My dad was in the kitchen cutting up potatoes, onions, peppers and it looked like he beat me to the side dish. My dad loves potatoes and he really loves this dish as it also contains peppers and it’s also on the spicy side with some hot peppers or Boukovo usually tossed in the mix. He simply adds peppers, tomatoes with potatoes and tosses in tomatoes, a little bit of carrot and some bay leaves and throws them in the oven. My Greek friends from northern Greece will recognize this dish with their family’s own “touches” but you’ll recognize it.

This roast potato dish isn’t as dry as your usual roast potatoes with some sauce still evident in the pan and ideal for dunking bread into it. This dish is reminiscent of Patates Yiahni or Bloum Patates…both stewed potato dishes cooked on the stovetop. This dish is similar to both but all the cooking is done in the oven. Patates Plaki would be a more accurate description. Plaki dishes are oven-baked dishes and pieces of boiled lamb, veal or chicken can certainly be placed on the potatoes and baked together for a complete dinner. Fish Plaki is another popular Greek dish.

A dish like this makes for a wonderful vegetarian main course or an “all in one” dinner with the addition of a protein of your choice. This is a hearty dish that’s best suited to the cooler months as there’s chiili flakes (Boukovo) in the mix but not too much to blow your head-off – just enough to warm you as the days shorten and evenings grow. Patates Plaki – my kind of comfort food.

Patates Plaki (Πατάτες πλακί)

(serves 4-6)

6 large Yukon Gold (or other yellow potatoes, peeled and quartered)

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1/2 green bell pepper, sliced

1/2 carrot, halved lengthwise then sliced

1 large ripe tomato, passed through a box grater (or 3/4 cup vegetable cocktail)

1 tsp. sweet paprika

1 tsp. Boukovo (chilli flakes)

2 bay leaves

1 cup hot chicken or vegetable stock

1-2 tsp. coarse sea salt

1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 tsp. dried Greek oregano

Pre-heated 425F oven

1. Pre-heat your oven and set the rack to the middle position. In medium-sized deep baking dish add the potatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, carrot, grated tomato, paprika, bay leaves, ground pepper, Boukovo, oregano and toss to coat. Add the hot stock, mix well and taste and add salt to taste and more ground pepper and stir-in.
2. Drizzle with olive oil (be generous) and place in your pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes or until potato-tops are crisp but there’s still some sauce in the dish.
3. Carefully remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Good crusty bread is recommended for dunking.

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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.

You see, both my parents are from the Florina region of Greece (90 minutes NW of Thessaloniki) and the folks here just love their peppers and yes hot peppers. I haven’t posted a dish in awhile that is intentionally hot and this is the answer to those looking for some heat. This is a meze/appetizer dish that’s easy to prepare, the ingredients won’t set you back and it’s a wonderful offering alongside some Keftedes or Bifteki or some grilled pork. Good crusty bread for dipping, swiping and dunking is a must here!

What’s really cool about this recipe is the method I’ve chosen here to stuff the peppers: I briefly blanche the peppers to soften them so that they are easy to stuff. I’ve chosen tomatoes and Feta cheese to stuff the peppers with  – a classic combo and finished with sea salt, Greek olive oil and dried Greek oregano. The Feta, the tomato, the flavour of the peppers are all concentrated as I bake this delicious meze in the oven. You could cover and simmer these on your stovetop but you won’t get the same effect.

Epiros Greek Feta - sold at Costco Canada

Choose ripe tomatoes, good Feta like Epiros (Greek of course) available at Costco in Canada, ripe hot banana peppers and extra-virgin Greek olive oil. Kali Orexi – Bon Apetit!

Tomato & Feta Stuffed Peppers (Πιπεριές Γεμιστές με Ντομάτα & Φέτα)

(appetizer for 4-6)

6-8 hot banana peppers (or sweet peppers)

3 large ripe tomatoes

approx. 10-11 sticks of Feta cheese

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt

1 tsp. dried Greek oregano

Pre-heated 400F oven

1. Place a medium pot of water on your stovetop and bring to a boil. Add some salt and when the water returns to a boil, add the peppers and simmer for 5-6 minutes then remove with a slotted spoon and run under cold water until just cooled. Your peppers are now soft and pliable and easy to fill.
2. Remove the stems from your tomatoes and cut in half then gently squeeze out the seeds and discard. Cut strips of tomato from each of the halves and set aside. Now cut some batons (sticks) of Feta cheese about 1 cm. in thickness.
3. Pat the peppers dry and place on your work surface and slice open the tops of your peppers (lengthwise) and carefully remove seeds (optional). Insert enough Feta cheese into the opening of each pepper to line the entire length of the pepper. Now slide strips of tomato along the Feta and try and enclose the filling as much as possible.
4. Place the peppers in a small baking dish that will tightly hold the peppers. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and dried oregano and cover will foil and place in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and baking uncovered for another 5 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Drizzle with more olive oil (optional) and serve hot with good crusty bread and Ouzo or Tsipouro.

