The Greek Food

Category: Pork

Recipes that have as a main ingredient, pork

  • Grilled Pork Souvlakia with oven potatoes

    Grilled Pork Souvlakia with oven potatoes

    Everyone knows by now how beloved is souvlakia in Greece and how often it is consumed everywhere. In Athens, in Thessaloniki, on the islands, on the small villages…it doesn’t matter. You will hear it sometimes with different names in Greece but always with same style.
    One Saturday morning after an excessive alcohol abuse on Friday night, I was so much wishing I could order some to my house like the ones they have in Greece. Didn’t want any pizza, or burger…just a good souvlakia dish. Well, there were some initial problems, first the hangover from last night’s rum and coca cola, and the fact I didn’t had any yogurt or pita bread to try and cook one with the more traditional recipe.

    It doesn’t matter; you still can make something nice…as long as you manage to control your hangover.

    INGREDIENTS FOR PORK SOUVLAKIA WITH OVEN POTATOES

    • 500gr of pork chopped in medium size cubes
    • 4-6 skewers’… or anything close to that you can find so you can stick the food, i had to improvise…
    • Around 10-15 cherry tomatoes
    • 2-3 large potatoes cut in different sizes
    • 2 onions chopped in large wedges
    • 2 green peppers chopped in large wedges again
    • Olive Oil
    • Salt and pepper
    • Oregano, much of oregano

    METHOD

    • Drink a large glass of water to relieve the pain from the headache and then take some painkillers Then we are going to start preparing the potatoes, I found a really nice way for good oven potatoes. Take a big pot and fill it with water, put the potatoes in, bring it to a boil and let them boil for 15 minutes until you see the potatoes are soft you can pinch them with a fork
    • When its done, remove the water and keep the potatoes (obviously..) . Add them in to a baking pan and sprinkle with salt and oregano, adding also olive oil so the potatoes are not stuck. Put them into the oven for 200c for 20-25 minutes until you see they start to become brown on the outside.
    • As the potatoes are being cooked you take the ingredients and start preparing the souvlakia. As a basic rule, start with a vegetable, and end with a vegetable. Don’t cut the cherry tomatoes in two, as it will remove the juices from them. Put lot of salt, pepper, oregano and oil on them before you start placing them on the skewers.
    • When you are finished, add them on the grill and cook them for 15 more minutes turning them every 4-5 minutes from each side. You can keep the potatoes underneath so to keep warm.

     

    Serve them with a bit of parsley if you want, and some sauce of your choice.

  • 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!

  • “Tigania” Pork with leeks

    “Tigania” Pork with leeks

    In Greece there is a kind of dish which they call “tigania”. Basically fried meat combined with some sauce. Any fried combination of meat in Greece is called like that and is usually dish that people take in combination with others as  “mezedes”,

    Its not difficult but frying pork in combination with other spices always brings special flavors. I have tried various combination in the past and always i got something different.

    For this specific one i read how nice it was to combine it with leaks as it is something that is done widely in Greece. (trust me i checked forums where Greek mothers are discussing there cooking secrets)

    To be honest  think its easy to make different variations and its not something really difficult or uncommon nevertheless  oregano gives it a special flavor while you can mix it with greek feta cheese or other spices like thyme.

    Its up to you

    INGREDIENTS FOR “TIGANIA” PORK WITH LEEKS

    1. 500gr of pork chops cut in small cubes.
    2. 2-3 leeks cut in small pieces
    3. ½ cup of Olive oil
    4. Salt-Pepper
    5. ½ cup of white wine
    6. Oregano

    METHOD

    Cut the pork into medium size pieces wash and leave it to drain

    Put the oil into a pan and sauté the pork chops

    As soon as it is brown add the wine and let it “drink” all the alcohol.

    Add salt pepper and oregano as much as you want and continue to stir it.

    Just a little bit before it is done, add the leeks and stir for 4-5 minutes more.

    Serve it together with rice or chips.

     

     

  • Oven Baked pork stakes with tomato and Paprika

    Oven Baked pork stakes with tomato and Paprika

    The following is a recipe that i was told by i a friend and i can see is a really popular way to make pork.

    Well there are many ways too cook a steak and I always try to mix things up some times in order to create different kind . The following is a nice recipe for cooking pork steaks in the oven while keeping them soft and tender.

    Even if frying stakes are a little bit more tasty I believe, when you do them in the oven is healthier and it can be really tastefull if you get it ready. The biggest problem is to manage and keep the juices in..i think, but we have a sollution for that!

    So for the following recipe…we will need..

