The Greek Food

Category: Seafood

chupa de camarones
The lovely crayfish on top of my chupa de camarones
  • Mussels with tomato sauce

    Mussels with tomato sauce

    You know before I started cooking I always thought that some recipes are so unbelievable difficult to make. I always thought that my mother was a hero for cooking so many different dishes that looked to my eyes so complicated.

    Well, don’t get me wrong , I still consider my mother a hero for managing to upbringing me despite all the things I did to her me and my brother. Nevertheless, when you start cooking you realize that some of those complicated dishes aren’t so complicated as you thought.

    Let’s take for example mussels with rice and red sauce.  Most of us when we think about mussels, then the first think that comes to our mind is a really expensive dish that we can only eat in really posh restaurants. Weeeeeeell…not really…

    First I have to say that mussels are something common in taverns on the islands of Greece and you can find some really nice variations of the dish.  My mother used to make some recipes with mussels just before the orthodox Easter where typical most of the orthodox fast for around 7 to 40 days (depending on how much you really believe…)

    So just days ago when I saw a pack of mussels in Sainsbury super markets near my house in London, I decided to try them.

    What did I do? I checked online, saw some recipes …and of course I called my all-knowing mother for the last tips.

    In this case I have to say that always when I call my mother for advices I always here the screams of my father on the background depending on whether he agrees or not about what my mother is saying.

    “no don’t do the mussels with red sauce…do them just with lemon” …or….”tell him that he can cook them with pasta also not rice…” anyway…

    Here we go

    MUSSELS WITH TOMATO SAUCE AND RICE

    [ingredients]

    [method]

    Its ready! Serve with rice or spaghetti.

    If you find out that you bought too many mussels and they don’t fit in the pot …don’t worry. Put a little bit of lemon on each one and eat them as they are. Its one of the best things you can taste.

     

  • Stuffed squid with tomato rice and feta

    Stuffed squid with tomato rice and feta

    You know sometimes they say that women when they are pregnant they want to eat the most obscure things on the most obscure times. Well, I don’t know if that is true or not but I have to say I felt the same couple of weeks ago.

    For quite some time I wanted to cook stuffed squid and eat it the same way as I was eating it in Greece when I was leaving there. One Saturday, I simply went to the local market in Angel and did it.

    I have to say it was quite difficult preparation for a first timer like me but the result was worth it. They are some different ways to do it and for this case I chose to grill the squid while you can do the same recipe but boiling it. I am guessing in that situation it will be with more thick sauce.

    Now that I am thinking about it the whole process reminds me the Stuffed peppers and tomatoes (gemista) recipe… hmm

    STUFFED SQUID WITH RICE AND TOMATO

    INGREDIENTS

    • 1 kilo of Squids
    • 3 spoons of Olive Oil
    • 200-250gr of Feta Cheese
    • 1 can of tomato juice
    • 1 tea spoon of capers
    • 1 clove of garlic
    • 500gr of rice
    • 1 red onion finely chopped
    • a small bunch of parsley
    • Salt and Pepper

    In a big deep pan, add a bit of olive oil and throw in the garlic and onions. In medium heat stir them really well and then add the rice and tomato juice. Stir properly and add water until the rice is done.  Lower the heat and throw in the parsley, capers but also the trimmed feta cheese.  Remove from the heat so the feta cheese does not melt.

    Make sure you have cleaned the squid properly removing the inside bone. Take a small spoon and add the rice on the belly of the squid making sure you dont over do it. Close the squid with a toothpick and place them on a deep baking pan.  When you finish with all the squids add the remaining of the stuffing on the pan and close the pan with a baking foil from the top.

    Bake them for 20 mins in 180-200 degrees and then remove the aluminium foil and baking them for 15 more minutes.

    Enjoy!

     

  • Sprats with mustard and lemon

    Sprats with mustard and lemon

    You know sometimes I come back from work and I always have something on my mind that I want to eat. I dream of it from the morning and I have already decided how to do it and sometimes I even taste it on my mouth before I buy the ingredients.

    The other day I was dreaming of stuffed squids which are typical recipes in Greece. I though…ok…you will go to the Market buy a squid and make it…how difficult can it be??

    Nevertheless it seemed that it wasn’t meant to be that day to cook a squid. The guys in Sainsbury had only one squid and it was too big for me…not exactly what I had in mind.   Disappointed I was looking for anything else and then my eyes fall into some nice sprats. Hmmm….why not…

    So I took some of them and went back home. I have to admit, I looked endless times on the internet to find something suitable and this recipe belongs to this site over here. Since it is in Greek however, I will take the opportunity to translate it for all the other Chefs of this world.

    So..get your sprats ready…and here we go.

