Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond » Christmas

Roast Pork With Sage, Honey & Thyme

Peter Minakis — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:40:00 +0000

Recipe update from December 2007, I’ve switched wild boar for more widely available pork shoulder…a favourite cut of mine as it’s affordable, forgiving and versatile. I’ve lost count of how many pork dishes I’ve made using pork butt.

Greeks eat alot of pork these days which wasn’t always the case. Souvlaki and Gyro are most commonly made of pork and the reasons could be that it was a cheaper meat than lamb or goat or tastier (or both). In a Greek-Orthodox calender, there’s a fast period leading up to Christmas and similar to the fasting period leading up to “Panagias” on August 15th, a feast of pork meat is indulged.

During the Christmas holidays we (Greeks) put more pork on our forks and for New Year’s Day, I wanted a big dinner that delivered on flavour without being complicated. Afterall, I was out with friends celebrating New Year’s Eve and the last thing I (or any cook) would want is to be fussing all day in the kitchen (read sofa time).

Wild boar is huge demand for the New Year’s Eve or Day’s dinner and you could certainly use that here but pork is more readily available to most and pork is fattier than boar – something that’s going to help turn this dish into a juicy piece of meat on your plate. Once again, pork butt (from the shoulder) comes to the rescue. I chose a bone-in shoulder that was sitting in a marinade of orange zest and juice, herbs, honey and vinegar and the result is feast fitting for the beginning of a new year.

Your first indication that this roast pork is going to be good is when you smell the sage, thyme and oregano coming from your kitchen. The second indication is when you uncover the meat and see that the pork shoulder has rendered, a little grey but its going to brown when you add the potoatoes and vegetables and roast uncovered until crisp and a brown colour Maillard would be proud of. Pork butt has fat, renders and protects the meat from drying out. Delicious and tender morsels of meat enter your mouth and you smile as you’ve begun the year with a supreme Sunday dinner.

Roast Pork With Sage, Honey & Thyme
(feeds 6)

1 pork butt, bone-in
1/3 cup olive oil
the juice of 1 orange
1/4 cup of Greek thyme honey
2 Tbsp. of red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp. of mild mustard
2 Tbsp. of fresh sage (or 1 Tbsp. dry)
5-6 springs of fresh thyme
1 tsp. of dried oregano
3 Bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 Tbsp. of coarse sea salt
2 Tbsp. fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, roughly chopped
1 pint of cherry tomatoes (or 3-4 ripe tomatoes, quartered)
1 dried chili pepper

5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 Tbsp. of fresh chopped sage
1 1/2 cups of water

Preheated 400F oven

Wash then pat-dry your pork and set aside. Using a large container or zip-lock bag, pour in your orange juice, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, sage, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, salt, pepper and garlic. Mix well and and your pork. Seal and marinate for 2-3 hours before roasting.
Cut up your vegetables and toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper and reserve in a covered bowl.
After you’ve marinaded your pork, allow the meat to return to room temperature before roasting. Pour the marinating liquid over the meat and season with salt and pepper then place the meat in a roast pan and roast covered for 90 minutes.
Remove the pork from the oven and uncover and place the potatoes and vegetables around the pork and pour in the hot water and return to the oven for an additional 45 minutes or until meat has browned and the potatoes are crisp. Remove from the oven and spoon some of the pan juices over the pork and allow to rest for 25 minutes before carving. Serve with a Boutari Blue Fox Red.

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© 2012, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

Baked Brie With Roasted Garlic & Cranberry-Mavrodaphne Sauce

Peter Minakis — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:36:59 +0000

One of the surprise hits at Christmas dinner was this baked Brie cheese i paired with cranberry sauce. Brie on its own is always welcome on a cheese plate but when baked it’s even creamier, more of its flavour comes out and it’s great when paired with something savory and something sweet. I’ve always loved Brie paired with roasted whole head of garlic. Usually I smear some of the slow-roasted garlic the Crostini and top with some jam and pop in my mouth. I was going to open a jar of this fig jam I brought back from Greece but I had some cranberries left in the freezer and thought to use them up rather than throw them out.

