Category Archives: greek

Behold the Sensitive Courgette!  (that’s a fancy word for zucchini)

August 7, 2016

Courgette, zucchini, summer squash, golden zucchini..same same.  So why all the name calling?  No matter what you call them, they are still squash, picked while young and have thin skins.  So don’t mock them, their feelings are easily hurt…Oh, the sensitive courgette.

You’re at the Farmers Market and you have been taken aback by the cute zucchini arrangement, the gold ones, the dark green ones, the light green ones,  the stripped ones.  So you buy them.  All of them. Maybe too many of them.  What do you do with them?


I have the answer. A one pan meal, perfect for summer!  Briami.  It’s what I call a Greek zucchini bake.  All along the Mediterranean, you find variations of this dish: Italy’s caponata, and Spain’s Pistou, and zee French ratatouille!  But I love the Greek briami the best!  No bias AT ALL!!  It might also be the easiest version to make however if that tempts you.

Observe in 3 steps:

First, slice up your zucchini.  All of them!

Next, add herbs, garlic, onions, olive oil and tomatoes.  Mix them up and pop them into a 400F oven.


Finally, let it bake, brown, meld their flavors together for a little over an hour and eat!  With feta!

It’s Mediterranean nirvana. Not the band with teenage angst, although they were thin-skinned and sensitive like zucchini too, but nirvana the Buddhist concept of “heaven”.  

Nevermind.  (See what I did there?  I made a Nirvana song reference?  Ok ignore me.)

Aaaaaaanywaaaaaay, It’s good. And good for you.  So try it! 🙂
So how do we make Courgette Nirvana?

Greek Briami

serves 4

2 medium zucchini

2 medium summer squash

2 medium potatoes

1 medium red onion

12 cherry tomatoes

Mint

Olive oil,

Salt pepper

1/2 cup crushed tomato

1/2 cup water 

1/4 cup olive oil 

Pre-heat your oven to 400F.  Slice the zucchini, squash, potatoes and cherry tomatoes place in a baking pan or dish. Add the crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, mint and olive oil and mix together in the same pan.  Add the water and bake for about 1-1.5 hours stirring half way to make sure thing brown evenly…and that’s it. Done! Presto! 
Enjoy with a piece of feta and assyrtiko wine.

-Kallie 

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Γεμιστά! Say what? Why say stuffed tomatoes when you can say “yemista”?

July 31, 2016

Yemista should be called “yummy-sta”…ok, forget I said that. Still friends?
It’s summer. It’s August. It’s hot. All the veggies at the farmers market are seducing you.  It’s high season for tomatoes and peppers. And that salad you keep making, BORING! So what do you do with all of your tomatoes and peppers? Stuff ’em, I say.
Stuffed tomatoes and peppers are pretty delicious and easy to make. It’s one of those throw ’em together and forget ’em dishes. It’s the classic summer-time meal taking advantage of your excess tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.  Yes I know you over shopped at the farmers market.  I saw you!

When I was younger and before adulthood and responsibility set in (a-hem, and a full time job…waaah!) I spent the entire summer in Greece, relaxing on the beach, reading a book and watching the waves while sometimes contemplating if I wanted a cappuccino fredo or a frappé. Hey, coffee selection was a critical decision back then. I miss when life was that simple…but that’s another blog post.

Upon my return, the “welcome back to Chicago” meal my mom would make for me was yemista. She would make a whole pan full of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant, stuffed with rice and ground beef, baked in the oven, filling the kitchen with the smells of summer.  The smell of Greece.  Yes Greece smells like a roasted, stuffed tomato.  Trust me.  Let’s ignore the fact that you are baking in the middle of summer okay? Turn on the AC. Thank me later.

Actually, this is one of the cute ironies of this dish. You have to make this dish in a hot oven in the middle of the hot summer. That’s when tomatoes and peppers are at their finest. If you try to make it in winter, fail! Sad boring unripe, un-flavorful veggies. Summer-time stuffed tomatoes = hipster irony. 

