11 Greek Seafood Recipes

  The sea is everywhere in Greece, so it's not surprising that there are so many seafood dishes. We've put together a list with 11 seafood recipes for you. Just click on the links to go to the recipes.

  

 'Bianco' Fish

 A simple Greek fish recipe, which is a speciality from Corfu. It's a simple and nutritious dish and very popular in the villages here.

Cod (Bakaliaros) With Garlic Sauce (Skordalia)

 A fish dish is normally accompanied by garlic sauce (skordalia) and beetroot.

 Cuttlefish with Spinach (Soupyes and Spanaki)

 A dish traditionally eaten on Clean Monday, which is the beginning of the Lent period before Easter. Of course, it can also be a delicious side dish at any time of the year.

Gavros (Whiting) Mezes

 A simple Greek meze, usually accompanied by the Greek drink ouzo.

Kalamari - Calamari (Fried Squid)

 A well-known dish all over the world.

 Octopus With Eggplants (Htapodi me Melitzanes)

 Octopus is a popular seafood dish in Greece, though it is an acquired taste. This is a popular recipe, prepared with eggplants and potatoes.

 Octopus with Pasta

A simple recipe with small pasta - the type used for minestrone. Delicious served with grated cheese.

 

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.

 Sea Bass (Lavraki)

 This method of cooking sea bass (Lavraki) is popular on the island of Cephalonia. What makes it different is that the stomach is filled with the garlic an herbs.

 Stuffed Squid (Kalamarakia Gemista)

Greek kalamari (squid) is well-known all over the world. This is a recipe for stuffed kalamari with sauce.

Taramosalata

 Another dish that is traditionally eaten on Clean Monday at the beginning of Lent before Easter. It is also well-known worldwide.

Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Calamari (Kalamari) - Fried Squid

How to make Greek calamari. Calamari (Kalamari) is a well-known dish all over the world - the plural is actually Calamaria. They are actually fairly simple to prepare, but a lot depends on the quality of the squid. Fresh Calamari will be more tender than the frozen squid, and in Greece we usually have it fresh. The recipe below is for fresh calamari. You should be able to find the Greek spirit Ouzo where you live.

Ingredients

1 kg calamaria

800ml sunflower oil

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp ouzo

Salt to taste

½ lemon for garnish

Preparation

Put the calamaria in a bowl of cold water. Remove the insides - making sure to remove the long thin transparent part – and the eye. Discard them.

You may also remove and discard the thin skin, though some people don’t.

Rinse the calamaria well 3-4 times in cold water, making sure you rub the small tentacles well to remove any sand that may be stuck there.

Cut the bodies into rings approx. 2-3 cm wide.

Put the rings and the tentacles into a bowl and add salt (not too much). Then add the ouzo.

Cover the bowl and put it into the fridge for I hour to marinate.

After the hour has passed and you have removed the calamaria from the fridge, put the oil into a deep frying pan and heat very well – it has to be really hot.

Put the calamaria in a colander and drain well and then place on absorbent paper to absorb any remaining liquid.

Dip the calamaria in the flour and cover them well. You can do this all at the same time or in stages as you fry them.

Shake them a little to remove any excess flour and then fry them a few at a time (if you put too many at a time, it cools the oil) for approx. 2-3 minutes. Don’t over-fry as they will become hard.

Put them on absorbent paper and them serve them hot with a piece of lemon on the side.


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Eat and Enjoy!

 

Greek 'Bianco' Fish

 This is a simple Greek fish recipe, which is a speciality from Corfu. For a long time, Corfu was under Venetian rule and this dish shows its Italian heritage. Traditionally, Grey Mullet (Kephalos) is used, but Sea Bass (Lavraki) is also very popular and the photo above is with sea bass.

It's a simple and nutritious dish and very popular in the villages here.

Ingredients

2 Sea Bass (or Grey Mullet)

1 kg potatoes thickly sliced

8 garlic cloves finely sliced

200ml olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Preparation

Fillet the fish, but don’t discard the head and bones.

Put the head and bones in ½ litre water, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes, to use as stock.

Drain the stock water and keep it. Discard the head and bones.

Put the oil in a shallow pan, add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.

