Ryba po Grecku, is usually pan-fried (with our without) breading then reserved until a sauce of onions, carrots, celery, parsley (sometimes parsnip) and lemon and some bay or another herb of choice may be added to finish the sauce. As a Greek, I immediately thought of Psari (fish) Plaki where whole fish is traditionally baked on a bed of onions, peppers, tomatoes and another similar dish of Psari ala Spetsiota (Spetses style) with onions, tomatoes, wine, parsley and lemon.

I knew the Polish had to been inspired by these two dishes but my curiosity heightened when I found out that Ryba po Grecku is also served as part of a buffet for special occasion dinners, that the Polish also celebrate namedays (like Greeks) and again this Greek-inspired dish would be offered on such days.

AN old friend of Polish descent, Konrad Ejbich adds that on Christmas Eve the Polish do not eat meat and that there should be a total of thirteen courses and one should sample each of the offerings to truly welcome the New Year with promise. My question still remained…how is it that Polish would offer foreign dishes on special occasions like Christmas? Adds Konrad, “there was a time when Poland ruled a great part of Europe (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) with one of it it’s hallmarks being religious and cultural tolerance.

Food was obviously included in the Poles’ tolerance of other cultures and now that I think of it…those cookbooks I bought included a Moussaka and Baklava recipe! Ryba po Grecka is a Greek-inspired dish, made through the filter of the Polish palate and using ingredients at hand. I’ve only considered how Greeks in the Diaspora will cook traditional Greek dishes using the ingredients available or on-hand in the particular part of the world where they live. Climate, geography and the availability of Greek ingredients are all factors.

It’s comforting to know and see how much Greek cuisine is so widely loved and appreciated! Ryba po Grecku is a dish served most commonly cold/room temperature but I prefer to eat this warm.

Ryba po Grecku (Fish ala Greque)

(serves 4)

1 lb. sole fillets

cornmeal

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups of ripe tomato purée (or processed canned tomatoes)

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 large onion, peeled & thinly sliced

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup of shredded carrots (use your box grater)

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley stems

1 tsp. sweet paprika

1 shot of dry white wine

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill

lemon wedges for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

1. If using frozen fillets, thaw overnight in your fridge, otherwise rinse and pat-dry then brush olive oil on both sides of fish and season with salt and pepper. Place back in your fridge while you’re making the sauce.
2. Place a large skillet on your stove over medium-high heat and add the olive oil, onions, garlic, celery, carrot and parsley stems and sweat the veggies for about 5-6 minutes. Now add the wine, paprika and tomato purée, salt and pepper and bring back to a boil then simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, stir in parsley and dill and reserve.
3. Take your fish out of the fridge and allow to come back to room temperature. Heat a large non-stick skillet on your stove-top over medium-high heat. Place about 1 1/2 cups of cornmeal in a plate and dredge both sides of the fish then drizzle some oil in your pan and place your fish in the skillet (fry in batches) and fry for about 2-3 minutes a side or until slightly golden. Remove the fillets and reserve on paper-lined plate.
4. Ryba po Grecka is served family style: spoon some sauce on a platter and then cut the fillets into three pieces and set on the sauce in a domino fashion and then pour remaining sauce over the fish. The polish eat this dish cold so it can be prepared a day in advance but I had it warm with a side of rice pilaf. I drank a Glinavos Primus white (from Epirus) with this.

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Sauerkraut is a great substitute for this dish as there’s no “ksinolahano” here. This side dish is savory, little tangy and just a hint of smoky flavour from the paprika. My mom would often make this an accompaniment to roast turkey and I thought it paired well with the roast pork shanks of yesterday.

Sauerkraut Rice (Ρυζι με ξινολάχανο)

(serves 6)

1 1/2 cups of long-grain rice

1 litre jar/can of sauerkraut/choucroute, strained

1/2 stick of butter

1 small onion, diced

 1 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

1. Pick-over your rice and rinse lightly over your tap and strain. Place about 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, add salt and your rice and simmer for 20-25 minutes and then strain.
2. In the meantime, strain your sauerkraut and taste it. If if it’s too tart for your liking, rinse in water and strain. Place a skillet on your stovetop over medium heat and add the butter and once it melts, add the diced onions and sweat for 4-5 minutes. Now add the strained sauerkraut, paprika and smoked paprika and stir in and simmer for a couple of minutes. Now add the reserved rice and stir until amalgamated and the rice has warmed-through. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and serve as a side to roast turkey or roast pork shanks.

