The Greek Food

A Blog about Greek Food and Greece

  • Pickled Octopus in a jar

    Pickled Octopus in a jar

    Whenever I am in Greece for holidays and I am out in a tavern eating with my friends there are some typical things that I always like to order just because I miss them so much when I am in the UK.  I could name a lot, squid’s , Greek souvlakia , and many more… but in this instance we are going to speak about octopus! J

    I don’t know but maybe it is a new year’s revelation for me to eat more octopus and try to cook it in different ways as I already tried it with pasta as they usually cook it in Greece but there are some other ways also.

    Ok, typically it is grilled, and being in Greece with the sun, it helps to have it most of the times like that.  Nevertheless, we are not in Mediterranean and recently in the UK we have been under constant rain for the last 2-3 months. Soooo…we are going to try it a bit differently.  We are going to try a boiled Octopus in a jar!

    Many people will not believe me but that was the way my mother was sending me octopus cooked all the way from Greece.  As you know by now Greek mothers can do all crazy stuff about their sons and yes that was/is one of them.

    The point about this recipe is that you can have it and keep it in the refrigerator for some days and always serve it as a starter or a side dish.  I am telling you it can hold! My mother was sending it all the way from Greece to UK when I was student together with other goodies…  Oh those were the times… 🙂

    Anyway, that’s how you should make your own boiled Octopus with vinegar in a jar

    • One Octopus! I don’t remember how big it was the one I had, but size does matter in those situations as it will get smaller in size after you boil it.
    • Vinegar
    • Olive Oil
    • Peppercorns
    • 3-4 bay leaves
    • 4-5 cloves of garlic
    • Oregano
    • One jar around 750ml that you have cleaned really good.

     

  • Traditional Cod with Garlic sauce

    Traditional Cod with Garlic sauce

    The following recipe, I’m guessing that it will make many people wondered why it is tagged as a greek traditional. The fact is that it has not been promoted as much as any other greek recipe’s but it is one that has been in the Greek table for many years.

    Cod with skordalia sauce (garlic sauce) is a dish that is being cooked traditionally in Greece on the 25th of March, as a way to celebrate the day which independence fight against the old Ottoman Empire started in 1821.

    The history behind is a bit weird as there are different myths and stories on why that specific dish became so traditional, and how it started to be the typical dish to eat at that day. Also no one knows why the cod needs to be “pastos” meaning “salted” in order to have the dish. Maybe because according to one legend at that time many English were sending salted cod in Greece for exchange to raisins…

    Another story is that 25th of March is always happening on the 40 days of fasting before Orthodox easter. Because of the importance to the celebration for religion also , the church is allowing to all the Christians to eat that day only fish. As it wasn’t possible to get  fresh fish on the mountains they were eating salted cod which slowly became as the casual dish at that day.

    Nobody really knows!

    Either way, what we really care to this is on the recipe and the real secret on this dish lies on the skordalia sauce that Ive talked about it in a different post which you can find over here.

    Explaining how to make the haddock will be bad for all the UK readers of this blog as it is well known that it is one of there traditional dishes and they know it i guess by heart 🙂

    Cod with Skordalia Recipe (Bakaliaros Skordalia)

    Either way here it is

    • 300ml of lager beer
    • Around 1 and 1/2 cup of self raising flour
    • Salt pepper
    • Oh yeah and pieces of cod cut in various sizes.

    Step 1

    In a big bowl put the beer and the flower and stir them until they become properly mixed. Put them to the fridge for 20 minutes. In the meantime put salt and pepper on the cod as much as you want

    Step 2

    After 20 minutes take the mixture out of the fridge and “dive” the cod pieces inside . In a pan with couple of frying oil that is all ready preheated you add the cod pieces and fry them on both sides until they have that red cover on both sides.

     

    Serve them -necessarily- with the Skordalia recipe in order to have the proper traditional greek cod and garlic sauce recipe.

  • Skordalia recipe: the greek garlic sauce

    Skordalia recipe: the greek garlic sauce

    The problem with the following recipe is that it can be a recipe for disaster if it gets to the wrong hands. Its like building a delicate piece of equipment with some really dangerous pieces that if you connect them in a wrong way, it can have a destructive effect.

    Allow me to explain….

    Skordalia is translated in English to…garlic sauce! However, it is nothing like the garlic sauces that you can usually try here in the UK. When we say garlic, we really mean garlic! There are different interpretations of that recipe and it has to do with each ones preferences and likeness of garlic.

    The problems come when you are in a house (like ours) where they prefer to eat their garlic sauce with …a lot of garlic. You have no idea what i mean …. You, will try a single dip and you will have a dragon breath for ages.

    Despite that, garlic sauce -or skordalia- is a really common sauce in most restaurants and an integral part of the “starters” in a greek meal.

    Lets see how to make it!