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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.

Pork butt (from the shoulder)

Odds & ends and fat would be used to make Kavourma – a dish of preserved meat that’s marinated, slow cooked then preserved in its own fat to hold for the winter.  Ever used Crisco, buy shortenings from the supermarket? Before those products existed, animal fat was used. Nothing got wasted and although many of these labour-intensive traditions have waned over time, the ritual of sausage making still exists and our family enjoys sausages, making them, giving some way and ultimately eating them.

My parents come from towns in the region of Florina, about a 90 minute drive west of Thessaloniki. This region is colder than much of Greece in the winter yet thet still enjoy hot & dry summers like much of Greece. There are both mountains and farm-worthy valleys in this area and my parents’ area of Amynteo produces excellent red wine, sparkling rose wines with the indigenous Xinomavro grape.

Travel west to both Florina and beyond to Kastoria and one will find Macedonian (Makedonika) sausages (loukanika) in many homes and most tavernas in the area. The Macedonian sausage is a contrast to the southern sausage of Laconia, with its pronounced flavourings of savory and orange peel. Our sausage (Macedonian) is spicy with the use of Boukovo, a dried and slow-roasted hot red pepper that takes on slight smoky flavour from the wood. The Boukovo is ground into what you and I know as chilli flakes and used in cooking.

The second prominent ingredient in Macedonian sausages are leeks…an oft’ used winter ingredient throughout Europe and they seem to lift any dish that includes them. Macedonian sausages…Boukovo (chilli flakes) and leeks. The ingredients in between are seasonings and spices and up to interpretation from family to family, town to town. I’ve rounded out the flavours with garlic, paprika, dried Greek oregano, ground allspice and salt & pepper.

After the sausage filling is mixed, taste-tested before actually being made into sausage, the flavours are allowed to marry overnight and after the sausages are made, a period of air-drying occurs. The sausages would hang outside in the cool, breezy air or an airy cellar or shed. The sausage colour transforms from a grey to a warm brown colour during this drying stage, with the casings developing into a skin.

The sausages are now in their prime, ready to be cooked on a grill, over the fireplace, on your stove-top or in the oven. Have you made sausages before? These are the sausages from my family and you’ll have a taste of northern Greece if you make these.

For those that haven’t made sausages before, you’ll need a meat grinder, a sausage maker, seek out the right cuts of pork and use the correct ratio of lean meat and fat. Every good sausage contains a percentage of fat, these Macedonian sausages contain 25% fat with the remainder being made-up of the “leaner” pork (the butt) and the leeks.

Macedonian Sausages (Μακεδονικα Λουκανικα)

(recipe updated from January 2008)

15 lbs. pork butt, coarse grind
(from pork shoulder)

5lbs. pork fat, ground
5 lbs. of leeks, cleaned, chopped and blanched
1/4 cup black pepper
1/3 cup Boukovo (red chilli flakes)
1/2 coarse sea salt
2 Tbsp. ground allspice
1/4 cup dried oregano
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup sweet paprika
2 little tubs of hog casings

1. Mix all the above ingredients in a large Rubbermaid container and mix well with your hands.
2. Take a handful and fry it off on your stove to taste test. Adjust seasoning. Cover and place the container with sausage filling in a cool place (our garage is as  cold as a fridge). over night to allow the ingredients to marry.
3. The next day, soak the hog casings in warm water for 30 minutes and then rinse. Replenish the cold water and leave them in a bowl of water. Take a hog casing and place it on the nozzle where your sausage mix will come out.
4. Place the sausage mix on the top entry point of the sausage maker and start pumping out sausages (I have an electric sausage maker). Plunge the meat down and with your other hand, ensure the sausage filling is fully filling the casing as the sausages are being formed. Twist the sausages into links of your desired size.
5. Replenish hog casings on the nozzle of the sausage maker as they run out. Repeat until all of your sausage mix has been made into links.
6. Hang your sausages for a 3 to 5 days (until the casings have slightly hardened to a skin) in a cool, dry place like a cellar, garage or if you have a spare fridge.
7. Freeze the sausages in zip lock bags and take and take out and defrost for cooking as desired (grill, fry, bake). They are good for one year (beyond that you’re tempting freezer burn). Serve as a meze or main protein along with an Alpha Estate Xinomavro .

