Monkifish is large, triangular with the the body tapering as you near the tail. The head is great for making fish stocks or using for soups and the meat of the fish is located on both sides of its tail. You get two fillets that resemble a pork tenderloin, firm meat that holds up well to heat and of course, rather delicious.

Monkish is ideal for pan-frying, grilling or roasting. Today I am sauteing/pan-frying the monkfish with some fennel/anise flavours, mustard powder and sweet paprika. The dish is served with a fave pasta of mine, Greek kritharaki…shaped like orzo.

The melange of veggies in the orzo are scallions, red peppers, fennel, eggplant and zucchini. The kritharaki are brought together with hot water and another fave, Greek tomato paste made by Kyknos of Nafplion.

When making the kritharaki, remember to toast the pasta so that it keeps its shape and doesn’t go mushy on you. The monkfish is finished with some red wine vinegar, unsalted butter and a squeeze of orange juice to balance the acidity. Fancy looking dish – none too hard.

Monkfish With Kritharaki, Fennel & Orange (Πεσκανδριτσα με Κριθαρακι,  Μαραθο & Πορτοκαλι)

(serves 4)

for the kritharaki

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 scallions, sliced

1/3 cup diced carrot

1/3 cup diced fennel

1/3 cup diced eggplant

1/3 cup diced red pepper

1 /3 cup diced zucchini

2 tsp. Kyknos tomato paste

1 cup Misko kritharaki (orzo)

2 1/2 cups hot water

salt and pepper to taste

for the monkfish

extra-virgin olive oil for rubbing on fish

mustard powder

sweet paprika

ground fennel

salt and fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

4 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter

squeeze of orange juice

fennel fronds for garnish

1. Remove the silverskin and rinse your monkfish tail and pat-dry then slice into 4 equal pieces. Rub the monkfish pieces with olive oil and sprinkle mustard powder, sweet paprika, salt, pepper and a little bit of ground fennel on each side. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, place a medium-sized pot on your stove and turn the heat to medium. Add the olive oil and add the scallions, carrots, fennel, eggplant with a pinch of salt and sweat for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir for a minute then add the kritharaki (orzo) and stir constantly for 5 minutes to toast.
3. Add the hot water, salt, pepper and cover. Simmer for 8-10 minutes or until most of liquid has been absorbed. Add zucchini, adjust seasoning, cover and keep warm.
4. Take your fish out of the fridge and allow about 5 minutes to come to room temperature. Place a large skillet on your stovetop and and turn the heat to medium-high. When the pan is hot add the monkfish and saute for 4 minutes or look at the fish sideways to see if the fillet is opaque halfway up. If so, flip and saute another 2 minutes.
5. Add red wine vinegar and reduce for a couple of minutes. Add cold butter one Tbsp. at a time and swirl in. Squeeze the juice of half and orange and swirl, take off the heat.
6. Place your meal by placing a mold on your plate and spoon the krithraki in it. Unmold and place the monkfish on top. Garnish with a fennel fronds and enjoy with a bottle of Chateau Mercouri Kallisto.

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© 2013, 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.

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The pork butt is a little trickier to butterfly than the loin as it is not as uniform. If your knife skills are good, go for the pork butt as it has more fat and the result is juicy, succulent pork meat. If you’re not too sure of your knife skills, go with  pork loin or ask your butcher to butterfly your pork.

The interior of the pork is rubbed with a paste made of mustard, garlic, orange, finely crushed bay leaves, sage and oregano, some honey, salt and pepper. The stuffing is simple: blanched spinach, roasted red peppers and batons of sharp sheep’s milk Kefalotyri cheese.

Finally, the meat is rolled in parchment paper and aluminum foil and place in the oven to slow cook for just over 2 hours. A meat thermometer is helpful here and once the internal temperature reaches 150F, take out of the oven, remove the foil and parchment and return to the oven get some colour under the broiler.

I served this delicious stuffed pork with a sour cherry sauce made from reducing stock, Mousto Balsamic vinegar, garlic, herbs and finished with Vissino (sour cherry preserve). A bed of garlic mashed potatoes and celery root are the bedding for this dish, a Politiki salad on the side and a Papaioannou Single Estate to pair with your exquisite meal.

