Kopiaste... to Greek Hospitality

Kopiaste to my new site

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:08:00 +0000

I have now moved to Wordpress.

My new site can be found at http://kopiaste.org

Hope to see you there as well.

Ivy

Spicy Baked Eggplants

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:33:00 +0000

I suppose that those of you who are still visiting me here do not know that I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org

*****

When we went to Sparta I brought along a few things such as pasto and loukaniko, which I hope to be posting about soon, fresh eggs and honey.

My sisters-in-law who live in villages just a few miles away from Sparta, have houses with big gardens with lots of flowers and grow their own vegetables and have some chicken, just as a hobby. They do not sell anything. When leaving they had a bag full of vegetables from their garden which they gave us.

Among other things they gave us some eggplants. I never saw such huge eggplants in my life and I know that my brother in law never uses chemical fertilizers. Believe me they were half a kilo each but although they were huge they were seedless and very tasty. I cooked some yiahni and the last two I used in this dish.

I decided to bake them as a side dish with the Grilled Middle Eastern Chicken.

Although when I began cooking I planned to make them with yoghurt and garlic by the time I started grilling the chicken I changed my mind and decided to use the marinade of the chicken instead.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Servings: 5

Ingredients

Eggplants, I used 2 but as I said they were huge.
The marinade from the previous recipe
3 - 5 spoonfuls of strained Greek yoghurt
1 spoonful of olive oil

Directions

After washing them, I cut them into 1 cm round slices and placed them in water with salt for ½ an hour. I put a plate on top to keep them in the water and then I drained them.

I brushed the baking tin with olive oil and placed the eggplants and brushed them with olive oil on top.

I preheated the oven at 180 degrees C and baked them for about an hour. I checked them regularly and brushed them with olive oil a couple of times, so that they would not dry.

Meantime, I discarded the bay leaves and some of the allspice berries (I left only two) from the marinade and placed the remaining in a food processor, I added a spoonful of olive oil and processed the mixture very well so that the allspice would dissolve completely. I added the strained Greek yoghurt and processed again, trying it until it tasted good. When I tried it using 3 spoonfuls of yoghurt, the taste was too strong, so I added two more spoonfuls.

Back to the eggplants. I pierced them with the fork and when they were soft I covered each slice of eggplant with a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt mixture and baked them for another fifteen minutes until the cream had solidified.

I think the next time I shall make them I shall add the marinade-yoghurt mixture on top and bake them only for five minutes so that it is still creamy. I tested one eggplant the way I wanted to make it originally and that was good as well so I might make them this way again soon.

I am submitting this recipe to The Crispy Cook hosting the event Go Ahead Honey, it's Gluten free.

Since I used eggplants, which were grown by my niece in Sparta, I am also submitting this recipe as an entry to Grow Your Own, which is celebrating the one year anniversary this month! Grow Your Own is sponsored by Andrea's Recipes, and also hosted by Andrea for the Anniversary edition. Your still have time to send your recipes and celebrate with Andrea. Here is what you have to do to enter.

If you would like to leave a comment, just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Grilled Middle Eastern style Chicken

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000

I suppose that those of you who are still visiting me here do not know that I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org

I shall be posting in both blogs for a couple of more weeks.

*****

I found about sumac reading various recipes but this is not a spice you can get in your neighbourhood supermarket here in Greece. Perhaps you can find it in large supermarkets or in small shops selling middle eastern products but those are not easy to find.

A few weeks ago, when my son went to Dubai he asked me what I would like from there and the first thing that came to my mind was sumac.

When he visited the town, he went to Carrefour and was amazed with the variety of spices they sold. As he didn't know exactly what I wanted he bought two kinds of sumac.

There was a cheap sumac, of which I do not know its origin as it is not stated on the package, as well as a Lebanese sumac, which is three times more expensive than the other one. He didn’t know that I already had turmeric, which I bought a few months back together with garam masssala, from a little shop selling Asian products, so he bought me some turmeric as well.

I didn't know how sumac tasted and whether it was a hot spice or not but it was not hot. I can't say that we were thrilled about it but it wasn't bad either. If you have any recipes using sumac, please let me know as I would like to try it again.

I was eager to try it so I google searched writing chicken and sumac and read a few recipes, some Moroccan, some Lebanese but mainly I wanted to see how much of each spice I should use. I did not follow any specific recipe but I made this recipe using what I liked from those I read.

Grilled Middle Eastern Chicken

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Grilling time: 20 minutes

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts cut in eight pieces
1 teaspoon of Lebanese sumac
1 teaspoon of turmeric
Sea salt
Ground coriander seeds
Ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Whole all spice (5 – 6 berries)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar
4 spoonfuls of white dry wine
3 spoonfuls of strained Greek yoghurt

Directions

Wash chicken, remove skin, cut into pieces and marinate for at least 1 hour with all the ingredients.

Grill chicken for about 10 minutes on each side. I served this dish with baked eggplants, which I shall post tomorrow.

I have closed the comments at the site but if you would like to leave a comment, just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Victoria Sandwich Cake and Awards

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:58:00 +0000

I hope this will not be confusing for you.

As of yesterday 17 -08-2008 I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org
I hope that you will correct the link on your blogroll (that is if I am included in your blogroll).

As a lot of friends are away on holidays I shall be posting on both blogs for a few more weeks and this announcement shall appear on all the posts from now on until I stop posting here.

I shall start with the Awards first.

Vani, of Illatharasi has passed on to me the Brilliante Weblog Award. Thank you so much Vani :-)

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

Here are the rules to follow :-
When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.

Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.

Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.

Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

I am passing this award to:

1. Peter, of Souvlaki for the Soul

2. Swati, of Swati's Sugarcraft

3. Ben, of What's Cooking

4. Val, of More than Burnt Toast

5. Mike, of Mike's Table

6. Corinne, of A Gourmet Love Affair

7. Jenn, of The Leftover Queen

Swati, of Swati's Sugarcraft, has awarded me with the Magic Lamp of Luck Award. Thank you Swati for the Award. It seems that it worked because I was not expecting to publish the new site so soon.

There were no rules to follow so I am passing this award to some friends so that I may wish them good luck in what they are doing.

1.To Farida, of Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook, who is moving from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org.

2.To Sam, of Greek Food, Recipes and Reflections, who is also in the process of preparing his new site

3. To Giz and Psychgrad, of Equal Opportunity Kitchen, Giz is moving to her new condo and both mother and daughter are preparing catering for a Bar Mitzavh party, for fifty people

4. To Pixie, of You say Tomahto, I say Tomayto, who is away from blogging for a long time now and I want to wish her good luck and that she can take her time and come back when she is ready

5. To Vani, of Illatharasi, who has awarded me with the previous award and wish her good luck to whatever she is doing

6. To any other friend who needs luck. Well we all need some good luck in our life, so feel free to grab this award.

Now to our recipe.

Rosie, of Rosie bakes a peace of cake and Maria, of The Goddess's Kitchen, have created Sweet and Simple Bakes, and each month they host a different event giving a recipe which we have to recreate and blog about it, sharing our experiences.

This month's challenge is Victoria Sandwich Cake and here is the recipe.

As you may have understood by now, I hate following instructions but this time I read the instructions several times to be sure that I understood everything.

I did not have 2 x 20 cm tins but I did have some tins in which I do not usually bake in, but I use them to roast nuts in and as they were the right size I decided to use them, so I had them both lined and ready to use.

I followed the instructions but when I finished the procedure the mixture didn't seem enough for me. I emptied the mixture into one of the baking tins but as I thought that it would be just a small cake, I decided to make another one. I had already packed the scale and put all the ingredients away, I was frustrated as I had to start from the beginning, the oven was already hot and the temperature outside was about 40 degrees making baking intolerable, although I had the air condition on, so I decided to get done with it the soonest possible, just adding the ingredients by heart, without the use of the scale I don't know why but I also decided to add some cocoa in it but I did not have any, so I added two spoonfuls of drinking chocolate.

