Traditional Greek Christmas Sweets - Kourambiedes

As promised, we have the other main Greek traditional Christmas sweet - Kourambiedes. These contain a touch of ouzo as you can see, and it shouldn't be difficult to obtain some where you live as it is popular internationally.

Ingredients

650g butter

150g blanched almonds

1 kg all-purpose flour

2 egg yolks

50ml ouzo

110g icing sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1g vanilla powder

Preparation

Place the almonds in a shallow oven dish and bake them in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees C for about 15 minutes until they are slightly brown.

Let them cool and then roughly chop them.

Place the butter, which should be soft, in a mixer with the icing sugar and beat well with the cake beater for 15 minutes.

Add the egg yolk, ouzo and vanilla powder and continue beating for another 5 minutes.

Add the baking powder and almonds to the flour, add this mixture to the mixer and beat for a few seconds until the flour has been absorbed by the liquid.

Take pieces of the dough, trying to handle it as little as possible, and make them into the shape you want. Normally they are oval, but you can also make them circular, star-shaped, crescent-shaped etc. The thickness should be about 1½ cm.

Place them on non-stick oven dishes and bake in a pre heated oven at 160 degrees C for 20-25 minutes.

Allow them to cool, then dip them in icing sugar and place them in a layer on a Christmas decorated dish.

Sprinkle plenty of icing sugar on top of them and then place more layers on top in pyramid fashion. Sprinkle plenty of icing sugar on top of each layer.


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Traditional Greek Christmas Sweets - Melomakarona

Well, it's Christmas time again, so we're posting recipes for traditional Greek Christmas sweets for you. Today it's Melomakarona, which is my particular favourite, and tomorrow I'll be posting the recipe for Kourambiedes.

In between Christmas and New Year I'll post the recipe for Vassilopitta, which is the traditional New Year cake in Greece, with the good-luck charm or coin in it.

Ingredients

1st mix

500g sunflower oil

400g fresh orange juice

50g icing sugar

30ml brandy

1 tsp soda diluted in 1 tbsp lemon juice

Grated rind from 1 orange

2nd mix

1100g flour

100g fine semolina

7g cinnamon

4g grated cloves

3g grated nutmeg

10g baking powder

For the syrup

500g water

700g sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

1 orange cut in half

100g honey

For the decoration

60g honey preferably thyme

150g roughly grated walnuts

Preparation

First prepare the syrup and let it cool because you need the syrup to be cold and the melomakarona to be hot when you dip them in the syrup.

Syrup

Put all the syrup ingredients apart from the honey in a pan and bring to the boil for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat, add the honey and stir, then set aside to cool.

Melomakarona

In a shallow pan mix all the ingredients from the 1^st mix. Mix them really well by hand, not by mixer.

In a mixing bowl mix all the ingredients from the 2^nd mix.

Gradually add the ingredients from the 2^nd mix into the pan with the 1^st mix.

Mix them by hand to make a dough, but it is very important not to handle this dough a lot because that will remove the oil from the mixture.

Again handling the dough as little as possible, form them into small oval shapes (see photo) and put them on baking trays covered with greaseproof paper.

Bake them one tray at a time in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

As soon as you remove them from the oven, dip them carefully – a few at a time - in the pan with the cold syrup. Leave them in there for about 1 minute, making sure they are fully immersed in the syrup.

Remove and place on a tray and repeat with the other melomakarona while they are still hot.

Repeat the same process with the other baking trays.

Finally, pour the thyme honey over the melomakarona and then sprinkle the grated walnuts on top. Let them cool and place them on your decorated dishes or in a plastic container, but not in the fridge. They keep for at least a week.

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Greek Octopus with Pasta

This is another seafood dish. Octopus is easily obtained in Greece and there are several ways of cooking and serving it. This is a simple recipe with small pasta - the type used for minestrone - and is delicious served with grated cheese.

Ingredients

1 medium size octopus

1/2 kg pasta for minestrone

1 teacup slightly concentrated tomato juice

1/2 teacup olive oil

1 medium size onion

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Clean the octopus under cold water.

Discard the head and ink and keep the tentacles.

Cut the tentacles into small pieces.

Heat the oil and gently fry the onion.

Add the pieces of octopus and stir for another 5 minutes.

Add 1 litre of water and bring to the boil.

Add the tomato juice and simmer for 1 hour.

Transfer the octopus and the liquid to an oven dish - the liquid should be reduced to about 3/4 litre - and bring to the boil.

Add the seasoning.

Add the pasta and stir.

Bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes or until the water has been absorbed and the pasta is tender.

Serve with grated cheese.

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Greek Saganaki

This is a delicious - and filling - side dish. It has to be a hard cheese and in Greece it is best made with Kefalograviera, which is a little softer, or Kefalotiri, which is a little harder. So, if you can, you should try and use one of these cheeses. It is great as an accompanying dish along with the other side dishes of Tzatziki, Eggplant Dip and Greek Salad.

Ingredients

1 square slice of cheese 1cm thick

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation

Heat the oil in a non-stick shallow frying pan.

Dip the cheese in a bowl of water, flour the cheese and then dip it in the water again.

Fry it in the hot oil on both sides until golden brown.

Serve with lemon.


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Eat and Enjoy!