Mama's Taverna

Do the Greek Orthodox Worship Mary?

Lulu — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Today is the day we celebrate the Dormition (or Assumption) of the Virgin Mary, the day she was taken to heaven. I say “we” because according to Wikipedia, the Lutheran church, which I grew up in, recognizes the Assumption of Mary, although I was never aware of it, as so little attention is paid it. In the Orthodox world, by contrast, the Dormition of Mary on August 15 is a hugely important, major religious festival, and even a public holiday in many countries, including Greece.

The Orthodox believe that Mary died a natural death and that her soul was received by Christ in heaven, same as will happen to all Christians upon death. But three days later, Mary was physically resurrected and taken physically to heaven. So far this has happened only to Mary and Christ, everybody else has to wait until the Final Judgment. Thus the Dormition of Mary represents the hope of Resurrection and Eternal Life. (By the way, most Catholics believe that Mary went straight to heaven without dying first. I don’t know what Lutheran doctrine says.)

Yesterday I was watching the beautiful services on Greek TV (yesterday here was today in Greece, if you know what I mean) and the huge crowds in attendance, and I thought of how often I’ve heard Protestants claim that Catholics and Orthodox “worship” Mary. Understand, to worship any being other than God is considered idolatrous at worst, misguided and superstitious at best. A church that “worships” Mary must be deeply flawed, tainted with the scent of idolatry.

But really, this is all just a misunderstanding. Mary is venerated, not worshipped as a goddess. Venerate: To regard with respect, reverence, or heartfelt deference. Worship: The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object. Ardent devotion; adoration. Two different things.

I suspect the root of the misunderstanding is the business of praying to Mary. Whenever I ask, “Why do you think they worship Mary?” the answer is “Well, they pray to her.” But I was always taught that praying to God simply means talking to Him. So praying to Mary would simply be talking to her. More historically, the word “pray” in English just means to make a request, to ask earnestly. You might remember all the “prithee’s” in Shakespeare addressed to human beings. So praying to Mary does not indicate worship of Mary. What then does it indicate? It indicates a belief, or at least a hope, that she can hear and respond.

As far as Mary hearing prayers (requests), who knows? Does God allow souls of the deceased awareness of earthly goings on? Might Mary have been given the ability to hear prayers (requests) addressed to her? Again, who knows? The fact that the Bible doesn’t mention this doesn’t mean it’s not true. At any rate, the belief that God has given Mary the ability to hear prayers falls far short of Mary-worship.

What about a belief that Mary can respond to any prayers she hears with miracles such as healing? The Bible contains many instances of humans performing miracles in both testaments. A couple of examples from the New Testament of the apostles performing miracles:

Mark 6:13 And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them. (RSV)

Acts 19:11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul (RSV)

Maybe God still allows the apostles to perform these miracles from Heaven. Who knows? Again, the Bible doesn’t say one way or the other, but if they could perform miracles while on earth, and if they are now living even more gloriously in heaven, why not conclude that they may well still be able to perform miracles? And the same applies to Mary.

So, my fellow Protestants, let’s not be Mary-phobes, but respect and even revere Mary as the mother of Christ. It doesn’t mean we worship her, and neither do our fellow Christians in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The Reverend Billy Graham once said, “We evangelical Christians do not give Mary her proper due.” You’re not going to argue with Billy Graham, are you?

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How To Make Quick Tomato Puree

Lulu — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:41:10 +0000

Tomato puree is a very common and important ingredient in Greek cuisine. It is made by grating tomatoes on a box grater, but there’s an easier way these days: puree them in a food processor.

Nothing could be easier, just core the tomatoes and throw them in the food processor. If you halve them first you’ll be able to fit more in, and quartering them will squeeze even more in. But all you really have to do is throw them in and turn the machine on.

Process them into a puree and keep processing for another minute or so to make sure the skin is finely chopped and incorporated into the puree. You’ll still see some little bits of skin, but that’s okay, they won’t be noticed after cooking.

I started using the food processor to make tomato puree last summer when I had tons of tomatoes from my garden, and since then I seldom use a box grater to grate tomatoes. Oh sure, if I only needed to grate a few tomatoes for a dish I probably would use a grater instead of dragging out the food processor, but these days I always have tomato puree in the freezer, so I never need to grate a small amount on the spur of the moment.

Here are five advantages to using the food processor:

1. The skins are used, not wasted. Even the tough skins of garden tomatoes blend in just fine.
2. The seeds are less noticeable because they’re somewhat pulverized.
3. It’s easy to make large batches to freeze.
4. It’s easy to use up sudden gluts from the garden (see #3).
5. It works better than grating does if the tomatoes are rather firm.

