One Summer Afternoon

The heatwaves are over.  I hope.  We have visitors in the neighbourhood. All the houses are full.  There are cars coming and going.  The last of the summer out-of-towners.  

  Our elderly neighbour, Vaso, has her daughter visiting from the island of Lefkada where she was chief of police.

 Her son, an ex Navy officer, invited us for an ouzo on their patio. Vaso only had a basic education but she made sure all her children were well educated and had good jobs. Her other daughter was a school teacher .

Vaso is no longer in complete control of the 'estate'.  The younger generation is now giving the orders.  I think she's happy to relinquish control, at almost 90.  But she still gives her input, especially about the vineyard and the olive trees.  She's not happy if the work is not done to her standards.

Her son includes her in all the daily activities from peeling garlic, frying kilos of aubergines for their meals,  digging stones out of the fields or helping him reinforce their fences against the goats.  Actually she's the go-pher.  We hear him yelling 'Mana, bring me the wire cutters, bottle of water,  cigarettes' about 10 times a day. 

The Matriarch 

 

Their terrace-cum-patio is only 20 metres higher than us but their view, unlike ours, is spectacular.  We can see the lights of Athens on a clear night.  They enjoy the sight of the bay below, yachts and fishing boats plying their way from the big Port of Piraeus.      At night they can see the lights all the way down the coast of Athens and also the island of Aegina.

 

    Part of the vegetable garden under the olive trees.

    They grow or produce 90% of what they eat and drink.

We sat under the grapevines in a corner which gets the breeze coming up from the sea below

Everything except the ouzo and bread is from their land or made by them

small fish - brought from the island of Lefkada, pickled by the sister

smoked mackeral - also from Lefkada and prepared by Vaso's daughter

water - from their well

tomatoes and cucumbers -  from the garden

olives and oil from their trees

yellow split peas - made by me but not home grown

boiled eggs -from their chooks

wine - 2 varities, from their vineyard

Vaso has a good appetite.  After a few glasses of wine she had a cigarette or two and told us tales of her childhood. Stories which we have heard many times before but we are guests so we listen politely.  The bay below used to be full of large fish, sea urchins, octopus, kalamari, cockles  and limpets.  Nowadays they are a rare find.  It's illegal to take sea urchins, the shellfish have disappeared completely and you need a boat to go much further out into the bay to find a fish or an octopus.

We will reciprocate in a few days with fish and wine, their wine,  on our back terrace.

Fresh Lemonade

 

Our lemons are falling faster than we can deal with them.  We've given away bags and bags of them.  Time for drastic action.

I juiced dozens and dozens of the darn things and shall do another lot tomorrow.   This first lot of juice has been made into lemonade concentrate.

        I boiled 

- 1 big mug of water 

and 

- 1 big mug of sugar

till the sugar dissolved.  Added

-  one big mug of lemon juice.  

When it cooled I put it all into glass jars and into the fridge.

To make lemonade fill a glass with 1/3 of the concentrate and fill up with ice and water.

If you don't like it sweet, add more juice and less sugar.

The rest of the juice goes into ice cube trays or into small plastic bottles and into the freezer.  There they'll join the 3 or 4 bottles that are there from 2 years ago.  We hardly think of the frozen juice because we always have fresh outside in the garden.

Taste of Summer

 Recently I cooked MOUSSAKA, the traditional summer dish of Greece

 It uses the most prolific of summer vegetables, tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant) and zucchini (courgettes).  If you don't want the minced beef you can leave that out and make a fresh tomato sauce instead.  But you'll miss out on that rich taste explosion. 

It's a dish most tourists have heard of even if they haven't eaten it.  There's no offal in it, no sheep's eyes, nothing unrecognisable.  Moussaka along with kalamari, tzatziki, greek salad and stuffed tomatoes are on every traditional taverna menu

  Concocted of layers of fried zucchini and aubergine (eggplant), topped off with stewed minced beef and tomato (a sort of bolognese sauce ), grated nutmeg and a bechamel (white sauce), then baked in the oven till golden brown.

It's best warm, rich and  creamy but can be eaten straight from the fridge the next day and the day after that till it's all gone.  I make moussaka a couple of times during the summer.  It's quite a business preparing all those layers but worth it every time.

