Crispy Fried Onions

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

fine sea salt

2 tsp. of corn starch

oil for frying

1. Peel your onion and then caredully slice it with your mandoline as thinly as possible. Tear the onions so that you have individual strands and place in a bowl with some salt and the corn starch and toss with your hands until well-coated. Shake off excess corn starch.
2. Heat some oil in your fryer (about 2 inches in the pot) and place the onions in the hot oil and fry until golden and crisp. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and place on paper-lined plate. Sprinkle a bit of salt and toss and allow to cool. Serve as garnish with any meat and potatoes dish (like Salisbury Steak).

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Our family also always had plenty of food on the table and I never sensed that we were lacking in this area. Bountiful spreads at the dinner table, seconds (and thirds) could be had and there was always enough food if someone dropped-in unannounced (no, Greeks aren’t expected to call in before arriving). Even though food was never an issue in our home we also never were wasteful with food – eating leftovers or reinventing them into new dishes.

One such leftover that we’ve all experienced is mashed potatoes. One can reheat the leftovers and serve as a side to another dish but that can become an issue if there isn’t enough leftover mash to serve the whole family. Do only two people get mashed potatoes or does everyone get a miniscule portion (unlikely) or make some more (maybe).

The other way is to simply turn them into another dish and my solution is to turn mashed potatoes into croquettes – little cheezy potato balls. You can turn leftovers into croquettes or simply make a batch of mashed potatoes, allow them to cool and then form into balls and fry them. The potato croquettes are simply mashed potatoes spiked with some Greek oregano and they are mixed with a Smoked Metsovone cheese. This cheese comes from the town of Metsovo, located in Greece’s northerwestern province of Epirus.

There’s more to Greek cheese than just Feta and one of my favourites has to this Smoked Metsovone (from Metsovo). This town is a food haven with its long tradition of making sausages, wine, phyllo pies and its Metsovone cheese (smoked). I remember my mom bringing back from of the smoked variety from Greece years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. Metsovone appears in a long cylindrical shape with a thin wax rind and the smoked Metsovone has a visible brown hue on the outside and an intoxicating smoked aroma that most can’t resist.

Metsovone is made with 90% cow’s milk and the remaining 10% coming from goat’s milk, it’s aged for a minimum of 3 months and naturally smoked from natural local woods. Metsovone is sold in 1.5, 2.5 and 4.5kg sizes. Metsovone is nowhere to be found here in Toronto but some shops in the northeast US do sell it and even offer mail-order! I brought a sizeable piece of Metsovone back from my shopping spree at Ergon but it’s going fast. If you can’t find Metsovone a smoked Gouda will work just fine.

These potato croquettes are simply rolled into balls, dipped in eggwash then rolled in cornmeal (another traditional ingredient of Epirus and neighboring Thessaly that specialize in making a savory pie with cornmeal). The croquettes are shallow-fried in oil and served warm as part of a meze/appetizer array. These potato croquettes are a perfect excuse to pour some Ouzo, add ice or water and watch as the Ouzo turns milky white and beckons you to take a sip, tell stories or reminisce.

Potato Croquettes “Metsovone” (Πατατοκροκέτες “Μετσοβονε”

4 Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes

4 cloves of garlic

4 Tbsp. of unsalted butter

1 cup of warm milk

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped fresh chives (or scallions)

1 cup of grated Smoked Metsovone cheese (smoked Gouda works well)

1 tsp. dried Greek oregano

1 egg beaten with 2-3 Tbsp. of milk

1/2 cup corn meal

vegetable oil for frying

1. Peel your potatoes and cut into smaller pieces and place in a pot with tap water and the whole cloves of garlic. Bring to a boil and season lightly with salt. Lower to a simmer and boil until the potatoes are fork-tender. Drain well and return the potatoes (and garlic) back into the pot along with the butter and mash Gradually add milk until desired consistency achieved and then add the chives, oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Allow the mashed potatoes to cool or place in the fridge to cool faster.
2. When the mashed potatoes have cooled, add the grated smoked Metsovone and mix well. Form the mashed potatoes into balls and place on a platter. Mix your egg and milk in a small bowl and fill a concave plate with cornmeal. Coat your croquettes in the eggwash then roll then in thee cornmeal.
3. Place a large skillet on your stove-top over medium-high heat and add about 1 inch of oil into it. When the oil gets to about 350F, add the croquettes and fry until golden (fry in batches if necessary). Transfer to a paper-lined plate to blot excess oil then transfer to a serving platter or smaller meze/appetizer plates and serve warm.*

* Fry until just golden – over-fry them an they may burst.