Add the potatoes and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add the stock water, salt and a generous amount of ground pepper, bring to the boil and simmer with the pan covered until the potatoes are half-boiled.

Add salt and pepper to the fish fillets and place them on top of the potatoes.

Bring to the boil and simmer with the pan covered until all the water has gone and only the oil remains - 10-15 minutes approx.


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Eat and Enjoy!

 

12 Greek Seafood Dishes

The sea is everywhere in Greece, so it's not surprising that there are so many seafood dishes. Below are some popular ones - just click on the links to go to the recipes.

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.

Greek Rice With Fish (Psaropilafo Tis Kivelis)

This is a delicious dish, using any fish that is suitable for soups, e.g. sea bass, trout, monk fish or a combination of these. In Greek this is called Kiveli's fish rice dish. Kiveli (or Kyveli)was a famous lady of the Greek theatre last century - George Papandreou, grandfather of our present Prime Minister, was her third husband and she his second wife. You can see a photo of her at the bottom of this post. Kiveli created this dish one day when she had limited ingredients and had to prepare a meal for a lot of people. The meal was a success - people asked for seconds! - and the dish was thus named after her.

Ingredients

1 kg fish – this should be fish suitable for soup, e.g. sea bass, monk fish, trout or a combination of these)

2 carrots cut into 3 pieces each

4 onions sliced

4 sprigs celery leaves

1 bay leaf

100 ml extra virgin oil

1½ cups pilaf rice

3 tbsp butter (2 for sauce, 1 for rice)

1 cup milk

2 tbsp flour

1 egg yolk

Preparation

Clean and wash the fish.

Boil the carrots, onions, bay leaf, celery leaves and oil for 30 minutes.

Add the fish and continue boiling for another 10 minutes approx. – the fish is ready when the flesh can be easily removed from the bone.

Remove the fish and set aside.

Remove 3 cups of liquid from the pan and pass through a very fine sieve.

Put this in a pan and add the 1½ cups of pilaf rice and 1 tbsp butter, bring to the boil and then simmer at a very low heat for 15 minutes.

Pass the remaining liquid in the pan through a thick sieve into a bowl.

For the Sauce

Place the 2 tbsp butter in a pan and melt.

Add the flour and stir briskly for approx. minutes.

Add the milk and continue stirring.

When it starts to thicken, add enough of the liquid in the bowl to make a consistent sauce – neither too thick nor too thin.

Add the egg yolk and stir briskly for approx. 1 minute.

Remove from the heat.

Remove the bones from the fish and cut into large portions.

Serve the pilaf rice on a large dish and spread 2-3 spoonfuls of the sauce on top.

Place the fish on top.

Spread another 5-6 spoonfuls of sauce on top.

The remaining sauce can be set aside for anyone who wishes to add more.


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Eat and Enjoy!

 Kiveli Adrianou

1888 - 1978 

Photo: http://toblogtonkirion.gr

 

Greek Gavros (Whiting) With Peppers

We showed in a previous post how to prepare whiting (gavros) as a meze. Below you can see another way of preparing it as a delicious dish with red, green, orange and yellow peppers.

Ingredients

1 kg small whiting

1 onion sliced into fine rings

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 orange pepper

1 yellow pepper

2 cloves garlic

4 tbsp tomatoes cut into cubes without juice or seeds

3 tbsp parsley chopped

60 ml olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds.

Place the peppers under the grill with the skin side up for approx. 15 minutes.

You can now remove the skin easily and discard it.

Remove the head, tail and central bone from the whiting, keeping just the fillet but making sure that the fish are whole and not split.

Salt the fish and place in the fridge while you prepare the sauce.

Slice the peppers.

Place the oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion rings for 2 minutes.

Add the peppers and garlic and fry for another 3 minutes.

Add the tomato cubes and parsley, stir and fry for another 2 minutes, adding salt and pepper.

Place half of the sauce you have now prepared in a shallow oven dish.

Arrange the fish on top of the sauce and then spread the remaining sauce on top.

Place in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, so that the fish is cooked and the sauce set.


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Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Spetsiotiko Fish

This is a method of baking fish that comes from the island of Spetses - hence the name Spetsiotiko. It can be used for a few different types of fish. The one we prepared which you can see in the photo is Fagri or sea bream. You can also use large Lavraki or sea bass, Sinagrida or dentex, Sfirida or white grouper, large Tsipoura or dorado. As far as I have checked, these are the correct English translations of the fish names.

