Ostracism

Continuing the occasional series on modern phrases or expressions that have Greek origins (see Halcyon Days), this post is about the word ostracize.

Nowadays, the word means to exclude from a group by common consent and the word comes from the practice of ostracism in ancient Athenian society. The idea behind this was to protect democracy from people who were felt to be too influential or dangerous.

Firstly, the People's Assembly was asked whether a vote of ostracism should be held and if there was a clear majority, a date was set. On that day, every voter was given a potsherd, or ostrakon (hence the name ostracism) on which he wrote down the name of a politician he believed to be potentially dangerous (or he asked someone else to write it). If a certain quorum was reached, the politician who had received most votes was sent away from Athens.

The man who was ostracised remained a citizen, had to leave the city for a fixed period of ten years, did not lose his possessions, and could be recalled - which happened quite often.

Below, you can see some examples of these potsherds, or ostrakon, with people's names written on them. These are all from the Agora Museum in Athens.

So now you know!

Kimon, son of Miltiades

Themistocles, son of Neocles

Pericles, son of Xanthippus

Hippocrates the Alcmeonid

Prawn (Garides) Saganaki

If you like seafood and/or prawns, then you'll love this dish! It can be served as a starter or a side dish and is actually quite filling. The Greek drink ouzo is used as is Greek feta cheese, but you should be able to obtain both of these quite easily wherever you live. It is served in the individual ceramic bowls you can see in the photos and the bowls are placed in front of the guests piping hot! This recipe is for 4 of these bowls or servings.

Ingredients

800g prawns size 1

100g grated onion

300g chopped fresh tomatoes

200g feta cheese

100g chopped green pepper

1 hot green chilli pepper chopped

100 ml olive oil

2 cloves grated garlic

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

50 ml ouzo

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Remove the shell and the intestine from the prawns, leaving the head and tail, and cut in two.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and when it is hot, add the onion, garlic, green pepper and chilli pepper.

Fry for 2 minutes and then add the prawns and stir well.

Add the ouzo and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Distribute the mixture evenly into 4 ceramic bowls – what we call saganaki bowls (see photo).

Cut the feta cheese into small cubes and place on top of each bowl.

Place the bowls under the grill long enough for the feta to melt and colour slightly.

Serve the 4 individual portions hot, adding some chopped fresh parsley on top if you wish.

Eat and Enjoy!

H is for ....

Continuing the series on Greek food and drink vocabulary. As always, the letters in bold italics show where the accent goes.

haddock - bakaliaros

ham - zambon

hazelnut - foondooki

herb - vottano

herring - renga

honey - melli

hors-d'oeuvre - orektiko

horseradish - hranno

Greek Youvetsi With Lamb

This is a popular dish in Greece and quite easy to prepare. It is usually made with lamb, but you can use other meat if you so prefer. You should be able to obtain Greek 'kritharaki' pasta where you live, as it is exported all over the world, but if you can't find it, you can order it here - Misko Orzo (Large) - Kritharaki Metrio

Ingredients

1 leg of young lamb cut into portions

200g Greek ‘kritharaki’ pasta (orzo)

1 grated onion

200 ml fresh tomato juice

100 ml slightly concentrated tomato juice

3 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

100 ml olive oil

Salt & pepper

Preparation

Gently fry the lamb in the olive oil for 5 minutes.

Add the grated onion and continue frying for another 5 minutes.

Add the tomato juice and when it starts boiling, add 1½ litres of water.

Add the cinnamon stick, cloves, salt and pepper.

Cook the lamb until it is tender, by which time the water should have been reduced in quantity by nearly a half.

At this point you need to have at least 1½ litres of liquid in the pan, so add enough water to make up the difference and bring to the boil once again.

Remove the cinnamon stick and cloves and transfer to an oven dish, which you then place in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius.

Once it starts to bubble, remove from the oven and add the kritharaki pasta.

Stir the pasta in well and place in the oven again.

Stir again after 5 minutes.

Leave in the oven until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Serve with grated cheese on top – ideally Greek Kefalotiri.

Eat And Enjoy!

Greek Pumpkin Pie With Homemade Filo Pastry - Kolokithopita

I love these pies! They have the sweet, juicy taste of the pumpkin and the delicious filo pastry. I personally eat them with cream, but then I eat cream with just about everything! As in the recipe for Spinach Pie (Spanakopita), this recipe tells you how to make the filo pastry yourself.

