The Greek Food

Category: Blog

  • Last food blog for ’11

    Last food blog for ’11

    isli
    isli sent from my mother…all the way from Greece

    To be honest its always difficult to say appropriate words to write for Christmas blogging. Its not my ideal style of article to write but it’s the most appropriate in this kind of time.

    This is going to be my 8th Christmas since I moved in to the UK but I won’t be having them in London as a lot of the previous ones. With my brother we will taste some of the local foods in Costa Rica and hopefully we will come back in one piece so I can write you about my stories.

    Since I made this blog I had the chance to make some really good recipes that I am proud of and some of them that ….well lets say it more politely…my brother didn’t approved when he was tasting them. 🙂

    Its all a learning process I guess and I have been enjoying it until now. To be honest as far food is concerned I never had Christmas really highly as food is concerned. I mean some of them enjoy the turkey and food during New Years Eve but that was never a great tradition in Greece. To be honest  I don’t think cooking a turkey in Christmas eve is a Greek tradition at all.

    Personally I remember my mother always cooked something special during new years eve rather than Christmas but generally things you could use for dips. Ok ok…there are some nice Christmas traditional things that Greeks always do.

    For example there are those nice sweets which you can see in the picture and called Isli which were sent all the way from Greece and my mother. Yes, she used my cousin that was coming to London…as an excuse to send us more food. Greek Mothers…ussually she sends them by post… (its not a joke 🙂 )

    If i was a little bit better as achef…maybe i could try to do them by myself. Well, maybe next year 🙂

    Despite all that I think I need to close this post not with the usual and typical wishes. Yes I do hope everyone is happy and healthy in the following year but as this is a food blog…I do hope everyone cooks a little bit more. Everyone tries to cook a little bit more and tries to cut down the junk food a little bit more also. I can certainly tell you that I am one of those people that does eat junk food from time to time…but a food that you have cooked is a 1000% times better than anything else..

    I am not a chef, even if I claim to be, but if the foods look tasty to you on the pictures…well there is no reason why you can’t cook them also.

    That’s all! Have a happy new year and all the best for 2012!

    Best wishes

    The chef …well kind of a chef..

     

     

     

     

     

  • Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    This summer I decided to do something different, it was the first time that I travelled alone in some country. Even if most of my friends do it, for me it was quite new and really enjoyable.

    I visited Turkey and managed to have a good view of their local foods. In this trip other than visiting places like Ayia Sofia, the Blue Mosque and Basilica Cistern I was really happy to see that there are no main differences between the Greek food and Turkish food. To be honest, I didn’t have to travel all the way to Istanbul to learn that, but it was nice to see it and taste it myself.

    The funny thing in those kinds of situations is that always there will be people fighting about who made it first in order to claim the originality of the recipe. For example, how to you call that kind of coffee, Greek Coffee or Turkish coffee? To be honest I don’t know…it looks exactly the same to me and they are made exactly the same way.

    Running around in Sultanhmed I managed to see a lot of restaurants that were serving exactly the same foods like my mother used to make me. So both Greeks and Turkish know what Papoutsakia is and both Greeks and Turkish knowwhat baklava and Loukoumi is. Maybe they change the name a little bit from time to time but everything else remains the same.

    If you look up a little bit the history of those two countries you will realize that they had…and still have a lot of common things. They are like two people that they love to hate each other…but they are almost similar. I think that’s why all the Turkish people were calling me “bacanak” (=brother in law)  when I was telling them that I was Greek … 😀

    On with the food…

    Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    Well, one of the best ideas came from my father when he told me that I should go and eat fresh Fish in Galata. I managed to find the Galata Bridge and eat one huge beautiful and tasty Sea Bream, together salad and big bottle of wine. The food was excellent and the view of Bosporus magic. Nothing fancy there in terms of cooking, simple grilled sea bream with lemon and olive oil. All that you need in order to enjoy the fish…

    In Turkey also they are really well known for their kebabs.  Another good friend of mine suggested to me to eat at Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi Selim. That restaurant exists since 1920 and does exclusively…(yeap you guessed it…kebabs). What really caught my eye was that there menu was really small. They have the same menu since 1920 without adding or removing anything.

    So you don’t have many choices…but those choices really worth it., It was by far one of the tastiest kebaps that I have ever eaten.

    They had big beans salad, pilaf (plain rice..more soaked) and of course grilled meat balls which you can find also in Greece with small differences in the recipe.

    One of the things that I really enjoyed in the last days of my trip was the famous “Kazan Dibi”. You can find it inTurkey and the Northern parts of Greece. Basically, it’s a really –really tasty desert that looks so easy to make it but (as my dear mom said) it’s so difficult.  The ingredients are: butter, rice flour, milk, corn starch, sugar and flavouring.

