The Greek Food

Tag: Greek Food

  • “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.

     

     

  • Salmon fillets with mustard sauce

    Salmon fillets with mustard sauce

    Having a bad night where everything goes wrong is not good for you. You are waiting Friday night to finish work and go out and enjoy yourself, go to the festival you booked tickets months ago and party hard, just to find that it is cancelled due to overcrowding.

    Yeah, its not good. The only thing that is left for you is going back home and think about a night that could have gone so well but it didn’t. What to do next day? Well, option number 1 is to sit there and do nothing or you can choose option 2 and get over it with cooking something really nice that it will make you forget it.

    I choose number two.

    salmon
    Simple things always work better!

     

    Ok to be honest you have many more options on what to do the following day in such a situation, but i had to start the article in some way.. 🙂

    After some extensive research i managed to find the following way to cook a salmon fillet i had on the fridge…and forget the unfortunate cancellation of the previous day.

    Simple stuff always help.

    Take your thick, salmon fillet and add salt and pepper from both sides. Put it in a nice baking tray add a bit of water and olive oil and  place it on a tray, place it on the oven and start cooking it on high heat .  In the same time in glass, add mustard, olive oil,  salt and pepper. While your  salmon is beeing cooked  pour the sauce on top and change sides.

    After 30-40 minutes it should be ready.  Take the glass with your sauce, add some dill and stir it well.  Pour it again on top and serve with salad if you want.

     

     

  • Potato salad with mustard

    Potato salad with mustard

    Years ago I remember when I was working in  a beer restaurant in Athens where we served all kind of food –but mainly german- where I was obsessed with the potato salad of the chef. It was so filling and tasty that I could eat just that for days.

    Sometimes I try different kind of salads that can be accompanied with my food and even if the typical greek salad is my favourite, it is good to mix it sometimes.  Don’t know the history behind it but I don’t think the Greeks have the copyrights of the potato salad even if it is widely used also.

    So I decided to make my own first attempt in a potato salad and i have to say I was quite proud of it.

     POTATOSALAD WITH MUSTARD

    INGREDIENTS

    • 5-6 potatoes
    • 1 onion
    • ½ bunch of parsley
    • ½ cup of oil
    • A small teaspoon of English mustard
    • Salt and pepper

    METHOD

    Boil the potatoes peel them and cut them into cubes.

    Put them in a big deep plate and add the onion the bunch of parsley ½ cup of oil , salt and pepper Stir them for a while with a spoon and then add the English mustard.

    Continue to stir until all the ingredient go around. Be careful not to over do it and make mash potatoes instead. Ideally you should be able to see the potatoes and not be melted.

    Serve them with any kind of meat or as a starter maybe(? ) . The spicy flavour of the mustard is unique together with the potatoes.

  • Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    This summer I decided to do something different, it was the first time that I travelled alone in some country. Even if most of my friends do it, for me it was quite new and really enjoyable.

    I visited Turkey and managed to have a good view of their local foods. In this trip other than visiting places like Ayia Sofia, the Blue Mosque and Basilica Cistern I was really happy to see that there are no main differences between the Greek food and Turkish food. To be honest, I didn’t have to travel all the way to Istanbul to learn that, but it was nice to see it and taste it myself.

    The funny thing in those kinds of situations is that always there will be people fighting about who made it first in order to claim the originality of the recipe. For example, how to you call that kind of coffee, Greek Coffee or Turkish coffee? To be honest I don’t know…it looks exactly the same to me and they are made exactly the same way.

    Running around in Sultanhmed I managed to see a lot of restaurants that were serving exactly the same foods like my mother used to make me. So both Greeks and Turkish know what Papoutsakia is and both Greeks and Turkish knowwhat baklava and Loukoumi is. Maybe they change the name a little bit from time to time but everything else remains the same.

    If you look up a little bit the history of those two countries you will realize that they had…and still have a lot of common things. They are like two people that they love to hate each other…but they are almost similar. I think that’s why all the Turkish people were calling me “bacanak” (=brother in law)  when I was telling them that I was Greek … 😀

    On with the food…

    Greek Food Vs Turkish Food

    Well, one of the best ideas came from my father when he told me that I should go and eat fresh Fish in Galata. I managed to find the Galata Bridge and eat one huge beautiful and tasty Sea Bream, together salad and big bottle of wine. The food was excellent and the view of Bosporus magic. Nothing fancy there in terms of cooking, simple grilled sea bream with lemon and olive oil. All that you need in order to enjoy the fish…

    In Turkey also they are really well known for their kebabs.  Another good friend of mine suggested to me to eat at Tarihi Sultanahmet Koftecisi Selim. That restaurant exists since 1920 and does exclusively…(yeap you guessed it…kebabs). What really caught my eye was that there menu was really small. They have the same menu since 1920 without adding or removing anything.

    So you don’t have many choices…but those choices really worth it., It was by far one of the tastiest kebaps that I have ever eaten.

    They had big beans salad, pilaf (plain rice..more soaked) and of course grilled meat balls which you can find also in Greece with small differences in the recipe.

    One of the things that I really enjoyed in the last days of my trip was the famous “Kazan Dibi”. You can find it inTurkey and the Northern parts of Greece. Basically, it’s a really –really tasty desert that looks so easy to make it but (as my dear mom said) it’s so difficult.  The ingredients are: butter, rice flour, milk, corn starch, sugar and flavouring.

    My father, who always says the best stories, explained to me how it was created… According to the legend, the personal cook of the Sultan wanted to make a dessert for his master and had that idea. He created the cream and he was giving the burned side of the cream from the Kettle to the servants of the Sultan. However, one day the Sultan saw what his servants were eating and decided that it was much better. So Kazan Dibi was created, which means bottom of the kettle. That’s why it is served with the “burned” side up. The burnt side of the kettle is caramelized collecting the sugar and making it …heaven…

    There are so many more foods that I should have tried but simply didn’t had the time. The only general difference that I could find between Greek and Turkish cooking is that Turkish food is a little bit spicier. Despite that, my stomach never had any problem with that,

    The site is called “the greek food” but I am guessing if there is a blog similar to this in turkey…they would have more or less the same recipes J