Pasta’s popularity goes beyond the happy bellies of Italian diners and besides the many dishes (with so many pasta shapes to choose from), the other key to its popularity has to be its simplicity in preparation.

Anyone can boil water, add salt and cook the pasta according to packet instructions and most can whip-up a quick and delicious sauce to toss said pasta. It’s the everyman’s meal, it’s quick, it’s filling – it’s delicious!

Last night I came home late hungry and as I opened the fridge I prayed that the tub of roasted cherry tomatoes was still waiting for me to use. They were. Late winter/early Spring is still early to be buying good tomatoes but the hot house cherry tomatoes are usually good.

Be it for salads or sauces, cherry tomatoes are reliable and they sing when slow-roasted in the oven with Greek olive oil, garlic and some sea salt. You can toss the cherry tomatoes in a salad, use for appetizers or use in  pasta sauce.

Many Greeks love pasta simply tossed in crumbled Feta or in this case, a dry mizithra cheese – generously grated over the pasta and tossed to melt into  creamy, buttery consistency.

Dry mizithra cheese is a hard cheese, usually in a ball form and it usually comes from the whey leftover from making Feta cheese (much like Manouri cheese). It’s medium in saltyness and best when freshly and finely grated over pasta. Italian foodie-philes will think ricotta salata as an alternative and I’d say correct! In fact, I was served a similar dish on New Year’s Eve, inspired by a recipe from Lidia.

Boil the pasta, have previously roasted cherry tomatoes on hand, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, some fresh ground pepper and a rub of a dried Greek oregano over the pasta make this dish a wonderful, easy and delicious meal in a pinch.

Spaghetti With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Dry Mizithra Cheese

(serves 4)

1 – 500 gr. package of Misko no. 6 pasta (spaghetti)

2 pints of ripe cherry tomatoes

Acropolis Organics extra-virgin olive oil

8-10 whole cloves of garlic

coarse sea salt

approx. half cup grated dry Mizithra cheese

dried Greek oregano to taste

1. Make a batch of roasted cherry tomatoes ahead of time by pre-heating your oven to 350F. Rinse your cherry tomatoes and place in  shallow pan with whole cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Toss to coat and slow roast for about one hour or until they just begin to shrivel and the juices begin to run out of the tomatoes. Remove from the pan, cool and store.
2. Place a pot of water on your stove-top and bring to a boil. Season generously with salt and cook pasta according to packet instructions. Bring roasted cherry tomatoes to room temperature.
3. When the pasta is cooked, drain and reserve. In the same pot place a handful of cherry tomatoes  (one handful for each portion) and mash them with  fork to release their juices (add some roasted garlic too).
4. Add the pasta, some olive oil and toss to coat. Add fresh ground pepper, some dried Greek oregano and toss again, divide and plate.
5. Grate lots of dry Mizithra on top of each portion and serve. Pair with a bottle of chilled Kanenas Rose.

*Mizithra is a traditional Greek whey cheese with Protected designation of Origin (PDO). It has been manufactured in Greece for thousands of years and is considered the ancestor of all Greek whey cheeses. Mizithra is manufactured from whey derived from ewe’s, goats or cows milk or mixtures of milks in the regions of Macedonia, Thrace, Thessalia, Sterea Hellas, Peloponissos, Ionian islands, Aegean island and Crete island. There are two types of Mizithra; Fresh Mizithra which is unsalted or slightly salted and consumed a few hours or days after its manufacture and Dried Mizithra which is salted, dried and consumed as grated cheese. Fresh Mizithra contains up to 70% moisture and at least 50% fat in dry matter, while Dried Mizithra contains 40% and 50%, respectively (from www.expoaid.gr)

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

© 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.

The post Spaghetti With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Dry Mizithra Cheese appeared first on Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond.

This pasta dish is ready in the time it takes to boil your pasta: the shrimp take a couple of minutes to cook, the sauce is basically olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and pasta water. The dish is subtle in flavours yet still flavourful. I’ve added Greek saffron into the dish to add a wonderful yellow colour and add another dimension to the flavour.

Saffron from Greece is an ancient spice and it is cultivated in northern Greece, the prefecture of Kozani to be precise. Greeks call Saffron “Krokos Kozanis” and it is an appellation product protected by the European Union.

Like all quality saffron, it is pricey but a little goes a long way…a pinch of saffron threads will do. This dish offers a taste of sweet shrimp, garlic and the very best in olive oil from Greece, the bright flavour of the lemon zest and some lemon juice for balance. The chives/scallions make it savory, the saffron’s flavour subtle and there’s just enough heat to warm you.

