Greece from climes that were better suited to the intensive wet-paddy agricultural environment required for its cultivation. For the ancients, rice was considered a rare luxury and it fetched a handsome price in the markets when it was available. It was not until Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East that rice became a relatively more common element in Greek gastronomy. Thus, although both the ancient Greeks and later the Romans were familia...