Any ideas for other ways of making tomato puree?

Recipes that use tomato puree:

Beef with Artichokes (Moschari me Agkinares)

Beef with Green Beans (Moschari me Fasolakia)

Beef with Quince (Moschari me Kydonia)

Calamari Cooked in Wine (Kalamarakia Krasata)

Eggs Scrambled In Tomatoes (Strapatsada)

Fried Eggplant with Garlicky Tomato-Vinegar Sauce (Tiganites Melitzanes me Skordo kai Ntomata)

Peppers in Tomato Sauce with Feta (Piperies me Feta)

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (Makaronia me Kima)

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Myzithra Cheese (Makaronada)

Tomato-Pepper Sauce (Saltsa me Ntomata kai Piperia)

Zoe’s Green Beans (Fasolakia tis Zoes)

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Tomato-Pepper Sauce (Saltsa me ntomata kai piperia)

Lulu — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 23:23:06 +0000

This sauce is perfect on grilled, baked, or broiled chicken or fish. It’s also good on french fries. Extra sauce freezes beautifully. In fact, I’ll make a batch of this when I have peppers and tomatoes to use up, then I just freeze it.

Ingredients

10 anaheim peppers ( ~ 1 1/4 lbs), chopped
4 large onions (~ 2 lbs), chopped
8 tomatoes (~3 1/2 lbs), grated or pureed.
8 cloves garlic, sliced or roughly chopped
5 TB oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Cook It!

Heat oil in large pot, add onions, peppers, and garlic.

Saute until soft and well-cooked, but not golden, about 10-20 minutes. Add tomato puree, salt, and pepper.

Simmer vigorously for about 30 minutes.

Spoon the sauce over chicken, fish, or fries, or freeze the sauce.

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A Cucumber Experiment (Peirama Me Aggouri)

Lulu — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:19:17 +0000

When I make tzatziki, sometimes I drain the cucumbers, sometimes I don’t. I know I’m supposed to, but it doesn’t seem to make much difference. I’ve sometimes wondered if perhaps my practice of removing the seeds has the side effect of making the pulp less watery. I’ve also noticed that many recipes call for the cucumber to be grated, and I’ve wondered if perhaps grated cucumber releases more water and maybe that’s why everybody says you have to drain the cucumber.

Well, last week I was making a double batch of tzatziki to bring to a party, which required the use of two cucumbers. I decided that this was enough cucumber to do an experiment with. After peeling the cucumbers, I cut each in half, giving me four cucumber halves which I prepared in four ways. One was seeded and diced, one was diced with the seeds, one was seeded and grated, and one was grated with the seeds. I weighed each of these, then tossed each with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and left them to drain overnight. The next morning I measured the amount of liquid each had released. For a more accurate comparison, since the cucumber amounts were unequal, I also reweighed each batch. My findings are summarized in the table below.

Type of Prep	Undrained Weight	Drained Weight	Percent of Weight Lost
Seeded, Diced	79 g	64 g	19%
Diced with Seeds	98 g	88 g	10%
Seeded, Grated	92 g	66 g	28%
Grated with Seeds	91 g	64 g	30%

From this small amount of data I cannot draw any conclusion as to the effect of seeding the cucumber. Clearly the grated cucumber releases significantly more liquid than diced cucumber. By the way, Zoe is adamantly opposed to grating cucumber for tzatziki as it tends to get lost. I told her I had to do it as a service to humanity and science. There was of course nothing she could say to that. Anyway, I would conclude that if you like to grate the cucumber, it’s a bit more important to drain it than it is if you dice the cucumber.

But wait!

Stepping back from the cucumber to take a look at the big picture, keep in mind that the goal of all this draining is to produce tzatziki that is rich and creamy, rather than watery with weeping fluids. Even with an overnight drain, which is longer than I’ve ever bothered draining cucumber, each grated half-cucumber released only about one tablespoon of liquid, each diced half-cucumber released even less. In total, the cucumber released less than 1/4 cup of liquid. Meanwhile, in draining the yogurt overnight, I obtained almost 3 cups of liquid.

Conclusion:

It is imperative to use drained yogurt for creamy tzatziki. Draining the cucumber is not so important, although if you choose to grate the cucumber it is probably worth your while to drain it as well.

Learn how to drain yogurt.

