Good sausages don't exist in Greece...until now

One big disappointment in greece is the awful sausages they make. Gristly, chewy, fatty. Horrible.

Having missed sausages for so long I stated making my own so I could control the quality and what they tasted like.

As I was always getting requests for them, I decided to write a step-by-step guide to making sausages at home.

So here it is:

www.sausages-sausages.com

Oven Lemon Chicken With Potatoes

Here's a really quick, easy recipe. Many Greek dishes take quite a bit of preparation so many people just don't bother. If you are living a busy life, the thought of getting in from work and creating a moussaka or something puts most off (and I am talking about Greek people too - the younger ones living away from the family home especially).

So here's something that takes just a few minutes to sort out and the oven does the rest while you relax with a glass or three of retsina while watching 'The Strictly Pro Celebrity Get Me Out Of here I Am A Pop Idol Factor Final' on TV.

This dish appears in many Paleochora tavernas and is a firm favourite with locals and tourists alike.



Quantities will obviously vary according to how many you are cooking for. So you will need;

Some chicken pieces, breasts or leg joints preferably on the bone.

Medium potatoes - allow one per person

Olive oil

Juice of a lemon or two

Dried oregano

Salt & pepper.

After you have put the oven on at 180 centigrade, the first thing to do is peel and chop the potatoes. You can do them like in the photo or in wedges but don't make them too big and don't make them too small either. Look at the photo for a guide. Then plonk them in some cold, salted water and bring them to the boil. Then, when the have been boiling for 5 mins, drain them as they should be just par-cooked and not properly cooked through.

While the potatoes were doing their thing on the hob, you will have been sorting out the chicken.

Get a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Wash the chicken, pad dry with kitchen towel and place the chicken pieces in the tray with some space between them. Sprinkle with just a pinch of salt & pepper.

Mix the lemon juice with olive oil - in a 1:3 proportion. So a third lemon juice to 2 thirds olive oil. Add a tablespoon of oregano and salt & pepper and mix thouroughly with a fork so it becomes opaque.

Place the drained potatoes around the chicken and drizzle your oil & lemon mixture over all, chicken and potatoes. You can also throw in the squeezed lemon halves if you wish.

Cover with foil and bake in the oven for an hour and a quarter (if you are using small pieces of chicken or chicken fillets then this time can be reduced to 50 minutes- 1 hour). Then, take off the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes until the chicken and potatoes have coloured nicely.

There you are! Serve with a side salad or cook some green beans, Greek style, to go with it.

Freshest food for free

The best Greek food is reliant on really fresh ingredients. Nothing can be fresher than from out of your own garden. So why not grow some of your own?

Most people can't be bothered as they relate it to hours and hours of back-breaking effort for little reward at the end of the day.

Well, I just came across this superb step-by-step instruction book and video by Jonathan White, Environmental Scientist and Horticulturalist, which promises to show 'garden newbies' how to save up to $5000 on their fresh food bill each year in return for just 8 hours of light work each year!

Take a look at it for yourselves: Click Here!

In Praise of Wonderful Soutsoukakia!

I am a big fan of meatballs. They come in so many interesting varieties, from small Swedish ones to huge burgers in the USA. About my favourite, however, are soutsoukakia; the sausage-shaped meatballs found in Greece and, especially, here on Crete.


Now soutsoukakia recipes are a little like belly-buttons in as much as everyone has got one of their own. To my mind what makes them unique is the addition of mint & cumin but I was surprised recently while chatting with a chef from northern Greece to hear he would dream of putting mint in them. The point I'm making is that it has always been my belief that recipes should be guidelines rather than absolutes. If you don't like mint, put parsley in. Jazz the sauce up with a couple of chillis if you want, The food police will not come round and arrest you!


Here's my recipe. As usual, don't worry too much about the grams. If you want to test the seasoning, fry a small patty and taste it before making all of the meatballs up.


You will need:

For the meatballs;

1kg Lean minced pork

A good tablespoon of salt (or more to your taste)

Half a tablepoon of ground cumin

A handful of chopped fresh mint

Juice of a lemon

Teaspoon or black pepper

1 Very finely chopped onion

2 or 3 Cloves of garlic, very finely chopped

A couple of handfuls of fine white breadcrumbs (fresh or manufactured)


Ok The fun bit: Roll up your sleeves and get in there mixing it together completely. It's great to get your hands on your food (clean them first) to feel the textures and get the aromas as you squeeze all of the ingredients into each other. It's also important as you are checking the texture of the meatballs. Too 'wet' and they will dissolve in the pan, too 'dry' and they will crack and fall apart when baked. You are after a moist but sticky consistency. Adjust by adding either a drop more lemon juice or some more breadcrumbs.

Before making up all the meatballs, make a small 'burger' and fry it up to check the seasoning is as you want it.

