Greek Must Cookies (Moustokouloura)

These cookies are a tasty accompaniment for your coffee or tea. They have the distinctive taste of must - which is taken from the pressed grapes before it is made into wine - and a hint of cinnamon. You can make them either soft or crispy, depending on your preference.

Ingredients

250g sugar

170g grape must

150g extra virgin olive oil

200g water

9g ammonium bicarbonate

9g cinnamon

1 kg soft flour

4g baking powder

4g soda powder

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl to form a pliable dough, without over handling the dough.

Cover it with cling film and leave in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

On a slightly floured surface shape the dough into circular cookies (see photo) and place them in a shallow buttered oven dish.

If you want the moustokouloura to be soft, cover them with aluminium foil, making a few holes in the foil with a fork and keep them covered for 10 minutes after they have been baked.

If you want them to be crispy, then leave them uncovered.

In both cases bake them in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.


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Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Leek Rice (Prassorizo)

We have already posted the recipe for Spinach Rice - Spanakorizo - and this is another simple and easy rice recipe that is cooked a lot here in Greece. It can be prepared very quickly and is both delicious and nutritious. It can be eaten hot, as soon as it has been prepared or it is equally tasty as a cold dish later on.

Ingredients

½ kg leeks

250g rice for risotto

1 onion finely chopped

2 carrots

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon celery leaves finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Slice the leeks into 1cm pieces.

In a saucepan, heat the oil and add the leeks and the onion.

Stir and gently fry for 2 minutes.

Slice the carrots into ½ cm pieces, add them to the pan and stir.

Add the rice and then the salt and pepper, continuously stirring.

Then add 250ml warm water and bring to the boil.

Cover the pan and simmer until the leeks are tender and the rice is cooked.

Add the celery and you can serve either warm or cold.


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Collecting Olives

I wrote about this in my other blog Corfu Chronicles, but thought it would be appropriate and of interest to readers here.

We went collecting olives this week. We have a few trees that have what are called Kalamon olives, which are the ones you eat rather than make into oil. You may be familiar with Greek Kalamata olives - Kalamata is a town and area in the Peloponnese, Greece - well, the Kalamon olives are that type.You collect these so-called "table" olives directly from the trees, rather than spread nets underneath, which is what you do with the olives that you use to make oil. We will be collecting those olives in January.


Here, you can see a bowl with some of the olives after they were picked. You don't eat them straight off the tree - they are far too bitter for that - but there is a simple process you put them through before they reach your table.

First of all, you discard the ones that are damaged or have been eaten by insects. Then you score them on two opposite sides with a razor blade (not a knife) or on three sides if they are large.

Having done that, you put them in a jar filled with water and change the water every day for 20 days.


We separated the larger olives (with 3 scores) from the others, and you can see them in water here. Once three weeks have passed, I'll post again explaining and showing how the olives are finally prepared to go on the table and get eaten!

Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver's Latest Book

A bold claim indeed!

Well, both my wife and I are great fans of Jamie Oliver - not only for his cooking, but for his whole attitude which we find very positive and inspiring - so we were excited to see this new book of his which came out this month, Jamie's Ministry of Food.

The reason for the title of the book is given as follows:

Sixty years ago food was in short supply and malnutrition rates were high. "The Ministry of Food" was set up to teach the public how to make the best use of the food available to them. Fast forward to the present day, where we have unlimited choices and plenty of food, yet we're living in a world of junk food, additives and preservatives. Our war is now against obesity, as most people have little or no idea about how to cook and what makes a balanced diet. We need to learn from the past. We need to look back at the way our grandmothers and great-grandmothers cooked - wholesome, tasty food that was simple and quick to prepare.

Well, I can certainly go for that, and I believe that Jamie Oliver is able to help us achieve that. We have watched all his series on TV, and I personally was most impressed by the series which showed us how he took 15 kids off the street, so to speak, and trained them so that they eventually worked in his new restaurant. It was the way he worked with them that impressed me - he's not only a great cook, but can also work with people (which isn't always the case!) and also manages to pass on his obvious enthusiasm for food and cooking.

We're looking forward to our copy arriving!

E is for ...

Again, continuing the Greek glossary for food and drink. There really aren't a lot of words beginning with E! Anyway, the words are written as they should be pronounced in English and the bold italics show where the accent is.


eat - traw

egg - avgaw (soft g)

eggplant - melitzana

Symposio

This is just a brief post to let you know where my blogging name symposio came from.

Symposium - or symposio as it was called in Greek - originally referred to a drinking party (from the Greek "sympotein" which means to drink together). It was a key Hellenic social institution in ancient times, where men would come together to debate, plot, boast or simply party with others.

So now you know!

Greek Olive Pitta Bread

This is a bit different from the Olive Bread that we posted previously, in that it is a lot flatter and the olives are on top rather than inside. It's a lovely accompaniment for a meal and especially to dip in your salad with olive oil!

Ingredients

½ kg wholemeal flour
½ kg strong white flour
250g stone-less olives (throumbes) cut in half
1 large onion grated
30g dry yeast
1 teacup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Lukewarm water

Preparation

Sift the two kinds of flour together along with the salt and the sugar.

Add the grated onion and sprinkle the yeast on top.

Add enough lukewarm water to make the dough pliable but not sticky.

Knead well and from time to time dip your hands in the olive oil.

Spread the olives on the kneading surface and knead it one last time so that the olives are stuck to the dough externally.

Grease a shallow oven dish (34cm).

Place the dough in the dish, spread it evenly and score it into portions.

Cover it loosely with aluminium foil (so that the air can circulate) and place it in a slightly warm oven until it has doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees for 1 ½ hours, still covered loosely.


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Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Stuffed Green Peppers with Feta

These are different from the large, stuffed green peppers with rice - which is a main dish. These peppers are a delicious side dish and the filling is quite spicy - it has a nice tang to it! Once again, this recipe is quick and simple. If you cannot find Greek anthotiro where you live, then you can use ricotta or order from the Greek Food Store on this site.

Ingredients

1 kg long, sweet green peppers
¼ kg feta cheese
¼ kg Greek anthotiro cheese or ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon chilli sauce or a few drops of green Tabasco
3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic cut into quarters
Salt to taste

Preparation

Remove the tops of the peppers and, with a sharp knife, remove the seeds.

With a fork, mix the feta, anthotiro and chilli sauce.

Make a round hole at the top end of each pepper and fill them with the cheese mixture.

Place the stuffed peppers in a shallow oven dish and pour the olive oil over them and add salt.

Spread the garlic in between the peppers.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.


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Eat and Enjoy!