The Greek Food

Tag: Feta Cheese

  • Sausages with leeks

    Sausages with leeks

    Like other kids, I guess, sausages were my favorite food when I was young. Easy to make and tasty, anything that I could ask at that time.  However, as time went by I forgot to try and make any nice relevant dish with sausage as the main ingredient.

    To be honest I was barely trying. Yeah of course, there is the spetsofai which is very typical in Volos , central Greece, but I was looking for something different.

    So one Saturday night, I came up to the following recipe which surprised me in a number of ways. First of all because it is easy to make which is important nowadays when you are looking to eat something nice in less than 30-40 minutes.

    Also, the flavour of the leeks, make a real difference..

    INGREDIENTS FOR SAUSAGES WITH LEEKS

    • 2-3 sausages chopped in large pieces. Ideally anything spicy would do
    • 3 leeks chopped
    • Around 200gr of feta cheese cut in various pieces
    • Olive Oil
    • Salt Pepper
    • Paprika and some chilli if you want
    • A bit of oregano

    LETS COOK THOSE SAUSAGES

    • Ideally you will need a deep frying pan. I used one of those for Chinese food. Throw a bit of olive oil in there… just a teaspoon and then leeks. Stir them a bit and add water. You don’t want to cover the leeks with water but just a but until the middle so they start to get soft
    leeks with sausages
    The sausages mixed with the leeks and the feta cheese squeezing in.
    • If you want at that point, you can add ½ of a vegetable stocking cube..but not necessary.
    • As the water slowly evaporates and the Leeks become softer you add the sausages, salt, pepper, paprika and the chili (if you like it spicy) and stir. Let it for 4-5 minutes more.
    • Just before the end, when the sausages are ready, add the feta cheese and the oregano and stir it for 1-2 minutes. Bear in mind you don’t want your feta cheese to melt.

    They are ready to be served.

    Tip: Make sure when you clean the leeks, to always remove the outside part of the leek before you chop them. So they can be softer when they are cooked. I didn’t know that…my mother told me…

  • Pasta with Feta-Tomato and Capers

    Pasta with Feta-Tomato and Capers

    Having pasta is not something of my speciality but I try to have one every now and then as they are really easy to make.  Despite that I never had the chance to have pasta that I would really enjoy to make it to the blog.

    Well, the last time I tried to cook pasta I tried the following way which was much better than I expected. As one friend told me, pasta is nice cause you can add what you want and it still work.

    I like past -as most of us I guess- as it is really easy to cook and fills your stomach when you are hungry. So here is a recipe I did with pasta and which I think can be really nice during summer. The important thing with that is that you can make it with really basic ingredients.

    Forgive me my Italians friends, I know that its not a proper Italian pasta recipe…but I did my best  in mixing Italian and Greek flavours

    Ingredients for pasta with tomato and capers

    • Pasta, your choice
    • 2 spoons of capers
    • 20 tomato cherrys cut in half
    • 2 fresh onions finely chopped
    • 300 grs of feta cheese
    • Olive oil, Salt Pepper

    How to make it

    Make the Paste, the normal way as you do.  Drain them and leave them aside

    Place the pasta on deep bowl and add all the ingredients including the feta and the cherry tomatoes. Make sure you mix them quite well.

    Serve by sprinkling a bit more of olive oil on top and a bit of olive oil

    Its Ready!

    Pasta with feta cheese and tomato
    Sprinkle a bit more of olive oil and you are done!

    Dont like pasta? how about trying this aubergine stew with capers?

  • Spyros stuffed mushrooms with Feta

    Spyros stuffed mushrooms with Feta

    I am getting happier when I receive recipes from friends who tell me things they tried and foods they cooked for themselves.

    The main reason is because I always get inspirations from there foods to try new things and maybe change some small details depending on how I prefer it. In addition to that I have more goodies to share with you on this blog.

    Well, this is the recipe from Spiros as he has sent it to me recently. As he was the first from my friends in UK to get a Phd, his recipes are highly important 🙂

     STUFFED MUSHROOMS with Feta 

    • 5-6 Big Portobello mushrooms
    • 1 onion
    • 1 lemon
    • Around 500 gr of Spinach thinly cut
    • A small block of Feta cheese
    • 2 small tomatoes cut in small pieces

    Place the mushrooms in to a pan sprinkle them and grill them on the high mark for around 30 minutes.

    Try to cut the edges from the mushrooms and mix them with the finely cut onion.  Put in a pan, a bit of olive oil and add them in medium heat.

    In the meantime place the mushrooms in to a pan sprinkle them and grill them on the high mark for around 30 minutes.

    Stir them well until the onions become golden and the mushrooms release a bit of there juices. Add the spinach and stir around nicely, it will remove a lot of water, keep boiling it until it evaporates.

    Just before the water from the spinach evaporates, add the lemon juice ,the small cubes of feta and the chopped tomatoes.. Stir a bit more until the feta melts a bit without loosing its form. Add some pepper, you shouldnt need too much salt

    Place them into the mushrooms and sprinkle the with a bit more of lemon if you like and they are ready.

    Enjoy!

     

  • Oven baked potatoes and feta cheese

    Oven baked potatoes and feta cheese

    Oven baked potatoes and feta cheese
    Oven baked potatoes and feta cheese

    Ok, ill be fast and furious.

    Its Sunday, you wake up at around 13:00-14:00, you have a headache because last night you drink too much…again…and you just want to eat something.  But you don’t have your mother there to help you? So…what do you do?  Yeah yeah I know you call pizza hat or dominos or whatever… no!

    You cook the following easy recipe making use of everything you have in your fridge!

    Here is a recipe out of nothing. Let’s suppose you have the following basic things in your kitchen. The basic ingredient is the oven potatoes and lemon. From there on we just add..

    So..

    INGREDIENTS FOR OVEN POTATOES WITH LEMMON

    3-4 big potatoes medium sliced

    1 small red onion

    1 small green pepper

    2 spoons of English mustard

    Olive oil

    2 lemmons

    Salt, Pepper, Oregano

    1 spoon of butter

     

    INGREDIENTS FOR OVEN BAKED FETA CHEESE

    One big slice of Feta cheese

    2-3 slices of tomato

    1 chili pepper

    2 slices of green pepper

    Oregano

    Olive Oil

    Aluminium foil

     

    So how we do it?

    -slice the potatoes and put them in a big baking pan.

    Add on top of them salt pepper and a lot of oregano

    Put 2 spoons of English mustard and spill them around the potatoes as much as you can.

    If you want you can do the same with a little butter.  It will great better sauce

    Use your hands to stir them all together and move the sauce all around.

    Put it in a pre-heated oven . Let them cook for 35mins with a baked foil on top of it so they wont get burn.

    After 35 min remove the foil and let them cook for 35 more minutes. Test them with a fork to see that they are soft

    For the Oven Feta Cheese

    Put the big slice of feta in the middle of the aluminium foil

    Add the sliced chili pepper on top

    Then the tomato, and then the sliced pepper

    Add oregano and olive oil.

    Close the aluminium foil from the top but without pressing it on the ingredients on the top.

    Put it on the oven for 15 minutes. Removed it and served it hot. The feta cheese should be slightly melting.

    Serve it together with a greek salad.

     

     

     

  • Beef burgers recipe

    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!