When I emptied the second one in the tin, I thought it was too much for each tin, so I decided to remove a little bit from each tin and made a little one as well.

While they were baking, I prepared the buttercream.

When they cooled down I cut the first sponge cake, spread some buttercream on, some jam, added the chocolate cake in the middle and again buttercream and jam and the second sponge cake on top. I sprinkled some icing sugar on top, et voila.

I still had the third sponge cake and some buttermilk left but it was not enough. I had some cream cheese and a whipping cream in the refrigerator, so I added the cheese into the buttercream and combined them and whipped them together and I whipped the whipping cream separately but instead of adding sugar I added two spoonfuls of jam.

The third smaller sponge cake broke into pieces when I tried to remove it from the tin, so I decided to bind it together adding layers of broken sponge, cream cheese and whipping cream and here is the result.

I think I've learned a lesson and I shall try next time to be patient with baking. Nevertheless, tastewise, it was great and the combination of both of them was even better and the children loved it.

If you would like to leave a comment just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

I've moved to Wordpress

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Hi my friends,

I don't believe I did it!!!! I wanted to move to Wordpress a long time now but was really scared how to do it.

I bought a new domain name and host before leaving on holidays. Farida, of Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook, gave me some useful tips, so did Mike, of Mike's Table.

Yesterday, another friend Sam, of Greek Food, Recipes and Reflections, gave me some very useful tips that encouraged me to go ahead. A few minutes ago, all my content has moved to Kopiaste.org, so I won't be posting again here in blogger. I still need to do some minor adjustments, so hopefully shall do this while continuing posting from there.

Thank you for all your support and hope to see you there as well.

Ivy

Eclipse over the Acropolis with a Greek Fish in parchment paper

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:58:00 +0000

The earth's shadow swept past the moon late last night turning a shining full moon of August into a dim red one and finally blackening it out of view.

The partial lunar eclipse occurred late in the night in Athens around 10 p.m. At about 9 p.m. my husband asked me if I wanted to go to the Acropolis to see the eclipse and without hesitation we got into the car and were there around 9.30 p.m. We had to park the car in the narrow streets of Plaka somewhere opposite Zappeio and walked our way up to the Acropolis.

The new museum of the Acropolis

The worse part began after the entrance to the ancient theatre of Herodou tou Attikou.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. I thought that Athens was empty due to summer holidays but the streets were packed with both locals and tourists. I distinguished British American and Australian accents, I heard people speaking Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Cypriot, German and some other I could not recognize.

The queue was about 100 metres x 5 metres and it took about half an hour to pass inside the Acropolis.

When we arrived the moon was still full and when descending it was half moon but although I took some pictures I did not manage to capture it.

I am sorry about the bad quality of my photos by it was the first time I took photos during night. Although I turned it to night scene I didn’t know much about it and most of my pictures are dim and shaking.

The ancient Odeon of Herodou tou Attikou.

The Propylaea (main gateway)

Photo of Propylaea, courtesy Wikipedia

Photo of the Parthenon (Wikipedia)

The Parthenon

The eclipse has already began.

If you have not visited the Acropolis it’s not easy to capture what an accomplishment this building was to build 400 years b.C. during the rule of Pericles by Iktinos and Kallicratis. The ancient Greek temple known as the Parthenon (Greek for "the virgin's place" i.e. Athena) was constructed between 447 and 432 b.C. Considered a masterpiece of Greek architecture, it was built atop the Acropolis, a hill overlooking the city of Athens. To give you a small example, each pillar is 1.9 m in diameter and 10.4 m high. If you are near the pilar you realize that three grown ups are needed to embrace it pillar.

Here are some clear pictures and some more.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and now to our recipe.

Perka me marathoriza sti ladokolla

I hope the name did not scare you away. Perka is a fish of the grouper family and marathoriza is fennel bulb aka finocchio.

I chose this recipe as ancient Greeks ate a lot of fish. I prepared the fish with herbs and spices used in Greek cuisine and although it is wrapped in parchment paper, with all due respect to our ancestors, I wouldn't call it kleftiko, as I have seen it in another blog.

A few weeks ago I went to the farmers' market and bought this lovely fillet of painted comber aka grouper. When I bought the fish I did not have a recipe in mind but I combined some of the Greek herbs and vegetables I bought and wrapped the fish in parchment paper. When I finished wrapping it I saw that there was still some space left at the four corners, so I quickly unwrapped it and filled in the gaps with mushrooms.

Well there are not enough words to describe the result of this dish. I kept hearing my family saying wow, mmmm, yummy, delicious, fantastic.

I strongly recommend this dish and I am sure that even the most eclectic taste buds will be satisfied.

Grouper with fennel bulb, wrapped in parchment paper

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Yields: 5 servings

Ingredients

1 ½ kilo filleted grouper (2 fillets) or any other fillet you like
1 fennel bulb, cut into slices (next time I shall add at least 2)
2 onions cut into slices
3 cloves of garlic, cut into slices
¼ cup of parsley, finely cut
¼ cup of dill, finely cut
1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of Greek oregano
4 slices of lemon on each fillet
6 mushrooms, cut into slices (agaricus bisporus)
3 spoonfuls of olive oil
1 shot of ouzo

Directions

Wash the fish and add salt, pepper, oregano and coriander.

Prepare all vegetables and cut them.

On the parchment paper layer the fennel bulb, the onions, garlic, dill and parsley. Place the fish on top and add the olive oil and ouzo. Cover with the lemon slices and between the gaps add the mushrooms, sprinkling some salt, ground pepper, oregano and coriander on top.

Fold the parchment paper and seal the baking tin with aluminum foil making sure that it is covered well so as to prevent the steam from escaping.

Bake at 150 degrees centigrade for 1 hour 30 minutes.

I am submitting this recipe to Jeena at Jeena's Kitchen who is hosting a Fishing Trip Event. To participate, you have to post about a fish or seafood dish - no other meats are allowed to be included.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Shrimp Risotto

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:14:00 +0000

We're back from our short get away. I want to thank you for leaving your lovely comments and have read all of them but need some time to reply and to visit you all. Hope to do this during the weekend.

This year we decided not to visit any island but went by car to a lovely place not far from Athens. It's a small, picturesque village which you can see in the bay with a lovely beach, a few restaurants and cafeterias, no tourists, ideal to rest.

We stayed in a small hotel, on the beach which is on the other side of the road.

Today I had so many things to do, as tomorrow is a public holiday and all the shops will be closed, so we went to the farmers' market, and then to the supermarket, so I decided to prepare something easy and quick.

This is one of our favourite dishes which the kids love and always fight about who is going to get more shrimps. I have tried it in the past with a certain arborio rice which I bought from a big supermarket but to be frank I did not like it.

I am not saying that arborio is not good but maybe that specific brand I found was not the best, so next time I shall try another brand and see how it works. Until then, I prefer to use a brand we get in Greece called carolina, which is a white, short grain rice, very flavorful and it yields a stickier, softer result. It is especially good when a creamy texture is desired and this is the rice we use in Greece for dolmades, rice puddings, soups and risotto.

This time I made a few changes to my old recipe, and to begin with,I increased the amount of garlic, which stayed in the dish, as I am becoming a garlic lover. This time I did not add saffron and as I bought some fresh mushrooms and bell peppers, I wanted to use both. However, as two of my children do not eat mushrooms and peppers, I sauteed them separately with a few spoonfuls of olive oil. When mixing in the shrimps I added some of this in the non stick frying pan and mixed them with the vegetables. This was definitely much better than the previous one as I love both mushrooms and peppers.