Then start to roll into balls a tad larger than a golf ball. When you have done this roll the ball between your hands to create a shortened, fat sausage shape. When you have done this heat some olive oil in a non-stick frying pan or skillet. roll the meatballs in a little flour and knock off excess then add to the oil and brown them. When they are browned, put them into a baking tray.


Time to put the oven on at 170 degrees celcius.

Now the sauce:

1 Onion chopped

Couple cloves of garlic, chopped

A handful of chopped flatleaf parsley

2 x 800g Tins chopped tomatoes

Eh..that's it. Apart from a pinch of salt and a glug or two of olive oil.

Slowly saute the onion & garlic in the oil until just translucent. Add the parsley, fry for a couple more minutes, then add the tomatoes. Simmer for about 15 minutes, adding a bit of water if its too dry.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs, cover with foil and chuck it in the oven for an hour.

Phew. Time for a glass of wine or a cold beer. This will make enough for quite a few portions. As its a bit of a clat, why not cook double and freeze some for future suppers?

Serve them with rice or roast some potato wedges with oregano in some olive oil in the oven. Mmmm. Now I'm hungry!

This recipe first appeared on 'The Paleochora Site'

A Delicious Lemon Chicken Soup

Author: Yianni Chalkias

As a young boy living back home in Greece, I always remember those rainy winters. Our home did not have heat so we relied on dressing cozy inside the home and eating plenty of soups, one of the most popular being the Chicken Lemon Soup, also known as Avgolemono soup. Coincidentally my godmother, who lived across the street, had several lemon trees and a fence that we had to jump over regularly to pick them before it got really cold! As the whole world knows chicken soup is great and great for you if you are coming down with a cold. Chicken lemon soup does the same but it is twice as effective because of the vitamin C in the lemons. Many of my customers and friends wonder why it works so well but when I explain the vitamin C and the lemon effect, they see why it does the trick so well! We start off making this Columbus, OH Greek Food favorite by boiling the chicken. Leg quarters are great or a whole chicken is also good. Then we chop the vegetables, celery, carrots, yellow onions, and also cook them in some water. As the chicken is done, sift anything floating on the top and combine the chicken stock with the vegetable stock, bring to a boil and then add the orzo (small pieces of pasta) to this with some butter. When the orzo is very close to be done (aldente), turn off the heat under the soup. Debone the chicken in strips and add it in the soup. You can add some salt, lite pepper and fresh squeezed lemons all to your taste. If you wish you can add some fresh dill for more fresh flavor. Use parsley for garnish if desired. It seems like unlikely combination at first, chicken soup and lemon but once they try it, many people enjoy it frequently. In fact, it is one of the most-ordered dishes in our Columbus, OH, Greek food restaurant! This is a hearty soup and one everyone should try it. Grandma would be proud to serve it, so I am proud to serve it for Grandma! Dine in, Take out, or Drive-thru at King Gyros Greek Restaurant - 400 South Hamilton Road, Columbus, OH. Order online at KingGyros.com , or call them at (614)866-9008! King Gyros serves wonderful Greek food in Columbus, OH . The staff is friendly, the portions are huge, and the flavor of the food is unique and superb. What’s more, all the prices are very reasonable. They even have a drive-thru, so you can get your Greek food fix on the run at lunchtime. You can visit King Gyros Greek Restaurant of Columbus OH on the web at www.kinggyros.com. Follow them on Twitter at @kinggyrosgreek.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/soups-articles/chicken-lemon-soup-a-columbus-oh-greek-food-favorite-1313739.html

About the Author:
King Gyros owner Yianni Chalkias was born in Rodos Island, Greece. As the oldest of four brothers, he helped his father in the spice business since the age of eight. Yianni's family moved to Ohio from Greece in 1976. King Gyros Greek Restaurant was opened with the family in 1991 to give people in Whitehall and the east side a fast casual dining experience.

The Greek Salad. Leave it alone!

Do you know, if you 'Google around a bit' or engage in a bit of 'Binging' you quicky become aware of just how many Interpretations of the famous greek Salad there are out there.

Its quite amazing. there are ingredients I have never heard of - one American recipe called for either mayo (God forbid!) or something with the horrendous name of 'Miracle Whip'. Then its goes on to plonk a potato salad in the middle of what no Greek would recognise as a Greek salad.

In Greece the humble 'Horiatikisalata' - Peasant or village salad (what we all know as Greek Salad) is enshrined in law. Put too few olives or miss a few grams of feta and you could get a fine. No really. I think its the same if you put some other foreign ingredient too. Shifty taverna owners like sometimes to 'bulk' the salad out with cheap lettuce or white cabbage. Well, they are on a days outing to the magistrates court if they get discovered or complained about.