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The first element of this dish is the fish. I chose a nice big flounder fillet – something that will satiate me and cook quickly on my stovetop. The usual Greek flavourings are here: extra-virgin Greek olive oil, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, dried Greek oregano and the unique and ancient spice of Mastiha from the island of Chios. This Appellation of Origin spice grows only on the southern part of Chios and it’s reknown for it’s medical, therapeutuic and culinary applications. If you do a quick search on my site, you’ll find both savory and sweet dishes with Mastiha.

you can also buy ground Mastiha

Describing the flavour of Mastiha is not an easy one but here it goes: it’s musky, woody with a slight pine resin flavour to it. Shades of soft incense can permeate your kitchen when cooking with Mastiha. I’ve included ground Mastiha in the flavouring of the flounder and the end result was fabulous! Greek shops here in Toronto will carry Mastiha and you can also order (mail-order to Canada and US) through the web-portal of Masthashop New York.

The next element of this dish is the cauliflower puree. If you’re looking to avoid potatoes in your diet (or at least reduce them), you should try a cauliflower puree. Florets of cauliflower are are simmered in a vegetable broth until just fork-tender and then you simply add the minced garlic, olive oil, lemon juice scallions and seasoning…voila!

Just in case anyone accuses you of making a boring dish, the garnish is quick but colourful and adds more depth to this wonderful fish entree. I pour some red wine vinegar into a small pot along with some slices of red onions and bring to a gentle boil. I simmer the onions until just tender then season with salt and pepper and allow to cool. Remove  the onions and allow to drain and if there’s any red wine vinegar left, you can use that for your cauliflower puree!

Mastiha & Cornmeal Crusted Flounder

(serves 4)

4 flounder fillets, rinsed and patted dry

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp. of ground Mastiha

coarse sea salt & fresh ground pepper

extra olive oil for frying

1 tsp. dried Greek oregano

approx. 1 cup of cornmeal

Pickled Onion, Capers and Sliced Almonds

4 slices of red onions

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup of capers, rinsed

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Cauliflower Puree

1 head of cauliflower, rinsed and broken down into florets

1 cup of vegetable broth

3-4 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

red wine vinegar to taste

2 scallions, thinly sliced

sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. To make the pickled onions, add the wine vinegar into a small pot along with the slices of onions and bring to a boil over medium heat and then simmer for 5 minutes.  Allow the onions to cool in the vinegar, season with salt and pepper and then remove the onions with a slotted spoon to keep in tact. Reserve any leftover wine vinegar.
2. In a medium-sized pot, add the vegetable stock and cauliflower florets and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and keep covered for about 8-10 minutes or until fork-tender (add more broth if needed). Mash into a puree or use a hand blender, add the minced garlic, olive oil and mix in with a spatula. Add wine vinegar to taste, the sliced scallions and season with salt and pepper to taste. Reserve and keep warm.
3. Ensure your fish is patted-dry after rinsing it, brush both sides of the fillet with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, dried Greek oregano and the ground Mastiha. Mastiha usually comes in the form of “tears”, or crystals. To get ground Mastiha, one may place the Mastiha tears in the freezer for a 1/2 hour and either ground them with your mortar & pestle (with some coarse salt) or place in between two sheets of plastic wrap and crush with your rolling pin (my preference).
4. Dredge your fish fillets in the cormeal and reserve. Place a large skillet on your stove-top over medium heat and as soon as the pan is hot, add a few turns of olive oil and place the fillets in the hot skillet (cook in batches if need be) and pan-fry for 3-4 minutes a side or until golden (use a spatula to carefully flip the fillets).
5. Divide the cauliflower puree amongst your plates then place the fish fillet over it. Place a slice of pickled onion over each fillet and sprinkle some capers and sliced almonds over each fish. Complete the dish with a sprig of parsley and a wedge of lemon.
6. Serve a with an Assyrtiko white from the beautiful island of Santorini, like the Domaine Sigalas.