Servings: 5

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 finely chopped onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

500 grams carolina rice

1 kilo pack of frozen shrimps, preferable a big size, without the shells (needless to say that you can use fresh shrimps if you like)l
4 ripe tomatoes (or 1 can of whole tomatoes with juice, during winter), blended
2 - 3 spoonfuls of tomato ketchup
3 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar

¼ glass white dry wine

0,25 gr., of saffron preferably from Kozani (best quality) (optional)

salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
broth we have boiled the shrimps

parsley
4 mushrooms (optional), chopped
1 cup of chopped bell peppers (yellow, green and red)

Directions

After having all our ingredients ready, we boil the shrimps for only 5 minutes.

In a big skillet bring oil to heat, just to wet the bottom of the pan, and saute the onion and garlic and stir on medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add the rice and stir constantly until it is flavoured.

Then dissolve the saffron in the wine (or skip as I did) and pour in the saucepan until the alcohol evaporates, add the balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, tomato ketchup, salt, pepper and thyme and start pouring the broth, a ladle at a time until it is absorbed and continue until the rice is ready but still al dente, five minutes before it is ready add the mushrooms and bell peppers and the shrimps and stir.

Serve the rice sprinkling some finely chopped parsley and grate some parmesan on top, if you like but personally I don’t.

BULGUR WHEAT PILAF WITH LEFTOVERS

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

As I promised in my previous post, when there is leftover meat, it can be roasted chicken, lamb or pork, instead of eating the same thing the next day, this dish can be prepared in twenty minutes and it is really very tasty and healthy.

This is a dish very popular in Cyprus and it is called Pilafi Pourgouri.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 5

Ingredients

· 1 glass of bulgur wheat (or rice)

· 1 - 2 nests of Greek noodles called fides (vermicelli)

· olive oil (about 1/4 of a cup)

· 1 onion

· 4 medium sized ripe tomatoes or 1 can (500 grams) of whole tomatoes with juice, blended

· salt and pepper

· 1 glass of water

· leftover meat (about 1 - 1 1/2 cups, cut into small bite pieces)

(Note: for each glass of bulgur you will need 2 glasses of fluid, so here you must estimate the amount of juice from the tomatoes)

Directions

Start with the tomatoes, which peel and blend in a food processor. Grate the onion and heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion. Add the the noodles and stir. Before the onion and vermicelli turn brown add the bulgur wheat and mix until the bulgur wheat absorbs the oil. Add tomato and water, salt and pepper and leave it to boil for 2 – 3 minutes. Add the leftover meat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave it for ten more minutes until it absorbs all the remaining fluid.

Note:

Bulgur wheat may be substituted with same quantity of long-grained parboiled rice.

We usually serve this dish with Greek yoghurt.

Without the leftovers this is a nice side dish pilaf to accompany other meat dishes and instead of tomato and water add chicken stock.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Chicken with chilopites

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:17:00 +0000

I have lots of recipes I have gathered during all these months and for which I did not have the time to write about them. So instead of writing a lot of things I thought that it would be the time to write some of these recipes and have them in autopost for the period I shall be away.

This is a Greek recipe which is easy to make. Chilopites are square egg pasta and if you can't find chilopites you can either make them yourselves or add other pasta of your preference.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 5

INGREDIENTS

1 medium size chicken (about 1.200 grams) or just thighs and breast
500 gr. Chilopites pasta*
1/2 glass of olive oil
4 ripe tomatoes peeled and blended or 1 can of whole tomatoes
Salt and pepper
4 glasses of water

DIRECTIONS

Wash, salt and pepper the chicken; blend the tomatoes in a food processor and place the chicken in an oven pan. If you are cooking a whole chicken place the breast facing down and add the oil, 1 glass of water and tomatoes.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and roast the chicken, turning once. When roasted, remove chicken to a platter and add the remaining water. Bring to a boil and add pasta. Stir a couple of times and the pasta will be ready in about 20 minutes. If the pasta has absorbed liquid and is still ad dente you can add some more hot water.

If you like you can grate some Greek dried Myzithra, kefalograviera, halloumi or any other hard cheese on top.

If you have leftovers, tomorrow you will see what I do with them.

Pork loin or leg stuffed and wrapped in vine leaves

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:51:00 +0000

I do not have much to say about this dish except that if you like the ingredients you will be thrilled by the taste and it is a dish you can serve at buffets, on special occasions and your guests will be thrilled.

I shall leave the photos to speak of themselves.

Servings: 8

Preparation time : 30'

Baking time : 3 hours

Ingredients

1 ½ - 2 kilos pork loin or leg
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Oregano

8 – 10 slices of bacon

Olive oil (about 1 glass)

8 slices of halloumi cheese

100 gr. feta cheese crumbles

2 tablespoonfuls of mustard

1 onion blended

2 cloves of garlic blended

2- 3 spoonfuls of olive oil

2 spoonfuls of fresh (chopped) or dried mint

2 spoonfuls finely chopped parsley

16 vine leaves boiled
1 glass of water
half a glass of lemon juice

For garnishing (optional)

Various vegetables sautéed, such as mushrooms, onions, carrots, Brussels sprouts etc.

Directions

Ask your butcher to cut the meat and to flatten it so that it may be stuffed and rolled. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano.

On a parchment paper lay the vine leave and place the meat on top of them.

Sauté the bacon in a non stick frying pan, without oil.

In a food processor blend the onion and the garlic with a few spoonfuls of olive oil and add this on top of the meat.

Place the bacon, halloumi cheese, mint, feta cheese, some mustard and the parsley on top of the meat.

Then roll the meat and put a couple of toothpicks to secure, then wrap with the vine leaves and finally with the paper.

In a baking tin place the potatoes. If they are small, pierce them with a knife and if they are bigger cut into big pieces, add salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice, oil and water. Place the meat roll in the centre.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and bake until the potatoes are ready. Half way through turn the potatoes. When done remove paper leaving the juices of the baked meat fall in the pan and remove toothpicks. Place roll in a platter to cool down before slicing.

Summer Vacation

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:07:00 +0000

My friends, as I am communicating with you I shall be away from blogging for a few days to relax .

However, I have programmed some posts for this week and hope that this will work.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Savory Pepper Cake

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:26:00 +0000

08.08.08 8hrs 8min p.m. (Athens time)

Olympic Games

ANTHEM OF THE GAMES (literal translation)

Ancient immortal Spirit, pure father
of beauty, of greatness and of truth,
descend, reveal yourself as lightning here
within the glory of your own earth and sky.

At running and wrestling and at throwing
illuminate in the noble Games’ momentum,
and crown with the unfading branch
and make the body worthy and ironlike.

Plains, mountains and seas shine with you
like a white-and-purple great temple,
and hurries at the temple here, your pilgrim
every nation, o ancient, immortal Spirit.

This is a twist to the Cypriot Tyropita recipe I make with halloumi. However, adding new ingredients to it, makes a totally different savory cake. Instead of adding ham and turkey, you can substitute it with bacon which you have to grill or fry before using. Of course, bacon gives a lovely taste to the recipe but for a more healthy version I prefer using ham and turkey.

This is a very easy recipe as no mixer is involved but you just mix all the ingredients together.
When I last made it I used to take a piece for each of us at the Lake and it was a lovely snack after swimming.

I am submitting this recipe to WTSIM, hosted by The PassionateCook, Cook Sister & SpittoonExtra and this month's theme is about picnic recipes.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs
1 can of evaporated milk (410 gr.)
2 1/2 - 3 cups of self raising flour
3 cups of halloumi or any kind of graviera cheese or kefalograviera (or a mixture of all)
a pinch of salt (only if you use graviera cheese)
a pinch of pepper (optional)
1 cup of olive oil
6 slices of ham, cubed
3 slices of turkey, cubed
3 bells peppers, 3 different colours of your choice, cut into small pieces

Dice the peppers and then grate the cheese in a big bowl. Add the eggs, olive oil, milk, ham and turkey, 3 spoonfuls of diced peppers and mix well with a spoon. Add salt and pepper if required and flour until you have the consistency of a cake and not a bread.

