Extra-Thick Pork Chop Stuffed with Roasted Red Peppers & Graviera
Last week I caught my food muse, Chef Dina Nikolaou serve up a baked pork chop stuffed with peppers and Graviera cheese and I knew I just had to try this dish…with my own personal touches. I knew that I had to translate this into a grilled dish – it’s BBQ season. Roasted red peppers […]
Roulade of Sole With Avgolemono (Ρουλάδα της γλώσσας)
I recently caught Chef Jacques Pepin serving up some paupiettes of sole. Now don’t go scrambling for your French-English dictionaries, a paupiette is simply sometime rolled-up – in this case a fillet of sole. I immediately had to use this method of baking sole as it looks gorgeous and the fillet will cook more evenly. […]
Baked Gigantes Beans
Last year, one of the stops during my vacation to Greece was to Kastoria. Kastoria is the capital city of the Prefecture of…Kastoria. It’s located in northern Greece, northwestern Macedonia. This region of Greece is located on fertile, elevated plateaus and the economy is centered around its long history of fur trading, tourism and agriculture. […]
Bits & Bites With Astrid Speranza
I recently had the pleasure of seeing Chef Astrid Speranza appear on a Greek reality show. The premise of the show is where the subject (sometimes male, sometimes female) is taken on four dates where the suitor will woo them with their home cooking and charm. The week culminates at a restaurant where the subject […]
Vine-Leaf Chicken Stuffed with Feta
Most of you are familiar with dolmades, where small packets of rice and aromatics are bundled using grape-vine leaves or “ampelofyla” in Greek. These small morsels may also contain meat or be wrapped with Swiss chard cabbage. The cabbage rolls are also often called “lahano-dolmades”. The use of grape-vine leaves is not limited to just […]
Roast Lamb in Parchment (Αρνί ψητό στη λαδόκολλα)
Oh how many ways to cook a lamb there are. I’m just a Greek guy sharing the many ways. You have braised, boiled, grilled, rotisserie and roast. Then you have your whole lamb, or sections of lamb on the spit, leg of lamb, shoulder, chops, steaks and in this case, the shank. All these recipes […]
Salmon With Artichokes & Potatoes
Here’s a dish that’s “just in time” for Spring. Artichokes are in season, salmon is available all year’ round and the flavours of citrus lick this dish. Some potatoes coated in sweet paprika and some briny capers round out the dish. The oregano has just sprouted and so have the chives. This dish is a […]
Day Trippin’ in Gytheio
Last year during my vacation in Greece, I had the pleasure of seeing, eating and drinking my way through the southern peninsula also known as the Peloponnese. I traveled from Thessaloniki to Athens by train, stayed in the capital for a couple of days and then headed to Leonidio and then way down south to […]
Seafood Cabbage Rolls (Λαχανοντολμάδες-με-Θαλασσινά)
WhenI first scanned over this recipe in a recent issue of Gastronomos, I was smitten with the concept of filling cabbage with seafood. In Greek cuisine, cabbage rolls are usually filled with mince and finished with a creamy Avgolemono (egg/lemon) sauce. This recipe is an obvious take or twist on the Greek classic: shrimp and […]
Thrapsala Gemista (θράψαλα-γεμιστά )
One of the reasons I find fasting for Lent more manageable is because when I choose a recipe (and ultimately share it), it has to be good. Not just good enough for Lent but worthy enough to reproduce throughout the year. You should consider cutting down on your red meat intake and boosting vegetables, fish […]