Crete Recipes
One of my favorite country dishes from western Crete, this recipe is definitely high up on the comfort scale. To find some of the artisinal Greek products you’ll need to make this, visit my online shop here, where you’ll discover a host of lovingly curated Greek ingredients.
Eggplant and trahana, the Greek pebbly grain product that is one of the country’s most unique and delicious ingredients, make for a wonderful one-pot meal, filling, healthy and pleasantly tart and sweet all at once. This recipe is adapted from a Cretan Diet classic, which calls for the local version of trahana, called xinohondros on […]
This dish is made all over Greece, but this particular version, the original of which calls for a wild Cretan chicory called askolimbrous is from Crete. You can use any sweet or even bitter green for this. To find some of the artisinal Greek products you’ll need to make this, visit my online shop here, […]
Although this soup is traditionally made in and around Rethymnon on the feast day of St. Eleftherios, on December 15th, it’s wonderful any time of the year, and especially in cold weather.
This is probably the best known snail dish in Crete and a meze par excellence for either wine or tsikouthia (fire water). It is also the only recipe that does not call for blanching the snails before cooking them. There are two stories regarding the provenance of the name: according to some Cretan cooks, it […]
Fish baked with okra is a delicious summer dish from Crete.
Here’s a great version of the classic Greek garlic dip, skordalia, from Crete, where it is made with broad beans.
There is nothing quite as comforting as Greek fasolada, one of the best-known, if humble, recipes that comes in many regional variations. To find the authentic Greek olive oil that gives this dish its velvety, sating texture, go to my online store here.
4 servings as a main course1 large red onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, chopped ½ cup/120 ml olive oil, or slightly more if desired 1 medium-size octopus (2-2 ½ pounds/1 -1.35 kilos) ½ cup ouzo 1 cup chopped plum tomatoes, or 1 can Greek whole Santorini tomatoes in their juices ½ cup fresh chopped fennel […]
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 […]