Grease and four a 26 cm. baking tin εκ. or line it with parchment paper. Place the peppers in the tin and then add the mixture on top.

Preheat oven at 180^ο C and bake for about 1 hour until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the tin and place it upside down, in a platter. Allow to cool before serving.

If it is not consumed within a day , store the remaining in the refrigerator.

This is a very colourful savory cake and it's perfect for parties as well and as it is also kid friendly, I am also submitting this to Dhanggit, of Dhanggit's kitchen, who is celebrating her daughter's first birthday with the event Perfect Party dishes.

Happy Birthday to sweet Mayumi.

Okra Ladies Fingers - Mpamies (Μπάμιες)

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:23:00 +0000

Today as I was looking for the vegetarian recipe of okra to link it to this recipe, I realized that I had not blogged about it.

There was a time that I was writing recipes here and there but did not post the same recipe simultaneously on the blog as well. I wrote about okra in Group Recipes, months ago and it, somehow, skipped my mind to post it here as well.

This is a classic Greek recipe of okra and is the one I usually cook for my family.

The other way they make okra in Greece is baked in the oven with chicken. Feta and wine are not usually added to this dish but this is my twist to the recipe.

I am submitting this recipe to Divya from Dil Se who is hosting this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, created by Kalyn, of Kalyn's Kitchen.

CHICKEN AND OKRA WITH FETA

KOTOPOULO ME MPAMIES KAI FETA (Κοτόπουλο με μπάμιες και φέτα)

Servings: 4

Preparation time: About 90 minutes for fresh okra or 20 minutes for frozen

Cooking time: 60 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1000 gr. fresh okra or frozen
1 chicken breast cut into four pieces
½ cup of parsley
2 onions finely chopped
1 - 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
5 fresh ripe tomatoes, blended
½ cup of olive oil
2 spoonfuls of vinegar
½ cup of white dry wine
4 – 5 chunks of feta cheese
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Wash chicken and remove skin. Cut each chicken breast to get 4 pieces and sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper.

In a non stick frying pan add half the olive oil and sauté chicken on all sides. Remove to a baking tin or a baking vessel with lid.

Meanwhile if okra is fresh, this has to be done before starting the procedure. You have to peel stems and sprinkle with salt and vinegar and expose them in a sunny spot for about an hour. (This prevents the okra from excreting a slimy juice). Then wash and drain before sautéing. If okra is frozen, skip this procedure and just wash in order to remove ice and drain.

Put okra in the frying in pan and sauté with whatever oil has remained from sautéing the chicken. Mix well and empty on top of the chicken.

(While sautéing chicken and okra, boil some water and put tomatoes in the hot water for 5 minutes. Remove from water and peel skin off. Blend in the food processor.)

Add remaining oil in frying pan and sauté the onion and garlic. Add tomatoes and parsley (which I forgot to add :) although I had chopped some parsley), salt and extra black pepper.

When the sauce has boiled pour over okra, add wine and feta and cover tin with foil or with lid and bake at 180 degrees C for 45 minutes.

Remove foil or lid and bake until sauce is thick.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Spaghetti in Meat Sauce, the Greek version of Bolognaise

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:35:00 +0000

When someone who has never cooked before decides to start cooking, I bet that they always start with this dish and fried potatoes:) It is easy, only a few ingredients are required, it is quick to prepare and is so tasty.

This is probably why it took me so long to post about this recipe. I thought that everybody can make this recipe, so at the beginning of blogging I took a few photos but never posted about it as I had more interesting recipes to post.

However, I think that even for those few persons who will now start cooking it is worth while to add this recipe.

I am submitting this recipe to Michelle, of Greedy Gourmet, who is hosting this month’s Presto Pasta Nights, created by Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast.

Some times I make a vegetarian version of this recipe and don't add any meat in it. Sometimes I add mushrooms, sometimes I keep it plain, and make a lovely tomato sauce to top a spaghetti dish and make sure to make double the recipe as I use the remaining to make pizza.

Makaronia me Kima (spaghetti in meat sauce)

Ingredients

FOR PASTA

500 grams spaghetti pasta No. 10
salt
1 spoon olive oil

Directions

Bring water to boil and add salt and olive oil. Add pasta and boil according to directions on package. I boil them for not more than 6 – 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. If pasta is prepared ahead after boiling drain pasta and add cold water to cover.

MEAT SAUCE

SERVINGS: 6

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

½ kilo of ground pork or beef
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
medium onion, finely chopped
½ glass wine of white dry wine
½ teaspoon of dried basil
4 – 5 ripe tomatoes or during winter 1 can of whole tomatoes, blended
½ glass of water

Directions

In a medium sized sauce pan add olive oil, enough just to wet the bottom of the pan. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent and add ground meat. Sauté and add wine and mix. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil. Add water and boil until sauce thickens.

Serve sauce on top of spaghetti with aged myzithra or kefalotyri.

Whole Grouper in Salt (Ροφός με Αλάτι)

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:41:00 +0000

I am not really sure of the name of the fish as I have found it in a dictionary as dusky grouper. In Greek there is only one name for it: Rofos and then looking it out in the internet I saw that there are a few types of groupers: Red Grouper, Dusky grouper, Golden grouper etc., so can I guess from its colour this is a red grouper? If you know the correct name please let me know.

However, for this recipe, you can use any kind of grouper or other big fish you like such as a gilt head, a red snapper, a sea bass, a trout or a salmon. Don’t be afraid to use the salt as the fish will not get salty. If you like you don’t have to scale the fish as the scales gets discarded together with the skin.

I saw this recipe more than a year ago, before I began blogging at Elias Mamalakis’ T.V. show and I could not remember exactly what ingredients he used but I found the recipe on his site. As I often say, I cannot stick to recipes and whilst he made it with sea bass and filled the fish with mushrooms, garlic, parsley and peppercorns, I chose to add lemon slices as well and added my favourite spice cardamom. Since I found this spice I have been addicted to it and could not resist adding it as well. Mamalakis used only salt to cover the fish but as I had only one packet of salt and discovered half way that it was not enough to cover the fish, I added two egg whites and some flour and remaining salt and made a salt batter to cover it. Instead of pouring butter on the vegetables as he did, I made a ladolemono sauce with oregano.

I am submitting this recipe to Sunita, of Sunita's World, who is celebrating her 1st anniversary for her event Think Spice. This month we just have to post about our favourite spice.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Servings : 5

Ingredients

1 ½ kilos of red grouper or any other whole fish such as red grouper or sea bas
For stuffing:
1 mushroom, chopped
1 cup of parsley, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 lemon chopped in slices
A few cardamom pods
1 teaspoon of mixed black, green and pink peppercorns

For covering

1 kilo of coarse sea salt
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup flour
2 egg whites

For the salad

5 medium potatoes
5 carrots
5 courgettes
8 broccoli florets, all steamed

Directions

Scale, gut and wash the fish. (Scaling is not necessary as the scales will stick on the crust and the skin and will be discarded).

In a bowl put the salt, flour and egg whites and mix with a spoon. Add water gradually until you have a very thick batter. (You may not need all the water).

Wipe the mushroom and cut it into slices, as well as the lemon, parsley and garlic. Mix in the cardamom seeds and the peppercorns and stuff the fish. Place a small piece of aluminum foil around the opening to secure, or secure with a toothpick or sew.

Layer the tin with some of the salt mixture and place the grouper on top. Cover with the remaining salt mixture.

Preheat the oven at 180^ο C and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and leave it for a few minutes to cool down and then break the crust with a small hammer and remove crust as well as skin.