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© 2010, 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 all like hot peppers to some degree in our dishes but no one as much as my father. My mom’s best friend can (and will) eat a handle of long, thin hot peppers like they were  a bag of potato chips! Once at a wedding, I sat beside an uncle (now dearly departed) who would pull out some small red chillis out of his lapel pocket and snip it into pieces and add it to each course served (save for dessert).

I like heat in a dish to add more complexity to a dish, some zing, character and ultimately (yes), some flavour. I’ve never been the type that will add a whole bunch of heat just for the sake of getting that adrenalin rush from eating extremely hot or spicy food. A basket of Buffalo chicken wings without some heat is just plain bland and those same chicken wings coated in “suicide sauce” is just plain overkill.

The dish I am showcasing today is very rustic and to try and make this into a high-rent looking dish that was crafted by a student at Le Cordon Bleu would bastardize the dish’ and pay insult to it’s humble place in the diet of this northern Greek home. We’re talking about a stew of vegetables simmered in grated tomatoes until soft, sweet and spicy from those hot peppers. The whole point of this dish is to break bread and swoop and scoop-up this sauce.

There are many varieties of “Mantza”. My dad’s version would start out with adding olive oil into a pot along with lots of sliced onions, garlic, a mixture of sweet and hot banana peppers, some fried chunks of eggplant and finally, some grate tomatoes. All this simmers until the sauce is think, the onions have broken down and the sauce is thick, sweet and red with the green peppers still evident in the sauce.

My dad’s recipe is a whole pot-full, enjoyed hot or room temperature. This dish will often be brought out as one of the offerings at the table. A serving of Mantza, some homemade crusty bread and a side of Feta all are interchangeable. Mantza can and will be made differently from home to home. This dish appears in the kitchens of Macedonia homes from the area around Naoussa, the towns of Florina and neighboring Kastoria.

In my presentation of this dish today, I’m offering it as an appetizer and one that will appease the hot pepper lover at the table and the shy one who avoids the heat. I’ve also incorporated another fave of my Dad’s, which are fried peppers. There’s a little “splits-splats” going on here but it’s worth the trouble.

To fry peppers, the most important thing to remember is to poke the peppers all over with a fork so as to reduce the prospect of hot oil hitting you. Investing in a screen to cover your skillet is a good suggestion for making this dish. It’s an easy one, one that is rustic, easy and complex at the same time.

Olive oil, fried peppers and eggplant, lots of onions and garlic, grated ripe and sweet tomatoes are simmered until the sauce is thick and sweet. A final touch of dried Greek oregano is added and all that’s left is to serve with bread and Feta cheese. To make this dish special, I fry the peppers and before I re-introduce them back into the sauce, I stuff the peppers with crumbled Feta cheese. Seal-up the peppers, place back into the sauce and the stuffed peppers will continue to soften and the cheese will soften, melt and wait for your fork to cut, open and reveal a softened, creamy Feta that just has to be added to that piece of bread you just dunked into the sauce.

Hot peppers, sweet tomato sauce, briny and tart Feta and pungent Greek oregano, ready to make some Mantza?

Mantza (Μάντζα)

(makes one appetizer serving)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 hot banana peppers, poked a few times with a fork

4-6 sliced of eggplant (about 1/2 inch thick)