Pork Gioulbasi Stuffed Kefalotyri & Sour Cherry Sauce

(serves 6)

Sour Cherry/Vissino Sauce

3/4 cup Acropolis Organics Mousto Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 cup dry red wine

1 medium red onion, minced

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

6-7 whole allspice berries

bunch of fresh thyme sprigs

1 cup of pork, veal or chicken stock

Approx. 1/2 cup sour cherry preserve (or to taste)

salt and pepper to taste

One boneless pork butt or pork loin, trimmed of excess fat & butterflied

Rub:

olive oil

coarse sea salt

fresh ground pepper

2 Tbsp. coarsely ground coriander seeds

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

3 tsp. of fresh thyme leaves

3 tsp. fresh sages, finely chopped

Paste for inside the pork

1/4 cup olive oil

zest and juice of 1 orange

1 Tbsp. of honey

1 Tbsp. Dijon style mustard

3 cloves of minced garlic

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

2 bay leaves, crushed

1 tsp. dried Greek oregano

salt and ground black pepper

Filling

approx. 1 cup chopped blanched spinach, try Cookin’ Greens frozen spinach

2 roasted red peppers, skins peeled and seeds removed

about 4 sticks of Kefalotyri cheese

Pre-heated 350F oven

1. In a food processor, add the olive oil, honey, wine vinegar, mustard, sage, oregano, bay leaves, garlic, orange zest and orange juice and process into a paste and set aside. Place a large sheet of aluminum foil on your work surface then a similar sized piece of parchment paper. Now crush the coriander seeds and rub the outside of the pork with it along with the minced garlic, some coarse sea salt, fresh ground peppers and fresh thyme. Now place the butterflied pork (seasoned side face down) and empty the paste in the bowl and spread it evenly all over the inside of the pork. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Now place the spinach along the middle of the pork (lengthwise) followed by the roasted red peppers and finally the Kefalotyri batons (sticks). Lift the foil and parchment to roll up the meat, use the foil and parchment to tuck/tighten the meat as it is being rolled up.
3. Twist the ends of the foil to tighten the around the meat and place in a roasting pan with a rack. Pre-heat your oven to 350F and place the roast in the oven for 2 hours or until an internal temp of 150F is achieved. Carefully remove the foil and parchment and return the meat to the oven, crank the heat to broil to brown the outside of the meat (turn the meat often to evenly brown).
4. Remove the meat from the oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
5. While the pork is roasting, you can make the sour cherry sauce: pour all the ingredients (except for the sour cherry preserve, salt pepper) and gently bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and reduce to half the amount. Taste, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, and strain. Pour back in the saucepan and add the sour cherry preserve 1 tablespoon at a time until you’ve achieved the balance of savory and sweet that you like. Reserve/keep warm.
6. Slice your Pork Gioulbasi into thick slices, serve on a bed of garlic smashed potatoes and celery root and pour some sauce over each portion of meat.

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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.

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You need a fresh as can be salmon, wild-caught if possible and if you’re using farmed salmon I would urge you to freeze it (then thaw) before curing (kills any parasites). In this case the salmon is cured or “cooked” in a combo of sugar, salt, lots of dill or fennel and liquor.

The curing method has its origins in Sweden and the end result is called Gravlax. I love fish, love salmon, love smoked salmon and Gravlax. It was a no-brainer for me to want to play around with this approach to salmon and apply some Greek flavours like Ouzo.

Gravlax literally means “buried salmon” and the name refers to the traditional method of preparation for this food: fresh salmon was heavy salted and buried in dry sand to ferment and cure. Most Gravlax recipes involve sandwiching two fillets together with the dill and salt mixture being in the middle. I cured just one fillet and the result still was excellent.

Here, I’m taking a nontraditional Greek ingredient, a foreign cooking method and applying Greek flavours to it. Ouzo perfumes the aroma of the salmon, sea salt reunites with the flesh of the fish, fennel fronds heightens the flavour of the salmon.

Curing a salmon was remarkably easy. The key to this dish is using only the freshest of fish and trusting that your final result will turn out fine and that your going to slide a piece of salmon in your mouth and savour it’s oily, rich flavour.