Serve in a platter with the steamed vegetables and serve with the ladolemono dressing.

Oregano and Olive oil from Mount Taygettus, in Peloponese

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:10:00 +0000

Taygettus Greek: Ταΰγετος, also Taigetos is a mountain range of the Peloponnesus, Southern Greece, extending about 65 mi (100 km) north from the southern end of Cape Matapan in the Mani Peninsula. It rises to about 7,900 ft (2,410 m) at Mt. Hagios Ilias (Mt. St. Elias or Prophitis Elias). The mountain is named after Taygete. In Byzantine times and up until the 19th century, the mountain was known as Pentedaktylos (Greek for five-fingered). The mountain range includes the prefectures of Arcadia, Laconia and Messenia.

The highest peak of the mountain is known for displaying the approximate shape of a pyramid. A church of the prophet Elias (προφήτης Ηλίας) is located near the peak. European walking route E4 also leads there.

The valley of the Evrotas River lies to the east, while the Ionian Sea lies to the south and west along with the Gulf of Kalamata or the Messenian Gulf and Arcadia to the north.

Almost all of the Evrotas valley, the Parnon Mountains and half of Laconia can be seen from the eastern slope. The western slopes panorama includes Kalamata and the eastern half of Messenia. Most of the southwestern part of Arcadia can also be seen.

The central part of the mountain range is commonly called "Skoteini Plevra" which means "the dark side" because the villages that are in the Taygettus don't receive as much sunshine, especially in the morning and the pre-dusk hours. Much of the area is forested and in higher areas, deforested with grasslands, meadows and flowers. The area receives sunshine only during the afternoon hours. The length is about 4 to 5 km and the width is approximately 1 km.

(courtesy Wikipedia)

Why was I taking pictures of Taygettus Mountain?

Well, I am sure that all of you who are not of Greek origin, do not know that Greece had Pyramids even before the ancient Egyptians. The pyramid of Taygettus is visible without the use of binoculars but in this picture it is not very clear as I took it from the car and from far away. I am giving you a few links and if you are intrigued you may read all about this. One of these pyramids is visible from the road towards Sparta and it is more clear during winter when there is snow on it. Although the Pyramid of Taygettus is disputed, the others are not but the Greek government instead of restoring them have left them to total destruction as the pyramid near Argos which a few decades back was in a very good condition.

When I went to Sparta last week I bought some oregano from there. I usually buy a lot more but my sister-in-law told me that this week they plan to go and pick some from the Mountain.

When collecting oregano, the best way to remove it from the twigs is to put it in a plastic bag and then rub the leaves otherwise you will prick your fingers on the twigs.

Olive oil and oregano from Taygettus is a special treat.

Toast bread, or

Grill bread, and

add olive oil (my husband adds a lotttttt!), sprinkle oregano and salt,

and you'll have the BEST bread you've ever eaten.

Ladolemono, which literally means oil and lemon, is a dressing/sauce we use in

Greece

for grilled fish, grilled meat and over our vegetables. Add an equal amount of oil and lemon juice and add salt, and oregano.

Oregano is the basic aromatic herb for this dressing and even in Greece the Greeks look for oregano which originate from a few places such as Crete, the Mount of Taygettus, and the island of Allonissos, because of its wonderful fragrance. If you add this oregano in the oil and lemon dressing no other ingredient is necessary as this enhances the flavour of the fish or meat.

However, this is a quite versatile recipe and can vary depending with what you want to serve it with.

Vlita (amaranth) for example, are usually served with olive oil, lemon (or vinegar), garlic, oregano, and pepper. I wanted to write about vlita, but I have nothing more to add to the wonderful post by Sam, of Greek Food, Recipes and Reflections.

When there are ingredients like garlic, fennel or capers in ladolemono it is best to blend them in a food processor.

Basic Recipe of Traditional Ladolemono (salad dressing)

Ingredients

½ wine glass of extra virgin olive oil
½ wine glass of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of oregano or thyme

Optional

A pinch of black pepper
Chopped garlic
Capers
Fennel

Directions

Put all ingredients in a container with an airtight lid and shake well so that the end result is a creamy dressing.

I am submitting the Salad Dressing to Lisa, of No Croutons Requited, who is hosting this month's event, having as a theme Dressing.

As I have moved on to Wordpress now, if you would like to leave a comment please see the post here.

This dressing was served on top of a whole grouper in salt.

Banana Cupcakes with coconut and cherries

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:10:00 +0000

A few weeks back I was drooling over some cupcakes my friend Cakelaw, from Laws of the Kitchen made and the next day I decided to make some. I did not have exactly the ingredients so I used both plain flour and self raising flour and reduced the baking powder, I added orange essence as I was out of vanilla essence and added a little bit of extra sugar as I wanted to add 2 ripe bananas I had.

For the frosting the quantity of butter left was not enough, so I frosted half of them with white chocolate and to distinguish them, on top of the white chocolate I sprinkled some chocolate sprinkles and on the butter frosting some coconut. I decorated all of them with my cherry spoon sweet. I only have two muffin tins x 6 so the other quantity I lined two baking tins with parchment paper and baked them for an hour at 170 degrees.

They turned out great, the kids loved them especially those with the white chocolate. Although I avoid using butter often there are some things which I want to try at least once but these I will definitely make a lot of times.

I am submitting this recipe to Couture Cupcakes, who is hosting the event Best evah Cupcake Recipe, to support Cupcake Day for the RSPCA.

1 ½ cups sifted plain flour
1 ¼ cups of self rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
200 gr. butter, softened and cubed
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon orange extract
2 ripe bananas
1 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line muffin tins with paper muffin cases.

Cream the butter in an electric mixer so it is soft and pale, then beat in the sugar in 3 lots, and beat the mixture until the butter and sugar are fully combined. Beat in each egg and then finally beat in the orange essence.

Remove the batter from the mixer, and fold in the flour and milk alternately, starting and ending with flour. (If you prefer, you can use the mixer to do this on low speed.)

Divide the cupcake batter equally between the 24 muffin holes (I had only 12) and smooth over the tops. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until cooked through. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Frosting 1:

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick – 2 oz. or 57 g) butter, at room temperature
1 cup of confectioners’ (icing) sugar, sifted
1-tablespoon milk
½ teaspoon of orange essence

Directions:

Place the butter in a mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla.

Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Frosting 2

150 grams white chocolate, heated for 1 minute in the microwave with 1 teaspoon of butter. If chocolate has not melted, microwave for another minute and mix to incorporate.

Spoon Sweet Cherries
Coconut for sprinkling on top
Chocolate sprinkles

Cherry Spoon Sweet (Glyko Kerassi) Γλυκό Κεράσι

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Cherries have a remarkably short growing season and in Greece this period is between end of June and end of July. In Cyprus I remember we could eat cherries, as early as May but by June they were gone. There are a few types of cherries, such as wild cherries, Bind, Lambert, Rainier, Royal Ann and Sour Cherries. During the beginning of the cherry season they are quite expensive, around 6 Euros a kilo and now that the season is almost over, they are about that price again. When I went to the farmers’ market a few weeks ago and found some cheap cherries, I could not resist buying them to make spoon sweet.

It doesn’t matter if the skin is read, dark red or the creamy yellow and pink type I bought. The most important element is that the cherry must be big and firm.

The most difficult part of the procedure is pitting the cherries as I only have a small manual cherry pitter but believe me it’s much easier than the way my mother used to pit them, using a hair clip.

As I wrote in other spoon sweets before making any spoon sweet it is better to put them in quick lime as this makes the end result to have a spoon sweet firm and crispy whereas without it, it is still delicious but a bit wrinkled and soft. So, if you get some quick lime you dissolve it in some water and then soak the fruit or vegetables in that water for an hour and then rinse it thoroughly. Trying to find some lime online, I found out that there is a cooking lime, so I shall have to buy some for the next time.

