Making a recipe with vegetables can always be difficult as most of us don’t know what the best way to mix them with food is and which vegetable fits better somewhere.
Every time when I go to Germany for example I always see different recipes with cabbage and meat that fit really nicely and were something I had in mind to do. As always in this kind of situations contancting my mother is a safe bet. Since me and my brother bought her a laptop for a present she always speaks to us through skype.
That is good as there is more communication but you have to understand that she isn’t one of the fastest persons in writing. So, writing the following recipe…well..it took her sometime. ..
But it was worth it. Initially the recipe was with chopped pork but since I didn’t had and to be honest was really bored to go and get…I did it with what I had…casserole beef 🙂 it worked out equally nice.
CABBAGE WITH BEEF AND BODDINGTON’S BEER
[ingredients]
[method]
Use a different pot, add a little bit of water and olive oil and add the cabbage. You don’t have to add too much water as the cabbage will “let water” out by itself while it is boiling. When the leaves are softened remove the water from the pot with the cabbage and add your boiled cabbage to the pot with the meat. Stir it a little bit and its ready!
I was dreaming for the following recipe since the previous day. Sunday was a stake day, I had the stakes ready and just dreaming the way that I should cook them.
2 days ago I bought some huge Portobello mushrooms so I was sure that they would play their own part in this story. I woke up at around 1230-1300. The headache from last night’s hang over was unbelievable…but I was determined. Suddenly I heard noise on the kitchen….”Matinaaaaa” I shouted. Matina, the girl that is occupying our living room for the past weeks came in.
-What are you doing?
-Just cleaning the kitchen…
-(sigh of relief..) ok, good girl, get the stakes out of the freezer, leave them on the kitchen and get out of there….ill be up in 10 minutes to cook them
After half an hour and one Greek coffee I was still on the couch of the living room…
Eventually I went in to the kitchen and had a rough idea about how to cook those beautiful rib eye stakes we had.
RIB EYE STAKE WITH MUSHROOMS
Ingredients
2 beef rib eye stakes
1/2 red onion chopped
1 slice of garlic chopped
2 big Portobello mushrooms
1 spoon of English mustard.
Butter
Salt and pepper
Paprika
Nutmeg
1 can of Carlsberg Special Brew
Method
Step 1
First you drink a lot of water in order to remove the alcohol from your body. Then in a deep frying pan you put some olive oil and you heat it up.
Step 2
You put the 2 rib eye stakes for 3-4 minutes each side. The idea is to get them a little bit brownish on both sides but not too much so they are cooked already. After they get a little bit brown on both sides you remove them and put them on the side.
Step 3
Then you add in the frying pan the onions and the garlic. Add one spoon of butter and one spoon of English Mustard. You stir all the ingredients from left to right so everyone can watch you and believe you are a great cook. As the sauce is being formed after 5 minutes we add again the Rib eye stakes. Add, salt, pepper, paprika and nutmeg. (to be honest lately I love paprika so much that I overdid it but… the amount depends on your taste)
Step 4
When you feel that your stakes are almost done, pour a little bit of beer and lower the heat to minum. I had Carlsberg at that time but my feeling any red beer will do with a stake.
Step 5
As you are doing this, cook the mushrooms on another frying pan changing the sides every two minutes. A little bit before you remove them, add the juice from half a lemon. If you want to make it extra greek , fry 1 slice of feta cheese and add it on top of the mushroom with a little bit of oregano.
Enjoy 😀
You like it? Check also my traditional family corned beef recipe here
Papoutsakia is one of the classic Greek recipes you can find anywhere on Greece during summer time. It’s one of those that I always disliked when I was young but like many others i learned to appreciate as I grew older.
Maybe it’s the minced meat, maybe the cream on top, or maybe the eggplants that make me like it so much now…Either way, I cooked it some hours ago and I believe was one of my best ever efforts…
So let’s get quickly into action. The recipe is called Papoutsakia (=small shoes), or stuffed eggplants.
Like many things in Greece this recipe is closely connected with our Turkish neighbours as you will find that eggplants are a common thing on our cuisine. Back in the days of the Ottoman empire they have created a thousand different ways to cook eggplants. Some of them were obviously introduced to Greece during the Ottoman occupation.
However, the Greek version includes a lush topping of béchamel sauce, a relatively new addition to this dish introduced by the famous Greek chef Tselementes back in 1920. His books shared his vision for a refined Greek cuisine and confronted many traditional recipes to the French cuisine. This explains the addition of French cooking element to this recipe and many others like the famous Greek moussaka.
Many people though try variations of this recipe without a bechamel sauce. Some, just add cheese on top or others make there own sauces with yogurt. Nevertheless, the following is as much as closer to the traditional recipe my mother used to cook for us during our childhood.
INGREDIENTS FOR PAPOUTSAKIA
2-3 eggplants (one per person)
500 grs of beef minced meat
1 chopped onion
1-2 slices of garlic
1 can of chopped tomatoes
A small bunch of parsley
Salt and pepper
1 cinnamon stick
Olive Oil
Red Wine
3 teaspoons of butter
4 teaspoons of flour
3 glasses of milk
1 egg
salt, cinnamon , nutmeg
HOW YOU COOK PAPOUTSAKIA
Slice the eggplants lengthwise to create 6 pieces. Put some olive oil on top of them and place them in an oven dish. Bake in the 180oC for 40 minutes or until you see that the inside flesh is soft and tender.
When they are done, you take a fork/knife or anything that helps you and empty the flesh of the eggplant and keep it in a bowl as we will add it to the meat we are going to prepare.
No flesh eggplants!! 🙂
In a frying pan we put the chopped onion and the chopped slices of garlic and we saute them. Afterwards we add the minced meat in medium heat and stir.
When it starts get to brown pour the red wine and lower the heat. When the wine is more or less evaporated we add the can of chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, the cinnamon stick, and parsley and let it boil for half an hour. Make sure to add a little bit of water if you have to.
Now for the béchamel Sauce, Ok I have to admit it was the first time I did it so… Melt the butter in a nonstick pan and add the flour and stir. You have to becareful, you need to stir all the time so it won’t stick. Pour the milk and continue whisking to prevent clotting. Remove the pot from the fire, and put the egg and mix. Finally the salt cinnamon and nutmeg.
Well, the following is a recipe that comes from Asia Minor and Ismir, or Smirni as they used to call the city. It’s the Greek way to make meatballs with red sauce and it’s called Soutzoukakia Smyrneika.
As I said, my father’s family was coming from Smyrni or the city that is called now Ismir and it’s in the middle of Asia minor, or else Turkey. Couple of years ago a lot of Greeks used to live over there but after the Greek Turkish war (one of the many we had) they had to leave and come to Greece. But enough with history and politics… this is a recipe that the Greeks did in Ismir and its there version of Meatballs with red sauce. That’s why the full name is “Soutzoukakia Smyrneika” as they were cooked in Smyrni.
There are some different kinds of versions on the net regarding the recipe for Soutzoukakia but since my Grandmother was from Smyrni, this is as traditional recipe as it gets. After all when I asked my mother specifically if that’s the way my grandmother was doing them, her answer was pretty clear…
“If I dared to change the recipe of your father’s mother, he would kill me…”
Well, i have to say, they didnt become as thin as i wanted to. But still they are tasty
In a big pot you add the minced meat, onions, garlic, salt, pepper , a bit of olive oil and the cumin. Use your hands and mix them in a big bowl.
You should try and mould them in a big ball and place them in the fridge for 15 minutes. After that, remove it and start making your meatballs. They should be thin and long as much as possible.
Make sure that you put in to your fingers some vinegar and “wet” the outside of the soutzoukakia with your fingers
In a frying pan, we add some olive oil in medium heat and then place each one and fry them for 5 mins from each side. Just enough so they can get a bit brownish from each side.
Remove them from the pan and place them on the side. On the same pan, add some olive oil and garlic cloves in medium heat. Add the tomato juice, cinnamon stick, a bit of water and the meatballs in and let them boil for 30 minutes. Just enough so the sauce mixes properly with your meatballs.
Make the rice as you would normally do and serve them pipping hot!
Giouvetsi is an old Greek recipe that Greeks used to do in the oven. As years went there were some small changes in the recipe but the essentials remained the same….and the taste of course.
I remember when my mother was making us food when we were young she always had problems explaining to us how should we warm up the food as she was working and couldn’t come home on time. For Giouvetsi however it was much easier…you just take it from the oven where she left and start eating it as a maniac…(which we did)
My Giouvetsi covered with cheese
Giouvetsi it’s a typical Greek food that you can do it either with Beef, lamb or chicken and pasta – ideally kritharaki.
Kritharaki is Greek style pasta which is a little bit longer than rice and usually you can find it in any kind of shop that is selling Middle East food.
INGREDIENTS GIOUVETSI WITH BEEF
1 kilo of Beef
350gr of Orzo
1 can of tomato juice
1 Red onion chopped
Salt, Pepper and trimmed cheese to serve
METHOD FOR GIOUVETSI
Chop the meat into various sizes and preheat the oven to 160c.
In a pot add a bit of Olive oil and heat the onion a bit for 10 minutes. Add the meat and continue until it becomes brownish from all sides.
Remove it from the heat, take a good size oven pan and add it over there together with the tomato juice around 1-2 glasses of water, depending on your pan. Put it in the oven for around 2 hours.
Later on remove it from the oven and add the orzo together with 2-3 spoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Use a spoon to make sure it goes all over the pan and focus that there is enough water to cover the past. If it doesn’t, then just add a bit more of warm water.
Place it back to the oven on 180-200c and leave it there for 30 minutes more. Orzo must not be melted but in the same time without having all the water evaporated.
Serve it with trimmed cheese.
Notes
My mother –and always mothers advices count- told me that you can cook the pasta before as you do usually your pasta and then add them both in the oven in the same way. It is easier and makes the meat more tender as it doesn’t need to stay for too long in the oven. It’s a different way…but still good…
Try adding some Feta cheese in the pasta when you put it in the oven….classic… 🙂
Giouvetsi, Beef with Orzo in red sauce, sprinkled with Greek Feta Cheese