1 medium onion, sliced

2-3 cloves of garlic

3-4 ripe tomatoes, passed through your box grater

1 sweet banana pepper, seeded and sliced

approx. 1/2 cup of crumbled Feta cheese

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp. of dried Greek oregano

1. Rinse your hot peppers and pat-dry. Prick with your fork a few times and set aside. Add your olive oil into a skillet over medium heat and then add the peppers (not the one sweet pepper). Fry on both sides until just golden and set aside. Now add your slices of eggplant and fry on both sides until just golden. Reserve.
2. In the same skillet, add the sliced onions, sliced sweet banana pepper and garlic and saute for a few minutes to soften and sweat. Now add the grated tomato puree and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer. Add some salt and pepper to taste and continue to simmer.
3. In the meantime, Carefully cut open the stem-end of your fried hot peppers (keep part of the attached so you may re-seal the pepper well) and push the crumbled Feta into the cavities.
4. When you see that almost all the water in your sauce has evaporated and the sauce is almost thick, add the reserved slices of eggplant and the stuffed hot peppers and now cover with a lid. Reduce to low and simmer for another 5-7 minutes or until is just start to see the melted Feta ooze out out of the peppers.
5. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, sprinkle with dried Greek oregano and serve with lots of crusty bread and some more Feta cheese on the side.

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.

© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis

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© 2010, 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.

Today, I’m going to showcase the small operation, Pavlou Estate. The Pavlou Estate Winery is located in the Greek province of Macedonia, northwest of Thessaloniki. It’s located just outside of my mother’s hometown of Agios Panteleimon.

The Macedonian region of northern Greece has been producing wines for over 4000 years and it comes as no surprise that trace amounts of  wines have been found in drinking vessels found in recent archaelogical digs in the area.

Alexander the Great was born in Pella (approx. 70km from the winery) and it is said the Amynteon-Agios Panteleimon area was a favourite wine stop for the ancient Macedonian Kings.

A wine tour of the Pavlou Estate was set up by my cousin and as my mom’s from Agios Panteleimon…securing a wine tour was a cinch. You see, when you’re family’s from a small town, the lines between family & friends are blurred…it’s all the same.

A quick explanation of who my mom was secured the tour. Here in Cananda, Alex Pulcini (Vice President) laid the ground work for my tour by offeing info on the operation, the wines it produced, and offering a sample of the product.

In Greece, I was greeted by the other partner running the Pavlou Estate, Mr. Vassilios Kagas. Vassilis’ hospitality was par-none, I felt like I was being entertained by an uncle I hadn’t seen in years. Again, being from the same town in Greece blurs the line between family and friends.

The Pavlou winery is a small, family-operated winery that prides itself on producing five very distinct wines. From the start to finish, the process is organic, using age-old wine making tecnhiques and blending it with new world technology.

Greece is home to many indigenous grape varietals and this has been the main selling point to the recent interest and surge in demand for Greek wines. In the Amyteon region, the native grape varietal is the Xynomavro grape. It’s been growing in this region for thousands of years and it’s name literally translates to “acid black”.

The grapes are small and grown in tight clusters. It’s often compared to a Pinot Noir in both texture and flavour. With the skilled hands of a seasoned winemaker, the Xinomavro grape is used to make all five offerings of wine from Pavlou.

From the big tannic reds to aromatic, fruity roses to even producing sparkling wines and what visually looks like a white!

If you’re looking for a wine to celebrate or to kick off a backyard BBQ, why not try the rose or pop open the sparkling wine?

The Kappa P11 (Blanc de Noirs) is a fruity wine witgood acidity, perfect for seafood.

The P62 blends Syrah and Xinomavro, a popular wine from the Pavlou stable, it paired very well with my Greek Thanksgiving turkey.

The King of the Pavlou wines has to be the Klima 100% – Xinomavro. This is the deep, red wine, full of body, great for grilled meats, spicy dishes with some heat or aromatics. I often notice undertones of black cherry, chocolate and some earthy flavours.

Here in Ontario, Pavlou wines can be acquired through private order and in the US, my good friend Konstantinos Drougos can accomodate your Pavlou wine needs.

Later this year (in the Spring), Pavlou Estates will launch the release of their rose in the LCBO stores here in Ontario. I will be assisting in the launch and I’ll share more details with you as they become available. Here in Canada, George Pavlou, the President of Pavlou Estates has become a good friend of mine and it’s always a bonus when your friends own a winery!

The days of cheap, Greek table wine are long gone. The next time you’re out buying some wine, ask the store clerk to show you their Greek selections. Ask for a recommendation. Ask about what part of Greece the wine came from. Ask about what grape varietal was used.

Greek food and wines are at the forefront of the food scene. As you all know from following my blog, the Greeks have been enjoying healthy and delicious foods from time eternal.

Is it too hard to fathom that the Gods washed down their delicious Greek foods with meticulously made fin Greek wine?

Suggested food & wine pairings:

Kakavia

Matsata

Soutzoukakia

Roasted Turkey

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.