Category: Greek recipe

Greek recipe · pies · vegetarian

Greek Spinach and Cheese Double Rolls

georgiagilmour4 Comments

With each new Greek recipe I post here my blog seems to become a more Greek rather than post-Soviet blog : ) But I just cannot resist the heartiness and the comfort of the Greek cuisine! Me speaking Greek language has opened to me so many variations on the same good old theme – a Greek pie.

Spinach Cheese Rolls from www.argiro.gr

One of my favourite parts of Greek cuisine is the multitude of various pies with all sorts of pastries and fillings. And to think that I only make those pies that do not have meat in them or do not require the pastry I cannot make (or too lazy to do that) myself?

Spinach Cheese Rolls from www.argiro.gr

Fairly recently I’ve posted a Greek recipe of a Spinach Cheese Pie with Cornmeal Crust which is an unusual thing even for the rich versatile Greek cuisine. This time I would like to share with you yet another Greek pie also made with spinach and cheese but the filling is wrapped in a more conventional type of pastry.

A year ago – Cheesy Potato and Leek Bake with Sourdough Bread

Two years ago – Autumnal Comfort Sweet Treats

Three years ago – An Easy Bread and A Not That Easy Bread

Spanakotiropita se Rolla or Spinach Cheese Rolls (Σπανακοτυρόπιτα σε ρολά) adapted, translated and posted here with the kind permission of Argiro from www.argiro.gr will make two huge or three-four medium rolls with tasty pastry and salty filling. See my remarks in italics.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

  • 600 g all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 Tbs vinegar – I used Greek red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • water, about 2 cups – I used less
  • 4 Tbs butter or margarine, melted

For the filling:

  • 1 kg spinach – I used a bit less of frozen spinach which I defrosted and cooked in its liquid a bit
  • 10 spring onions with the green parts – I used less
  • 1 bunch dill
  • 2 eggs – I decided to leave them out
  • 500 g Feta – I had just a bit of real Feta left from this recipe so had to add 2 blocks of 5% fat cottage cheese (tvorog)
  • 100 g hard cheese (originally Kefalotiri)
  • salt – I also added the Georgian mix called Khmeli-suneli and some Provence herbs
  • freshly ground black pepper

Procedure

Making the pastry: In a bowl place the flour, salt, olive oil, vinegar and then add the water bit by bit, kneading the pastry until it doesn’t stick to hands and is very pliable. Divide the pastry into ten small balls. Roll each ball out on a floured surface to a size of a fruit plate. When you have the first 5 circles, brush one with the melted butter, cover with the next one, butter this one too and go on like this until you get to the fifth circle. Do not grease this one. Place the five circles in a dish and cover it. Proceed with the remaining 5 balls. Place both piles in the fridge for 1 hour so that the butter is chilled and the result is almost that of a sfogliata pastry (=puff pastry).

Now to the filling: Clean, wash and finely chop the spinach (I used frozen spinach that I cooked in its liquid), place it in a bowl, adding the finely chopped spring onions. Add 1 tsp salt and knead the mixture so that it releases the liquid (I did not do that). Leave it for ten minuted. Squeeze the mixture with your hands to drain it completely. Place it back in a bowl and add dill and beaten eggs (I didn’t add eggs). Add the grated cheese, season with salt and pepper and mix well (I couldn’t help seasoning the mixture with some herbs).

Assembling and baking: Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the filling in four. Roll out the first pile into a large rectangular of the same size as your baking sheet. Place tablespoons of filling along both long sides of the pastry. Roll each side up to the middle until the two stick together. Transfer this double roll onto the baking sheet (I rolled the pastry on the paper already). Do the same with the second pile. Brush the rolls with some butter, sprinkle with water (and some sesame seeds if you wish). Bake on the bottom rack for about 1 hour and 15 minutes till it browns nicely (my roll took just about an hour and I placed it on the middle rack).