Ingredients

For the Filo Pastry

½ kg hard flour

150g butter

½ teaspoon salt

For the filling

500g grated pumpkin

100g raisins

150g sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

50g icing sugar

Preparation of Filo pastry

Mix the flour with the salt and enough water to make the dough pliable but not moist.

Knead the dough well and then divide it into 9 equal parts

Make a ball from each of the parts.

Leave the balls on a floured dish for at least 1 hour, covered with cling film.

Flatten 3 of the balls so that they have a diameter of 20cm

Place these one on top of the other, spreading melted butter between each of the 3 layers. Sprinkle some flour on top of the top layer. When you have done this, cover it with cling film and set it aside.

Repeat this process, so that you have 3 filos with 3 layers each.

Take the first one and, with a rolling pin flatten it out so that it has 60cm diameter.

Spread butter over it.

Preparation of the Filling

Remove the skin of the pumpkin, grate it and drain well.

Mix all the ingredients apart from the icing sugar in a bowl.

Spread 1/3 of the filling you have prepared evenly over the surface of the first filo.

Make a hole in the centre and fold the filo from the centre outwards so that you end up with a circular ‘tube’ with the filling in it.

Cut this anywhere, so that you have a single long cylinder.

Cut this into 6 equal parts.

Seal the ends of each part.

Roll the right-hand section away from you with your right hand and the left-hand section towards you with your left hand.

Take the parts and roll them each into coils (see photo at top).

Place them in a shallow, buttered oven dish.

Repeat the process with the other 2 filos.

Spread butter over all of them and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes or until they have a golden colour.

Remove the pies and sprinkle icing sugar over them.

Eat And Enjoy!

Halcyon Days

I'd like to do the occasional post about modern phrases or expressions that have Greek origins. I'll only do those that I feel might be of some interest. So I'll start with the phrase Halcyon Days.

Nowadays it is used in English to express a kind of nostalgia for carefree and 'sunny' days gone by. In Greek, however, we use it to describe a few days in January (which is why I'm posting it now) when the weather is calm and sunny before reverting to normal winter weather. The expression in Greek is Alkyonides (soft d) Meres.

The Alcyone was a bird (often associated with the kingfisher) in Greek legend that had the ability to calm the sea for 14 days in the winter solstice, in order to brood her eggs in a floating nest on the sea surface.

The belief in the bird's power to calm the sea originated in a myth where Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, had a daughter named Alcyone, who was married to Ceyx, the king of Thessaly. Ceyx was drowned at sea and Alcyone threw herself into the sea in grief. Instead of drowning, she was carried to her husband by the wind.

So now you know!

Traditional Greek New Year Cake (Vassilopitta)

First of all, I'd like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! In Greece we traditionally have the Vassilopitta cake at New Year. A coin or special good luck charm called the floori is placed in it and whoever gets the slice with this in it supposedly has good luck all the year. Slices are not only cut for the people there, but also for the House, God, Christ and whoever else you wish. Obviously if God or Christ's slice has the coin or charm, it doesn't mean that they're going to have good luck (!) but that you will feel their influence all year.

There are a few different ways of making Vasilopitta, and this is just one of them - which we like!

Ingredients

900g self-raising white flour

9 eggs – yolks and whites separated

240g butter at room temperature

Juice from 7 medium oranges

750g sugar

Grated rind from one orange

120ml brandy

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 tablespoons ground almonds

2 vanilla essences

100g icing sugar

Preparation

Beat the sugar and butter in the mixer for 10 minutes.

Add the egg yolks one at a time and continue beating for another 10 minutes.

Add the juice, brandy and rind gradually and continue beating.

Spread the baking powder to the flour through a sieve.

Add the ground almonds and then add the flour mixture to the other mixture, stirring gently with a spatula.

Beat the egg whites into a meringue, add to the mixture and combine them gently with a spatula.

Grease a round baking dish – 34cm diameter, 5cm height – and sprinkle some flour in it.

Place the mixture in the dish and bake in a pre-heated moderate oven for 75 minutes – or until a skewer placed in the centre of the cake comes out cleanly.

Insert a coin or small good luck charm wrapped in tin foil anywhere in the underside of the cake and transfer to a seasonal cake plate.

Place a stencil with the year (2009) on top of the centre of the cake and sprinkle well with icing sugar through a sieve.

Remove the stencil so that the year is showing clearly (see photo).

Eat And Enjoy!

Happy New Year!