Anyway, this meal extended that summer vacation feeling just a little bit longer. A little. Kind of. Ok not really. All it did was make me instantly nostalgic for my favorite beach in Greece, the sun, the waves, the coffee, the music, the food, my tan. 
“But you were just there yesterday,” my mom would say. “How can you miss it already?” This from a woman that calls her brother in Greece to make sure he sent her shipment of olive oil for the year, and required me to bring her mizithra, mountain oregano, dried sage, chamomile, honey, and Greek Coffee. “Papagalos brand okay? The rest is not coffee.” Oh she doesn’t miss it at all. Sigh. So yes, this dish can do that for me.

And so, I bring to you this recipe to transport you to a small Greek village for a few hours. Just imagine sitting in the sunshine with some fresh ripe tomatoes stuffed with rice and ground beef, peppered with fresh mint and slathered in olive oil. Serve with a square of salty feta and a little retsina and you’re set.
So let’s be ironic and make this hot dish in the middle of the hot summer! Yaaas people! Here’s how…

Yemista: Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers
Serves 4, or 2 incredibly hungry people (this recipe has been scaled down from my mother’s version which is enough to feed a small town in Greece)

Ingredients:
4 ripe medium to large tomatoes
1-2 green peppers (or eggplant, or zucchini, choice is yours)
2 potatoes cut into wedges
1 small red onion finely diced
1 clove garlic
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup of rice
1/2 cup crushed Marzano tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons finely cut fresh mint
Salt & pepper

How to make this rockin’ dish:
1. Begin by slicing the tops off your tomatoes and peppers and scooping out and hollowing out the core and seeds with a spoon. Salt the interiors a little bit and arrange in your baking dish. Like this:


 (As an extra flavor bonus squish the tomato cores between your fingers, strain and save the resulting tomatoe juice to top your dish with before placing in oven)

2. Sauté your red onions in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add your clove of crushed garlic.  Finally adding the ground beef to brown.  Season with salt, pepper and your freshly cut mint.  Add 1/2 cup of crushed Marzano tomatoes and saute until cooked through.  Set aside.

3.  Peel and cut your potatoes into wedges, seasoning with salt and pepper and placing them around the tomatoes and peppers in the baking dish.

4. Go back to your sautéed ground beef that has been cooling and add 1/2 cup of rice and stir.  Begin filling your tomatoes and peppers about 1/2 way to 2/3 full.  Make sure the filling is placed loosely inside so that there is room for the rice to expand while baking.

5. Place the tops on your veggies, pour the tomato juice you set aside earlier over them also adding a 1/2 cup of water to the bottom of the baking dish.  This will help the rice cook through. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies and potatoes to help brown.

6. Bake at 400F and forget about it…well, only for about 1.5 hours (try to check on them every 30 minutes to make sure things are moving along). it’s ready when the rice is cooked through and the veggies have browned.

Serve, eat and enjoy!
-Kallie

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May the Coin Be With You.

December 29, 2015

vasilopita

A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side.” –Yoda to Luke

“Oh boy,” I know you are thinking, “Where is she going with this one?”

“I got the coin, I got the coin!”  This phrase is uttered countless of times as over 10 million Greeks in a galaxy far, far away dig into the piece of Vasilopita (St. Basil’s Cake) that had been allocated to them in search of that ever-elulsive coin.  What coin is this might you ask?  Let me tell you, it’s harder to locate than Luke Skywalker in the Force Awakens.

No maps either.

Every year, Greeks bake a sweet cake, scented with orange and cinnamon and drop a coin into it while it bakes.  It’s carefully cut into pieces and passed out to everyone at New Year’s dinner.  The young jedi knight, I mean, the person who finds the coin in their piece of cake will find that the force will be strong with them in the coming year.

Well, the sound of that we like, do we not?  Sorry, got all Yoda on you.  So you are not so sure you believe in the power of the coin?  Let me explain further.