In recent years I baked the zucchini and aubergine slices instead of frying them in olive oil and filled it out with another layer of finely sliced boiled potato.

Not this time, by gosh.  Olive oil is at the top of my dietary list.  I fried those zucchini and aubergine till soft and golden and left out the potato all together.

It's traditional to fry them and I'm quite happy, now, to follow that fine original recipe.  These can be prepared the night before and the mince meat stewed with fresh grated tomatoes and grated nutmeg, or a stick of cinnamon.  Next day the layering is easy and only the bechamel (or cheese sauce) has to be cooked from scratch.

Half your dishes have been washed the night before and you don't break your back leaning over the frying pan.

You do need a deep dish so it doesn't bubble over when cooking.  If you want to cut perfect pieces then it has to be left to cool.  Why bother.  It's wonderful straight out of the oven as it flops all over your plate.

This post is Dedicated to All my Visitors 

Who over the years have enjoyed my moussaka and gone home to cook their own

My first dedication is to

(Debbie's) Mark

Who enjoyed all K's Greek food so much and ate my big baking dish of moussaka for days till every morsel was finished.  

Along with neices

Katy and

Katherine 

Who ate whatever was put in front of them, then went back to Australia and New Zealand and made their own moussaka and stuffed tomatoes and tzatziki and even  Mayeritsa, the Easter offal soup.

Special mention to Sam who K taught to spit roast the easter offal, and nephew Craig. K has great difficulty saying Craig's name so he just calls him 'Kiwi Man'.  Everyone else called him Greg.

 A huge wave to niece  Niki  and her Mum who cook superbe Greek 

Finally a special mention goes to Niki's Serbian f-in-law

Who makes his own glorious moussaka

Not that I've tried any of their back home cooking. And I probably won't . If I ever do go back I'll be eating fish n chips, meat pies and custard slices. I won't be eating Greek in NZ!!

Gkogklyes

These are simple, fresh, homemade pasta made by the maiden aunts

After googling I see , of course, that all  mediterranean countries make a version of  these.  In Italy they are very popular.  Called orecchiette,  Little ears

Not exactly 'little ears' but I'm getting there.

How the aunts make a nice pattern on the pasta

Rolling it out

Our pasta machine.  Once used, now forgoten

The gkogklyes are lowered into a pan of boiling water, handful by handful. When they float to the top they're ready and are scooped out and covered in grated cheese.

Ingredients

500 grams all purpose flour

About one water glass of water, 250 ml

A little salt

Hard cheese finely grated

200 grams butter

Put the flour in a bowl, mix in the salt, then add the water slowly, kneading the dough, adding more water till you have a soft elastic dough. 

Leave for twenty minutes to rest and put on that pot of water with a little salt and bring it to rolling boil.

Pull off a handful of dough and with your hands roll and stretch it out into a long sausage. With a sharp knife cut off small pieces about the size of a thumbnail . Press each piece in the middle . Toss all the little ears in a bowl of flour.

Lower into the boiling salted water little by little and remove with a slotted spoon after about 10 minutes when they start floating.

Place the boiled gkogklyes into a large dry pan. 

In a smaller pot heat till smoking, 200 grams of butter.

Pour the smoking butter over the pasta.

Serve while hot, covering them with finely grated tasty cheese.  

The cheese we use here is called myzithra. It's a hard cheese and doesn't melt.

Kali orexi 

In Italy they probably serve them with a tomato sauce. Try them the Greek way with that hot smoking butter, or olive oil, and grated cheese. Though maybe you need a Greek maiden aunt to make them for you. Those aunt's have a lifetime of good basic cooking under their apron belts. Believe me, they're delicious. All you need is a glass of wine and maybe a Greek salad.

Fish on a Tile

 A tuna sort of fish baked in the oven on a roof tile.

The head is cut off and it's given a good wash to get rid of all the blood.  And it's gutted of course.  Then onto that roof tile, a few slices of lemon, and that's fresh oregano.  Into the oven for 40 minutes and it's ready ....almost

Once it's cooked and cooled a little.  I have to take out the backbone and remove the tail.  I break up what's left and put it into a deep dish.  Then I make an oil and lemon sauce with a little salt, mustard and dried oregano.  This is poured over the fish and we are ready to go.  It's eaten preferably with a green leafy salad or some sort of boiled greens.

