The Greek Food

A Blog about Greek Food and Greece

  • Spinach pie for the lazy

    Spinach pie for the lazy

    I know that English are really proud of their pies but I have to say Greeks have some famous of their own. Which I have to say, I really miss them…  Most of the times when my mother used to make me spinach pie or cheese pies she had to do them on the largest pan she had as we always ate a lot of it. When I started to cook by myself, I have to say making a pie…any kind of, was out of the question for me as I found it really tiring and difficult to make the pastry. I tried when i cooked the galaktompoureko once..and it took me ages…

    So..instead, my all-knowing mother gave me the following idea…

    The following is a variation of the typical spinach pie recipe that is famous in Greece and it can be altered also to be used for a cheese pie. It’s a pie without pastry, which would elegantly make it, the spinach pie of the lazy one! As long as it tastes right, i have no problem admitting that i am a lazy chef 🙂

    LAZY SPINACH PIE

    INGREDIENTS

    • 1 kilo of Spinach chopped (fresh or frozen)
    • 2-3 fresh onions chopped
    • 1 red onion..also chopped
    • 500gr of trimmed feta cheese
    • 1 bunch of fresh dill chopped
    • 2 eggs
    • 14-16 slices of cheese for toast (the number depends on the size of your baking pan)
    • 250ml-300ml of pouring cream(i don’t know if I name it correctly…well..that) Alternatively, full fat milk will do i think
    • Olive Oil and Pepper

    REMEMBER if Spinach pie is much too complicated…you might want to check out also Spinach Rice!

    METHOD

    Well firstly you will need the biggest pot you have in order to fit everything. Put some olive and add the chopped spinach. Keep stirring them in high heat and you will notice that the spinach will be slowly decreasing in size and removing a lot of water

    Add the onions, the dill and half of the pouring cream and let it for 5 to 10 minutes reducing the heat to medium low. When you have seen that the spinach is now really soft and tender then you add the feta cheese to the mixture and remove it from the heat. Stir so the feta cheese goes everywhere and let it there to cool down.

    In a baking pan, you put half of the slices of cheese on the bottom so it covers as much as possible of the pan but also are close to each other. When the spinach has cooled down, then you break two eggs and beat them. When they are mixed you add them to the spinach mixture and stir quickly so they go everywhere. The reason why we don’t add them when the mixture is hot is so they are not cooked. We don’t want to have an omelet!

    Using a skimmer to remove as much as possible from the liquids we take the mixture from the spinach and put it in the baking pan spreading it to go all over the slices of cheese we have placed before.

    Add the remaining slices of cheese on top covering the spinach mixture and then add on top some of the pouring cream to cover the spots that were not covered by the cheese.Put it in the oven in around 200c and let it for 30-40 minutes. It’s ready! You can eat it while it is hot or when it gets cold also!

    Who said you need pastry to make a pie… 🙂

  • Octopus with Pasta

    Octopus with Pasta

    First blog of the year, and it will not be about the winter and the cold snow… Unfortunately I think in order the year to go well I need to write something that will remind mostly summer now.

    For a long time I wanted to eat some octopus while I was in London.  Its those things that I miss mostly while I am in London and the first ones that I am eating when I go back to Greece.  For some reason I had the believe that I wouldn’t be able to find a proper octopus around here unless I did go to some market… and as much as I would like to… unfortunately my boredom doesn’t let me and usually I prefer just staying in…

    Aaaanyway..

    I did manage to find after all a proper octopus once in my local fish monger and I didn’t let the opportunity to pass away. The following recipe is a classic in Greece and one that is most common during the time before Easter when Christian Orthodox is fasting.

    It has Greece written all over it (upwards downwards etc. etc.)  and is a must if you ever visit the country… Basically any recipe with octopus in my opinion…

    INGREDIENTS FOR PASTA OCTOPUS

    • 1 octopus fresh chopped in small pieces
    • 2 red onions chopped
    • 1/2 a glass of olive oil
    • 1/2 a cup of white whine
    • A small teaspoon of cinnamon
    • 1 tomato juice can
    • 500gr of pasta
    • Salt/pepper
    • parsley

    METHOD

    • Clean the octopus, really good and remove its mouth with its teeth.  Wash it really well and  cut it in small pieces.
    • In a deep pot,  add the onions for a few minutes being careful not to get brown.
    • Add the octopus for a few minutes until it changes color.  Throw in the seasonings and the tomato juice and let it boil for a few minutes.
    • Add the wine and let the alcohol vaporate.
    •  Fill it up with water and bring it to a boil. When the octopus becomes soft, add the pasta in.
    • Continue to boil the mix until pasta is ready.
    •  Make sure that there is some juice inside from the sauce, remove from the heat and add salt/pepper.

    Serve sprinkling some parsley.

     

     


    Greek Stewed Octopus in Tomato Sauce with Pasta 

  • Back from Inca land

    Back from Inca land

    Coming back from holidays and for a new year, I don’t think its possible to start with anything else rather that what did I ate during holidays… 🙂

    Well, it wasn’t Greek and you to excuse me for that… I am planning to visit my country again this year during Easter to taste roasted lamb and magiritsa from the hands of the one that is approving every recipe that is on this blog….my mother.

    This year I spent my Christmas holidays travelling in Peru and tasting the local delicacies around Machu Pichu, just to have an idea of what the Inca’s were eating at their time. Together with my friend after doing extensive research in all the local restaurants, trying the best and the worst plates we came to the following result. Ceviche and the chupe de camarones are the best dishes you can have.

    Well, Lomo saltado was pretty cool also buuuuuuuuuuuut anyway….i promised to write only for two..