Spaghetti With Shrimp, Lemon & Saffron (Μακαρονια με Γαριδες, Λεμονι & Κροκος Κοζανης)

(serves 4)

500 gr. package of spaghetti

sea salt to taste

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

16-20 medium sized shrimp, peeled and deveined

12 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 cup dry white wine

pinch of Kroko Kozani (Greek saffron)

2-3 ladles of pasta water

zest of 3 lemons

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. Boukovo (chilli flakes)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 chopped fresh chives (or scallion greens)

drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil

black & white sesame seeds for garnish

1. Place a large pot of water on your stovetop and bring to a boil, season well with water and add your pasta once boiling. Cook for 6 minutes then drain (remember to reserve some pasta water).
2. Season your shrimp with a bit salt and pepper and toss. Now place  large skillet on your stovetop along with a bit of olive oil and heat to high. Add the shrimp nad saute each side for about 30 seconds or until just pink. Remove from the skillet and reseerve.
3. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the remaining olive oil and add the garlic slices, saffron threads and sweat the garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and reduce for 2-3 minutes (taste to ensure the alcohol has cooked down). Turn the heat off and wait for your pasta.
4. Once your pasta is cooked, drain and add the pasta into the sauce along with a ladle of pasta water and toss. Now add another ladle of pasta water, the shrimp, the lemon zest and toss. Add another ladle or two of pasta water (if still too dry) along with lemon juice to taste and the chopped fresh parsley and toss.
5. Divide and plate, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle some sesame seeds and some Boukovo or chilli flakes. Serve with an Argyros Estate Atlantis white.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

© 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.

The post Spaghetti With Shrimp, Lemon & Saffron appeared first on Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond.

Agios Panteleimon, Florina

This is one way that people used to preserve summer’s goodness was by drying peppers in the sunny breeze and then simply reconstituting them in hot water. They can then be used for stuffing and other dishes during the winter.

Another way of preserving peppers is to roast them and bag them in zip lock bags and store in the freezer for future use. This is a more modern technique but today we’re going to show you another olden way, pickling the peppers.

I tried this peppers at my uncle’s when we sat together together and enjoyed some meze and Tsipouro (Greek grappa with anise). One of the meze were these pickled peppers stuffed with shredded cabbage, carrots, more red peppers, minced garlic and long thin European celery that we call ‘selino’.

They are seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper and some sugar to help with the curing process of the filling. Red shepherd’s peppers are in season, you still have a chance to make this meze and in three weeks you will be able to taste Florina on your table.

Stuffed & Pickled Red Shepherd’s Peppers

(makes 8 large Mason jars)

approx. 32 red shepherd’s peppers, rinsed

2 heads of cabbage, shredded

6 carrots, shredded

4 cups of chopped selino (European celery)

6 shepherd’s peppers, shredded

12 cloves of garlic, minced

approx. 1/2 cup sugar (to taste)

approx. 1/2 cup coarse sea salt (to taste)

lots of fresh ground pepper

Pickling brine

5 cups of white wine vinegar
3/4 cup of pickling salt
15 cups of water
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1. Ensure your jars are very clean/sterilized. This page has lots of straight-forward info for you. Into a large pot, add all of your brine ingredients and bring up to a boil.
2. In the meantime, all your vegetables and trim/remove the stems from the peppers. Cut around the stem of each pepper but leave a “hinge” in tact so that you may cover the stuffing later. In a large bowl, add the 6 peppers, shredded carrots, celery, garlic, ground pepper, sugar, salt and toss with your hands and allow to steep.
3. Once your water has come to a boil, drop some peppers in batches and once the water returns to a boil, count 4 minutes and then remove them with a slotted spoon (this step allows the peppers to gain flexibility/easier to stuff and jar). Repeat until all peppers have been blanched.
4. Reduce the heat of your brine to a simmer and cover while stuffing the peppers. Use your fingers to stuff the peppers and close with the pepper’s cap. Place the pepper into the jar and repeat (I set my jars on the counter horizontally so it’s easier to stuff).
5. Repeat stuffing all the peppers and fit as many peppers as you can into the jar (I was able to fill four to a jar).
6. Slip a thin stalk of selino into each jar and bring your brine back up to a boil. Now add the hot brine into each jar (not more than an inch from the mouth) and with a paper towel, wipe clean the mouth of each jar. Place the seals on each jar and tighten the metal screw bands. screw-caps on each jar.
7. Within about half-hour you should hear a pop and that’s the sound of your jars correctly sealing. If a jar doesn’t seal, remove the lid and place in a pot of boiling water (the jar should be mostly covered in water) and boil for 5 minutes. Wipe around the mouth of the jar with paper towel and place a new seal on the jar and repeat.
8. Store in a cool, dark spot (cellar) for at least three weeks before opening. Serve as part of a meze offering, as a side with Fakkes or Fassoulada soup.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

© 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.

