Basic Tomato Sauce (Saltsa Domata)

Thursday November 9th, 2017Wednesday September 16th, 2020 aglaia Leave a comment

Make it when you have plenty of vine ripened tomatoes. But in the winter, when good, ripe tomatoes are not available, use canned, or slice and roast the pale tomatoes available to intensify their flavor.

Instead of sugar, I sweeten the sauce with currents.

Beyond pasta, the sauce can be used on flat, breads complemented with crumbled feta or any other cheese. It is the basis for the vegetarian mousaka, and also for the stuffing for papoutsakia (eggplant slippers), with the addition of chopped, sauteed bell peppers and feta, graviera or any other cheese, with or without walnuts, or other nuts.

Yields about 3 cups sauce, enough for 1 pound pasta

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Santorini Fava with Caramelized Onions and Capers

Thursday November 2nd, 2017Monday December 28th, 2020 aglaia 3 Comments

Braised capers are an ideal topping for the local fava, the trademark dish of Santorini. Today Santorini Fava is served as a meze at taverns throughout Greece, usually prepared with mashed, imported yellow split peas (dal), dressed simply with fruity olive oil, topped with sliced onions and dried Greek oregano.

Recipe adapted from Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

In the old days, though, fava was made from dried fava beans and/or from an indigenous, ancient legume, a variant of Lathyrus sativus (chickling vetch or grass pea), called cicerchia in Italian and almorta in Spanish.

Inspired chef Dimitris Mavrakis, in Kritamon, his wonderful restaurant in Archanes, Crete, makes fava with a combination of legumes: dried fava beans, split peas and some lentils, and the flavor of the pureed beans is wonderful, even without any topping (see variation).

8-10 Meze servings

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Paximadia Horiatiki or Greek Salad with Rusks, Feta and Capers

Thursday August 18th, 2016Saturday June 11th, 2022 aglaia 3 Comments

Adapted from Mediterranean Hot and Spicy (Broadway Books) Tomato-Salad-Sw

Horiatiki, that has inspired the ubiquitous Greek Salad, is scented with dried, wild oregano or savory, and doused with plenty of fruity olive oil. It might also contain salted sardines, and was often made more substantial with the addition of stale bread or crumbled paximadia (barley rusks), which soak up the delicious juices.

Read HERE the story and roots of this iconic salad.

Serves 6 to 8

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Skordalia me Agourides: Garlic Spread with Verjuice or with Lemon

Wednesday December 9th, 2015Monday May 10th, 2021 aglaia Leave a comment

This unusual recipe is inspired by one I found in the region of Pelion, in Central Greece. The green garlic version is deliciously milder but we can only make it in the spring, when we get the fresh, scallion-like garlic from the garden.

Skordalia is served traditionally with fried or grilled fish and seafood; also with fried or grilled vegetables. On its own it is a popular meze served with toasted bread, barley rusks or crackers, and with crudités.

HERE read how I make the Sour Grape condiment.

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Makes about 4 cups

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Saffron, Allspice and Pepper Biscuits

Tuesday June 9th, 2015Sunday April 10th, 2022 aglaia Leave a comment

The week before Easter it is customary throughout Greece to bake biscuits; but these bright yellow, spicy ones from the island of Astypalaia were very different from the sweet, laden with eggs cookies I was familiar with… Read MORE

I start with the baking-powder version, a variation on the original yeasted biscuits, which produces very good results quite fast. If you want to make a more interesting yeasted one as it was the custom in the old days, use my recipe for Yogurt Bread adding the saffron diluted in the milk, as I describe below, and the other spices (allspice, nutmeg and pepper). Make the dough, omitting the stuffings, and when it has risen form into doughnut-like paximadia or smaller biscuits. Sprinkle with caraway seeds, if you like.

These biscuits are great as snacks, with coffee or drinks, and are an ideal accompaniment to soft cheeses, both sweet and creamy ones, like manouri and ricotta, and sharp ones, like Gorgonzola, Roquefort or any other blue

Makes about 56 biscuits

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