I made my Cranberry sauce with sugar, whole cloves and simmered them until the cranberries popped and the sugars and started to thicken with the pectin in the berries. I then spiked the cranberry sauce with a sweet fortified Greek wine called Mavrodaphne and finished it with some orange zest and a good squeeze of orange juice. Crostini gets smeared with roasted garlic, baked Brie gets topped with warm cranberry sauce then Brie and cranberry sauce top the garlic and bread. Slip in the mouth and hum with delight then wash down with your favourite sparkling wine.

Baked Brie With Roasted Garlic & Cranberry-Mavrodaphne Sauce

Cranberry-Mavrodaphne Sauce

1- 340gr. package of fresh or frozen cranberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

3-whole cloves

1/4 cup Mavrodaphne wine (or other fortified red wine)

zest and juice of 1/2 orange

1 round of Brie cheese

some extra-virgin olive oil

splash of sparkling wine

1 head garlic

In a small pot, add your water, sugar, cloves and Mavrodaphne and bring up to a boil over medium heat. Now gently drop in the cranberries and return to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Take off the heat and add the orange zest and juice and allow to cool.
Pre-heat your oven to 300F and slice a baguette into thin slices and brush both sides with olive oil and place on a baking tray. Now take a hold head of garlic and slice off enough of the top to just expose the garlic cloves and place in some foil, drizzle with olive oil and tightly close the foil around the garlic. Place the Crostinis and garlic in the oven and bake the bread until just toasted and the garlic for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, unwrap your Brie and if it came in a wooden container you may bake it in that or use a Brie baking vessel with a lid. Drizzle the brie with olive oil and some sparkling wine and place the cover on and slip into your oven for 20 minutes.
Arrange your Crostini on a platter and carefully squeeze the roasted garlic beside the bread. Place the baked Brie on the platter and pour some cranberry sauce on the baked Brie.
Smear roasted garlic on the Crostini then place some hot Brie and cranberry sauce on top and enjoy! Serve with a Domaine Tselepos Amalia Brut Sparkling White.

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© 2011, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

Merry Christmas!

Peter Minakis — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:25:05 +0000

Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas, Καλά Χριστούγεννα for those in Greece. Thank you for coming to my blog day-in, day-out, trying the recipes, telling your friends and helping to make this blog such a success!

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Sublime, Sexy Walnut-Stuffed Figs

Peter Minakis — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:14:54 +0000

Traditionally, figs get stuffed with walnuts and are laid out to be served among the array of sweet and savory bites during the Christmas season, which stretches out until Epiphany for the Greeks. In other words….that’s when we take down the Christmas tree. These figs are extraordinary, easy to make and they look fabulous on a platter.

What’s sets these apart from other “stuffed figs” is the outer layer, made from water, sugar, ground star anise, cocoa powder, semolina flour, tea biscuits and ground walnuts. This mixture is thick, a little sticky but it’s the “somethin-somethin” that makes these sublime. Aristotle wrote, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and this was true when making these.

Walnuts are good for you, a healthy snack and sure…taste good. Figs are even tastier, fresh or dried and yes…perhaps even an aphrodisiac. The semolina, tea biscuit, ground star anise and walnut mixture tasted okay and while I was chilling it to firm-up, I was concerned this recipe would be mediocre. That all changed when I assembled the stuffed figs, froze them and carefully sliced them in half to reveal the pretty cross-section of the walnut, fig and biscuit/walnut mixture.

Although the figs are the star of this recipe, walnuts are found in three stages: once stuffed inside the fig, a second time ground in the paste with the semolina and tea biscuits and one more time as the balls of stuffed figs are rolled in (you guessed it) ground walnuts before being complete. Other than placing these in the freezer to set overnight, this is an easy recipe and once you’re going to make over and over. I know I will!

