Constantinople Style Spicy Cabbage Salad / Politiki Lahanosalata
This colorful Greek cabbage salad is a classic on the winter table.
N. Greek Sweet Polenta with Pumpkin Preserves
Here’s a really unusual, delicious recipe for sweet corn cream that comes from Northern Greece. The dish is adapted from my book, The Country Cooking of Greece. It’s a great example of elegant but rustic Greek cuisine.
Olive Oil Nut-and-Spice Cookies / Melomakarona me Elaiolado
These cookies are a Greek Christmas specialty, but they are great with your morning coffee every day of the year, too. These cookies are a Greek Christmas specialty, but they are great with your morning coffee every day of the year, too.
Shrimp Saganaki with Ouzo and Feta
I can honestly say I’ve nevermet a soul who didn’t love this Greek taverna classic. It’s super easy to make at home, too. Look for the olive oil, tomatoes and herbs used to make it on my online store here.
Octopus Baked in Paper / Htapodi Yioulbasi
I first encountered this delicious, succulent octopus recipe inland in the Peloponnese, near Mantineia, one of the great wine-producing regions of Greece. Baking octopus in paper helps retain all its juices and also makes for a dramatic presentation. Try it with an aromatic Moschofilero wine from the same region.
How to Assemble a Meze Platter
The Meze platter should offer a variety of foods, textures, colors, and flavors for people to nibble on as they enjoy wine or ouzo and the company of friends. As a general rule, ouzo and tsipouro go best with seafood meze platters, while wines are a better match for cured meats and cheeses. Vegetables meze […]
Soup with Trahana / Trahanosoupa
Trahana, an ancient grain product that is made with flour or bulgur and milk, buttermilk, or sometimes vegetable pulp, is one of the oldest foods in the Eastern Mediterranean. I like to call it the world’s first instant soup or first fast food. Its rich, complex, milky flavor is a revelation. To find trahana go […]
Lentil-Chard Soup / Faki me Seskoula y Spanaki
Although greens and lentils both play a major role in the Greek vegetarian diet, the combination of the two is unusual in Greece. This is a thick and hearty soup, perfect for a cold winter’s day. Try stirring a little Kalamata olive paste or Greek balsamic into the soup to add depth of flavor. You […]
Sarikopites (Cretan “Turban” Pies)
It’s the shape that sets these lovely pies apart: filled with cheese and coiled, Cretan cooks nicknamed them sarikopita after sariki, the word for turban in Turkish. Petimezi is essentially reduced, clarified grape must. You can find it in Greek and Middle Eastern food shops all over the world. It is, in fact, one of […]
Chick Pea Fritters from Rhodes / Pitaroudia
Unlike small, meatball-size chick pea fritters elsewhere in Greece and certainly a distant cry from the Egyptian falafel, the Rhodian version turns calls for big, plump filling patties. They are found, in various renditions, all over the island. Pitaroudia with chick peas are by far the national dish of Rhodes.
Barley Rusks, Tomatoes, Apples, and Mint (Dakos salad)
Rusks are an ancient food in Greece. Basically they are the twice-baked breads, in various shapes. A dearth of fuel, i.e. wood, made daily, or even weekly, baking almost extravagant in the Greek countryside. These rusks are slowly dehydrated during the second baking, which happens overnight in a wood-burning oven that is not fired up […]
Tarama and Greek Yogurt Cheesecake with Mint-Flavored Olive Oil
Here’s another unusual use for Greek yogurt–a savory cheesecake made with the ultimate Greek meze, tarama. I created this several years ago, when I was insane enough to open and run a summer restaurant, Villa Thanassi, basically in my backyard on the laid-back, Blue-Zone island of Ikaria. This dish became a signature. I still make […]