  • 1967 my father won the coin and he came to America.
  • 1969 my mother won the coin and got engaged.
  • 1999 I won the coin and bought my first car with gains made in stock market (true story, dotcom boom)
  • 2012 I won the coin again and got married.
  • 2013 my friend T. won the coin and got a new job.  That she loves!  How about that?
  • 2014 my friend D. wrote a song and now a famous Latin American soccer player wants to produce it.  I am so putting that on my blog when it’s out there!

Do you doubt the power of the coin now?

So how does the dark side play into this you may be asking?

If you are privileged enough to win the coin’s favor, you must never lose or spend said coin.  Or not so nice things will occur.  I’m not saying Darth Vader will be after you, but something close.  Take for instance my cousin George.  Sorry man, I have to call you out.  My cousin George had been winning the coin 7 years straight.  He was Jedi Master of the Vasilopita coin.  But then, the dark side.  He was foolish enough to carry his precious coins everywhere he went.  And one day he got stuck a the train station, in the days before cell phones.  What?  Yes!  You know where this is story is going.  He used his coins to call his mom for a ride.  Well, let’s just say that his life has taken an interesting turn.  He might as well live on the planet Jakku.  And he also has never won the coin again.  You must not take the coin’s powers lightly.

Anyway, before I get to the reason you are here.  The recipe.  (I have had many requests to publish this early).  I will leave you with this small bit of nostalgia from my childhood.

There is winning, and then there’s really winning…

I remember New Year’s Eve 1985, my parents and I went to my great-aunt Vicki’s house to ring in the New Year by playing poker and eating, two classic Greek pastimes.  It was also her name’s day and my mom’s, Vasiliki.  So this first day of the year is extra special to me.

My koubaro made pizza with a Bisquick crust (funny that I can remember that detail).  So there we were.  Pizza.  Beer.  Poker.  I was little, but they needed bodies and there was no discriminating against taking money from a kid, so there I was, learning to play poker along with my aunt and mom.  All I remember is Vicki kept winning.  Over and over again.  She had no idea how to play, but she was “all-in”, every time.  It was quite a run.

And when she won, she would laugh, the best, loudest, most shocked laugh I ever heard.  I wasn’t even bothered by the fact that I was losing because she kept laughing this glorious laugh every time she won a hand.

“Aaah!  Hahahaha!”

It was wildly entertaining considering she was beating my dad, my koubaro and great uncle, the card sharks, the three wise guys, the self-proclaimed poker aficionados.  They were stupefied.  I was enamoured with her, now that’s winning!  The force was strong with her.

Now let’s make cake young Jedis.

-Mistress Kallie 🙂

Vasilopita – St. Basil’s Cake

4 cups flour*

2 cups sugar

6 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups milk

5 egg yolks

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon orange rind

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons powdered sugar 

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Measure and sift all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. In a stand mixer beat the eggs, milk, vanilla and butter well and then slowly add dry ingredients. Finally add the orange rind. Pour the mixture in a well buttered and floured prepared pan.  Easy peasy.

Hide a clean foiled wrapped coin in the batter before baking.  Bake in oven at 350 for 45-50 minutes checking to see if toothpick comes out clean.

Turn out into a serving plate and top with a dusting of cinammon and powdered sugar.

* If making gluten free, I like to use Jeanne’s Gluten Free Flour Mix from the Art of Gluten Free Baking.  For her mix, 140 grams = 1 cup of gluten free flour

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Approximate Baking Theory and a Recipe for Greek Christmas Cookies

December 20, 2015

Ah, Christmas time.  The memories.  When I was little, I would make kourambiethes with my mom.  They are a powdery, snowy-looking Greek Christmas cookie, and it was my job to assist her in adding the appropriate amount of flour into the batter at her cue.  It was my responsibility and no one else’s.  I was, the flour girl.  Pause for effect.

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Without fail, the Saturday before Christmas, early morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table watching her whip butter and sugar together until it was fluffy.  She of course giving me a sweet taste before she added vanilla and brandy for flavor.  After that it was my turn, I would add heaping spoonfuls full of flour into the batter as she mixed by hand until she found that the dough was perfect for shaping into moons, stars and crescents.  She would tell me to add a lot, then a little.  And then just a little bit more…that’s it, just right.