Ouzo-Cured Salmon
(ingredient listing per pound of salmon)

1 lb. fresh salmon fillet, pin-bones removed
2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
2 Tbsp. sugar 2 tsp. cracked black pepper
1 tsp. Boukovo (red chile flakes)
zest of 1/2 orange or 1 lemon
1 good shot of Ouzo

enough fennel fronds or dill to cover the fish
plastic cling-wrap
a heavy weight (cans of tomato /apple juice)

1. Although you’ve bought a fillet of salmon, inspect the salmon visually and with your fingers to see if any pin bones were missed by your fish monger. If you find any, you can used needle-nose pliers to remove them.
2. Place the salmon on a large piece of plastic wrap (about three to four times the length of the fillet) with the skin side down, pink flesh facing up.
3. Put the salt, sugar, and black pepper, zest, chili flakes into a bowl and mix until evenly distributed. Reserve. Pour the shot of Ouzo over the fillet.
4. Spoon the mixture onto the exposed salmon flesh, making sure to cover as much of the exposed areas as possible. Place the fennel or dill on top of the salmon. If the dill is too long to fit on top of the fillet, then snap off the stems or fold the dill over. If you have 2 fillets, place the second one flesh side down on top of the dill (making a sandwich of the fillets).
   
5. Wrap the salmon up well and taut with the plastic wrap and place in a vessel. The container is there to catch the juices that will seep out of the salmon during the curing process.
6. Place a heavy weight on top of the salmon and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, maximum 4 days (the longer, the better the flavour).
7. Unwrap the salmon, remove the fennel or dill and and rinse off the salt mixture and then pat dry with paper towels.
8. Use a sharp knife to thinly slice your salmon. Serve it as an open-faced sandwich, as an appetizer or a first course. For the Thalassa Supper Club I served the salmon on cucumber slices, some Greek yogurt with chopped capers, the salmon and topped with a pickled shaved fennel.
   

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This cheesecake is a sweet so don’t get all hot and bothered thinking I’m taken slabs of Feta cheese and mixed it in with sugar. No. What you have here is a classic approach to cheesecake with cream cheese, graham cracker crust and a fruit topping. All those components are there but with some Greek panache.

Let’s start with the crust: ground graham crackers are mixed with cinnamon and toasted sesame seeds. The cream cheese has some crumbled Feta in it – just enough for a salty finish to each bite and finally I used some of my mom’s sour cherry (vissino) glyko (spoon sweet) to top the cheesecake. The garnish is also a must for the dish and actually quite easy to make: homemade sesame snaps or pasteli as we call them in Greek.

The sesame snaps recipe makes about 30 pieces (more than enough to garnish this dessert) but you’re going to have no problem snacking on these treats! The vissino glyko recipe is a short-cut recipe that’s ideal for those in a rush or if you want to make this spoon sweet when sour cherries aren’t quite in season.

Enjoy the cheesecake, please do make the pasteli (sesame snaps) and try your hand at this short-cut vissino glyko. Life is sweeter with dessert!

Feta Cheesecake With Sour Cherry Spoonsweet & Sesame Snaps (Τσιζκέικ με Φετα, Παστελι και Βυσσινο Γλυκο)

(serves 6-8)

1 – 8 inch springform pan (treated with cooking spray)

Base

2 cups of ground graham crackers (about 30)

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 stick of melted unsalted butter

1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

Filling

1 1/2 blocks of room temperature cream cheese (about 12 oz.)

1 cup crumbled Feta cheese (about 4 oz.)

