Crush Wine Bar
Crush Wine Bar http://crushwinebar.com/ Where: 455 King Street West Toronto, ON 416.977.1234 Owners: Harvest Hospitality Group The Food: A chef-driven menu, led by Top Chef Canada contestant Trista Sheen is trained in classic French and she seeks out fresh, local and seasonal ingredients with an eye towards organic meats and sustainable fish and seafood sources. […]
Chicken Avgolemono With Vegetables and Kritharaki
This post is about Avgolemono – a compound word in Greek meaning egg/lemon and we use it to make thick lemony sauces or to finish off a soup. The classic Chicken Avgolemono is the most familiar and here, I am basically making a chicken noodle soup with a couple of Greek twists. First, I am […]
Recap of Thymiopoulos Dinner
This past Sunday, I cooked a meal inspired from the cuisine of Naoussa to complement the wines of Thymiopoulos Vineyards. Our guests loved the wines and the Moschato Tsipouro from Tirnavo. My thanks go out to Apostolos Thymiopoulos and Nicole Artopoulos of Victory Wines here in Toronto. The dinner was set in Toronto’s St. Lawrence […]
Octopus Ravioli
If you’re a regular reader of this blog you know that I love octopus and if you love Greek food or have visited Greece – you know octopus is cooked in array of ways from braised to grilled, roasted to pickled. When one buys an octopus, you get eight tentacles and the head. Everything but […]
Squid Ink Spaghetti With Zesty Calamari
Here’s an easy pasta dish that combines inspiration from the south in Crete, from the seaside tavernas and from northern Greece with the use of Boukovo…Greek chilli flakes. I first has cuttlefish and squid served covered in their squid ink…an odd sight at first but jet-black delicious! One can buy squid ink from finer grocers […]
Snails Stifado With Creamy Sour Trahana
A couple of weeks ago I hosted a Cretan-themed dinner, featuring traditional dishes from Greece’s largest island – Crete. This island is considered the birthplace of the Mediterranean Diet and these folks like to stick to their traditions. That includes using their staples with include snails and sour trahana. Snails…you want to call them escargot? […]
Kserotigana from Crete
Last month I cooked (and hosted) a Cretan dinner as part of my Greek Supper Club events and the dessert I chose was a Cretan specialty called Kserotigana. The dough is similar to Laconian diples but they look a little different. Diples are folded quickly in the hot oil with two forks and one has […]
Lemon Carbonara Spaghetti
Most of you who are food enthusiasts (freaks) like myself, you’ve noticed by now that many items on your grocery bill have gone up. One glaring spike in prices is with lemons. Limes I can find for 6 for $1, oranges are decently priced but lemons? The best deal I’ve found so far this year […]
Roasted & Braised Lamb Neck Lemonato
Growing up Greek means you eat lamb often – lamb chops, lamb in the oven, whole spit-roasted lamb, lamb stews, lamb in clay pots, lamb with pasta, lamb in phyllo and braised lamb dishes. All these ways of eating lamb and I’ve never intentionally had lamb neck, The neck of the lamb may be eaten […]
Pork Schnitzel With Mushroom Sauce
The first time I ever had schnitzel in Greece, was back in 1988. It was summer, I was in my father’s hometown, Amynteo (a great wine region). My cousin Lia had coordinated with lots of her friends and we set out to the town of Sklithro (about 20 minute drive from Amynteo). We were having […]