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Wild Mustard Greens (Vrouves)

Lulu — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:23:55 +0000

The first time I went vrouves-picking with Mama, I confidently assured her that I knew which plants were the mustard plants, and went off into the middle of a good patch. I quickly filled my bag with mustard leaves, and went to show Mama. “What are you doing?” she yelled at me. Then she grabbed my bag from me, and turned it upside down, dumping out the contents. When she calmed down she was able to explain to me that it wasn’t the mustard leaves we wanted, but rather the unopened flower buds. So I took my bag back into the patch and started picking the little green buds. It took a lot longer to fill my bag this time!

They’re not that easy to spot in the midst of the green leaves! You can see them better below. To pick them put your hand over them and grasp the stem a bit below the bud, then bend it sideways to snap it off. If the bud is really small, the shoot will be mostly leaves, but that’s okay.

Here’s the field (i.e., vacant lot) where I got the vrouves. It was a blaze of mustard yellow last spring, which is how I found it. People had built houses on my old vrouves field (how dare they?!?) so I was keeping my eyes open for a new one. Unfortunately, by the time I found it, it was too late, and all the flowers were opened. Once opened they’re no good.

The field is mostly mud right now, but the lush spring growth is well begun. Picking vrouves tends to involve slogging through a lot of mud, because they are at their best within a couple of days of a good rain.

When you have enough, or your back feels like it’s breaking from stooping over, take your greens home and wash them well. Put them in a sink full of water and gently mix them up to help the grit come off. Let them soak for a few minutes, then lift them out of the water (into a large colander, large bowl, or the other sink if you have a double sink) and drain the water. The bottom of the sink will be full of the mud you just wore yourself out slogging through. Rinse the sink and refill it, add the greens and repeat the process. Keep repeating until no more dirt shows up on the bottom of the sink. I usually do one more rinse after this one to make sure, because there’s nothing worse than biting into grit. This is a total of anywhere from three to six sinkfuls of water.

While the vrouves are soaking, put a big pot of salted water on the stove to boil. When the vrouves are clean, start putting them into the boiling water.

They may not all fit at first, they’ll soon wilt and you’ll be able to push more in.

Cook them until they are done to your preference. This batch was done in about 15 minutes after I put them into the water. Drain in a colander (or two).

Dress with lemon juice and olive oil. Add salt to taste. Do not dress any portion that you plan to refrigerate or freeze for later. Yes, these freeze nicely!

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Quince Spoon Sweet (Kydoni Glyko)

Lulu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:45:04 +0000

Shown served as a topping for yogurt.

Ingredients

3.5 pounds quince
1 TB lemon juice
4.5 cups water
4.5 pounds sugar
scented geranium or vanilla
cloves

Cook it!

The recipe says to peel and core the quince. I say, peel the quince, hack the woody bastards into submission, then hack out the cores. Next, grate the quince. You can use a box grater but you’ll be much happier using a food processor.

Put in a pot with the water and lemon juice, and cook till the quince are almost soft. How long this takes probably depends on how ripe the quince are. My quince started out pretty soft as they were a bit overripe, so I boiled them for only about 10-15 minutes.

Add sugar and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Cover and leave overnight.

Boil again until the syrup thickens, then add vanilla and cloves. When cool, put in clean jars.

Here’s another recipe for Quince Spoon Sweet that uses bite-sized pieces of quince rather than shredding it: Quince Spoon Sweet from Ivy at Kopiaste

And here’s a quince dessert that’s not a spoon sweet, from Peter at Kalofagas, Poached Quince with Manouri

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Beef with Quince (Moschari me Kydonia)

Lulu — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:43:16 +0000

I’d never met a quince until I started hanging around with Greeks. Quince are mostly used cooked in desserts as they are a bit too sour to eat out of hand. I’m not big on desserts, so quince mostly stayed under my radar screen until I had this savoury quince dish. Now I’m hooked!

Ingredients

2 lb chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 2 inch pieces (Here’s my advice about stew meat.)
2 onions, chopped roughly, or just halved and sliced
4-5 tomatoes (about 1 - 1.5 pounds) grated or pureed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-2 bay leaves
1 stick cinammon
1 cup dry white wine
1 - 2 lb quince ( Depends on how much quince you want in your stew. I’d use about a pound or a little more.)
1 TB sugar
olive oil
butter (optional)

Cook It!

Toss the meat chunks with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Sear in 2 TB oil until well browned on at least two sides. Do this in batches so that the meat sears instead of steaming. The meat chunks should not be touching. Set the meat aside in a bowl.

Add onions and saute. As the onions give up their moisture, the brown gunk on the bottom of the pan will soften and you will be able to scrape it up and mix it into the onions.

When the onions have softened up some, 5-10 minutes, add the meat back to the pot along with any juices in the bowl.

Add the grated tomato and the 1 cup dry white wine. I forgot to take a picture of pouring the wine in, so please just visualize a low-quality photo of white wine being poured into a pot of stew.