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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.

Bourdain stopped by an old German restaurant where he ordered a Flinstone-sized dish called Schweinshaxe, a Bavarian specialty which is essentially a pork shank roasted and served on the plate with room for little else. The sound of Bourdain sinking his knife into the shank and hearing the crack of the skin hooked me. I had to have this dish  – I was going to make it.

Off I went searching for how to get the pork skin crispy and the meat underneath, juicy and flavourful. I learned that there are many ways a to cook a pork shank – offered up by many cultures. The Bavarians made  Schweinshaxe with the “must have crackling”, in Berlin the pork shank (or hock) is called Eisbein and it’s boiled/braised until tender then served. The issue I have with Eisbein is that the skin is still soft and it’s recommended that the diner peel and discard it.The Viennese have Stelze and they marinate and boil the pork hock then roast it. It was also interesting to see shanks spit-roasted but I’ll save that fr next summer.

The Phillipinos make a dish called Crispy Pata where the shank is braised and then to crisp-up the skin they simply fry it on all sides. I read of people brining, searing, braising and broiling, resting the meat for a day, chilling – everything short of making the pig fly! The most straight-forward and successful method that will reward you with juicy pork shanks and crispy skin (crackling) is to simply slow roast it.

I’ve made a rub of herbs, salt and pepper, some mustard powder and garlic and simply placed the shanks on a bed of onions, carrots and celery bay leaves and poured some amber-coloured beer (lager, pilsener, ale) and stock  – into the pot and into the oven it goes for 4 hours, yes 4 hours in a moderately heated oven with no foil, no covering. Low and slow.

The flavours are inspired by pork dishes I’ve enjoyed in Greece and yes, these behemoth pieces of meat (pork shanks) are also cooked in Greece (we call them “kotsi”). Some kotsi are roasted and others are braised. The crackling may be present or not. Pork loves garlic, herbs, some dry mustard powder for some underlying flavour and lots of salt and pepper. The skin crisps-up pretty quickly in the oven and depending on your oven (mine is with natural gas) and you may have to lower the heat to 325F.

Pork shanks with crispy skin takes time, patience. You’ll be rewarded with juicy, flavourful pork shanks and crispy skin (crackling) and one pork shanks can feed two well or one shank for one hungry fella!

Roasted Pork Shanks With Crackling (Χοιρινο Κοτσι με Τραγανη Πετσα “Κρατσα-Κρουτσα”)

(serves 8 or 4 hungry guests)

4 pork shanks, with rind (skin)

olive oil for rubbing pork skin

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tsp. of fennel seeds, ground

2 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped

2 tsp. fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

1 tsp. marjoram leaves, chopped

2 Tbsp. mustard powder

fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper

2 medium onions, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 stalk of celery, sliced

3 bay leaves

500 ml. can of beer (tall boy), nothing too dark

500 ml. chicken stock

Pre-heated 325-350F oven

extra stock and beer for roasting pan

1. Slice your onions, carrots, celery and place in a roasting pan large enough to just fit your pork shanks and place 3 bay leaves in there too! Rinse and pat-dry the pork shanks then score the skin with a sharp knife (I simply scored three rings around each shank) then rub them with some oil.  Grind your fennel seeds and mix with the garlic, mustard, chopped thyme, marjoram and rosemary and rub well into the shanks then season generously with sea salt and some fresh ground pepper.
2. Place the pork shanks upright on top of the vegetables in the pan and pour the beer and stock all round the pork and place in your pre-heated oven (middle rack, uncovered) for 4 hours. After a couple of hours, check/replenish the liquid in the pan and add more beer or stock (or both) but ensure the liquid in the pan doesn’t come up the pan more than 1 inch. Continue to roast basting the meat on occasion with the liquid and take out of the oven after 4 hours. Tent with foil and keep warm.
3. In the meantime strain the liquid through a mesh strainer and press the vegetables to get maximum flavour. Use a gravy separator to divide the fat from the good stock then place a small pot on your stovetop and add a Tbsp. of fat and a tsp. of flour and stir for a minute with a wooden spoon. Now add the hot pan juices while stirring and simmer until the sauce has thickened (about 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and some more fresh thyme leaves.
4. Serve the pork shanks with roast potatoes or sauerkraut rice and some roasted quinces. Pour some sauce over the shanks and serve. You can cut the shanks in half (cutting vertically) if one shank is too much for one. Serve with a Tsantali Alexander red.