Just right?  How did she know it was just right?  We never measured anything!!!  So, let’s talk about that for a minute shall we?  The topic of “measurements” in Greek cooking.  And I use the term “measurement” loosely.  I call it “Approximate Baking Theory”.

IMG_3100

“Oh there’s a coffee cup and spoon, just use that to measure.” -Mom

She would grab some random coffee mug from her cupboard and use it to “measure” ingredients.  She would take a coffee spoon and “measure” spices, or the baking power and baking soda. And then she would tell me to just take big spoonfuls of flour and just add it to the bowl until she said so and just like that, (pause for effect) magic.  The dough would form and pull away from the bowl and it would just roll up perfectly in her hands.  But how?  How?

If you looked at my mom’s recipe notebook, her recipes are basically handwritten lists of ingredients.  I don’t believe for one minute her coffee mugs and coffee spoons ever really “measured” anything.  They were simply vessels used to transport ingredients into the mixing bowl.  “Oh, I need a little cinnamon, I’ll use this small spoon.”  or “Oh, I need some sugar, I’ll use this mug.”  The actual amounts of each ingredient exists only in her head or what “looked about right”.  So imagine the comedy of errors that followed when I demanded, “Mom, you need to measure that and make me a recipe.”  Sweet Jesus.  Everything was in ratios of that stupid coffee cup.  God help me if I lose the coffee cup.  That brown and white coffee cup!!!  She later confessed to me that her grandmother didn’t even use a coffee cup, she used a plate.  A plate!!!  Well, a coffee cup seemed like progress now.

Image 4And so, since I believe baking to be a true “science” and requires precision, and anyone who knows me, knows I like precision, I filled that coffee cup with water and measured it.  Yes I did.

And then I insisted she use measuring spoons for the cinnamon, clove, baking powder and baking soda.  An hour long conversation about rounded teaspoons vs. level teaspoons followed.  I can’t.  Don’t ask.

Let’s just say that after much philosophical discussion, getting lost in translation, I managed to transcribe a recipe that existed only in her head onto paper.  I cracked the code.  I solved the riddle.  The secrets of generations of Greek women have been laid wide out into the open.  I have my mother’s recipe in true recipe form.

I always think back to those innocent days when I make these cookies and smile.  And then I pour some coffee into that stupid coffee mug and grab a real measuring cup and go to town.  So let’s make these cookies!  Woot!

Kourambiethes – makes approximately 60 cookies

3 sticks of unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp whiskey or brandy
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
“approximately” 4 cups of flour (see notes below)

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Let the butter come to room temperature before whipping in a stand mixer.  Whip the butter for about 5 minutes at medium speed then add the sugar and beat for and additional 10-15 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla, brandy, egg yolks, egg white, baking powder and soda until mixed through.
Begin adding the flour slowly…

A note about the the flour.  You may be wondering, why there isn’t an exact amount of flour.  I want to tell you, that it can vary because of air temperature and humidity in your kitchen, but I would be lying.  In general, this recipe takes approximately 4 cups of flour, give or take a 1/4 cup or more.  How can this be?  Well,  blame “the approximate baking theory”.

However, if you add the flour in the manner I describe next, I promise, you too will be an expert baker of approximate measures.  Do not be afraid.

Begin by adding the first 2.5 cups of flour and mix.  Now it’s time to get your hands dirty.  Take the mixing bowl off the stand mixer and start adding more flour about 1/2 at a time and blend by hand until you obtain the desired consistency.

What is the desired consistency you may be wondering?  Well, you want to add enough flour so that the mixture begins to “pull away” cleanly from the sides of the bowl, but not so much that when you roll out a cookie it cracks.  If you get cracks before you baked them, you have added too much flour, so add slowly.  You want a nice smooth cookie.  Otherwise, while the cookies are baking, they will crack some more as they spread and rise, and this is a very tender, crumbly butter cookie.

But I will let you in on a secret, come closer.  All cracks can be hidden by the powdered sugar topping..wink wink, no one will know.  Shhhh, you didn’t just read that.