The only part I don't like is the darker meat .  It is very strong and fishy.  Fortunately there's not too much of that and I can separate it from the rest of the flesh. K enjoys the stronger taste.

Gordon Ramsey once got served steak on a roof tile on his show Kitchen Nightmares.  

Photo thanks to BuzzFeed.com 

He was a  bit confused by it all and as you can see the restaurant owner received  the classic 'f' reaction.  But apparently the steak was the toughest, chewiest filet mignon he had ever tried . 

Not exactly fine dining and a waste of good steak.  But fish on a tile, well, that's another story and it does not get served on the tile!   

Eating Well

 Eating well without meat. During the 6 weeks of Lent you're not supposed to eat meat, fish (except on certain fiesta days), eggs, cheese, milk and on Wednesdays and Fridays no olive oil. Allowed are shellfish, octopus, squid and cuttlefish

We are not fasting this Lent but K will probably follow the Orthodox   rules during the last week of Lent, called Holy Week.

However, a lot of the food we eat falls into the fasting description.  Some of these photos have appeared in other posts but these are a few of the dishes we eat that are approved by the church 

Giant beans in the top of the photo and taramasalata, fish roe dip at the bottom. Oops, the beans are with sausages. Much tastier.

Spinach and cuttlefish

Red wine is not on the list of banned foods and drinks thank goodness

Okra and tomatoes

We usually add chicken to this dish but its just fine this way too

Giant beans, cooked without sausages this time.

Stuffed tomatoes.  Meatless.  The filling is rice, onions and lots of parsley, mint and a few raisins

We've eaten green beans and tomatoes, lentil soup. We eat lentils or beans a couple of times a week all year round.

Today we are eating chickpea soup with a side of grilled fish leftover from Sundays Bbq. The fish have an olive oil and lemon dressing

Lettuce Salad

A classic Greek winter salad

This is the recipe for a greek lettuce salad as made in our house.  A traditional lettuce salad. A true blue greek recipe handed down from greek Mama to son*.  This is a lettuce salad, no cabbage, tomatoes or strange things like pomegranate seeds

*Mama wouldn't mind her son making this salad.  My father-in-law always cut the lettuce for the salad in the family house.  He had a very sharp knife and cut it very, very finely.  K has been known to get it almost as finely cut but I don't bother.  Though lettuce is certainly not just torn into pieces the way they do it in the west.

This is my one rocket (roka) plant.  It grows up and up and I cut the leaves from the lower branches for the salad.  The rocket (arugula) is very tasty, spicy in fact.  Loads of flavour.  I'm not even sure where it came from.  It just appeared in a pot and grew

So the lettuce salad consists of :

- one cos lettuce (romaine) cut as finely as possible

- a big handful of rocket also cut finely

- as much of a spring onion (shallot?) as you need for taste, also cut finely

- a handfull of dill, finely chopped

- Toss together in a big bowl and sprinkle with salt,  olive oil and the juice of half a lemon

I prefer to use apple cider vinegar instead of the lemon juice.  It's a matter of taste.  K naturally prefers the lemon.  

The last of the cos lettuce in my garden

https://www.youtube.com/c/DimitrasDishes   The link probably doesn't work but if you want to look at any greek dishes this Greek American woman called Dimitra has a YouTube channel.  Her recipes are true greek and she speaks english (american). 

Fish Soup

 On a cold wet day a bowl of fish soup and boiled vegetables is just perfect.  A kilo of mixed fish for more flavour.  But none of those nasty spiky Lion fish that are now infiltrating the mediterranean

These are some of the fish we put in the pot.  The red fish are spiny scorpion fish. The spikes can give you a nasty jab but they won't cause any major damage. Luckily these days the fishmonger scales and guts them for us

It's a thin lemony soup. The soup itself is eaten separately from the fish and vegetables

Fish, waiting in a dish

Recipe

Ingredients

A kilo or so of a variety of fish and shellfish. Heads, tails and all to get the full flavour

These are simmered first in a pot of water.  After about 15 minutes take them out with a slotted spoon and keep them warm in the oven.

