How to cook Greens (Horta) While it might seem odd to a non-Greek cook to boil greens until they are extremely soft, this is the way Greeks like to eat them. In Greek cooking, all sorts of greens, wild and cultivated, sweet and bitter, are boiled, typically in a big pot filled with salted water […]
Around this time of the year, I start to tally up the excesses of the holidays. Too much bread, too many sweets, cheeses, meat etc. Most of us get the picture. I also start to turn to the one thing that makes me feel really good when I eat it: greens. Called horta in Greek, […]
From: Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die. Sfouggato is the name given to various egg-based dishes throughout the Greek islands; some are essentially omelets, while others are more like croquettes. But among older Ikarians, sfouggato was a dish that called for quite a different egg […]
This wonderful salad, so simple, is one of the masterpieces of Greek seasonal cuisine. All you need is super fresh sweet greens in season, some beautiful zucchini and excellent Greek extra virgin olive oil, of course, available here.
LOOKING FOR WILD ASPARAGUS ON IKARIA You have to learn how to look. That’s what my friend Lefteris, a fount of knowledge about Ikaria’s flora, told me as soon as we stepped out of the car in Cambo, the island’s largest flat plain, not too far from Evdilos, the port town in the center of […]
Rock or Sea Samphire, called kritamo in Greek, grows wild along the coasts of Ikaria and elsewhere. Pickled, it is a great meze for ouzo.
Amaranth, called Vlita in Greek, is one of the traditional Greek foods eaten in summer, when it’s in season. It’s a Mediterranean Diet dream ingredient, filled with amazing nutritional properties.
January. I am devoting this month to greens, glorious greens, which are available in great variety in Greece and are prepared in countless ways in Greek cooking. To these eyes the brightest thing around right now in Greece are the mountains of greens that glisten and flutter at the farmers’ markets or in the wild. […]