     OVEN BAKED PORK STAKES WITH TOMATO

    INGREDIENTS

    • 2-3 medium sized pork stakes
    • 1 tomato sliced
    • 1 red or green pepper sliced also
    • 1 chilli pepper chopped
    • 1 onion chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves sliced
    • Olive Oil
    • Salt , Pepper
    • Paprika

    METHOD

    Put the pork stakes in the Oven pan and add as much as salt and pepper you want. Add a lot of paprika on all the sides of your stake. I found out recently how nice paprika goes with the stake, so personally I add as much as I can.

    Add olive oil all over the stakes and a little bit of water if you feel it’s necessary so they won’t be dry. On top of the stake add 2-3 slices of the chilli pepper. Then throw all over the pan the chopped onions and garlic.

    Put one or two slices of pepper in each of your stake and add one more slice of tomato on top of each stake. The juices from the tomatoes as you cook the stakes will fall down to your stake keeping it juicy and adding to the taste. Cooking it for around 45 minutes depending on how you like your stakes.

  • My Greek Souvlaki recipe

    My Greek Souvlaki recipe

    Anyone that has been to Greece , always comes back and talks about –THAT- specific food, that which was like a kebap but not exactly the same. That food where you could find it everywhere but still could be so different in the way it was made.

    That …is souvlaki, the fast food dish that you have to try when you are in Greece. Reading along on the internet about souvlakia and opinios from different people I really liked the following that Jamie Oliver wrote in his blog regarding souvlaki.

    “We Brits often think of kebabs as a guilty pleasure. But, having seen the love and attention that goes into preparing a proper Greek kebab, I can assure you there is nothing to feel guilty about. It’s all about quality ingredients and fresh zingy flavours.”

    I couldn’t agree with him more on that. After living for 8 years in London I think the basic difference on the Greek Souvlaki is the attention that the cook puts and the distinct flavours that can come out of it depending on how you prepare it.

    As every dish, every Greek has a different way to make a souvlaki changing the recipe a little bit more than the others and still keeping it original.

    Souvlaki Pita Bread with Pork
    Adding potatoes rather than lettuce to my Souvlaki

    I can’t say that one is more right than the other but there are some basic rules I would say. In my opinion the traditional souvlakia are always being made with pork and tzatziki. Despite that there are different variations depending on the meat that you use (chicken and mustard or different kind of sauce etc) . Nevertheless, the main essence is that the results that comes in is a beautiful mix of flavours ideal for a Sunday barbeque or… any kind of day together with beer 🙂

    GREEK SOUVLAKI RECIPE INGREDIENTS

    • 800gr of pork fillets
    • 1 medium onion chopped
    • Thyme
    • 2 garlic cloves cut
    • 5 spoons of olive oil
    • 5spoos of vinegar from white wine
    • Salt/Pepper
    • wooden sticks for the souvlakia
    • 3 tomatoes in thin slices.
    • (optional) some lettuce chopped
    • (optional) potato chips

    Tzatziki Sauce

    • 3 cups Greek yogurt (around 350gr)
    • 2-3 garlic clove, minced
    • 1 large English cucumber, diced (the long, skinny ones)
    • 1 tablespoon salt (for salting cucumbers)
    • 1 tablespoon fresh dill (or both, depending on preference) or 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped (or both, depending on preference)
    Greek Souvlakia
    The all too traditional Greek Souvlakia

    Method

    • In one small oven pot we add the vinegar and the thyme and add the sticks to marinate a bit so they dont burn.
    • We remove any white fat that our pork fillets might have with a good long pointed knife. Its important as if we dont it will remain hard no matter how we well we cook it
    • Cut the pork in nice cubes of around 1 cm each
    • Take the deep pot and add inside the meat.
    • Cut the onion in slices of various sides and add it also in.
    • Add any more seasoning you might want at this point.
    • Now add, the olive oil, 5 spoons of vinegar, salt and pepper and  mix them all together. You will notice that the pork will start to become more whitish because of the vinegar.Leave it on the fridge for 20 more minutes.
    • After it marinates, take the meat and add it to our wooden sticks one by one until each one has around 5. (give and take..)
    • Grill them, until they have a nice color and they are tender.
    • Serve it together with pita bread that is already grilled.
    • Add the tomatoes, tzatziki sauce and  some chopped lettuce if you do wish.

    Check here how to make tzatziki

    Ok, to be honest you can change the order in the end but the result remains the same. Ideally in the end you eat it with your hands like a wrap. Hope you enjoy it!

    If you do prefer i have embedded a nice video where you can make the same recipe but on a pan.  Its a bit more heavy but faster.