A couple of weeks ago I did a cooking demo at Toronto’s Harbourfront. No stranger to crowds, cooking in front of strangers didn’t present a problem and besides..I was doing what I love – sharing good, comforting food. When I was asked to conduct some cooking demos the prerequisite was that I showcase comforting dishes [...]
Worth a second look: same recipe as when I first published this very popular Greek dish back in October 2007 with updated photos today, enjoy! This is another traditional Greek dish and it’s still often made in an earthenware pot, a kind of glazed terracotta vessel and baked in the oven. Like many Greek dishes, [...]
This dish came together with ingredients I had “on hand” in my fridge. A free-styling kind of a dish that can either bear success in the kitchen or a meal for the dog. The first rule is ensure that anything you’re cooking with is still edible and not more suited for the compost bin. Second, [...]
Growing in a Greek household, yogurt has been part of our diet since as early as I can recall. My mom would make homemade yogurt starting with a large pot of milk on the stovetop that she would bring to just scalding then take off the heat and add reserved batch/starter of yogurt and allow [...]
In Greece, a favourite pasta shape is that of kritharaki…our name for orzo. This pasta is usually featured in a baked Giouvestsi or stove-top manestra – both very comforting dishes that still transport me to Yiayia’s cooking. Today, I’m making Kritharotto…a play on risotto. Rather than toast Arborio rice then patiently alternate between stirring and [...]
Pasta salads are hit and miss….usally more miss. The reasons why a pasta salad may flop could be too much fat (usually mayonaisse), too much acid, the pasta is tossed while still warm or hot, pasta is under-seasoned or simply no flavour. I created this pasta salad with an eye on flavour and the other [...]
Another sure sign of late Spring/early Summer is the arrival of fresh green peas at the market stands. Many of you may be making a mint soup (hot or cold), pairing it with mint (or dill) or simply serving it as a side dish. All are fine but I think I have a fab new [...]
One aspect of the kitchen that I’ve really never enjoyed is washing pots, pans – doing the dishes. Sometimes it can’t be avoided and other times I might even forego making something that requires alot of clean-up…depends on my mood I suppose. Sometimes I also crave a dish but I don’t want the huge clean-up [...]
Although we’ve had a pretty mild winter by Canadian standards, we do still get the abrupt reminder that we (Canadians) live in the Great White North (Canada) and that yes, winters here are a long and cold. Last week we had temperatures that only warmed up to -8 Celcius in the day time and dipped [...]
A couple of years ago while vacationing in Greece, I was up in my Dad’s town (Amynteo) and even though I always enjoy going back to visit the region of my ancestors…I’ve grown tired of chasing chickens (think Rocky Balboa). Amynteo is about 90 minutes north-west of Thessaloniki, in the region of Florina. Beside Florina [...]