A few weeks ago, when Lulu made her fig spoon sweet, I was excited but a little disappointed as I am not able to get some immature figs in Athens. When we went to Sparta, there was a fig tree in the back yard, which was loaded with figs. I have been going to the same house for so many years but we usually go during Easter, so I never noticed the fig tree before. I was so excited that I would finally make this spoon sweet, which is one of my favourites.

Looking at the figs I spotted a cicada, which is of course a harmless insect, but you know us city girls I was a bit scared.

My husband took it in his hands to show me that it is harmless. I was really scared so I stressed to him that when he released it to make sure that it flies away from me, so he carefully turns away from me to release it and it flies back right into my face and you can imagine how I screamed and shouted that everybody ran out of the house to see what was going on.

Will you believe that we left and we forgot to pick some figs? I wanted to leave them for the last moment to pick them so that they would be nice and fresh and it skipped our mind and I remembered it just a few kilometres away from Sparta but there was no way to convince my husband to return back for the figs.

CHERRY SPOON SWEET

Yields: 2 kilos of spoon sweet

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 kilos of cherries
1/2 cup of water
2 kilos of sugar
2 spoonfuls of lemon juice
Extra lemon juice (3 spoonfuls)
2 – 3 fragrant geranium leaves (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence)
(1/2 cup of pickling lime dissolved in 2 litres of water) optional

Directions

Wash the cherries well. Remove stems and pits using a pit remover.

Place cherries in a saucepan, and cover with cold water and the lemon juice and leave it for an hour. If you will be using pickling lime or quicklime (asvesti) see my general post about spoon sweets.

Strain them and wash them thoroughly and drain them again. Place them back in the saucepan, covering each layer with sugar and the water, until all the cherries and all the sugar have been used, and leave them overnight.

The following day bring the cherries and sugar to a boil over high heat. Skim off foam as it rises to the top with a slotted ladle.

Lower heat and simmer until the syrup thickens, add the 3 spoonfuls of lemon juice and geranium leaves or vanilla and allow to boil for another few seconds. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

When thoroughly cooled, place in sterilized airtight glass jars to store together with the geranium leaves.

Serve alone, or as a topping on yogurt, vanilla ice cream, cheesecake, tarts, creams or other desserts.

The syrup is ideal to wet sponge cakes or to make fruit compotes.

About Spoon sweets
How do we know if syrup is ready?
How to fix spoon sweets
Bitter oranges
Bergamot
Sour cherries
Apples
Karydaki (green (immature) walnuts)

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Greek traditional coffee

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:52:00 +0000

Hi everybody. We returned last night from our short trip to Sparta. We attended the christening of my niece's son and we had a great time.

We shall probably be leaving again soon on vacation. Until then I may add some posts I prepared before leaving and hope to visit each one of you soon.

I need a cup of coffee right now. Our favourite coffee here in Greece and Cyprus is, of course, our Greek coffee. For those of you who do not know how to make Greek Coffee, see how to make some, here. If you are offered Greek coffee do not forget to say Εις Υγείαν (Is Igian) wishing them "good health".

I am submitting this photograph to Jugalbandi, created by Jai and Bee, for their monthly event "Click" having as theme Coffee and Tea.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Penne with seafood medley

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:56:00 +0000

As quick and easy as my dish is, I shall also make a quick post as we are leaving for a few days. We are going to Sparta to our relatives and shall be back next week.

Yesterday, morning we left for the Lake without preparing anything for lunch, so on our way back we stopped at a big supermarket. I wanted to buy some fresh fish, which would be easy to grill but I didn't like what I saw, nor did I like the meat. Instead I grabbed some baby kalamari, mussels (or is it clams, I am not sure of the difference because in Greek they are both called μύδια? I think they are mussels because they were orange in colour) and scallops and for pasta I chose penne.

When we came back I made a quick google search with the four ingredients and found this recipe. I had no sun dried tomatoes or shrimps or fresh basil. Why would I add heavy cream in a nice light dish like pasta? And why add chicken broth in a fish recipe? Although I had some heavy cream home I skipped this ingredient.

All seafood ingredients were frozen and I did not have a lot of time to thaw them. The scallops and mussels (clams?) it was easy to get half of the quantity from the package. The kalamari gave me a hard time as there was too much ice but with a sharp knife I managed to cut half the quantity and put all in a bowl with water. By the time I had my shower and washed the swimming costumes and towels the ice melted.

This is my version, which turned out great. However, if you like the original one you can still do it.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Servings: 5

Ingredients:

250 grams of baby kalamari, cut in small pieces
1 cup of clams or mussels
1 cup of scallops
2 ripe fresh tomatoes
1 cup of red, green, yellow peppers, sliced
4 mushrooms (agaricus bisporus)
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
A pinch of sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
½ cup of white dried wine
½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
350 grams of penne tricolore
A few spoonfuls of finely chopped parsley

Directions

In a large skillet add olive oil reserving a few spoonfuls. Sauté onion and garlic and add seafood.

Sauté again for a few minutes and add wine.

Meantime peel the tomatoes and after blending add to the skillet and mix. Add oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Cover with lid and simmer for about 20 minutes until seafood remains with just a little sauce.

Meantime boil water, add salt and cook pasta, al dente, according to the package. Twenty minutes is more than enough.

While pasta and seafood are cooking, in a separate non stick frying pan add the remaining oil. Clean mushrooms with kitchen paper, chop and sauté them. Remove to a platter and sauté the peppers for a few minutes as well and remove to the platter.

When pasta is cooked, drain and mix with the seafood in the skillet.

As my children are not fond of mushrooms and peppers, after serving them I mix in the peppers and mushrooms, and when serving I sprinkled some parsley on top.

I am submitting this recipe to Ruth, of Once upon a feast, for her weekly event Presto Pasta Nights.

Have a nice weekend!!

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Melitzanes giahni (aubergines or eggplants in tomato sauce)

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:13:00 +0000

This recipe I have modified from the original Cypriot recipe, in order to make it healthier and lighter. My mother and all Cypriot women would fry the potatoes and eggplants and they would then sauté the onion in the oil. Apart from fresh ripe tomatoes they would also add tomato paste as well as all the other ingredients in the frying pan to make the sauce, which they would pour on top of the potatoes and eggplants. That was also delicious but too oily and fattening.

Melitzanes giahni (aubergines or eggplants in tomato sauce)

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients for 3

4 medium eggplants
3 medium potatoes
1 big onion
8 slices of garlic
5 ripe tomatoes or 1 can of whole tomatoes, blended
1 cup of parsley
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions

Peel and wash the potatoes and cut into round slices, about 1 cm thick.

Heat the oil in a skillet and fry potatoes on both sides, but not entirely cooked. While potatoes are being fried, wash eggplants and peel, leaving some stripes of skin on. (As I did not know what this type is called in English, in Greek they are called Tsakonikes, they are not bitter and therefore they do not have to be soaked in water with salt to remove the bitterness. I checked it out and they seem to be called Japanese Eggplants. As they are very thin, cut them in the middle, make a slot and place a piece of garlic inside.

Remove potatoes in a sauce pan and then fry eggplants on both sides.

Remove into the saucepan and sauté the onion until it caramelizes.

With a slotted ladle remove onion into saucepan and you can see in the picture that they did not absorb much oil.

Peel and blend the tomatoes and pour on top of the eggplants, add the parsley, salt and freshly ground pepper and enough water to cover potatoes and eggplants.

Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for an hour, until potatoes are soft and the sauce is thick.

Eggplants are seasonal and cost about 1 Euro a kilo, potatoes cost around 0.65 to 0.70 cents a kilo, ripe tomatoes cost around 0,60 cents, and adding up the cost of olive oil, this light and very tasty dish does not cost more than five Euros.