3 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups plain yogurt

zest of 1 lemon

splash of vanilla extract

pre-heated 325F oven

1. In a bowl, add ingredients for the base and mash everything together using a fork until well incorporated.  Gently spread the mixture on the bottom of the springform pan and press-down with a measuring cup or a heavy glass. Place in the fridge.
2. Meanwhile, make the filling by placing the room temperature cream cheese and crumbled Feta in a bowl and beat on low speed with an electric mixer for a minute or until smooth. Now add the eggs one at a time into the mixture and beat until incorporated then  add the sugar and continue beating until creamy.
3. Scrape down the sides with a spatula an add the yogurt, lemon zest and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Take your springform out of the fridge and pour the filling into the pan and gently jiggle to even out the top. Place the springform pan on top of a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil and fold up the sides (prevent water from seeping into cheesecake). Place the pan into a roasting pan and add enough boiling water into the pan to come halfway up the springform to create a “bain marie”.
4. Place in your pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. The cheesecake will still jiggle when removed from the oven but will set as it cools. Cool for 45 minutes then place in the fridge for 4 hours to overnight.
5. Remove the cheesecake from the fridge and run a knife around the sides to loosen it from the springform and unfasten the springform and transfer to a plate/platter. Cut thin wedges with a thin knife and place on a plate with a heaping tablespoon of cherry spoon sweet and a sesame snap garnish.

Short-Cut Cherry Spoon Sweet

1 jar of pitted sour cherries (796 ml)

sugar

vanilla extract

1. Strain the liquid and place in a measuring cup then add to a medium-sized pot and half the amount of sugar (2 to 1 liquid to sugar) and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once aboil, reduce to a simmer and cook down for 15 minutes then add the reserved cherries and simmer for another five minutes.
2. Place a plate in the freezer to test consistency of your spoon sweet and place a spoon on the cold plate to test. Once desired consistency is achieved, remove from the heat, add the vanilla extract and allow to cool. Place in a jar and store in the fridge.

Sesame Snaps

(makes about 30 diamond-shaped pieces)

2 cups granulated sugar

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp. of lemon juice

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1 1/3 cups toasted sesame seeds

zest of 1 orange

1 well-greased baking sheet

1. In a heavy-bottomed pan, add the sugar, water, honey, lemon juice and stir. Turn the heat on to medium heat and bring up to a boil. Continue to cook without stirring for about 10 minutes or until a deep amber colour has been achieved (takes about 10 minutes).
2. In the meantime, you may toast your sesame seeds in a large non-stick pan over medium heat, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon (the sesame seeds toast in the 10 minute time frame).
3. Once you have a deep amber colour achieved, add the toasted sesame seeds, salt and orange zest and quickly stir in then pour onto baking sheet. Use a greased spatula to evenly spread the sesame mixture (it cools fast) and score with a greased knife. Allow to cool completely then loosen with a spatula and remove from the tray.
4. Store in air-tight container in stacks lined with plastic wrap

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Did you know that Kalamata olives are a PDO product? A PDO product is one protected by the EU and awarded to agricultural and foodstuff products from a geographical area with specific know-how. Kalamata is located in the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese (Messinia).

The other two olives in this mix are also PDO products: one being the Thassos “throumba” salt-cured olive. This briny black olive is all wrinkly with no acid in the flavour profile. Thassos is a lush green island (once again with forests after the 1987 fires) located in eastern Macedonia near the city of Kavala.

The third olive in this easy meze dish is the Halkidiki olive, a new addition to Greece’s ever-growing list of PDO products. These larger green olives are usually cracked then soaked in water until the bitterness is drawn out and then brined before heading to market. Together these three olives offer something for everyone at the table and the flavouring touches on salt, acid, some heat from the mustard seeds, some exotica with the coriander seeds, sweetness from the citrus and savory with bay and rosemary.

Warm Citrus & Spiced Olives

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, smashed

2-3 bay leaves

2 strips of orange peel

2 strips of lemon peel

1 tsp. of coriander seeds

1/2 tsp. mustard seeds

2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

1/2 cup Kalamata olives

1/2 cup green Halkidiki olives

1/2 cup salt-cured black olives (Thassos or Halkidiki)

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

a squeeze of orange juice

1. In a large skillet, add your olive oil, lemon & orange peels, garlic and bay leaves over medium-low heat and as soon as the garlic begins to turn colour, add the rosemary sprigs, thyme, olives, coriander and mustard seeds and stir to coat and simmer for 5 minutes or so. The wine vinegar will sweeten as it is reduced.
2. Adjust flavouring (more olive oil, herbs) and finish with a bright squeeze of orange juice. Allow to cool to warm and then serve or allow to cool and just re-heat before serving.

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