Greek Recipes

As the season for outdoor grilling is upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, I decided to post one of my favourite Greek grill recipes. I know you are going to enjoy this one. A grilled Bifteki stuffed with Kefalograviera cheese, served with some mushroom rice – Click to Enlarge Greeks have a reputation for grilling. From the hecatombs of the Greek host encamped on the shore before Troy in Homer’s Iliad, to the family-run diners of New York City, the association between Greeks and grilling is the stuff of culinary legend and lore. Indeed, if we were to believe some people, we might expect upon visiting Greece to find a charcoal grill set up every 50 square metres or so; with a smiling, apron-wearing and mustachioed Greek man sending smoke signals up into the Mediterranean sky. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, Greeks enjoy grilled foods, but rarely do they prepare them at home; it is simply not part of the everyday food culture, most of our home-cooked mea...

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...

Grandma would be proud of my variation on her Greek 'risotto' recipe. I will never forget the first time I tried a Risotto dish at an Italian restaurant. My vegetarian date was all aflutter about this particular Italian recipe called ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ so it was the must-have dish on the menu for me that night, and it was not cheap! Now, when the ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ arrived at our table, I could not suppress a quick laugh. Immediately, I recognized the dish as similar to my grandmother’s recipe for ‘ Domatorizo ’ (pronounced “Doe-ma-TOW-reezo”). But, my grandmother had never been to Italy, and in fact, I would have been surprised if she would have been able to point Italy out on a map… About all that my grandmother knew about Italy and Italians was that they had attacked Greece along with the Germans in the Second World War, when she was a young woman. So, I ate the ‘ Risotto al pomodoro ’ that night and it was tasty enough, but with the memory of my grandmother’s...