    INGREDIENTS 

    • Sprats…as many as you want from those lovely little fishes
    • 1 red onion chopped in thin pieces
    • 1 glass of white wine (since however you will drink half of it… lets keep at least ½ glass of white wine for the recipe)
    • Parsley and some leaves of mint.
    • 2 small spoons of mustard (I used English mustard)
    • The juice from 1 grated tomato
    • Olive Oil as always
    • Juice and zest of one lemon
    • 2 slices of garlic chopped
    • Salt and pepper
    • And lots of love

    METHOD

    • First we clean the sprats. If the guy on the Super Market where we bought them hasn’t done that for us…then we have to do it. It can be a blood bath…  Just pull the heads off and make a small line in the middle pulling their small cute guts out. (it was really nasty…I had to close my eyes when this was happening)
    sprats on the plate
    sprats on the plate
    • Put them in a small oven pan next to each other, really close.
    • We open the oven in 200c to pre heat
    • In another pan we put the onions and garlic to shallow fry them. Add the two spoons of mustard and the juice from the grated tomato stir them and let them cook for 4-5 minutes.
    • Add the wine and lower the heat. Wait 3-4 minutes until the alcohol vaporizes.
    • Then we remove the pan from the fire and we add the parsley and the mint which we have thinly chopped.
    • We add the olive oil and the Juice and zest of one lemon.
    • Then we pour our sauce over the sprats and we use our hands to make sure that it goes on all the sprats equally. In cooking sometimes if you don’t use your hands… you don’t get the results you need.
    • We put to the oven and cook them for 15 minutes

     

    The food is ready! You can eat it as it is or use it as a side dish. The combination of lemon, mustard, olive oil with the parsley , mint and the sprats….. I thought it was great J

     

  • Prawn Saganaki Recipe with Feta cheese

    Prawn Saganaki Recipe with Feta cheese

    This is a recipe about making prawns with red sauce and Feta cheese or “saganaki” as it is called in Greece and it is really popular sea food during the summer.

    One of the most common problems that I had when I was young (among all the others…) were to eat prawns as I found it was really hard to clean them. Well, nowadays I realise that the only thing you have to do is throw away the head and then the rest is easy.

    Whenever you talk about Saganaki in Greece you mainly refer to the appetizer version which is prepared in a small frying pan with cheese.

    On this instance prawn saganaki is what you might think of a prawns casserole.

    Most probably if you talk to any Greek about saganaki with prawns he will tell you that it is a mainly summer dish. Nevertheless, as any food what it matters is your appetite.

    Add a bit of Ouzo to the mix and for sure you will enjoy it even more!

    INGREDIENTS FOR PRAWN SAGANAKI

    • 250 grams fresh prawns cleaned but with head and tails left intact
    •  A bit of olive oil
    • 1 red onion finely diced
    •  2 cloves garlic, finely minced
    •  2-3 tbsp ouzo (or red wine)
    •  200 grams canned tomatoes
    •  A small bunch of freshly chopped, flat leaf parsley
    • Salt and Pepper for seasoning
    •  250  grams feta cheese

    INSTRUCTIONS

    • In a large deep frying pan add olive oil on medium heat and once heated add the onions and the garlic.
    • Add the prawns and saute gently for a couple of mins. It shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes or else the shrimps will go hard
    • Then it’s the time of the ouzo, pour gently the ouzo and let it mix with your prawns.
    • When the Ouzo is almost gone, add the tomatoes, parsley and salt with pepper. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat a bit and cook for 10 mins.
    • 4. Transfer the prawn saganaki mixture to oven-safe ceramic bowls and crumble the feta on top. Place under a hot grill until the feta melts into the sauce.
    Prawn Saganaki
    Our Prawn Saganaki is ready!
  • Salmon with Balsamic

    Salmon with Balsamic

    As I have said my cooking was based on the idea to do things that are nice to taste but also really quick to cook and without a lot of trouble.  On this thought is based and the following recipe that I think I learned from somewhere else online. Ok, its not really Greek recipe ..but its something that I do all the time..

    Always, when I was looking the salmon fillets in the super market I was wondering about any possible ways that you could cook them. Oven, looked as the best option at the time and indeed it was. After some quick discussion with my mother ( 30-40 minutes on the phone …) and some online research I did went for the following…

    INGREDIENTS

    2 Salmon fillets

    1 red onion chopped

    A bunch of fresh dill chopped

    3-4 Spoons of Balsamic Vinegar

    METHOD

    Dead Simple, slice the onions, add them on top together with the salt and pepper. Add olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Put it on the oven for 40 mins in high heat. Serve it with some extra dill on top.

    If you have green or red peppers .. (or both) you can add some slices on top.