Lentil Soup with Hyacinth Bulbs & Pasta with Lentilis

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Thursday March 23rd, 2023 aglaia Leave a comment

The soup is inspired by the description I found in an ancient text. Greek volvoi are no longer exported, so you can use the lampascioni from Puglia, either sold roasted or in vinegar. Alternatively you can substitute pickled pearl onions, avoiding the bitter taste… More about Greeks’ love of bitter taste.

Scroll down for the second day Pasta & Lentil I usually whip up with our leftover lentil soup.

See also the Lentil Soup with Pickled cabbage, and the Linguini with Spicy Lentils and Caramelized onions from my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts.

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Makes 4 servings (more…)

Athanasia’s Cranberry Bean Stew (Fasolia Handres tis Athanasias)

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Monday December 28th, 2020 aglaia Leave a comment

Athanasia Moraiti, my late mother in law, cooked the mottled fresh cranberry beans together with potatoes and peppers, a combination I had not considered until I tasted it, and loved it. I was under the impression that shelled beans and potatoes were not the best combination for a hearty stew, but I was wrong.

Fresh cranberry beans, called handres (beads), are sold frozen in Greece; they are delicious and cook very fast. Dried beans of any kind, not just cranberry, can also be used for this dish.

Feta cheese, with its salty-sour taste, complements ideally this as any bean stew.

4 servings

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Slow-cooked Chickpeas with Orange and Celery

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Monday October 4th, 2021 aglaia 1 Comment

On Saturday evenings, women on Sifnos and other Cycladic islands bring to the communal bakery their specially marked clay casseroles filled with soaked chickpeas that have been doused in fruity olive oil and seasoned with oregano or bay leaves, and with bitter orange in Crete.

Covered, and often sealed with a piece of dough, the casseroles are set in the wood-burning oven, where they cook slowly all night in the receding oven heat. On Sunday morning, as the women return to their homes from church, they collect the pots and serve the tender, fragrant chickpeas for lunch, accompanied by olives and/or salted sardines and crusty bread to soak up the delicious juices. This recipe, like the one with Squash, cannot be made with canned chickpeas, but you can precook and freeze chickpeas to make a faster version (see Note 2).

This recipe is a variation of the classic revithada, loosely based on the chickpeas Kalomira Vrondamiti used to serve at her tavern, on the picturesque Vourkari marina, in Kea.

Serves 6-8

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Shrimp Saganaki with Greens, Scallions, Herbs, and Feta

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Wednesday March 1st, 2023 aglaia Leave a comment

I tasted the tomato-less version of saganaki in Chalkidiki, in northern Greece, many years ago. It was prepared with the local mussels which were wonderful. But in my kitchen in Athens, as I was trying the recipe, I had to use frozen mussel since fresh ones were not readily available then, and the result wasn’t great.

I decided to substitute shrimp for the mussel and I loved the dish, so I included it in my first book The Foods of Greece.

Shrimp-Saganaki-Sw

In my original recipe I gave the option of mussels or shrimp, but over the years I have decided that the shrimp’s sweetness is perfectly balanced with the lemony sauce, the herbs and the briny feta. It is a matter of taste, of course, but I definitely prefer shrimp for this soupy saganaki.

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Serves 3-4
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Spicy Pickled Octopus

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Friday March 8th, 2024 aglaia 2 Comments

Pickled octopus is one of the most common Greek mezze, served with ouzo in taverns all over the country.

To serve the pickled octopus, drain 1-2 tentacles, slice them and dress with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkling with fresh or dried savory or oregano. You can also add it to potato salad, as we did during the Clean Monday Lunch at the Oxford Symposium, a few years back.

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In the souks of Tunisia dried octopuses are sold, along with small dried fish, like smelts and tiny shrimps. All these dried sea creatures are soaked in water and added to the fish couscous and other dishes.

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