Add the bay leaves and cinammon stick.

Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 1 hour. While the beef simmers, wash, peel and core the quince. Cut it into wedges or thick slices. Quince are much tougher than their cousin the apple, so feel free to curse a lot while you’re doing this. Try to remain calm when the pieces break up instead of allowing you to form nice wedges.

Toss with 1 TB sugar. Saute in oil or butter until light golden brown on both sides. (Butter is extra yummy!) Set aside on a paper towel lined plate.

When beef has simmered for 1 hour, add the quince and continue to simmer for 1 hour more.

Serve with crusty bread to soak up the sauce. Leftovers freeze beautifully.

It’s not glamous-looking, that’s for sure, but the tartness of the quince makes it zingier than you’d expect. This is NOT a boring beef stew!

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Grape Spoon Sweet (Stafyli Gliko)

Lulu — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:15:39 +0000

I’m drowning in work right now, but these candied grapes in syrup are a quick and easy confection to make, so I made them.

Ingredients

2 lb grapes (if you want seedless candied grapes, use seedless grapes!)
1 lb sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a few cloves (optional)

Execution

Remove the stems from the grapes and rinse them. Put them in a pot with the sugar, salt, water and orange juice.

Boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Let them sit overnight, and the next day boil them (gently) until the syrup thickens, roughly 45 minutes to an hour. Then add the lemon juice, stir it in, and turn the heat off.

When the grapes have cooled to room temperature add the vanilla. Pack into jars. (Optional: put a few cloves into each jar). I’m sure these were traditionally stored at room temperature, but I keep them in the refrigerator to be safe.

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How To Fry Eggs Like Mama’s (Pos na tiganisete avga san tis Mamas)

Lulu — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:54:40 +0000

Why is it that I can make a great omelet but I can’t fry an egg worth a damn? Thank goodness, Zoe taught me how to fry eggs like her mama does, and now I can face the world unashamed. Would you like me to fry some eggs for you? No problem!

In a nutshell, the trick is to baste the eggs with the hot oil so that the whites cook through without you having to perform the tricky task of flipping the eggs. Of course, if you don’t mind the yolks breaking, turning the eggs is no problem. But if you want unbroken, yet runny, yolks, the words “flip” and “turn” belong in a horror movie.

Okay, so here’s what you do. First heat oil in a frying pan until it’s really hot. Don’t skimp on the oil! Then crack the eggs into the oil. If you’re a total klutz like me, you can first crack the eggs into small bowls and then slide them gently into the hot oil. If you bother to do this, you’ve officially become a member of “The Church of the Unbroken Yolk.” By the way, if you’ve gotten the oil really hot, the eggs should sizzle and bubble immediately.

Now just stand there and spoon hot oil over the eggs while they cook.

And here is my egg!

Now, I like the whites to be set, but my number one concern is that the yolks be runny. Whereas with Mama and Zoe, while they want the yolks runny, their number one concern is that the whites be firm and set. This is accomplished by basting the eggs for a few seconds longer, as I’ll show you.

Yup, just keep basting.

And here are their eggs! The white is completely set, including the white on top, yet the yolk is runny. Serve with bread!

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How To Use Extra Meatball-Rolling Flour (Pitakia)

Lulu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:17:36 +0000

Many of the recipes I’ve gotten from Mama are authentically regional, but this one for “pitakia” is purely a family recipe. How much more regional than that can you get? Mama learned it from her mother, and who knows how much further back it goes? Not a recipe per se, this is a thrifty way of using the flour that’s left after you make Greek Meatballs or Summer Meatballs.

After rolling the meatballs in the flour, you can’t save it for other uses, because it will have bits of meat in it. What a waste of flour, not to mention the tasty little meat crumbs. So here’s what Mama does: sprinkle the flour with salt, then add water to make a paste. If it was Summer Meatballs that you just made, use the flavorful liquid that drained out of the meat mix instead of water.

Now make patties out of the flour paste. It should be wet enough that it’s a pain to work with, because if the paste is dry, the pitakia will turn out dry and tough. So add enough liquid that the resulting paste is pretty sticky. Forming patties will be easier if you coat your hands with oil. Don’t try to make them pretty; it won’t work. Just make rough patties and slide them into the hot oil that you cooked the meatballs in. (The heat should still be on under the pan.)

When the underside is golden, turn them and fry until the other side is golden. Eat hot with the meatballs.

By the way, when I mentioned in my Fry Bread post that I’d had fried flour-and-water paste that was delicious, it was precisely these pitakia I was thinking of.

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