I like to roll my cookies out into full moons with a dimple in center to hold more powdered sugar (and also because I am incredibly lazy…otherwise you can get creative and shape them into crescent moons and stars.)

The cookies bake about 12-15 minutes depending on strength of your oven at about 360-375 F. (Again, the approximate baking theory applies). You don’t really want color on top of the cookie, but a nice light brown on the bottom, which will be an indicator that they are cooked perfectly.

Roll the cookies in powdered sugar, or if you like more precision like me, use a sifter and cover them that way 😉

Good luck and enjoy!

– Kallie

P.S. I like to make my kourambiethes gluten free.  I like to use the Jeanne’s flour mix recipe from The Art of Gluten Free Baking.  Works out great.  Anyone who is gluten free should check out Jeanne’s delicious website.

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When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Greek Chicken & Rice

December 13, 2015

A very wise person once said, when life hands you lemons, make Greek lemon chicken and rice.  Umm.  Okay, that was me who said it.  But that doesn’t mean it isn’t wise.

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Greeks eat a lot of chicken.  And rice.  And lemon.  In all sorts of ways.  There’s the classic lemon oregano chicken roasted the oven with potatoes or rice.  And of course everyone knows the egg lemon chicken and rice soup, avgolemono.  Let’s not forget the lemon and tomato braised chicken with rice, kokkinisto.  And while all of them are scrumptious in their own special way, almost all of them take some time to prepare.  Roasting a whole chicken takes at least an hour to hour and half depending on the size of your chicken.  You will have to boil that chicken for an hour to get the broth that makes your egg lemon and rice soup.  And on top of that there is the precarious dance of tempering your eggs appropriately to thicken the soup.  Who has time for that Monday thru Friday?

But I love chicken, lemons and rice, you say? 

Okay, I’ve got you.  Here is the easiest, on the planet greek lemon chicken and rice dish. Ever.  I promise you will be eating in 40 minutes.  And most of that time you will be sitting pretty and  “waiting” or browsing the internet.  Up to you.  But mostly you will be waiting for the chicken to marinade and waiting for the rice to bake.

What?  baked rice?  Oh yes.  I can’t explain what magic happens in the oven, but this method makes rice that is both creamy and light and fluffy all at the same time.  There is no better way.  Trust me.

Let’s do this!

Greek Lemon Chicken and Rice – Serves 2-4

Ingredients

For the chicken:

4-6 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)

1 lemon

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 tablespoon oregano

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt & pepper

For the rice:

1 cup of rice

1/2 onion finely diced

1 tablespoon thyme

2 & 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup green beans cut in half

salt & pepper

Directions:

Here’s how it’s going to go down.  While you are marinating the chicken, your rice is baking in the oven at the same time.  That’s how you save time.  Now wink your eyes and crinkle your nose I Dream of Jeannie style.

In a bowl, mix the juice of your lemon, crushed garlic, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper together.  Add your chicken to this marinade and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Don’t even bother putting it back in the fridge.  Your chicken will come to room temperature and be ready to cook.

In the meantime, in a casserole dish add the rice, diced onions, thyme and 2 & 1/2  cups of chicken stock, salt & pepper.  Cover with foil and place in a 350F oven for 30 minutes.

Wait.  Or browse the internet.  Read a book.  Phone a friend.  Do lunges down the hallway.  Just kidding.  Not really.  Okay kidding.

After 30 minutes, uncover the rice and add 1/2 cup of green beans (frozen or fresh) and let the mixture finish in the oven for 10 more minutes.

Next, heat up a cast iron pan and cook your chicken thighs that have been marinating.  This should also take about 10 minutes.  See how the rice and chicken all cook at the same time?  Easy isn’t it?  High five.

Remove the rice from the oven and place your finished chicken thighs on top.  In the cast iron pan, splash a little chicken stock and a squeeze of lemon juice to deglaze the pan.  Top the chicken and rice with your pan sauce.  Serve.

Enjoy.  Now what are you going to do with all of that extra time?

-Kallie

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