To the water in the pot add 2 or 3 potatoes chopped into large pieces

a couple of carrots chopped small

a chopped onion

a handful or two of chopped celery

a few zucchinis chopped into large pieces 

Add salt and pepper to the water 

Cook till tender.  Remove these with a slotted spoon.  Keep warm in a dish separate from the fish.

Add more water if necessary and a small handful of short grain rice.  Boil till the rice is soft.  Add the juice of a lemon and a small wine glass of olive oil.  

The soup is ready.  It's quite a thin soup.  You can thicken it by pureeing some of the potatoes.

The fish and vegetables you have kept warm are served separately.  Pour a little olive oil and lemon juice over them.  Serve the soup and the vegetables on the side.  Have a big jar or mayo ready to eat with the fish and veges.

Seafood and Gripes

I really don't feel like writing much these days. My knee has turned every shade of yellow and purple, half the family have the dreaded virus. K is in constant pain from his shoulder but can't make up his mind to have an op.  It's cold, wet, miserable again today. Petrol prices are soaring and our electricity bill will be going up by one third. That is a helluva lot of euros.

And then there's Ukraine 

I should be counting my blessings. My knee is slowly healing, covid patients have mild symptoms, K has a diagnosis, spring is almost here.

Our dear daughter has arranged for us to pay, as she also does, our power bill in installments which don't break the bank.

But there's still Ukraine 

Life here continues as usual.  Last Monday was Clean Monday, a national holiday marking the beginning of Orthodox  Lent.  The sun shone for most of the day and we sat outside to eat. A light breeze was perfect for traditional kite flying.

I got grandaughter Poppi to prune our grapevine

A job well done

Even though we only had 2 of the 5 grandchildren with us they followed the tradition and flew a kite

This kite is in the colours of the Athenian football team AEK

I made 4 laganas, traditional flatbread

We are still ploughing through them

On the menu today was seafood

Shrimps, cuttlefish and octopus

And lots of homemade taramasalata, salted fishroe dip

We are still ploughing through that as well

The octopus hanging out to dry

It has to be sun dried before it goes on the BBQ 

And a sweet

Homemade halvas

Made from semolina, sugar and olive oil

But only half the family were with us

The other half tested positive for you-know-what and are Home Alone

This is Luli's stool. Being the youngest she usually perches on this at one corner of the big table.

Not this time. Instead of 12 we had 7 at the table.  It was a quiet day. We sat outside but by 2pm the clouds had moved in and we relocated inside and lit the fire.

And so life continues and I count my blessings.  

 

Fanouropita - Lost and Found

 Lost and found .  I've written about this cake before.  It is called a 'Fanouropita, the Pie of Agios Fanourios' because it is baked in the name of Saint Fanourios who finds lost objects. His name means 'the one who reveals'. It is also baked during Lent and other fasting periods in the Orthodox church because it has no eggs or dairy .

                            

This is a new, to me, recipe.  We were given a piece while having coffee at our favourite T-Cafe on the waterfront and I asked for the recipe.  This one is from Agios Oros,  Mount Athos, the peninsular in northern Greece with 20 Orthodox monasteries where females are forbidden to tread.

First you ask the Saint to open your eyes so you can find your lost object and when it is found, to thank the saint,  you bake the cake and share it with friends and neighbours. Before you eat your slice of cake you must send a prayer so the soul of the mother of St. Fanourios may be saved.  Legend has it that she was sent to hell for living such a shameful life.

   On the fiesta of the saint housewives bake this 'pie' and take it to church to be blessed before being cut up and passed around.  His fiesta is 27th August.

Traditionally the recipe has either *7 or *9 ingredients

1 water glass of oil (180ml) - olive oil or some sort of vegetable oil

3 water glasses (350grams) of self-raising flour 

1 extra tsp baking powder

1 water glass (170grams) of sugar

1 glass of orange juice (200ml) plus the zest

half a glass (100 grams) of chopped walnuts

half a glass of raisins (about 100 grams)

1/2 teaspoon clove (powdered)

1 tsp cinnamon

This can be mixed in a bowl by hand.

Beat the oil and the sugar together . Pour in the orange juice and zest.

Add the self-raising flour, cloves, cinnamon, walnuts and raisins.

