Beans

Ultimate, Awesome & Easy Chili con Carne

Dec 21st, 2011 | By
Ultimate, Awesome & Easy Chili con Carne

Sometimes you’re busy, sometimes you don’t feel like cooking or sometimes you want something quick and easy. A comfort dish from your childhood also helps! Once again this past weekend I was called upon to cook-up a comfort dish at Toronto’s Harbourfront, near the skating rink. It’s cold outside and warming dishes is what’s cold [...]



Pickled Green Beans – Φασολακια Τουρσι (Στίπα)

Oct 17th, 2011 | By
Pickled Green Beans – Φασολακια Τουρσι (Στίπα)

A few weeks back I made Hosafi, a dish from the Pontian Greeks and I alluded that I would share with you in due course and the time has come. This past summer in Greece, I spent a weekend visiting the diverse, delicious and distant city of Xanthi…a Greek city closer to the Turkish border [...]



Tourlou With Seafood

Oct 2nd, 2011 | By
Tourlou With Seafood

Eggplants are in season in Greece from August and here in Canada, you can still find sweet (not bitter) eggplants at your local grocer or farmer’s market. Eggplant is one of the ingredients in  classic vegetarian dish called Briam and the similar dish (we’re cooking today) called Tourlou. Toulou is like a ratatouille but not [...]



Grilled Shrimp & Manouri Salad

Jul 21st, 2011 | By
Grilled Shrimp & Manouri Salad

Toronto’s been having some of the hottest weather in years and today we’re expected to reach the hottest temperature EVER for the city. We complain it’s too cold to grill or eat outside and now the flipside…it’s too hot! The A/C is on, I have the stovetop at my disposal and one must eat. Chalk [...]



Beans With Roasted Garlic, Capers & Parsley

Mar 24th, 2011 | By
Beans With Roasted Garlic, Capers & Parsley

This dressing is a riff on the parsley-caper sauce I used to make this Cod Wrapped in Crispy Potatoes a few weeks ago. The colour of this concoction is vibrant, the flavour is bold but not in your face and it’s very versatile. One could toss this in with some other vegetables like cauliflower, a [...]



Chickpea Salad With Roasted Red Peppers & Green Beans

Mar 10th, 2011 | By
Chickpea Salad With Roasted Red Peppers & Green Beans

A few weeks ago I caught up with Canadian cooking personality and chef Christine Cushing where we talked about the third season of her show Fearless in the Kitchen and chatted about food and her line of products, which consists of two Greek olive oils. Christine’s first branded olive oil comes from Crete (where her [...]



Braised Lamb Shanks & Beans

Dec 19th, 2010 | By
Braised Lamb Shanks & Beans

I had a steak earlier this week and it was just okay. I’m not eating as much meat as I used to and certainly less steak. At the same, I am greatly enjoying the tougher cuts of meat, the challenges in the kitchen to make them tender and relishing the triumph of tasting a delicious, [...]



Grouper With Green Beans

Aug 3rd, 2010 | By
Grouper With Green Beans

It’s 2010 and Greece is pretty well wired with the rest of the world and depsite the distance from Toronto to Greece (9 1/2 hour flight), the interwebs has brought the diaspora closer to the Patrida. One of my friends in Greece recently sent me some cooking magazines & booklets and one of them was [...]



Gigantes sto Fourno (Γίγαντες στο φούρνο)

May 11th, 2010 | By
Gigantes sto Fourno (Γίγαντες στο φούρνο)

Last year, one of the stops during my vacation to Greece was to Kastoria. Kastoria is the capital city of the Prefecture of…Kastoria. It’s located in northern Greece, northwestern Macedonia. This region of Greece is located on fertile, elevated plateaus and the economy is centered around its long history of fur trading, tourism and agriculture. [...]



Fassolakia Ladera

May 4th, 2010 | By
Fassolakia Ladera

Greek cuisine is full of vegetarian main options and many of those being main courses that are filling, nutritious and delicious. It’s Spring and herbs are abundant at the markets and in some of your herb gardens. The main ingredient of this one-pot dish are flat, runner or pole beans. Fassolakia. These flat beans are [...]