Considering that this light and tasty dish definitely costs less than 10 dollars, even if we add the cost of feta and bread, I am submitting this recipe to Frugal Fridays, created by Jerry and co-hosted by Ben, of What's Cooking.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Vanilla and Coconut Panacotta

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Vanilla and Coconut Panacotta

Some months ago I bought some coconut milk for desserts but I didn’t have any idea what to do with it. Somehow it got forgotten in the cupboard and a few weeks ago when I was cleaning the cupboards and emptied them I found it again.

I google searched writing “coconut, dessert” but did not see anything that would interest me, except for a coconut panacotta with pumpkin. That gave me the idea of a panacotta, so typing coconut, panacotta, I got lots of interesting recipes and decided to follow this one. I read a few more to see what ingredients are usually used and getting a rough idea, I decided to make a vanilla panacotta and serve it with strawberries which I had at home.

You must know by now that I hate sticking to recipes and since I had played a lot with gelatine recently, I decided to do it my way.

After filling the small moulds, I decided to make one with chocolate as well and quite accidentally it turned lovely as when setting all the chocolate when to the bottom of the mould and when demoulding, the chocolate came on top. I served this one with a chocolate sauce.

We wanted to try the dessert after lunch but it was very early when I demoulded them. The chocolate one, which was demoulded the following day, came out fine.

I'm submitting this recipe to Linda from Got Milk? I saw the event some days ago and I promised I would post a recipe as Linda wants to inform younger ladies of how important it is to breastfeed their children. Linda gives very detailed information why women should breast feed and here are some of her examples:

Did you know that breastfed children:
Have a higher IQ?
Have less ear infections?
Have less food allergies?
Have lower chances of leukemia?
And the list goes on....

And here are some more about the mothers:

Did you know that breastfeeding:
Helps you loose weight faster? (didn't work for me unfortunately, luckily I didn't gain too much during pregnancy)
Helps you be more relaxed? (worked for me)
Saves money?
Gives protection against different kinds of cancer? (breast, uterine, ovarian)

I personally breastfed all three of my children.

Vanilla and Coconut Panacotta

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time : 5 minutes

Makes about 12

Ingredients

5 gelatine sheets (softened in 3/4 cup of water)
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
250ml (1 cup) low fat whipping cream
½ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Strawberry sauce

1 cup of strawberries
3 spoonfuls of sugar
A few spoonfuls of water, just to wet sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions

Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water and set aside for 5 minutes to soften.

Combine the coconut milk, cream, sugar and vanilla in saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves and mixture is heated through. Remove from heat. Remove the gelatine from the water and add to the coconut-milk mixture. Gently stir until gelatine dissolves. Place in the refrigerator to set.

Meanwhile, to prepare the sauce, place the strawberries in a small non stick frying pan, add sugar, water and vanilla and stir. Until it begins to boil, press the strawberries with the spoon, so that they break and release their juices. Lower heat and stir for 5 minutes until the sugar caramelizes.

Chocolate panacotta

I had only six small moulds and 1 bigger one, so when I filled the smaller ones, I wanted to try something different so I heated in the microwave 100 grams of couverture chocolate for 1 minute, until soft. I stirred it in the remaining mixture and when setting the chocolate went to the bottom of the mould, leaving a chocolaty taste to the remaining.

If you liked this recipe, you might also like:

Orange Meringue Dream

Creamy Jelly Dessert

Mastic Gum Yoghurt Dessert

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Grilled Marinated Salmon with beetroot salad and pesto

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Last Tuesday I went to the the farmers' market and got some nice salmon fillets. Of course I meant steaks as I mention that further down, but I was probably dreaming of fillets when I wrote the post (lol).

When I have fish I want it to be eaten on the same day but before going to the market I had already cooked so I had to leave it for the following day.

When I bought the fish I had no specific recipe in mind, so as soon as I came back I checked my drawers, the cupboards and the refrigerator to see what ingredients I could use. I have tons of spices as each time I go to the supermarket and see something new, I add it to the basket. My new acquisition is estragon and look forward to trying it soon.

So I prepared the fillets and placed them in the refrigerator until noon the other day when we returned from the Lake. The dish was ready in 15 minutes.

Ingredients

5 salmon steaks (1 salmon steak for each person)
A bunch of dill

For the Marinade

Salt
Ground black pepper
Garlic powder
A mixture of three peppers (green, pink and black)
Ground coriander seeds
Cumin
Boukovo (chilli flakes)
2 spoonfuls Cider vinegar
2 spoonfuls Fish sauce
½ lime juice

Directions

Wash fillets and pat dry. Place in a bowl and add cider vinegar, lime juice and fish sauce. Make sure that all fillets have been wet. Mix all dried ingredients in a plate. (For five fillets I used about ¼ of a teaspoon of each spice and 1 teaspoon salt).

Rub all fillets and cover with the dill (add all juices from the marinade).

Wrap in cling film, crosswise so that it does not leak and leave it as many hours possible, but not less than three hours.

Remove dill and grill on both sides.

Squeeze some lime juice before serving.

I am submitting this recipe to Sig, of Live to eat, who is hosting this month's Monthly Mingles - Grill it, created by Meeta.

If you want to increase the amount of omega-3 fat in your diet, the best way is to eat more fish such as salmon, trout and mackerel. Eating broiled, baked or steamed fish two to three times a week is a good way of increasing the omega-3 fat in your diet.

Beetroots, contain the powerful antioxidant betacyanin, which gives beetroot its deep red hue, this vegetable purifies the blood and has anti-carcinogenic properties.

Cashew nuts are significant sources of iron (essential for red blood cell function and enzyme activity), magnesium (promotes energy release and bone growth), phosphorus (builds bones and teeth), zinc (essential to digestion and metabolism) and selenium (has important antioxidant properties, thus protecting the body from cancer).

These nuts are also good sources of protein.

In comparison to other tree nuts, cashew nuts have a lower fat content. They are also, like all other tree nuts, cholesterol free.

Cashew nuts also contain significant amounts of phytochemicals with antioxidant properties that protects the body from cancer and heart disease.

We all know the properties of olive olive. I have written about this in a separate post about Mediterranean Diet.

Together with the fish I bought lots of fruit and vegetables. I bought some beetroots, silverbeet and aubergines and lots of fruit.

I love beetroots with fish, so I started the procedure to make the salad.

I washed the beetroots and boiled the roots for 20 minutes, in the pressure cooker. My pressure cooker has a basket, so in there I washed a potato and placed it in the basket, without peeling it.

I washed the leaves of the beets, thoroughly and selected the most tender leaves, which I boiled (separately) simultaneously for about 20 minutes. I drained the water and then pressing them with a fork I squeezed out any excess water.

I peeled the beets and potato and placed them in a plate. I was planning to sprinkle some salt and just add olive oil, vinegar and garlic when I saw the dill and thought that it would be a waste to throw it away. Instead of adding the above ingredients I decided to make a pseudo-pesto.

Pseudo-pesto with dill and cashews

Dill
1/2 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper
2 spoonfuls of wine vinegar
1 clove of garlic
2 - 3 spoonfuls of cashew nuts

I placed all the ingredients in the food processor and made a dressing to serve with the fish and the salad.

The pseudo-pesto (Psychgrad, I told you I would use this name) was more than enough for this dish and in what remained I added two slices of halloumi cheese and made a pesto which I used in the recipe I posted yesterday.

The last two recipes I am submitting to Mansi, of Fun and Food, who is hosting the event Healthy Cooking.

If you like fish, you may like the following dishes as well:

Fish Mayonnaise

Marinated Grilled Tuna Fish

Marinated Anchovies

Bakaliaros (cod) skordalia

My Mom's Beetroot salad and Fried Cod

Fried Anchovies

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Koupepia me lahana and not lahanodolmades

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:15:00 +0000

Those of you reading my blog know that I am from Cyprus, which although it is an independent state, our culture, language, religion, customs, food, music, national anthem etc., are Greek.

