Meze / Starters Recipes
When a home cook like me works side by side with the chefs de cuisine at various Greek restaurants, all sorts of ideas germinate. Pastitsio, the classic baked pasta and meat dish, gets a breath of fresh air in this fun and easy recipe. I took the basic components of a classic pastitsio and turned […]
Salt cod, or bakaliaros pastos, is sometimes referred to as the fish of the mountains. Cod is not native to the Mediterranean, but to the North Sea and Atlantic. Itinerant merchants would travel inland to sell preserved (salted or air-dried) cod and the tradition of cooking it has remained constant to this day. It is […]
Beet salad, patzarosalata in Greek, is an all-time favorite. Earthy beets pair beautifully with garlic and the acidity of good vinegar. You’ll find this salad on tables everywhere, the perfect match to fish recipes like fried cod croquettes and retsina.
Greece in the summer is about being outside, under a hot sun, near the water, sea salt spraying on the breeze and seafood sizzling nearby. The quaff of choice is often either a chilled glass of retsina or a glass of milky-white ouzo on ice, the perfect foil to smoky seafood, especially when marinated with […]
This hearty, earthy skordalia, made dark with the addition of walnuts and red wine vinegar, is especially pungent. It is delicious with boiled or roasted beets.
Everyone loves a great mashed potato recipe, the ultimate comfort food. This one, with Greek feta, yogurt and olive oil added to the potatoes, is a wonderful variation. It goes well with all sorts of comfort foods, especially tomato based stews.
Here’s a “lazy” version of spanakopita, turned into grilled cheese. All you need is a little filling and great bread and you’ve got yourself an impressive lunch, dinner, or snack!
Taramosalata is the whipped dip with a base of fish roe (tarama) and either potatoes, bread, or a combination of either and nuts. On Ikaria, there is no one specific recipe; most people make the classic stale-bread-tarama version. My husband makes a mean taramosalata, which is exceedingly creamy thanks to the unabashed use of olive […]
This Froutalia Omelet is surely one of the great regional Greek egg dishes, and a specialty of Andros and Tinos. Basically, it is a thick, slowly-cooked (stovetop) omelet filled with potatoes and local sausage.
These deliciously sweet, totally vegan stuffed eggplants are a riff on a classic dish, Imam Bayldi, eggplants stuffed with onions and tomatoes. It’s one of the great ladera (olive-oil-based) dishes of Greece, and one of my favorite stuffed vegetable dishes. If you have access to a wood-fired oven, try baking it in there, which is […]