Oil a cake baking dish.  It doesn't need to be over oiled because of all the oil in the cake mix.  I also read somewhere to sprinkle sesame seeds over the oiled pan and on top of the cake mix for a change.

Pre-heat the oven to 170oC and bake from 40-60 minutes depending on your oven.  In my oven 40 minutes is fine.

Dust with icing sugar.  When cold, cut and hand around.  It's a crumbly cake so have a spoon ready to scoop up the crumbs.

A monk from one of the Monasteries says to cut it into 40 pieces but this  recipe makes a small cake.  They must have huge baking dishes in these monasteries, big enough to feed all their Male visitors.

*7 for the Holy Sacraments 

*9 for the 9 Angelic choirs 

Whatever your religion give it a try. It's a vegan cake and you never know you might find that elusive 'thing' that disappeared like a sock in the washing machine.

Greek Potatoes

 My greek sister-in-law makes the best roast potatoes but don't tell my husband that.  Mine never turn out quite like theirs, even after 45 years.  Being a local-alien I  use less lemon juice and certainly less olive oil.  The greek family just love lemon juice and they can never have too much.  A fresh lemon, sorry, fresh lemon-s, are squeezed over everything from a green salad to fried potatoes.  On the other hand the kiwi side of the family want just a hint of lemon, and we put ketchup on our fries.

First peel and cut your potatoes lengthwise, long wedges.  I par boil mine for 10 minutes especially when I'm cooking them with chicken.  They roast quicker and brown easier.  However, my greek husband and his sister would never do that.  They are traditional people and do as their Mama did.

These are the other ingredients.  Measures are to your taste.  I just eyeball them.  (No, I do NOT mean that we cook eyeballs with them JC.  But we could)

Place the potatoes in your baking dish.  

Drizzle with a good olive oil.  You'll be adding more later. 

Sprinkle over them 3 or 4 cloves of chopped garlic

 a tsp or more of dried oregano

 a few twigs of fresh thyme

 a squeeze of mustard

 and salt. 

 Get your hands in there and mix it all up, massaging the potatoes and distributing the herbs.  Add a cup of hot water or some kind of stock.  I use a stock cube mixed with hot water because that's what is on hand.

Now for the lemon juice.  Squeeze a lemon over the potatoes.  I have preserved lemons and always forget to use them.  I will next time and see how it tastes.  Don't overdo the lemon unless you're Greek.  A little zest will give more flavour too without the acidity.

Grind some fresh pepper over the potatoes and pour more olive oil over the whole lot.  Say a small wine glass. 

Cook about an hour at 200oC till golden brown.    After the first half hour take the dish out and turn them gently just to get them brown on all sides.  

My sister-in-law does not worry about browning her potatoes.   She wants them soft with plenty of oil and they are wonderful!

Her potatoes look like this

This is more or less how mine come out of the oven.

Kali Orexi 

Tourlou

 Tourlou or a summer vegetable medley.  

Ratatouille, the dish not the rat.  I am sure every country, at least here in the mediterranean has a version of this dish.  Summer vegetables, all lightly cooked in a pan on the stove top.  Quick, fresh, light (depending on the amount of olive oil you add) and delicious.

We are going to eat ours with feta cheese and just a little bit of bread, fresh for me and stale for the traditional man about the house.  Stale bread is better for mopping up the juices and doesn't go soggy.

This is what I'm cooking at the moment.

Chunks of

zucchini/courgette

 potato/patata

 eggplant/aubergine

 green pepper/capsicum

onion and garlic and a leftover leek

go**amit I forgot the garlic

Sweat all the vegetables in olive oil, as much as you like.  I only used a big spoonful in the beginning along with a little water but I added an extra swig of oil at the end when I turned off the stove.

Then I peeled and diced

3 fresh tomatoes blanched briefly in boiling water for a quick peel

and chopped

parsley and mint from the garden.

Salt and pepper and a sprinkle of sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

Don't stir it too much or you'll get mushy Vege.

It's best cooked in a wide shallow pot.  I was across the waters at the small village of Galatas a few weeks ago to get my second jab and visited the maiden aunts.  They had just cooked this, in their wide pot called a tablas, and absolutely insisted I sit down and eat with them.  You don't get away with not eating in that house but every thing is so well cooked, done from scratch that it's a treat to share their meal.