The immigration of settlers from Greece, which had begun at least by 1200 b.c., led to the foundation of Greek kingdoms covering most of the island, and, since the start of the 1st millennium bc, the Greek language has been predominant in Cyprus; the fact that the dialectal form in which it first appears is known as Arcado-Cypriot confirms traditions of the Peloponnesian origin—and specifically of the Arcadian origin—of the immigrants.

By courtesy of Encylopaedia Brittanica, about Cyprus

My husband is from Arcadia and we have found a lot of common words, which are not used in other parts of Greece. For instance my mother-in-law uses words such as, μπατανία (mbatania) for blanket and σίκλα (sikla) for bucket, and many other words which we also use in Cyprus. Our dialect still has a lot of ancient words in it. For instance we say Κραμπί (krambi) from the ancient κράμβη kramvi. In Greece this is called lahano or mapa (λάχανο ή μάπα) which in English is cabbage. In Greece they make lahanodolmades which of course are dolmades made with cabbage but in Cyprus what we call lahano in Greece they call it seskoulo, meaning silver beat, so hence the title of the post.

Koupepia which is the Cypriot version of dolmades, as you all know are stuffed vine leaves. Before the refrigerator, they used to preserve the vine leaves by threading them and hanging them in a shady place to dehydrate and when they wanted to make koupepia they would boil them in water for a few minutes until they became soft again. When the preserved vine leaves finished they had alternative ways of making them and one way was using silver beat leaves.

I remember my mother threading the vine leaves and hanging them in a store room we had, to dry but when the vine leaves finished, she used to make them with silver beat which I wasn't really fond of when I was a child but growing up our tastes do change and now I love them. Contrary to dolmades, which are in an avgolemono sauce (egg and lemon sauce, you may see recipe in dolmades), koupepia are with tomato and cinnamon and are great for finger food during buffet dinners.

Before giving the recipe today is a blackletter day for us Cypriots and Greeks, as thirty four years ago, the Turks invaded Cyprus and half of our beautiful country is still under Turkish occupation. The capital of Cyprus, Nicosia is the only divided capital in Europe. Thirty four years later, half it's population are still refugees and 1619 persons are still missing. Please take a minute of your time and read the links I have placed on this subject.

The badge with Cyprus reads "I do NOT forget"

I am submitting this recipe to Jeena, of Jeena's Kitchen, for her event It's all about Memories. Sweet Memories about my mother but bitter memories about my country.

Koupepeia me Lahana (stuffed silver beat leaves)

Makes: 60 dolmades

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

60 silverbeat leaves
1 kilo ground beef or pork
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of blended ripe tomato
1/2 cup of rice glace or carolina
Salt, pepper, cinnamon, dried mint,
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup of parsley finely chopped
The juice of 1 - 2 lemons (1/2 cup)

Directions

Wash the vine leaves, remove stems and boil them for 5 minutes. Cool in cold water and strain.

In a big bowl mix all the ingredients, except the lemon and tomato.

Stuff the silverbeat leaves, after removing even the smalles stem and place a spoonful of the mixture in the middle.

Fold one side, then the other and roll the leaf.

Place in a sauce pan arranging each piece next to each other as close as possible. Place a second layer on top and a third if your sauce pan is small.

Add the lemon juice and tomato and cover with a plate which fits exactly in the sauce pan, so that when boiling the leaves will not open. Add water to cover the plate and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

(Note: if some leaves are small to stuff, join two or three next to each other and fold).

Serve warm but the next day they are even better. In the picture I served them with tomato, cucumber and a halloumi pesto.

If you liked this recipe, you will also like:

Koupepia

Dolmades

Dolmadakia Gialantzi with potatoes (vegetarian version)

How to preserve and store vine leaves

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Greek Baklavas

ivyliac@gmail.com (Ivy) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:05:00 +0000

My mom used to love baklava, and this is her recipe, although I added nutmeg, and substituted the almonds with pecans and walnuts. I learnt about pecans recently and have been using them often since then and they have become a killer combination in the flaky, sticky pastry. Although I love baklavas I rarely make it, as I avoid using butter, even for breakfast. The only other desserts with butter are kourabiedes and Galaktompoureko, and these as well I make only once a year and that's why it took me such a long time to post about baklavas. I avoid them, especially galaktomboureko, which is my favourite, and as I can eat the whole tin for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If I do, I make a healthier version using olive oil, which is equally tasty and healthier. However, in order to record this recipe, I made it with sweet butter.

My son was nugging that I haven’t made it for a very long time and when I saw two events in the blogosphere, I decided to make it, just for the purpose of recording this lovely recipe. The quantity was huge but every Tuesday we have our Tupperware meetings, so half of the tin was consumed there. The only change that I made was to change the nuts. I used 2/3 pecans and because they are quite expensive 1/3 walnuts. Although my mum used to make it only with Almonds and cinnamon, I made it with pecans and walnuts and added some nutmeg in the filling as well. It was perfect and I am not saying this from what my family said but from what I heard from my Tupperware friends and I was really pleased to see them taking a second piece. Wherever I have eaten baklava, I find that they use too much syrup and too much butter, which is not the case here.

I am not going to explain how we can prove that Baklavas is Greek and not Turkish but, if you like, you may read this article from the Food History. Wikipedia, in my opinion, is not a reliable source (although I refer to it often, as I do not find other sources to refer to) as anyone can go and write whatever they want and there is a lot of paid propaganda going on. See Turkish coffee, Turkish delight, moussaka, Turkish baths etc. It seems that the country which had hot tubs more than 3000 years ago, see Knossos, and has spread its civilization throughout the world, used to feed on raw meat and the Nomads would feed on gastronomical food.

You may also see the Ancient Version of Baklavas, called Gastrin here.

Greek Baklavas

Preparation time: 1/2 hour
Baking time: 1 hour and five minute

Yields: 32 pieces

Ingredients:

1 packet of thin phyllo dough (500 grams)
½ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
150 grams of roasted pecans
75 grams of roasted walnuts
8 spoonfuls of sweet cream butter

For the syrup

½ cup of thyme honey
¾ cup of sugar
11/2 cup of water
1 cinnamon stick
10 cloves
3 spoonfuls of lemon juice

Directions for Syrup:

Combine sugar, honey, water, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add lemon juice, stir and set aside.

Begin with pastry but as soon as baklava is in the oven make the syrup, so until it is baked it will still remain lukewarm.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade, melt butter and grease a baking tin 33 x 40 cm.

Combine nuts, spices and sugar.

Layer 6 sheets of phyllo pastry in the baking tin, brushing in between each layer with butter.

Sprinkle with the nut mixture and repeat four times, each time brushing phyllo with butter.

Top with the remaining phyllo sheets, brushing each phyllo with butter but do not butter the last one.

With a very sharp knife cut pastry but not all the way through beginning with a cross, making 4 squares. Each square, cut diagonally making an X and again cut into a cross shape. In each quarter you will get 8 pieces.

Bake for 45 minutes, lower heat at 150 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.

When baklava is golden brown, remove from the oven and pour syrup spoon by spoon making sure that it has penetrated through all pieces. Allow to stand at room temperature until completely cooled and then cut it all the way through.

Do not store baklava in the refrigerator as the phyllo will loose its crunchiness and will become soggy. It’s better to leave it in the baking tin, if it’s stainless steel or remove to another vessel and cover with a napkin.

I am submitting this recipe to Aparna, of My Diverse Kitchen, who is hosting the event Think Spice, Think Nutmeg, in Greek Moschokarydo, which means the nut which smells wonderful, originally created by Sunita, of Sunita's World.