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.

© 2007-2011 Peter Minakis

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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.

We wrap souvlaki in them, we wrap gyro in them, we use pita bread to scoop Taramosalata, Melitzanosalata, Tzatziko, Red Pepper Dip, Parsley Salad, Htipiti, Fava, Hummus. Name the dip…pita bread is there (a search in my blog will offer recipes for all these dishes).

There are many pita breads that can be bought from your local grocer or Greek market but again, nothing beats homemade. I’ve tried many recipes for homemade pita bread and today’s recipe is the best one out there (in my opinion).

The kitchen is as much about experimentation as it is nurturing and pulling-off a dish. On the same day that I made the pita bread, I also tried my hand at homemade pork gyro.

In Greece, the “gyro” you might see in North America that more resembles meatloaf than gyro is nowhere to be found in Greece. If you were to visit Greece tomorrow, you would find pork and chicken gyro.

For my pork gyro, I used a combo of pork belly and pork butt (shoulder), marinated it over night and stacked the meat on an upright kitchen towel dispenser.

The idea came from a cooking segment on Antenna’s (Greek TV station) morning show. The meat was stacked, wrapped in foil and placed in a preheated oven for 90 minutes. After, the foil is removed and the meat is exposed to crisp-up and take on it’s brown colour.

The result? The flavour was fantastic…it had that Greek gyro taste but I found the meat a little too dry for my liking. I have to play around with the pork cuts (more fat needed) .

I can see folks having a “gyro party”. After each instance of shaving off the crisped pork meat, the gyro stack goes back into the oven for the next round of Gyros on a pita. I’m thinking the outdoor rotisserie will also make for wonderful gyro.

My brother Danny, signaling his satisfaction

Why not try your hand at your own homemade gyro? Go out and find an upright kitchen towel dispenser (no plastic) and try your hand at it?

I’m witholding my recipe as this is a work in progress…when I get it right – you’ll get it!

In the meantime, I can and will share this pita bread recipe, courtesy of Vefa Alexiadou’s latest book, “Vefa’s Kitchen”. This huge collection of her best Greek dishes was just released eariler this year to the English speaking world.

Vefa is huge in Greece, continues to appear on television on her own show and I’m sure that every Greek homemaker has tried at least one of her dishes. Christmas is coming up, Vefa’s Kitchen would make for a wonderful gift.

Making pita bread is easy. You need a basic bread recipe, a heavy cast-iron skillet, offset spatula to flip the pita bread and a cotton kitchen towel to wrap them as they cool.

I am going to share Vefa’s recipe and method but I want to also tell you that rolling out some dough from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes master recipe also works splendidly here.

Buying pita bread from the market is a thing of the past for me. I’ve recently become a bread snob (spoiled by homemade bread) and now I will only eat homemade pita bread.

Vefa’s Pita Bread

Note: the amount of pita bread units depends on how big you roll them out to. I like big pita breads. I used a large cast iron skillet in this instance. You should be good for at least 8, depending on the size you like them to be.

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 1/2 cup warm (body temperature) water

coarse corn flour/cornmeal) for dusting – not corn starch (Corn starch is labeled/called corn flour in Greece but to the rest of the world, corn flour and cornmeal are one & the same)