    INGREDIENTS FOR SKORDALIA

    • 3 medium size potatoes
    • 4 big cloves of garlic
    • 3 slices of bread wet and dried, without the hard outside part ( you know what i mean :p)
    • 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
    • 4 teaspoons of olive oil
    • Salt and pepper

    Get the children out of the house…aaand….Lets begin!

    Method to make Skordalia

    1. In a small pot add water and throw inside the potatoes in small pieces. Let them boil and when they are ready ( they can be pinched with a fork) get them out and leave them in a plate.
    2. In a blender, add the potatoes and the 4 cloves of garlic and start mixing them until they become mashed and mixed Stop, open the blender, add the watered and dried bread, the vinegar, olive oil and salt/pepper as much as you want. Close and continue mixing them with the blender until they are properly mixed.
    3. Taste, and add garlic if you believe it too soft. Add more oil if you think it is too thick, or bead if you feel it is too watery. Ideally it should be in the middle.

    THE TEST!

    How do you know that the garlic sauce is right? Well, it is difficult as a cook as you are trying so many times that you loose sometimes the flavor. So, as a smart scientist/cook that i am i conducted an experiment so i can be sure, that i will be telling to you free of charge.

    I asked my Italian flatmate to come and try a bit of the garlic sauce and then i told her to go and kiss her boyfriend that was in her room and come back to report to me what he said.

    After some minutes of agony, she came back and told me that after kissing the victim he pushed her back and asked her: “What are you eating????” Success!!! The victim realized initially the flavor of garlic in his mouth!

    Our skordalia is ready! Enjoy!

  • Chickpeas with Greek Yogurt

    Chickpeas with Greek Yogurt

    I don’t know the history behind chickpeas as an ingredient in food but i have seen a number of different recipes that include them as basic. When i was young, my mother ussually was cooking the classic chickpea soup, but there are some additional ways to enjoy it.

    The flavor of chickpeas make them an ideal ingredient for a winter dish while the additional ingredients in this dish give it a taste of summer also.

    The funny thing with that food is that you don’t need to do anything much more from what you had to do in the chickpea soup in terms of cooking, but change the way you present it.

    INGREDIENTS

    • 450gr of chickpeas
    • 1-2 teaspoons of greek yogurt for each plate
    • 1/2 onion chopped
    • 1 vegetable stocking cube
    • 1 small bunch of mint chopped
    • 2 slices of bread
    • Salt, pepper
    • Olive oil
    • Nutmeg

    METHOD

    Have the chickpeas from the previous day in a big bowl of water and leave there over the night.

    At the day start boiling them in a big pot together with olive oil and some chopped onions. Add also the stocking cube, salt and pepper. Before they are ready have the slices of bread warmed up in the grill .

    In a plate place the slices of bread broken down in medium size pieces. With a skimmer remove the chickpeas and add them on top. On top add a got spoon of yogurt.

    Sprinkle Olive oil and mint and they are ready!

    Enjoy!

  • Oven baked omelet with Asparagus

    Oven baked omelet with Asparagus

    Ok, the story goes as follows… I wanted to eat an omelete and I already had one in mind with nice sausage mix. It was already late at night and I was really tired for anything complicated. In the process though I realised that if I didn’t cook some asparagus that I had then I would be forced to throw them away…

    Then, I found out on a recipe book that I have about a really nice oven baked recipe that they are doing –according to a book and this site (Greek)  – in Crete, Greece. Apparently, looking a bit online, one of the typical omelet’s in Crete is to mix the various greens that they have at the time, like asparagus and vegetables, creating a green omelet.

    I didn’t knew that… and unfortunately didn’t had all the ingredients.

     

    Either way, I didn’t mind because of two main reasons!

    1.  I was hungry
    2.  It looked really nice and I had to try it

    So, I added some of my ingredients, using the basic traditional idea…and it worked!

    INGREDIENTS

    • 3 eggs
    • 1 small bunch of asparagus chopped in small pieces
    • 3-4 baby courgettes chopped (That was my addition)
    • 250gr of feta cheese (I didn’t had Feta cheese at that point so I just used some Parmesan. It worked!)
    • 1 onion chopped (yeap, my addition that also… I like onions..)
    • Salt, Pepper,
    • Olive Oil!
    • A bit of milk

    AND THAT’S WHAT I DID!

    METHOD

    In a frying pan, add the olive oil and then in medium heat add the chopped onions, courgettes and asparagus and stir them slowly. In the meantime open the oven in 200c to pre-heat it.

    Beat the eggs with the milk. After 5-10 minutes the greens should be ready , a bit brownish. Add the cheese and stir again. Then add the mixture with the eggs to the pan and immediately remove it from the fire. Put it inside the preheated oven as it is in the pan and leave it there for 10-15 minutes.

    You will notice the omelet to grow thick and you can remove it when you like it. I usually wait to become a bit brown on the edges. Add some parsley if you want…sprinkle it on top. I just love how nice oven baked omelets taste without being so heavy in the stomach when you fry them.

    Well…enjoy!