Baked Whiting With Potato Gratin
Have you ever tasted the fish whiting before? If not, this dish might nudge you in that direction. Whiting is also known as hake and it’s found in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean. In Greek, we call whiting “bakalarakia” or little cod as they are related to the larger species. The fish is mild-tasting, slightly […]
Beer-Can Chicken With Lemon Verbena & Thyme
I’ve been enjoying this method of preparing chicken for years now. I have yet to find anyone not like it…what’s not to like about moist chicken with crispy skin? Beer can chicken works as such: open a can of beer, drink about 1/3 of the beer, you may add add aromatics into the beer like […]
Grilled Manouri & Roasted Beet Salad
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged about Manouri cheese and I promise not to allow this lapse of cheese to occur again. Cheeses are an integral part of Greek cuisine: we have Feta for salads or at the table with olives and bread, we have a wide array of firm sheep’s milk cheeses served at […]
Grilled Pork Steakettes
If you’ve ever eaten pork steaks then you can relate to my enthusiasm for this cut of pork. A pork steakette is cut from the pork butt, a square piece of meat that’s attached to the shoulder. The pork butt (also known as the Boston butt) comes from the shoulder (not the pig’s rear) and […]
Dolmadakia tis Marianna’s
Just a couple of days into my trip to Greece and I began in earnest to meet the first round of folks who are passionate about Greek cuisine and take pride in the products they produce. Technology has it’s good and bad points but when it comes to connecting with new friends, acquaintances and the […]
Cheat Dolmades
Me thinks this blog is overdue for focusing on a side dish. We all make side dishes to go with our mains and in the blogging perspective, the side dish does get short shrift. The title of this dish translated into English is Rice With Grape Vine Leaves, Raisins and Pine Nuts. What I’ve done […]
Octopus Kokkinisto on a Smokey Eggplant Purée
Some know it, many don’t and I now urge you to try the combination of octopus with eggplant. Next time you’re at a Greek taverna and you’re ordering seafood – make sure you have some octopus and eggplant in the mix. Try tasting both the eggplant (say Melitzanosalata) and the eggplant both in your mouth. […]
Chicken With Okra aka Kotopoulo Me Bamies
My 2010 edition of Vacation in Greece is coming to a close. This time tomorrow I will be in transit and on my way back home to Toronto, Canada. As much as I would love to stay here, life goes on (ie. I need to work to afford coming back to Greece each year). This […]
Kypriakes Propetes
Last year I was given a review copy of Vefa Alexiadou’s book, “Vefa’s Kitchen” and the recipes in this heavy tome are endless! I could easily do a recipe a day (a la Julie Powell) and probably still have a few recipes to take me halfway into the next year. The recipe I want to […]
Makaronia me Vlita & Vasiliko
Post Update: One of the many things I did during my vacation in Greece was to also cook and appear with my friend Chef Dina Nikolaou on her daily show, “Nistikoi Praktores”. We taped at a Manaviko (green grocer) in Halandri (north Athens) and in keeping with this season’s theme of frugal dishes, I offered […]