After about half an hour of a slow simmer our own lunch was ready so I could go and get a hair cut.

And it's vegan too, but not plant-based-whole-food-oil-free.  The latter is my latest fad.  No meat, eggs, dairy, no processed foods and no olive oil.  Laughing Out Loud.  No olive oil?  From every window of my house the view is an olive tree or a lemon tree.  But it's healthy.  Lots of vegetables, fruit, grains and legumes.  It's basically what we eat anyway in the summer, forgetting about the pork and fish.

Fish Meals

 Doesn't matter how hot it is, we've got to eat.  Salad apparently does not come under the heading of 'meal' and neither do sandwiches.

We eat fish at least once, probably twice a week.  We still haven't worked out the portions for 2 people, greek people, even though the kids moved out over 15 years ago so one day we eat fresh fish, the next day leftovers and the cats get the tail-end.

Gavros, which I see translated as 'anochoy'  and sardines are right in season now and K loves both.  Sardines are grilled and served as-is.  Anchovies are usually fried and sprinkled with vinegar.  They are also very nice marinated in vinegar and olive oil with some garlic and parsley.

The fish at the top of the photo are for soup, kakavia.    Even in mid-summer fish soup is on the menu

I was surprised to see Black Angus on the board outside the butchers shop.  

Meanwhile the chook is hanging there in the window head and all.  Ughh 

Sometimes we are given fish.  These fish are called tsipoura, sea bream, and were caught around the fish farm.  They've either escaped or grown fat feeding on remnants of the fish food.  Either way they are considered wild and are some of the best fish to eat grilled or baked

Chutney

I found this post half written in the draft box.  I know why I didn't post it.  Chutney doesn't need a recipe.  You can make it with whatever fruit or vegetables are on hand, add a few onions, sugar to taste, vinegar to cover, a few spices and let it simmer away till soft and thick.

I am making apricot chutney now and am researching an a spicy asian apricot sauce.  Thanks for the idea Tigger https://tiggerswee-blog.blogspot.com/  .  Below is the chutney recipe I had originally written.  I think it was superior as I note, though cannot remember.   The recipe uses wine, red or white, which I often use now.  I halve the vinegar and top up with wine.  It's makes a lighter sauce.

Chutney is something I make at anytime of the year but we are out of chutney and I thought I would follow an actual recipe and make something superior.  This a recipe from a greek magazine. An exotic  recipe for them.  It uses leeks and onions and also wine as well as vinegar. 

 Chutney is not a greek thing.  I describe mine as a sweet and sour sauce.  They rarely have a taste to see what its all about.  City dwellers are of course more adventurous.  Rustics prefer classic, traditional, downhome, what they know and love.  They prefer lashings of strong garlicky tzatziki  with their roast goat.

.............................................................................

Onion Chutney

1 kilo onions – chopped small

½ kilo leeks – chopped small

Put these in a big saucepan

Add

1 cup small black raisins

½ kilo brown sugar

½ litre white wine

½ litre vinegar

Freshly grated nutmeg

2 tsps fresh grated ginger

½ tsp chilli powder

Juice and zest of one orange

Simmer for one hour.  Stir till the sugar has dissolved.

When it has thickened a little put into sterilized jars.

.......................................................................

Word of the Day -

Flaneur -    idler, dawdler

borrowed directly from the french.  Meaning to stroll, to saunter

lâneur “idler; dawdler; loafer” is borrowed directly from French flâneur, an agent noun of the verb flâner “to stroll, saunter aimlessly; lounge.” The ultimate origin of French flâner is obscure. In 19th-century France, the flâneur was a figure for a type of wealthy, foppish man-about-town who leisurely wandered the boulevards of Paris and lounged at its cafés. In the early 1900s, German literary critic Walter Benjamin, inspired in great part by the writing of Charles Baudelaire, helped develop the flâneur into a symbol of the modern artist and writer, at once immersed in and alienated by the hustle and bustle of urban life. English borrowed another noun from French to describe the disposition of the flâneur: flânerie “idleness, dawdling.” Flâneur entered English in the mid-1800s.