vegetable oil for greasing the pan

1. In a large bowl, add the water, olive oil, yeast, salt and sugar and let stand for five minutes or until you see that the yeast is active.
2. Using your hands, gradually add the the flour into wet and knead with your hands until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover and leave in a warm spot in your kitchen to rise and rest for about 30 minutes.
3. Divide into six pieces and roll out into 8 to 10 -inch rounds that are about 1/4 inch thick. Dust both sides lightly with cornmeal and lightly poke the surface of your pita breads with the tines of a fork (careful not to poke right through).
4. Place a heavy cast-iron skillet (non-stick pan is fine  as well) and heat to medium-high. You may place your pita dough on corn-meal lined pizza peel to slide onto the hot skillet.
5. Pour some vegetable oil in a small bowl and dunk some kitchen towel in it and grease your hot cast iron skillet.
6. Place your pita dough on the hot skillet and and fry the bread for a couple of minutes a side or until they start to puff and bubble up. Flip and fry the other side.
7. Place fried pita breads on to a large cotton kitchen towel and cover. Dab your kitchen towel into the bowl of vegetable oil and place another flattened pita dough on the skillet.
8. Repeat frying each pita bread and stack them, tucked inside the kitchen towel. Serve warm or allow to cool inside the kitchen towel until cooled. Store in a sealed plastic bag for up to a week or freeze.

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.

© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

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Let’s get something off our shoulders…calamari are squid. Squid belong to the cephalapod family, which include octopus and cuttlefish. If you’re squeamish about cleaning squid, be kind and ask your fishmonger to do this for you. Barring that, you’re stuck with buying the frozen calamari rings.

Not that there’s anything wrong with calamari rings or frozen squid for that matter, as most of the calamari that we eat at our tables or in restaurants is or was at some point, frozen. However, go for the full monty.

Whenever I’m dining out and I have a craving for fried calamari, I feel cheated when the plate is full of just the rings.The tentacles are the best part of the calamari. Oh sure, the rings are delish but the tentacles? Divine.

What happened to the tentacles? Did the cook snip away and toss them? Did he/she save these crispy morsels for themselves or were they just plain lazy and bought a package of frozen or dare I say…pre-breaded and frozen calamari rings that simply got thrown in the deep fryer?

Frozen calamari is a perfectly good product and anyone of authority in Greece that I have spoken with asserts that freezing calamari (squid) can act as a tenderizer.

Another assurance of tender, succulent calamari is to not over fry the darn thing. I highly recommend a candy/oil thermometer which will give you an accurate read of the oil’s temperature before frying. The ideal temperature for frying seafood (calamari) or French fries is anywhere from 360-375F.

I’ve cooked with calamari on several occaisions and beyond cleaning them, they are a cinch to cook.

As per my post on fried calamari last year, many of the seafood tavernas in Greece will employ a circus-type of frying method for calamari. That is to say they dredge the squid in seasoned flour and then give them a quick dunk in ice-cold water and the squid get dropped into the waiting hot oil.

I know what you’re thinking…oil and water aren’t a happy pair and it’s true but this method works (albeit with some splatting) but the result is a delicious, crisp batter enveloping the tender cooked squid.

After some experimentation and borrowing from Asian cuisine, I’ve discovered that I can recreate this crisp, fried effect without worrying about hot oil dancing around the kitchen as it hits some water.

The solution? My same old mixture of corn flour and all-purpose flour mixed with some corn starch. That’s it – corn starch! I will never worry about spitting oil hitting me whilst frying up some seafood or in this case, calamari. So, now you have fried calamari, two ways…take your pic.

Again, cleaning squid is very easy, albeit a little stinky so if you’re a woman – call on the fishmonger or the man of the house do pony-up and clean some squid!

Deep-fried Calamari

1 lb. of squid (thawed if frozen and cleaned)

1/3 cup corn flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 Tbsp. of corn starch

salt and pepper to taste

vegetable oil for frying (I use sunflower oil)

lemon wedges for garnish

1. Thaw, clean & rinse your calamari. Pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a bowl, add your flour, corn flour, corn starch, salt, pepper and mix well. Have a quick taste of the flour mixture to assure yourself of proper seasoning.
3. Dredge your calamari in the flour mixture and shake off excess flour. Let stand while you pre-heat your oil for frying. You should fry your calamari in about three inches of oil.
4. As soon as your oil hits a temperature between 360-375F, you’re ready.
5. Fry your calamari for 3-4 minutes per batch (1 lb. of calamari usually takes two batches). Season with sea salt.
6. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

• You might also want to try deep-fried mussels…using this same deep-frying method.

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.

© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

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© 2009, 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.