The Greek Food

A Blog about Greek Food and Greece

  • Beef soup with vegetables

    Beef soup with vegetables

    As the winter is coming in London the amount of recipes that include the word “soup” in it is increasing all the time.

    Chicken soup is one of my favorite of all times, along with any Chinese soups which I really like. I remember that when I was young my mother used to do either beef soup or some fish soup, depending on the fish that she could find on the local markets.

    However, for some reason I never really liked it as much as the chicken soup, or the fish soup.  Nevertheless, obviously everything changes as you grow older and now i consider it one of the best comfort foods you can have.

    The more traditional way of cooking that soup is by adding orzo and red sauce which is still nice, but …well i made some small modifications. In this specific case i didn’t add orzo but rather kept the plain with lemon.

    On other cases i just add some mustard. It is equally great i have to say but i guess it is heavily influenced due to the fact that i have spent the past 10 years of my life in UK.

    Well… here it is…

    BEEF SOUP WITH VEGETABLES AND MUSTARD – INGREDIENTS

    • 1 kilo of Beef chopped.
    • 2 daphne leafs
    • 4-5 carrots chopped
    • 2 onions finely chopped
    • 1 small bunch of celery
    • 3  medium sized potatoes chopped
    • Salt/Pepper
    • Vegetable cube
    • 1 lemon
    Greek Beef Soup
    Our Beef Soup is ready. Greek style!

    METHOD

    1. In a big pot, add the olive oil in medium heat and let it sizzle. Add the beef and stir it well.
    2. Add Salt and Pepper as well and the onions and let the beef become a bit brownish. Fill it up with water, add the Daphne leaves as well as the vegetable cube.
    3. Put in the potatoes, the celery and carrots and let them boil for 2 hours. In my case i used a pressure cooker for almost an hour.
    4. After the beef is done add a spoon of butter and the celery leaves and keep boil for couple of more minutes.
    5. Serve with a bit more celery leaves and a slice of lemon.

    Obviously you can make the same soup with some variations… Sometimes i prefer to add a spoon of mustard rather than butter.

  • The Greek Sandwich

    The Greek Sandwich

    The funny thing is that we always talk about very special recipes that sometimes are difficult to make and need some other times very special ingredients that you need to go out and find.

    However, we always forget the most essential dish that someone can make and the easiest one, the sandwich!

    Let’s be honest everyone prefers most of the time to make a quick sandwich than anything else. There are different kinds of recipes for that, and depending on what you like you can put as many things as you want.  Any man that has lived alone for some time…years…has become an expert in pasta…and sandwiches. He knows, the exact quantities, and the kind of bread that is needed for a good sandwich…and believe me, I spent a lot of time making sandwiches before I decide to start eating something different ….. So, let’s put some rules down.

    What makes the IDEAL sandwich?

    • Do not over do it! Don’t get too excited and put 20 different kinds of ingredients inside. The worst thing that you can do is try to eat a sandwich with the tomato falling, or the sausage slipping away.
    • Baguettes are the ideal bread for a huge sandwich for me but don’t ever underestimate the small toast breads.
    • The ingredients for a toast…or a heated up sandwich are different from a cold sandwich. Feta cheese is better cold than warm…You can eat it warm..but it’s not the same.
    • If you make one big sandwich…make just one! Do not make two because you will never eat the second and it will go to waste.  Don’t get greedy! Been there and done that…
    • Don’t overdo it with the sauces, add just enough so they will not drip out of it.

    In general, that is my own rules, that you can obvious ignore. To be honest, most of the times when I make a sandwich its with 20 different ingredients and still try to add more.. On the other hand, since this is a cooking blog….hmmm…correction…something like a cooking blog! I have added two different kind of sandwiches that I made with a bit of Greek flavour added.

    The Greek Salad Sandwich

    Lettuce –tomato- feta cheese-cucumber-olive oil- oregano-chopped onions

    Tuna Sandwich

    Lettuce-tomato-tuna chunk- dill-olive oil-green peppers-onions

    Today…cook a sandwich!

     

  • Honey Pork Stake

    The first time i heard about the idea of adding honey to a stake I laughed…. Maybe its my style, I am a bit of old school and really difficult in to trying new things. Nevertheless when I do it and I like it, I usually stuck to it…

    So, what is the first thing that I thought when I heard about adding honey in a mixture for your stakes? Well, basically, felt awkward to me…

    There is always a first time for everything though and there are sometimes when I feel ready to try new things.

    After all reading some recipes, there were many that tried to add honey on there recipes. Surely they cant be all wrong…can they?

    Honey, makes the stake to have a sweeter taste that is not usual for any of the meat lovers out there like me.  Combine it with some spices of your choices and it makes a perfect alternative dish that can make your day better.

    HONEY PORK STAKES

    [ingredients]

    [method]

    Usually Greeks only eat honey in the morning with bread as breakfast…  well, from now sometimes i will add it to my stake!

  • Beef stew with red sauce and pasta

    Beef stew with red sauce and pasta

    Some of the recipes are but classic. There are so many modifications around those recipes that are sometimes difficult to keep up.

    I cant even remember the amount of different combinations my mother made with beef stew and red sauce. To be honest it doesn’t really matter as there were always nice

    You can have beef with peas or okra or just with chips. I think if you take a look in a Greek recipe book you will find so many modifications that after a while you will be really bored of cooking

    On the other hand if you do it right then you always have a nice dish that you can enjoy for yourself or your friends.

    Well either way that’s another modification that I did recently and one I did believe it really worth the effort as it is really easy to make as most of the nice foods. Really important thing is the pasta on this one, to be honest I don’t remember how this pasta is called but well you can find it I guess. I just enjoy the small pasta combined with meat.

    PASTA AND BEEF WITH RED SAUCE

    Ingredients

    • Around 500gr beef
    • Pasta…well that one
    • 1 can of tomato juice
    • 1 chopped Onion
    • 1 clove of garlic chopped
    • A small spoon of thyme
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and pepper
    • Shredded feta cheese

    Method

    Step 1

    Start making your pasta in a different pot In the same time in another pot add the olive oil and the onions with the garlic in high heat As it becomes a bit brownish then add the beef and stir it

    Step 2

    When the beef is also brown add half a glass of red wine and lower the heat. Add also the thyme and stir it so it goes all over the place. Add salt and pepper also. Let it for 5 minutes and smell the flavours of the wine and thyme

    Step 3

    Add the tomato juice and let it boil. Add some water if it is needed. When the beef is soft and tender then add the pasta and stir it so it can go everywhere..Serve with adding the shredded feta cheese.

  • Courgette fritters with Feta

    Courgette fritters with Feta

    There are some times that you have an idea on your mind for too long and you are just not sure how to compete it.

    In Greece having fried courgettes is a classic appetizer that you can find in many taverns. The classic way to make them is to have them cut in slices and fry them while you have covered them in a mixture of flour and beer.

    Which is pretty nice but since I had a whole Sunday where I didn’t had anything to do, I decided to make the following recipe a little bit more complicated.  After all, its not fun to cook if you don’t play around to see what comes up…

    The worst thing that can happen is that you will cook something that is… not eatable…well there is always pizza hut I guess. But let’s be positive..

    So I guess the best way to name the following dish is courgette balls! As we want to make them look like meatballs but without the meat….mmm . Be advised that even if that was our main dish that specific Sunday, it is mainly served as a side dish or appetiser in Greece.

    Ingredients for Courgette Fritters

    • 1 kilo of of medium courgettes
    • 300gr of crumbled feta cheese
    • 100gr of flour
    • Half a bunch of mint
    • Half a bunch of parsley
    • Dill (remove the stalk)
    • 2 eggs
    • salt, pepper
    • oil for frying

    Method

    • Grate the courgettes and leave them in a strainer. Use your hands to drain them even more and then add them in a deep bowl.
    • Add the flour, feta, herbs, the 2 eggs, pepper and a bit more of salt if you want. Be careful, because the feta cheese will be either way
    • Gently mix them with your hands and check if you can mould them to small round burgers . If not add more flour
    • In a deep non sticky pan, add around 3 cm of olive oil to medium to high heat. Put some extra flour around your courgette balls and then fry them .
    • When you remove them add them in a plate with a kitchen paper on top to drain the liquids . Serve them with a sauce of your choice. Maybe tzatziki ?