Greek Recipes

In the lead up to Greek Easter, on Palm Sunday in fact, Mr K and I enjoyed lunch along with the rest of our extended family at my sister in law's parents house. Our host Mrs A, who is originally from Crete, is an incredible cook. The Palm Sunday table was absolutely heaving with what seemed like one hundred beautiful vegetarian and seafood dishes - including the traditional bakaliaros, skordalia, chargrilled octopus, stuffed mussels and more including some Cretan specialties that I had not tried before, such as calamari slow cooked with green olives, tomatoes and fennel. One of the absolute highlights on the table was, however, Mrs A divine Kalitsounia (καλιτσούνια). A small hand folded pie filled with wild greens and herbs - they were deceptively easy to eat!! Taking inspiration from Mrs A's kitchen, I recently tried my hand at making some cheese filled kalitsounia.  On our last visit to Crete, we tried some very savoury kalitsounia, stuffed with the local fresh mizithra and ...

There is something about cooking in clay, which just makes the food taste better. Cooking in an unglazed, organic clay pot creates an aroma that is both earthy and sort of smokey. Nearly all Greek and wider Mediterranean food was cooked, or stored in clay, in ancient times. I love the range and variety of clay pots that you can still buy in Greece today. Wide bellied pots for simmering tough cuts of meat and narrow necked pots for cooking beans and other legumes, are just a couple to choose from. Apart from the unique character and aroma of food cooked in clay, it also feels healthier - because you don't need to use much cooking fat at all. I've never had any issue of burning food in a clay pot either, because the clay pot heats up slowly and cooks the food more evenly.  This 'one pot' dish can be found in many regions of Greece and is particularly hearty in cooler weather. In many regions pasta would be added to the pot, to soak up all the cooking juices, instead of ch...

The world knows Italy as the home of pasta, but it's origins stretch across the Mediterranean. In Greece, pasta also plays a starring role in the food culture, with significant regional diversity displayed in the variety of shapes and dishes on offer. This recipe is my twist on a traditional dish called 'Latzania' which comes from Astypalia - an island in the Dodecanese archipelago. Latzania are a cheese filled pasta and custom calls for them to be served on the last weekend before lent. The traditional shape of the Latzania is an unusual 'lolly wrapper/bow tie' style where the two ends are twisted. I opted to skip the large bow ties and went instead for a simple round shape. However, I've kept the traditional filling of goat cheese and saffron. Mizithra and saffron filled pasta in broth Ingredients For the pasta 3 - 3 & 1/2 cups of flour 2 large eggs 1/2 - 1 cup water For the filling 1 cup of well drained homemade mizithra cheese (see the recipe here ) 1/2 ...

The humble chicken is really a culinary blank canvas, just waiting for the right combination of herbs and spices, to bring it up to its true gastronomic potential. This is where the lovely Gina of Homer St , has once again stepped in with inspiration, generously providing me with some of her incredibly aromatic herbs and spices, direct from carefully sourced, high quality Greek producers.  Most recipes for Greek style roast chicken always involve lemon in one form or another. Taking a tip from this tradition, in this recipe I have used a zesty lemon herb and spice blend from the producer Sparoza. The spice contains coriander, ginger, pink pepper, peppercorns, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, mustard seeds, lemon zest, sage - and my favourite, lemon verbena. Opening the packet is just like walking into one of the spice merchants on Evripidou Street in Athens. To enhance the aromatic qualities of the chicken, I also added some balsamic bay leaves from the producers 'Daphnis and Chlo...

In a few of the recipes I have posted recently, I have used mizithra cheese. Mizithra is an incredibly popular cheese in Greece and it comes in both dried and fresh versions. In Greece, mizithra is made from either goat, sheep or cow’s whey to which whole milk is sometimes added. Mizithra is one of the simplest cheeses to make: milk is brought to a slow boil for a few minutes and then curdled by adding rennet or whey from a previous batch or an acidic substance such as lemon juice, vinegar or - in some cases, a fresh broken sprig from a fig tree. As soon as curds have formed they are poured into a cheesecloth bag and hung to drain. The whey dripping out of the bag can be used to curdle the next batch of mizithra. A fresh chalky white colour, this slightly sweet cheese is perfect with honey, fruit and nuts. It is also used to fill all manner of small pies, such as the kalitsounia of Crete. The fresh version of mizithra cheese may also be salted and hung to dry from cheese cloth, in the ...

Bakaliaro (Μπακαλιάρος) or salt cod, is hugely popular in Greek cuisine. None more so than on two days during Lent, the Annunciation on March 25th and then again on Palm Sunday. It also just happens to be one of Mr K's most favourite dishes, when it served batter-fried in crisp pieces with pungent, garlicky skordalia. You can find a recipe for this style of bakaliaro here . While fried bakaliaro is really delicious, this traditional "cucina povera" fish can also been enjoyed in a variety of other ways. For our Palm Sunday celebrations this year, I decided to forgo the fried affair and instead opted to try a traditional Ionian preparation for the salt cod, called a bourdeto. A bourdeto (Μπουρδέτο) is an Ionian style of cooking, most commonly associated with the Island of Corfu. It is said to hail from the Venetian word 'brodeto' meaning broth. In its most basic form, a bourdeto involves fish, slowly simmered in a fresh in tomato sauce with onion, garlic and spicy r...

One of nature's greatest gifts has to be figs. A nutrition packed sweet treat, that plays such an important part in Greek and Mediterranean diets. For the few short weeks at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, I love to enjoy figs fresh from the tree - or when they run out, from our local farmer's market. The closer we get to winter though, the less perfect figs become. However, that said, oven-roasting figs will bring out the flavour of less-than-perfect, end of season figs. In Greek cooking traditions, figs are often pared with spices - particularly when they are dried. In Corfu, black pepper is the spice of choice. In the other Ionian islands and the Peloponnese, bay leaves are often used to scent and help preserve the dried figs. On the island of Ikaria, dried figs are sprinkled with antioxidant-rich oregano when stored. In Chios, the spice of choice is of course mastiha and in other Aegean islands the choice of spice is often cinnamon. In Crete, another regional...