Sublime, Sexy Walnut-Stuffed Figs (Σύκα Γεμιστά με Καρύδια)

approx. 20 dried Greek figs

20 walnut halves

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground star anise (using Ouzo or anise flavoured alcohol will soften the mixture, making it harder to handle)

1/3 cup fine semolina flour

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1/3 cup ground Petit Beurre tea biscuits

1 1/4 cup ground walnuts

approx. 3/4- 1 cup of ground walnuts for coating

Place a medium-sized pot on your stovetop with the water and sugar and bring to a boil then add the ground star anise and semolina and take off the heat and stir for for a minute then add the ground tea biscuits and walnuts and stir-in. Allow the mixture to cool and place in the fridge for two hours.
In the meantime, snip the stems off your figs (discard) and gently open the top of each fig with your finger and then squeeze a wlabut half in each fig.
When the ground walnut/bicsuit mixture has cooled (hardened), grease one hand with vegetable oil and place a heaping tablespoon of the mixture (yes it is a little sticky) in one hand and flatten it then place a fig in your palm and enclose it with the mixture in the form of a ball. Now roll each ball in the reserved ground walnuts and place on a large plate/platter.
Cover and place in the freezer overnight or until ready to serve. To serve, remove from the freezer and carefully slice each stuffed fig in half and place in decorative paper cups and serve.

* You may cover and refreeze any leftover stuffed figs but I doubt they will last long.

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Greek Christmas Recipe Round-Up

Peter Minakis — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:50:34 +0000

I decided to organize some Christmas dishes for you to consider when you’re planning your Christmas, holiday and New Year’s menus. These are some options divided simply in savory and sweet categories. Eat when you drink, drink when you eat and reach out and invite someone extra to the table. You’ll feel good!

Savory

Loin of Pork Stuffed With Prunes

Phyllo Cheese Triangles (Tyropitakia)

Baked Brie With Roasted Garlic & Cranberry-Mavrodaphne Sauce

Roasted Pork Shanks With Crackling (Crispy Skin)

Slow-Roasted Pork Belly

Slow Prime-Rib

Roasted Cornish Hens Stuffed With Goat Cheese & Figs

Roast Leg of Lamb

Whole Roast Turkey

Pork Belly & Quinces

Roast Pork Belly & Potatoes

Pork Tenderloin With Liastos Wine & Vissino Sauce

Pork Tigania

Macedonian Sausages

Pork Lado-Rigani

Grandma’s Pork & Quinces

Pork Chops Krassates

Roast Loin of Pork With Fennel Crust

Pomegranate-Glazed Chicken

Papia Portokali

Tangy Maple-Mustard Lamb

Vine-Grower’s Lamb

Lemon Verbena Rack of Lamb

Roast Lamb in Parchment

Slow-Roasted Goat

The Best Steak

Rib-Eye Steaks With Blue Cheese Sauce

Cross-Rib Pot Roast

Hunkar Begendi With Beef

Dolmadakia

Cabbage Rolls

Pastitsio

Beef Tenderloin With Port Wine Sauce

Batzos Saganaki

Mussels With Fennel & White Wine

Lobster Saganaki

Goat-Cheese Stuffed Onions

Phyllo-Wrapped Shrimp

Potato Croquettes

Crispy-Fried Shrimp

Feta & Herb Pull-Aparts

Mussels Saganaki With Mustard

Spanakopita

Tyropita

Kotopita

Oysters With Mignonette Sauce

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Rabbit Stifado

Caesar Salad

Rocket Salad With Figs & Graviera

Potato Salad With Blood Oranges

Cabbage Salad

Salad of Rocket, Cabbage & Apple

Rocket, Pear & Feta Salad

Spinach Salad

Red Pepper & Potato Salad

Sweet

All-In-One-Pan Squares

Egg Nog Ice Cream With Salted Caramel Rum Sauce

Sublime, Sexy Walbut-Stuffed Figs

Margarites (Baklava Daisies)

Baklava Cigars

Saragli

Medley of Thessalonikeon Delights

Ekmek Kataifi

Phillipino Fruit Salad

Ultimate Cheesecake

Paximadia

Paximadia With Figs, Walnuts & Star Anise

Creme Brulee With Mastic

Hosafi – Dried Fruit Compote

Baked Quince With Mavrodaphne & Pine Nuts

Melomakarona Cheesecake

Kataifi

Chocolate Baklava

Diples

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© 2011 – 2012, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.