Greek Dishes Made With Love - A Slide Show

I put together this little slide show with a selection of the dishes that we have on this blog (using PhotoPeach) accompanied by some music that we're particularly fond of. The Greeks amongst you will know the music and the old film it comes from.

Hope you like it - do let me know!

Greek Yoghurt Cake (Yaourtopita)

This is a refreshing and easily prepared cake for the summer months (or any other time of the year!) prepared with Greek strained yoghurt. Although it can be eaten warm straight from the oven, it is best eaten when it is cold.

Ingredients

400g fine semolina

400g sugar

500g Greek strained yoghurt

5 eggs

50g almonds very finely chopped

0.6g vanilla powder

1 tbsp baking powder

Grated peel from 1 lemon

Pinch of salt

For the syrup

350g water

600g sugar

3 thin strips of lemon peel

Preparation

Put the eggs, sugar and grated peel in a bowl and beat well with a hand whisk.

Add the yoghurt and beat well until it is well mixed.

Set aside 1 tbsp of semolina and put the rest in a bowl and add the almonds, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Mix well.

Add this mixture to the yoghurt mixture and mix well.

Take an oven dish 30cm diameter and 5cm deep, butter it and sprinkle the tbsp of semolina you have previously set aside.

Put the mixture in the dish and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the syrup by boiling all the syrup ingredients for 5 minutes.

When the cake is ready, cut it into portions in the oven dish and pour the syrup over it.

Remember, the cake should be hot when you do this and the syrup warm.

Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Tomato Fritters (Domatokeftedes)

This is a delicious and easy-to-make Greek summer snack. This is a speciality from the island of Santorini and is especially tasty with Santorini tomatoes. However, I imagine it may be difficult to obtain them if living outside Greece, but the quality of the tomato definitely makes a difference to the taste. You can eat these as a side dish or a meze and are especially delightful with tzatziki and Greek salad.

Ingredients

1 ½ kg ripe tomatoes

1 large onion finely chopped

2 tbsp chopped mint

300g flour

Oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Remove the skin, seeds and liquid from the tomatoes and finely chop them.

Place them in a colander and drain any remaining liquid.

Put them in a bowl and add the onion, mint, salt and pepper and mix well.

Add the flour – the mixture above should be approx 800g, for which 300g flour is enough, but if it should be more than 800g, you can add a bit more flour. Mix well.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and then add spoonfuls of the mixture to fry. When one side is done, turn over.

Remove and place on absorbent kitchen paper to drain.

Eat and Enjoy!

Most 'Liked' Recipes On Authentic Greek Recipes

Less than a couple of months ago I embedded the Facebook 'Like' button in my posts here. I had just been looking at the number of Likes on posts since that time, but by chance discovered today that people had been Liking a lot of previous posts. So here are the 5 most Liked recipes on the blog at the moment -

Baclava - 36 Likes
Pastichio - 30 Likes
Vegetarian Moussaka - 21 Likes
Lamb Kleftiko - 18 Likes
Fasolakia (Fresh Green Beans) - 16 Likes

I was rather surprised to find that Fasolakia was in the top 5 - not because it isn't a delicious dish, I love it personally - but because it isn't quite so 'famous'.

So, go ahead and click that Like button - let the world know about these wonderful recipes!!

Greek Stuffed Marrows (Kolokithia Gemista) With Avgolemono Sauce

This is a delicious dish using the thick ends of marrows. In most cases one end of a marrow will be thinner than the other, so we just use the thick end to stuff. You can keep the other half to make something else - for example zucchini fritters. Avgolemono is a lovely Greek sauce made from eggs (avgo) and lemons. For vegetarians this dish can be made with chopped mushrooms instead of the mincemeat (I've tried that and it's nice!).


Ingredients


8 marrows
250g beef or lamb mincemeat
200g rice
1 large onion grated
4 tbsp grated marrow (from the 8 marrows above)
2 tbsp dill
100 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Avgolemono Sauce
1 egg
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter
30 ml lemon juice


Preparation

Cut the marrows in half and keep the thick ends to use. You can keep the narrow halves to use for something else.
Scoop out the insides of the marrow halves and grate enough for 4 tablespoons.
Place the marrows in a pan (open end up) and set aside until the filling is ready.

Filling
Put the oil in another pan and gently fry the grated onion for 3 minutes.
Add the mincemeat and stir well for 5 minutes.
Add the rice and stir well for 3 minutes.
Add the grated marrow, dill, salt and pepper along with 1 cup water and stir well.
Simmer for 15 minutes.

Fill the marrows with the filling mixture and add enough water to the pan to come up to halfway up the marrows.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat but leave the pan on to keep it warm while you are making the avgolemono sauce.

Avgolemono Sauce
Remove very carefully any remaining liquid from the pan with the marrows, put in a bowl and add the lemon juice.
In a separate bowl beat the egg white well and then add the yolk and continue beating.
Very gradually add the lemon juice and water mixture to the beaten egg, stirring very well as you do so.
Put the butter in a pan to heat, add the flour and stir well for 2 minutes.
Turn down the heat and add the egg and lemon juice mixture.
Stir well for 2 minutes to make a runny sauce. If the sauce isn’t runny, you can add some warm water.

Pour the avgolemono sauce over the stuffed marrows in the pan.


Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Meat Pie (Kreatopita)

In the new forum on this blog (see link at top of page) someone asked for a recipe for kreatopita (meat pie). There are several recipes, but the one given is here is speciality from Ioannina, which is in the north west of Greece. Lovely and nutritious!

Ingredients


For the pastry
250g Greek strained yoghurt
1 egg
250g butter at room temperature
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk for the finish
Enough soft flour to make a pliable but non-sticky dough.

For the filling
½ kg beef mincemeat
750 g onions
3 eggs
250g kefalograviera cheese grated – otherwise another hard cheese such as regato
3 tbsp béchamel sauce
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp crumbled rusks
2 tbsp butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

Filling
Slice the onions and place them in a colander.
Pour salted boiled water over them, rinse and drain well.
Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a pan, add the onions and gently fry for 2 minutes.
Add the mincemeat, cinnamon, salt and pepper and stir well.
Add 100 ml of water and let it boil until just the mixture is left.
Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and let it cool.
Add the 3 eggs, cheese, rusks and béchamel sauce and set aside while you prepare the pastry.

Pastry
Combine all the pastry ingredients in a mixing bowl, except for the egg yolk/milk mixture which is for the finishing.
Knead it well into a pliable but non-sticky dough.
Separate the dough into 2 balls, with the one being slightly larger than the other.
Take the larger ball and roll it out on a floured working surface – enough to more than cover your oven dish.
Place it in a buttered oven dish, covering the bottom, sides and going slightly over the edge at the top.


Now place the filling mixture on top of the pastry in the oven dish and level it.
Roll out the second (smaller) dough ball and cover the filling.
Butter the edge of the first pastry and fold it over inwards to cover the edge of the second pastry and make a nice border, pressing around the edge with your fingertips.
Brush the surface with the egg yolk/milk mixture.
Make a hole in the centre to allow the steam to escape and prick the rest of the pastry with a fork.
You can make some leaves with the dough and place them around the central hole for decoration.
Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approx. 45 minutes until it has turned a nice golden brown.


Eat and Enjoy!

New Welcome Page On Authentic Greek Recipes FB Page

I've just created a new Welcome page for people arriving for the first time at our Authentic Greek Recipes Facebook Page. People who already Like the Page go straight to the Wall but anyone visiting for the first time goes to the page which you can see below. I'm not a designer (anything but!) but I think it's not bad.

What do you think?

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