The concept of using ground nuts, especially walnuts, to help thicken a sauce is rooted in some of the regional Lenten traditions of Greece. It was a brilliant way for cooks to mimic the texture of, say, ground meat, during periods of fasting, and to provide important nutrition. (read more on Notes below)
August 15th is the peak of Greek summer, when all of Greece shuts down. It is the holiday of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, but despite the sobriety of the day, it’s also one of the most festive, with panygyria (feasts of food and dancing) everywhere. Especially on Ikaria, which is home to what […]
Like many potato lovers, my earliest memories of the humble spud are linked to Sunday family dinners, to a dark, glistening roast that my mother hovered over, matter-of-factly satisfied by the proper, telling smells of garlic and oregano seeping out of our oven, and to a ricer, which to my child’s eyes was as good […]
As unexpected (and seemingly Southwestern American) as the use of sage and chile peppers might be in this Ikarian soup, cooks from a generation or two ago on the island used both to flavor lentils. “We put chile peppers in bean soups in general, because black pepper was too expensive,” my neighbor Titika taught me. […]
I had been hearing about the use of corn kernels and cornmeal in the Ikarian diet ever since my aunt Mary, who passed away several years ago at the age of 97, mentioned the corn-stuffed cabbage leaves she remembered as a child. This soup is an old recipe and a perfect example of the kind […]
Ikarian cooking in the middle of the 20th century is what most of the island’s nonagenarians remember vividly. They were the stone-hard years of the Occupation, a time of great hunger all over Greece. This pie, really a kind of pancake, stands out to me because it’s cooked on a griddle, the better for using […]
I’ve made this traditional Ikarian dessert in the most elegant restaurant settings in New York City.
On Ikaria, the island of longevity, where people forget to die, figs play an important part in the local diet. They are one of nature’s late-summer, nutrition-packed gifts and, dried, are an important food in winter. For a few short weeks, we enjoy them fresh. One of my greatest childhood pleasures was to scurry about […]
These traditional pies, so called “poor”, are in fact full of flavor and exceptionally healthy. They are one of the most popular, traditional foods of Ikaria.
Ikaria’s mineral springs at Therma have been known since antiquity for their therapeutic properties.