    Ceviche is being offered almost in all the restaurants of Peru and its fair to say that with the addition of roasted guinea pig, it’s the national food of Peru. From the little I managed to learn with my… non existent Spanish… Ceviche is closely related with Japanese cuisine but also due to the fact that peru… well, its full of the pacific ocean.

    Ok, but what does it contain?

    Ceviche

    • 1 pound raw shrimp (unpeeled)
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • Juice of 1 lime
    • 1 large onion, chopped
    • 3 cloves garlic, minced
    • 2 tablespoons jarred aji amarillo paste (or 1 aji amarillo pepper, seeded and minced)
    • 1 tablespoon aji panca paste
    • 2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
    • 1 teaspoon cumin
    • 1 teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
    • 1 packet of Goya seasoning with achiote
    • 3 cups seafood or chicken stock
    • 1 1/2 pounds medium yellow potatoes
    • 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
    • 3 ears of fresh corn, or 2 cups frozen corn kernels
    • 1 12-ounce can of evaporated milk
    • 1 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
    • Salt and pepper to taste

     

    You know its like eating sushi… but really spiced up! The sauce from the lemon and lime, I have to admit was magnificent.  I don’t think I will be able to ever make it here in London but I think I’ll try at some point.  However, I have already promised myself that I will cook at some point the next dish. It was one of the traditional dishes in the city of Arequipa that you must try. I was foolish enough to think it was just a starter that I order another one… but I ate both of them nonetheless.

    Chupa de Camarones is a soup that is originally made with crayfish although you can see it also with shrimps. As you can see in the picture with crayfish, it’s enormous and together with all the other ingredients it becomes a mouth-watering dish. As far as I saw you need to have the following ingredients.

     

    Chupa de Camarones

    • 1 lbs crayfish (or shrimps)
    • 3 eggs, cracked and beaten in a bowl
    • 1 lb potato, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
    • 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
    • 1/4 cup long-grain white rice
    • 2 ears of corn, cut into 1-inch chunks
    • 4 cups water
    • 1 cup evaporated milk
    • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
    • 1 teaspoon oregano
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • few drops of hot sauce

    Well…. Don’t know if the ingredients are correct but will test them at some point.  Peru was a fantastic place to visit and strongly recommended for holidays. Greek Food is really good, but its always good to have an open mind (and stomach) for anything else 🙂

     

     

     

  • Happy 2013!

    Happy 2013!

    Its funny but I look back at the previous articles and already this blog has reached on his second year…going for the third. I have managed one way or another to reach to 97 different recipes and counting… I never expected that when I first started but as I realised there is always a new recipe, always something that you have missed or you wish to try.

    In the end of the day I realised how nice is to cook something nice that will relax you from the stress of the day.  Honestly I came to realise how creating a new recipe and creating a new dish can make you happy.

    Ofcourse I am not claiming that I am creating new recipes, I am just copying mainly the recipes of my mother and trying to remember what she was giving us when I was still going to school. Nevertheless for me that is still creating something new… as I never before had cooked gemista or sea breams or even just a stake.

    That is the idea of that blog and basically passing the knowledge and the experiences of a non-professional cook that is still learning by the way…

    And by those things we reach to Christmas, where I wont be in London as I managed to arranged to further  away again this time of the year. So, i will not try to make again one of the typical sweets that my mother was doing during Christmas but …oh well, maybe next year.

    Enjoy the Christmas and Happy 2013.

  • Making Lachanodolmades – stuffed cabbage leaves

    Making Lachanodolmades – stuffed cabbage leaves

    There are recipes from Greece that you could say they can be cooked really fast and easily but there are also others that may take a lit bit more from your time, the following falls to the second category…  The dish that I tried to do the couple of weeks ago was lahanodolmades which essentially means stuffed cabbage leaves.

    Its not easy and it needs a lot of preparation and basically I wouldn’t say it is one of those that you can make it in a hurry but the result is always satisfying. As always the egg lemon sauce makes a real difference…

    Obviously there are a lot of variations for that food and you may have realized up to know that Greeks really like to have stuffed vegetables for food.

    Ingredients for Lahanodolmades

    • 1 Cabbage with soft leaves (the bigger the size the more you will eat…)
    • 1 Red Onion grated
    • 300gr-500gr of Beef Minced meat
    • 1 cup of rice
    • Bunch of Parsley finely chopped
    • Salt and Pepper
    • Olive oil

    Ideally what you want to do is with a really pointed knife cut the center of the cabbage , remove it and discard it. The in a big pot, put the cabbage inside with the hole which you created, pointing down.

    Fill it with water and bring it to a boil for 10-15 minutes. That will soften the leaves of the cabbage. After 10-15 minutes, remove the cabbage and let it cold a bit. Remove the leaves one by one and place them on a large dish. Be careful removing them not to make to pull them quickly and make too many holes on the leaves. They need to be soaked but firm in the same time.

    For the stuffing now, in a big bowl add the minced meat, the rice, the grated onions and the chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper as you wish and a bit of olive oil. Use your hands and mix all the ingredients together, add more olive oil if it is needed, the idea is to make a big firm ball of all of the ingredients

    Method

    • Well ideally what you want to do is to put the leaves down and place a large quantity of your meat mixture on the harder side. Thenslowly you roll it up creating the lachanodolmades. Repeat the procedure until all the leaves are done.
    • Before you do that, you should keep couple of leaves to place on the bottom of the pot as a cover and then place the lachanodolmades on top. The leaves on the bottom will be as a shield in order to protect them from burning.
    • Place them one next to each other and fill them with water until the top and bring them to a boil. Slow cook them for about an hour, but be careful not to over boil them and they start to spill.
    • After 1 hour you can get out one of them and try it to be sure they are fully cooked inside, if they are make the egg lemon sauce and serve it immediately.