There is a good reason for this, in my opinion. Although I rarely stick to a recipe when cooking and I am one to suggest that sometimes 'traditional' can be improved upon and, why not? All traditions have to start somewhere. But in the case of the Greek salad, I will defend it to the hilt.

Why? Because its about as damn perfect a salad as you could hope for. Rarely for Greek cuisine, it has a dish which is up there with the greats; Nicoise and Caesar spring to mind. The uncommon way all the ingredients compliment each other is wonderful, right down to the juice left at the bottom of the bowl - a heady mix of tomato juices, bits of onion, little bits of feta, vinegar and, of course, Greek olive oil.



For the record, here's what should make a Greek Salad. Nothing left out, nothing added in: Cucumbers, tomatoes, sliced onion, sliced green pepper, black olives, feta cheese, oregano, a dribble of vinegar and some healthy glugs of the best olive oil you can find (Cretan, naturally).

Oh, and half a loaf of bread for the juices at the bottom!

Boureki - A Speciality of The Chania Region

Chania Boureki, essentially a potato, courgette & cheese pie, is a wonderful vegetarian dish which, if a taverna has it on offer, I find it hard to resist. Sadly, again, too few tavernas in Paleochora seem to make it on a regular basis probably as it takes a bit of time & effort to do properly but the time and effort are amply rewarded.

This is our recipe which doesn’t vary much from ‘traditional’ recipes I have seen latterly (as usual, I dissected the tastes with jenny and we made it up from there). I do confess to nicking the photo below (which I have given appropriate credits for) from a recipe book simply as I forgot to take my own photo the last time I made the dish. If anyone has a problem, I will remove the photo and add my own later.

Anyway. To business.

Before I get into the list of ingredients, you will need some pastry. I have added a traditional Greek simple pastry recipe here (without the shot of raki or red wine which many ask for) which you can use. The other options are 1) use your own pastry recipe 2) Ask your mum 3) Ask Google or 4) Save time and buy some ready-rolled frozen pastry for pies and tarts.

I use a deep rectangular baking tray internal dimensions 30cm x 22cm which gives 6 good portions. NOTE: When I make these dishes, I never really measure anything properly so how many potatoes/courgettes do I use? Difficult question as I never counted, so please don’t be cross with me if you are a potato or a bit of pastry spare at the end You could always make some kalitsounia with the pastry or even freeze it.

Pastry:

1kg All purpose flour

1 Tsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Water – add a bit at a time just enough so the dough doesn’t stick to you hands while kneading it.

Mix the ingredients and knead together until it becomes elastic and leave for 1 -2 hours covered with a clean damp tea towel.

The Pie filling.

5 or so medium sizes potatoes.

8 or so medium sized courgettes.

A handful of fresh mint finely chopped

500g of mizithra (soft Greek) cheese (250g Feta and 250g of Ricotta if you can’t get mizithra)

250g. Finely grated parmesan cheese (or kefalotiri if you can find it)

150ml Olive oil

3 eggs,

200ml Fresh milk

Salt & pepper

Sesame seeds

1kg Dried beans for blind baking

Baking paper

So….First the pastry. Roll two pieces a bit larger than the baking tray and about 5mm or less thick. Put the first piece of pastry into the baking tray which you will have already lightly oiled. Pick the pastry with a fork and then place some baking paper on top and put the beans in, spreading them evenly around

Place in the oven preheated to about 170 C for around 15 minutes. Take out, discard the paper & beans and put to one side.

Slice the potato and courgettes into 5mm thick slices. Place in a pan of boiling, salted water and blanch for 5 or 6 mins. then drain. The potato wants to be almost but not quite fully cooked.

Next place the potatoes, courgettes and mizithra cheese in layers on the pastry in the baking tray, adding a sprinkling of mint, parmesan, salt & pepper on each layer. When the pie is full, drizzle some olive oil over the layers then beat 2 of the eggs and add them to the milk and pour this mixture into the pie evenly too.

Then add the second piece of pastry as a lid. Trim it, brush it with the last beaten egg and sprinkle with loads of sesame seeds. Its a good idea now to score the pastry lid into the desired amount of portions.

Then put it back into the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or so or until the top is golden brown (keep checking it)

Carnivore’s option: If you just can’t bring yourself to eat a veggie dish (even one a lovely as this one) try this: Whisk together the juice of a lemon, some olive oil, oregano, chopped mint and a pinch of salt. Bash out 4 chicken breast fillets with your fist and marinate them for 10 mins in that marinade. Heat a ridged grill pan and grill them until done. Cut them up into strips and add as an extra layer or two n the boureki. Mmmmm….Grilled Chicken Boureki!

This recipe first appeared here: The Paleochora Site

Photo Credit: Boureki. Photo Copyright: Icons Editions, Chania