Greek-Inspired Nachos
Forgive me for stating the obvious but there’s no such thing as Greek nachos but I can assure you lots of Greeks enjoy Tex-Mex flavours and that when I saw Bittman’s take on Greek-Style Nachos…I wish I thought of it first! It’s not a stretch of the imagination that one can think of using baked […]
Pumpkin Pastitsio
Each year I see people throw out their carved pumpkins when they can use the flesh to make another good dish or two. Hold on to those pumpkins after Halloween, we’ve got a Greek dish to make! Inspired by Diane Kochilas’ version of Pastitsio with pumpkin, I took this riff on Greek’s answer to lasagna […]
Pan-Seared Sea Bream With Spinach, Fennel & Avgolemono Sauce
This dish comes from Greece, handed to me from my mom who tried the dish via a family friend, Kuria (Mrs.) Anna. For this dish I used sea bream (tsipoura) filets but you can use any white fish filets (preferably with skin on). I like the skin on fish – when it is crispy and […]
Makaronada With Fried Baby Eggplant
There are still lots of eggplants in the markets here and this year’s crop has been sweet with very few having the usual bitterness one finds in eggplants. Not all eggplants are the same: the usual big purple ones often have some seeds and bitterness and one sprinkles salt on the exposed flesh to draw […]
Ribeye With Mushroom, Mavrodaphne & Fig Sauce
I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Kitchener-Waterloo area (just over an hour southwest of Toronto) and I stopped by one of southern Ontario’s best butcher shops, Brady’s in Waterloo (with a second location in the St. Jacob’s Market). This family-owned butcher shop has beef, pork, poultry, wild game, lots of local and exotic pantry items […]
Warm Mushroom Salad With Feta & Crispy Onions
This dish has given me new hope for winter salads. You see, in the cold months I gravitate to soups and if I am going to have a salad it will be with winter greens, dried fruit, some nuts and a tart cheese to top it off. Upon my return to Canada, I tasted bland […]
Keftedes With Roast Potatoes
Here’s a dish my Dad loves to make: it combines three of his favourite foods: potatoes, peppers (with some heat) and kebapia (Florina speak for keftedes/soutzoukakia). This is a comforting fall/winter dish where youget a pan of roasted potatoes with a delicious, spicy sauce perfumed with bay, peppers, paprika and oregano. There’s a spike of […]
Baked Eggplant With Beef and Cheese
Truth be told, this past Summer’s trip to Greece was one of the most memorable with my usual visits to my family’s home in Halkidiki, frequent trips to nearby Thessaloniki, a side trip to Constantinople (Istanbul), down to the capital of Athens, a wonderful first visit to beautiful Nafplio, a visit to the Prefecture of […]
Scorpion Fish & Venus Clam Chowder
I have little to complain about upon reflecting on the six weeks I’ve spent vacationing in Greece. Despite the cloudy and rainy past couple of days the weather has been sunny, hot and the beaches were clean, not as crowded and the food, ever-inspiring. If if weren’t for yesterday’s cool & rainy day I may […]
The Acropolis Greek Salad
This past summer has been a tough year for those trying to grow tomatoes around Thessaloniki and here in Halkidiki. I can’t speak for the rest of Greece but many homeowners complained of a cold Spring followed by an unrelenting hot summer and a bug that would eat the tomato plants from inside out. My […]