    My father, who always says the best stories, explained to me how it was created… According to the legend, the personal cook of the Sultan wanted to make a dessert for his master and had that idea. He created the cream and he was giving the burned side of the cream from the Kettle to the servants of the Sultan. However, one day the Sultan saw what his servants were eating and decided that it was much better. So Kazan Dibi was created, which means bottom of the kettle. That’s why it is served with the “burned” side up. The burnt side of the kettle is caramelized collecting the sugar and making it …heaven…

    There are so many more foods that I should have tried but simply didn’t had the time. The only general difference that I could find between Greek and Turkish cooking is that Turkish food is a little bit spicier. Despite that, my stomach never had any problem with that,

    The site is called “the greek food” but I am guessing if there is a blog similar to this in turkey…they would have more or less the same recipes J

     

     

  • Olive Oil

    Olive Oil

    Bread and Oil
    Bread and Oil

    I think by now if you have checked most of the recipes that are in this blog or any recipe that has to do with Greek food , that there is one ingredient that is almost everywhere. Olive Oil!

    Olive oil is one of the most celebrated ingredients and is being used almost everywhere but especially on the salads. Personally, I believe the taste that gives to food is second to none and when you use it together with vegetables and especially in the –all time classic- Greek salad then you understand why it’s so special.

    Background

    The olive tree grows in rocky and arid Mediterranean area. Produce fruit under adverse conditions of drought, strong winds and high temperatures, while the longevity and productivity, wrote the history of Mediterranean peoples. The olive enlightened, nourished, healed, posed up and identified with high ideals and inspired vigorous, for many years culture of the eastern Mediterranean.

    Symbol of knowledge, wisdom, peace, health, strength and beauty adored for thousands of years from the ancient Greeks.  It is a living part of a severe cultural heritage, legends, traditions and religious rituals closely associated with flowering, harvest and production of oil.

    The olive inherited a complex legacy of values, prosperity and culture that only recently able to evaluate and defend.

    Olive Tree
    Olive Tree, they can live for hundreds…thousand years.

    In general, Spain Italy and Greece produce 75% of world olive production and if you want to buy …look for Olive oil from those countries. Nevertheless, Greece produces the highest quality Extra-virgin olive oil, so …look for that also!

    In terms of recipes, olive oil can be used as a dressing to salads and food and of course for the typical –papara- that you will see a lot of Greeks doing whenever you are there for holidays.

    By Papara in Greece we mean when we mop up with bread the remaining sauces on a plate after the main part of the meal has been eaten or the salad oil remaining after the actual salad has been consumed.

    One of the best and simplest foods of Ancient Greece was Psomi me Ladi, toasted slices of sourdough bread slathered in olive oil and sprinkled with lemon juice and salt. Yeap, that’s how Greeks created democracy, eating only olive oil and slices of bread…

    Well, try that…do that simple think when you are hungry, take a slice of bread and put a little bit of extra virgin oil on top of it ..and maybe add a little bit of oregano or salt…or Feta Cheese.  I think you will be amazed on how beautiful taste you will get and if you experiment a little bit you will find what suits you best.

    Last but not least…where to buy them? Well, I think by now you should be able to find Olive oil in all big supermarkets. My personal recommendation would be to try to find olive oil from Mediterranean and of course even better from Greece.  In UK you can find easily in most of the local shops or markets and of course in all the big food super markets. Recently I discovered this online Olive Oil shop also for those that want to try something more unique. Haven’t bought from there but it worth to check out all the things you can get using Olive Oil.

  • Calculating the right amount for recipes

    Calculating the right amount for recipes

    I always get a lot of questions on emails about the amount ingredients that you need to put on each recipe and how precise those should be… Ok I am kidding I never got such an email but it was a good way to start the post.

    If you do however want to contact me…this is the contact page 🙂

    Watching my mother cooking when I was young I remember that she was doing everything without measuring how much sugar, or how many grams of minced meat she should add. Everything she was doing them by experience. On the other hand wherever you look on recipe sites they always write on the ingredients the exact amount of each ingredient you will need.  So what happens if sometime you put 200grams of feta cheese in stuffed burgers rather than 150grams?… well most probably nothing much.

    One thing that I learned in the past few years is that in cooking you are allowed to make mistakes on the amount of ingredients you add ….you should do mistakes in order to achieve the best result.

    Usually the amount of ingredients that people put on the recipes depend on their personal taste and doesn’t mean that it is correct or not for you.  It should be taken into consideration as a basis to cook the certain meal and not as a rule.

    On the other hand if you are not strict on the amount of ingredients you put on the first time you cook a meal…there is a chance that you don’t cook it nicely and nobody eats it in the end…and you have to order Pizza.. but that’s the fun of cooking…

    You shouldn’t be limited on what the recipe is telling you but try to create things or imagine. Sure you will create a lot of meals that will be classified as a complete failure and I have done quite a lot during the past that my brother had to eat (and still do from time to time) …. But that’s the way it is.

    The way I see it…when you cook..you don’t eat just to create something to eat….but to enjoy the moment of creation and when you do that there is an increased possibility that the outcome will be delicious.