The post Stuffed & Pickled Red Shepherd’s Peppers appeared first on Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond.

My parents come from the region of Florina (northwest of Thessaloniki) in northern Greece and proudly part of Greece’s province of Macedonia.  The red “shepherd’s peppers” are enjoyed/eaten by the denizens of this region and they are called “Piperies Florinis” or Florina Peppers throughout Greece. For as long as I can recall, peppers have been at our family table from pickled peppers to stuffed peppers, fried peppers in the winter and charred peppers on the open flame that are peeled and simply dressed with olive oil and sea salt. Piperies Florinis (Florina Peppers) also have the distinction of being an appellation product (DOP) where only red peppers from Florina may be called as such.

air-drying Piperies Florinis, Amynteo

One uncle would even bring small chilli peppers with him to weddings: he’d snip some into whatever dish was being served. The folks from Florina love their peppers and if you choose to visit this beautiful region in the summer, you’ll see stringed red peppers hanging outside of homes, air-drying to be preserved for cooking in the cold winter months.

The love of peppers extends to egg dishes like the nationwide popular Strapetsada with sweet and hot peppers being added into the mix. Much like the usual strapetsada, ripe, sweet tomatoes are grated into a skillet and simmer with olive oil until reduced but peppers are first fried and softened then the tomato gets added here along with onions. Once the vegetables have cooked down and the sauce has thickened the crumbled Feta is added and finally the eggs. Most scramble the eggs but here I chose to gently poach two eggs (matia) into the sauce making for a gorgeous presentation and the taste of oozing egg yolk with the peppered tomato size and tart Feta makes for some wonderful flavour contrasts in the mouth.

photo courtesy of Florinapast

The finishing touch to this dish is my addition of a kebapi(a) which is what the rest of Greece would call a Soutzoukaki(a). Visitors to Florina will see lots of grill houses offering roasted peppers and an array of grilled meat, including kebapia. This sausage-shaped meat rissoles share same name given to these in the rest of the Balkans with the name having more to do with Ottoman 400 year rule than a Slavic influence. Kebab refers to meat that is cooked on or near open flame.

from the Kalofagas grill pit

The Turks can thank the Persians for kebabs and it’s important to note the differences in cooking kebabs: in Turkey and the middle east the meat (often lamb) will be shaped by hand onto to flat skewers and suspended over hot coals and cooked to perfection without the meat ever falling off! In Greece and throughout the Balkans, the Kepapia are grilled directly on hot grate – offering more flavour by way of searing.

My take on Floriniotiki Strapetsada is a hearty meal or great as a meze offering and definitely mopping-up material for good, crusty bread - “μακα-μακα” for those from this region of Greece.

Floriniotiki Strapetsada With Feta & Kebapia (Φλωρινιωτικη Στραπατσαδα με Κεμπαπia)

(serves 4)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2-3 hot banana peppers, diced or sliced

6-8 ripe plum tomatoes, passed through a box grater

approx. 1 cup crumbled Feta cheese

4 large eggs

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of sugar

dried Greek oregano

Kebapia recipe

1. Using one large skillet or two smaller ones, add some olive oil over medium heat and add your  hot peppers and lightly saute until just softened and remove and reserve. Now add the remaining oil, the onions, sweet peppers and sweat for 5-6 minutes or until softened then add the grated tomatoes and reserved fried hot peppers, season with salt and pepper and bring up to a simmer (medium) and cook-down for another 5-6 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and the water has cooked away.
2. In the meantime, you may fry-off your kebab (I use this master recipe for my kebapia) in a little oil and reserve/keep warm. Add the crumbled Feta into the pan (s) then drop the eggs, place the kebap in the center and reduce the heat to medium-low. Season the eggs with salt and cover the pan to gently poach and steam the eggs until the whites are just cooked (you want the yolks to still be runny).
3. Sprinkle some dried Greek oregano and serve the Floriniotiki Strapatsada directly from the skillets to the table with good crusty bread with Tsipouro(with anise) or a local Amynteon Xinomavro like the Alpha Estate Rose.

μακα-μακα

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

© 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.

The post Floriniotiki Strapetsada With Feta & Kebapia appeared first on Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond.

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.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

© 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.

The post Warm Citrus & Spiced Olives appeared first on Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond.