A Blog about Greek Food and Greece

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.

June 15, 2011
Giouvetsi with Beef
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
1. Chop the meat into various sizes and preheat the oven to 160c.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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
1. 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…
2. 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
June 13, 2011
Greek Fricassee with lamb
Well, that’s a recipe about the greek way to make a fricassee that i have been taught and tasted since i was young.

Lamb fricassee with avgolemono (traditional egg-lemon sauce) is typical in greek houses and ofcourse one of the favourites when I was back in Greece. I guess the reason is so nice it’s the combination of the lamb together with lettuce, lemon, dill….well all of them together.

Its another variation of magiritsa soup, as the ingredients are almost identical. Obviously, the word fricassee is not Greek but French.

Fricassee is a specific method of cooking meat which is cut up, sauteed and braised, and served with traditionally a white sauce.

The whole idea comes from France but there are various variations around the world. Well, the following one is the Greek, and the white sauce is the classic Egg lemon sauce.

Ingredients for Lamb Fricassee
- 1k of lamp chopped
- 2 big lettuces chopped
- 1 bunch of fresh onions
- 1 bunch of dill
- 1 glass of wine olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
Lamb Fricasse: Thats what we are doing!

In a deep pot add the olive oil and the chopped onions and let them sizzle a bit. Be careful not to get burned though! Add the chopped meat and stir it well until you are sure that it has become brownish from all sides.

Then its time for the greens!

Throw in the chopped lettuces as well as the dill and stir them well so everything gets mixed. As you do that, lettuces will remove their water and start to boil. Add as much as salt and pepper as you would like and then add water until all the ingredients are covered.

Let it boil for a good hour, an hour and a half and make sure that there is juice left when you remove it from the heat. You will need that when you will make the egg lemon sauce.

Add it on top and serve it hot!
June 9, 2011
Greek Desserts: Yogurt with Honey

The following is a desert that you can’t really imagine how easy it is to make and how tasty it can be…

If you go to a Greek restaurant this one is a typical dessert served that rarely people appreciate. To be honest I never appreciated when I was at home and my mother usually was making it for her.

Reading a little bit more about Yogurt with honey you find out that it’s really good for the digestive system also…mmm that’s something I didn’t knew..

Well, how difficult it is?…

There is more simple to this dessert. Just make a mix and try it.

You can add to it if you want by adding walnuts…almonds ..or fruits… There are various variations to that and you can just keep on creating..

June 2, 2011
Beef burgers recipe
When i was in Greece, burgers had always a special place in our menu. Home made ones i mean of course…

I still remember the looks of the pan getting out of the oven with the round burgers and sizzling oven potatoes as my mother were placing them on the kitchen board to get some rest. I had kept some minced meat from last time when i made the peinirli which gave me the idea to make some nice burgers. Well, to be honest it wasn’t so much left….so i made only one, but it was big enough.

I think what makes this recipe so nice is the addition of the trimmed tomato as it gives a nice sweet taste to the burger that is kind of different in relation to what i usually tried. The portions are adjusted for a one mans meal… so you made your own adjustments depending on the amount you are looking for and hopefully it will come up as nice as it did for me.

Ingredients
- 250gr of minced beef.
- 1/4 of a big onion trimmed
- 1/2 medium small size tomato trimmed
- A bit of oregano
- 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil
- One small cup of vinegar
- Salt and pepper
- The crumb from 1 slice of bread
The whole idea is pretty simple on how to make the burgers and i guess that is what makes it so nice. In a big bow you add all the ingredients and you start mixing them with your hands until you manage to form one big burger. You can brake it up to two i guess but i preferred to make one big one. When you do that make sure to leave them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to relax.

Put it to a per-heated oven in medium heat and leave it over there until you see it becomes brown. Pinch it a bit with the fork to see there is no blood coming out but in the same time its not completely dry…and its ready. You can serve them with oven baked potatoes .. or just salad…or both…its up to you!
May 30, 2011