* I may try bring the pork shanks next time by basically filling a tub with enough water to just cover the shanks and add 3/4 cup salt, dissolve and place the shanks in the brine in a cool spot overnight.

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Thanksgiving doesn’t change much: there’s the turkey, mashed potatoes, a soup, stuffing, roasted vegetables and dessert. I try to keep most of our traditional menu but I also like to break the monotony of the same old-same old Thanksgiving dinner: out was the whole roast turkey and in came Cornish hens. Out was homemade loaf of bread and in with cheddar-chive biscuits. Soup was out of the question as Toronto lucked-out on some Indian Summer and yesterday temperature reached 26C – not a soup kinda’ day. Dessert was brought in by a dinner guest and like every year…dessert can be anything as long as the ingredients are autumn-like.

Our Thanksgiving meal began with a grilled fennel salad with mixed greens, pickled red onions, supremes of orange and julienne of red peppers.

Next up were these light, airy and very flavourful Cheddar and Chive biscuits, courtesy of Mike at Mike’s Table. You need some aged cheddar and lots of chives to make these biscuits a success. These were real easy to make and everyone at the table love them!

The main course was up: roasted Cornish Hens stuffed with goat’s cheese and figs. Since I didn’t roast a turkey I thought I could at least brine the hens. Result? Moist, succulent little birds that were wonderfully flavoured by  the marinade of wine, garlic, herbs and citrus. I didn’t tell my guests their main was stuffed. It was a surprise. My sister-in-law cut into the hen and tasted the filling…”OH MY GOD THERE’S GOAT CHEESE IN THE STUFFING”!!! I think every dinner should have a surprise in one of the courses. This time it was the goat cheese and fig stuffing.

Side dishes included garlic mashed potatoes and gravy from the drippings in the roasting pan.

You can’t have a Thanksgiving Dinner without cranberry sauce.

I also love a traditional stuffing: I take the meat out the casings from Italian sausage and brown them with giblets, onion, celery, sage and stale bread and mix them up with stock and cream and throw it in the oven until golden. Now it smells like Thanksgiving!

All that’s left is to serve dessert: one of dinner guests brought a Pumpkin cheesecake with a Bourbon-Caramel-Walnut Sauce, many thanks to Paula of Dragons’ Kitchen. The perfect end to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. I was speechless.

There’s always leftovers after Thanksgiving…do you want a “Ducky-Bag”?

Roasted Cornish Hens Stuffed With Goat Cheese & Figs

(serves 4)

4 Cornish hens (thawed overnight in frozen)

fresh ground pepper

coarse sea salt

Brine

water

1 cup salt

Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white wine

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground fennel seeds

1 Tbsp. sweet paprika

zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

2 tsp. ground pepper

Stuffing

1 goat cheese

10 dried figs, roughly chopped

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp. thyme leaves

1 egg

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Pre-heated 400F oven

1. One day ahead, rinse your hens well and place them in plastic container large enough to hold them. Fill the container with enough water to cover the birds them remove them set aside for a moment. Now add 1 cup of salt and stir until the salt has melted. Now place the hens back in the brine and cover and place in the fridge overnight.
2. The next day, rinse your hens well and pat-dry. Place them in a container along with all the marinade ingredients (oil, wine, garlic, paprika, fennel, lemon juice and zest, thyme leaves and fresh ground pepper. Toss the hens well in the marinade and place in the fridge for for 3 hours. Remove from the fridge and allow about 30 minutes to return to room temperature. In the meantime, add the goat cheese in a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the remaining stuffing ingredients into the bowl and mix well and taste/adjust seasoning.
3. Spoon the filling into the cavity of each hen then tie-up your birds with butcher’s twine. Pre-heat your oven to 400F. Place the birds on your roasting pan (raised on a rack) and pour the reserved marinade over them. Season the hens with salt and pepper and cut up one carrot, one medium onion and about 1 cup of chopped fennel bulb and place on the rack around the hens) and add about 2 cups hot water into the pan. Stick a spring of rosemary in between the leg and breast and roast your Cornish hens for approx. 60 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 180F (check to see if you need to add more water).
4. Remove the hens from the rack, cover with foil and reserve. Pour the liquid in the pan into a gravy separator (discard veggies) and place a medium saucepan on your stove-top – medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp. of butter and when it melts, add a heaping Tbsp. of flour and stir in with a wooden spoon. Now add your hot pan juices gradually into the pot while stirring. Taste and adjust seasoning and when it’s thickened to your liking – take off the heat and reserve until dinner is served.
5. By now your Cornish hens have rested – snip the butcher’s twine and place on a platter with roast vegetables and serve. I like red with this dish, try a Pavlou Estate Syrah-Xinomavro P62.

