Melitinia, Sweet Cheese Tartlets from Santorini
Sweet cheese-filled pastries abound all over the Greek islands and are mainly Easter specialties. Melitinia hail from Santorini and from Tinos.
Getting Ready for Greek Easter: Kokkoretsi
Greeks have been doing nose-to-tail cooking long before it became fashionable. Kokkoretsi, a spit-roasted sauasage made with organ meats, is one delicious Greek Easter example.
Saltcod Brandade from Santorini
Try something new for March 25th, the day Greeks eat saltcod. This traditional dish from Santorini is one of the most unusual regional recipes for saltcod.
Calamari stuffed with Rice and Pine Nuts
Calamari stuffed with rice is considered an aphrodisiac in the Greek kitchen!
Greek Style Stuffings and Gravy
Turkey stuffing is one of those dishes that can either carry the weight of tradition or the freedom of experimentation. It all depends on one’s own personal preferences. I like both and sometimes make more than one stuffing as a result. Every holiday, I sift through my recipe files to look for old favorites and […]
Xerotigana: Ikaria’s Honeyed Fried Dough Strips
Elsewhere in Greece, these delicate fried pastry strips are called diples (THEE-pless). We call them xerotigana on Ikaria and I have the most vivid memories of my dad, a chef, making these every Christmas. We used to have mounds of them layered precariously on platters and they’d disappear in the course of just a day […]
Classic Melomakarona
Great olive oil is what makes these classic Greek holiday cookies so healthy and delicious. To find a range of wonderful regional Greek oils, go to my online store here.
Linguine with Poor Man’s Caviar (Tarama)
In this simple Greek pasta recipe, the all-time classic tarama (cod roe), usually made into a dip, is the main ingredient in a pasta sauce.
Honey-Orange Glazed Turkey Roulade with Mavrodafni-Chestnut Gravy
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The Easter Spit-Roasted Lamb or Goat
My friend Ilia once spent half a day in a London park turning a whole lamb over a pit of hot coals, anticipating the moment when he’d cut the crisp garlicky meat and find in every morsel the smells and flavors that would carry him back, even if momentarily, to Greece at Easter. Instead, as […]
Mageiritsa–the Greek Easter Soup
Most Greeks the world over enjoy a hot bowl of mageiritsa soup after the midnight liturgy on the Saturday night before Easter. The soup, made with lamb or goat organ meats, is a perfect example of the home economy that characterizes the Greek cuisine.Nothing, in short, is wasted. The soup marks the end of the […]