Ingredients

1 kg fish

3 cups grated tomatoes

1 ½ cups olive oil

3 tbsp parsley finely chopped

1 clove garlic crushed

1 cup crumbled rusks

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Clean the fish and salt it.

You can leave the fish whole, but if it is large you can cut it into slices.

Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl, apart from the rusks.

Place the fish in an oven dish and pour the sauce over it.

Take half of the rusks and sprinkle them over the fish.

Put a little of the sauce over the rusks to moisten them.

Sprinkle the rest of the rusks on top.

Put in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approx. 1 hour.

During this time, once or twice you can spoon some of the sauce in the oven dish over the fish. If, for some reason, you find that there is not enough sauce, you can add a little white wine.

When it’s done, the sauce should be like a crust on the fish.

If you've tried this recipe please rate it!

Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Cod (Bakaliaros) With Garlic Sauce (Skordalia)

This fish dish is normally accompanied by garlic sauce (skordalia) and beetroot. What you see in the photo may look like mashed potatoes, but is the skordalia. The photo shows the fish called galeos, but this is most likely unobtainable abroad, so as it belongs to the cod family, we have given the recipe using cod below. It is very easy to prepare and is similar to fish croquettes.

To make the skordalia and beetroot, please go to a previous post here which gives the recipe.

Ingredients

1 kg fresh cod

4 tablespoons flour

300 ml sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Preparation

Cut the cod into slices approx. 3cm wide.

Remove the central bone, fold open the remaining flesh and cut it in half.

Salt each of the pieces and sprinkle flour on them.

Deep fry in hot oil for 4 minutes approx.

If you've tried this recipe please rate it!

Eat and Enjoy

Greek Gavros (Whiting) Mezes

This is a simple Greek meze, usually accompanied by the Greek drink ouzo. A meze is a kind of hors d'œuvre eaten in Greece, accompanied by ouzo, retsina or beer. The fish gavros (whiting) is very popular in Greece. This meze can also be a side dish at a meal or as part of a buffet.

Ingredients

½ kg whiting

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

200 ml sunflower oil

Preparation

Remove and discard the head, entrails and spine of the whiting. When you remove the spine, fold open the fillet but making sure that it is joined the in the middle after removing the spine.

Drain the fillets and salt them.

Make ‘sandwiches’ with the fillets – placing one on top of another, with the inside part in the middle.

Place a layer of parsley and garlic in the middle of each of the fillet ‘sandwiches’ and then carefully sprinkle flour on the outside.

Put the oil in a pan and heat until it is very hot.

Carefully place the fillets in the oil and fry each side for about 3–4 minutes. The combination of the oil and the flour will ensure that both sides of the fillet will stick to each other.


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Eat and Enjoy!

6 Traditional Greek Dishes For Clean Monday

This coming Monday - February 15 - is Clean Monday in Greece. This is the start of the Lent period before Easter and there are several traditional dishes that are eaten on this day. Below, you'll find some of them. Just click on the links to go to the recipes.

Taramosalata

This is also well-known worldwide. It is made from taramas, which is the fish roe from cod (mosy common) or carp. You may know Taramosalata as being bright pink in colour, but this is usually due to food colouring being added. It should be a colour varying from beige to light pink, depending on the fish roe.

Traditional Greek Pickles (Toursi)

These are delicious with Gigantes (see below) which is also traditionally eaten on Clean Monday. They can be prepared in a day, so there is time to get them ready.

Butterbeans Plaki (Gigantes)

Stuffed Squid (Kalamarakia Gemista)

Cuttlefish with Spinach (Soupyes me Spanaki)

Octopus with Pasta

There are several ways of cooking and serving octupus. This is a simple recipe with small pasta - the type used for minestrone - and is delicious served with grated cheese.

Macedonian Halva


This halva is traditionally associated with Clean Monday. The recipe is a well-kept secret, so it can only be purchased.

Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Sea Bass (Lavraki)

This method of cooking sea bass (Lavraki) is popular on the island of Cephalonia, especially in Fiskardo, where large amounts of the fish can be found in the sea. What makes it different is that the stomach is filled with the garlic and herbs and it is baked wrapped in greaseproof paper. It's quite easy to prepare, if you are used to cleaning fish.

Ingredients

4 sea bass (approx 500g each)

4 medium tomatoes

5-6 cloves garlic finely chopped

4 tablespoons parsley finely chopped

1 level teaspoon oregano

300 ml white wine

150 ml olive oil

Salt

4 sheets greaseproof paper

Preparation

Clean and scale the fish, making sure you clean inside the head and stomach.

Salt the fish both outside and inside the stomach and set aside.

Cut 6 horizontal slices from each tomato.

Place 3 tomato slices in a row in the centre of each sheet of greaseproof paper.

Place the fish on top of each row of tomatoes.

Put equal amounts of garlic, parsley and oregano in the stomach of each fish.

Sprinkle olive oil over the fish.

Place 3 tomato slices on top of each fish.

Wrap each fish in the greaseproof paper fairly tightly. (see photo below after it has come out of the oven)

Place all 4 in an oven dish and add the remaining olive oil, the white wine and 1 cup of water.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes.


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Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Stuffed Squid (Kalamarakia Gemista)

I think that Greek kalamari (squid) is well-known all over the world. So, for the seafood lovers amongst you, this is a recipe for stuffed kalamari with sauce.

Ingredients

1½ kg squid (kalamari)

1 bunch spring onions

120g risotto rice

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

60 ml olive oil

50 ml white wine

Salt and pepper

For the sauce

1 tablespoon tomato paste diluted in 2 tablespoons water

1 onion grated

2 cloves garlic chopped

400 ml chopped tomatoes

60 ml olive oil

50 ml white wine

Juice from half a lemon

Pinch of sugar

Salt and pepper

Preparation

Sauce

In a pan, fry the onion in the olive oil for 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and fry for another 1 minute.

Add the wine, allowing it to evaporate and then add the lemon juice, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper and sugar.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

Squid

Remove the head with the tentacles from the body and with a sharp knife remove the ink, eye and mouth and discard them.

Empty the body completely and discard the contents.

Rub the tentacles and empty tubes with salt in order to remove the outer membrane completely.

Rinse very well in water.

Chop the tentacles and the spring onions.

In a pan, gently fry the onions in the olive oil for 2 minutes.

Add the tentacles and fry them until all the juices have evaporated.

Add the rice, parsley, salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute.

Add the wine and stir until it has evaporated.

Add 100 ml of the previously prepared sauce (see above) to this mixture.

Let it slow cook for 5 minutes.

Stuff the kalamari with this mixture and secure the tube with a toothpick.

Put the stuffed kalamari in an oven dish and spread the sauce over them.

Cover the oven dish with a lid or tin foil.

Bake in a pre heated moderate oven at 160 degrees Celsius for approx. 1 hour.


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Eat and Enjoy!

Greek Octopus With Eggplants (Htapodi me Melitzanes)

Octopus is a popular seafood dish in Greece, though it is an acquired taste. I previously posted the recipe for Octopus With Pasta and this is another popular recipe, where the octopus is prepared with eggplants and potatoes.

Ingredients

1 ½ kilos octopus

4 eggplants

4 medium potatoes cut into cubes

1 large onion grated

3 cloves chopped garlic

4 fresh, ripe tomatoes with skin removed and grated

100 ml olive oil

100 ml red wine

400 ml water

2 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

Remove the stems from the eggplants and peel in stripes – peel one length of skin, leave one length, peel another length etc.

Cut the eggplants into cubes approx. 2-3 cm

Put in a bowl of water with 1 tablespoon salt.

Cover with a plate to keep the cubes under water.

Clean the ink from the octopus and remove the eye.

Cut the tentacles into 5cm lengths.

In a heavy bottom pan heat the oil and then add the octopus.

Fry until all the liquid from the octopus has gone, but the oil remains.

Add the onion and fry for 3 minutes.

Ad the garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the red wine and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Add the tomato puree and bay leaves and simmer for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, add 400 ml water, drain the eggplants well and add them along with the potatoes, salt and pepper to the mixture.

Cook for approx. 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender.


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Eat and Enjoy!