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A recipe for a seafood boil varies and depends on what’s fresh and available in your market. It could be a big pot of crayfish, or crab or lobster and other fruits of the sea. The latter is the approach I took with lobster and crab as the main event, there were shrimp, clams, some Portuguese Chourico that Paula of Dragon’s Kitchen brought and I threw in some fresh sweet corn and new potatoes.

We were out shopping for some odds and ends and in a burst of inspiration that had to have come from the fresh seafood we saw that day in the market, the spontaneous seafood boil came into being. To host a seafood boil one needs a very large pot, some Old Bay seasoning, fresh herbs from the garden and some newspaper to throw on to the table where your seafood will be served.

A seafood boil is NOT a formal dinner gathering and you may want to host a more formal dinner for the boss. With a seafood boil, you’re up to your elbows in seafood juices, shells fly when you’re cracking the lobster and crab, you’re sucking the juices out of shrimp heads and pretty much eating with your hands. I like seafood boils.

Despite seafood boils being messy to eat the flip-side is that these require little in cooking utensils (one large pot), no table cloths and since you’re throwing newsprint on the table – all one has to do is roll-up the shells in newsprint and chuck it in the trash can.

There are three key aspects to successfully cooking a seafood boil: choose the freshest of seafood (live lobster, crab and clams (or mussels), creating a flavourful liquid that will impart some flavours in the seafood and most importantly, plan and time when each component of the seafood boil gets added into the pot. Not all seafood cooks in the same amount of time and therefore lobster then crab go in first, then the clams and finally the shrimp. Your goal is to have everything in the seafood boil ready at the same time without overcooking any one element of the boil.

Tailor your seafood boil to your liking, calculate how long each ingredient needs to get cooked then arrange the order in which the seafood gets tossed in the pot. The main flavouring for my seafood boil is the favoured Old Bay Seasoning (from Chesapeake Bay) but if you can’t find it in your part of the world, you can make your own batch or simply create your own flavourful liquid based on your tastes.

Seafood Boil

by Peter Minakis & Paula Costa

(serves 4)

24 cups of water

2 large onions, quartered

1/2 to 3/4 cup of Old Bay Seasoning (or salt or your preferred seasoning)

3 bay leaves

5 birdseye chilles

the peel of 1 whole lemon

1 handful of mixed peppercorns

2 heads of garlic, sliced in half

1 cup of white wine

1 long piece of dry (cured) Chorico sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces (or other cured sausage like Andouille or Kielbasa)

8 new (red potatoes), about palm-size

4 corn on the cob, peeled and cut into three

2 live lobsters, about 1.5 lb. each

2 live crabs, about 1lb. each

1lb of littleneck clams, rinsed

1lb. of medium shrimp, deveined

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

wedges of lemons & limes for garnish

1 cup chopped basil leaves + sprigs of fresh thyme for garnish

1. Add water into a very large pot along with Old Bay, peppercorns, chillies, lemon peels, wine, garlic, onions and sausage. Bring to a boil then reduce to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the potatoes (whole) and boil (covered) for 10 minutes.
2. Add corn, lobster and crab and reduce heat, simmer (covered) for another 10 minutes.
3. Add clams, cover and boil for 5-6 minutes or until just opened. Take pot off the heat and add shrimp and olive oil and let stand for 5 minutes (shrimp are cooked when pink). Remove all the contents of your seafood boil from the pot and transfer to  a smaller pot that will fit all the seafood and fixins’.
4. Add the basil, thyme and lemon & limes into the pot and simply empty out the seafood onto your  table. Serve with ice cold beer or a light white wine with moderate acidity, like a Boutari Moschofilero.

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