Spinach Cheese Rolls from www.argiro.gr

Remarks: I did not bake all the rolls at once, I put the remaining half of the pastry in the fridge wrapped in plastic and the filling too. The next day I added some cooked corn groats to the leftover feeling (don’t kill me for that!) and made two smaller pies. One of them was only half-vegetarian as I filled one side of the roll with minced meat for my Father.

Spinach Cheese Rolls from www.argiro.gr

Result: The perfect comfort food for me. Oh that flaky pastry and that salty soft filling… Be careful with the salt though if your Feta is a real one. And of course all the sesame seeds will eventually fall off but who cares!

Recently made this good-looking Pistachio-Walnut Sourdough Bread with my rye sourdough culture – no hope that I will taste it though as I will soon be travelling again and I left it at my parents’ place unguarded… 🙂

G.

Greek recipe · leftovers · pies

Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus and… Spanacouscous!

georgiagilmourLeave a comment

Before I continue with my post-Chelyabinsk travelling photos and thoughts here’s a recipe I tried back in August. It’s a traditional Greek dish from the mountainous region called Epirus and it’s perfect for vegetarians. And it looks like this pie is gluten-free too! Moreover, if you have some leftover rice or even cooked buckwheat groats on hand, why not adding it to the greens to make it more substantial for your meat-eating friends? And if you curious about Spanacouscous, we will come to it at the end of the post.

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus from www.dinanikolaou.gr

I haven’t contacted the author but I hope that my translation is not a bad way to popularize Greek cuisine! =) I have never tried this one in Greece, on the contrary cornmeal seemed to be quite not that very present in Thessaloniki or on the islands. Some people call this pie made with the seasonal greens blatsaria μπλατσαριά, others batsaria μπατσαριά and some batsina μπατσίνα. We will call it Cornmeal greens pie.

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus from www.dinanikolaou.gr

One year ago – Autumn Leaves and Karelian Pies

Two years ago – Khachapuri, I’m addicted!

Three years ago – My Sourdough Adventures, a New Start

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus (Μπλατσαριά με καλαμποκάλευρο (Ήπειρος)) translated and adapted from www.dinanikolaou.gr will make an unusual salty dish with greens in between chewy cornmeal layers. See my remarks in italics.

Ingredients

For the cornmeal batter:

  • 320 g finely ground cornmeal – I used a bit less
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3-4 Tbs olive oil (Greek, of course)
  • 420 g lukewarm water – I added around 400

For the filling:

  • 1 kg greens from the market, something seasonal like radishes (and here come some names of the Greek greens I have never heard of like Mediterranean hartwort and Chervil), cleaned and finely chopped – I defrosted 800 g of spinach + added fresh sage, sorrel and even leftover cooked buckwheat groats
  • 3-4 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 bunch of dill or fennel, finely chopped – I used dill
  • 300 g of Feta, crumbled – you might have heard of our reaction to EU sanctions, so I used 350 g of Adygea cheese instead
  • 1/2 cup olive oil – I used pumpkin seed oil
  • salt, freshly ground pepper – I also added some Georgian herb mix called Khmeli-Suneli

Procedure

For the filling: Place all the greens plus salt and pepper in a bowl and mix for 4-5 minutes, working the mixture well with your hands, until they get all seasoned. Leave the mixture for 20 minutes aside and then drain from the liquid. Add the onions, the egg, dill or fennel, Feta and olive oil and mix everything well.

For the cornmeal batter: In a big bowl place the cornmeal and make a well in the center, then add the eggs, salt and oil. Mix well with a wooden spoon and gradually add the lukewarm water, mixing continuously, until you get a rather thick batter (you might not need all the water).

Bake the pie: Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease well the bottom and the sides of a round 32 cm baking dish. Pour half of the batter inside and level it out with a spoon. Put the greens filling on top and level it out too. Add 1 cup of lukewarm water to the remaining cornmeal batter (I added 100 ml) and drop tablespoons of it on top of the filling. Put the dish on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 45 minutes until a golden crunchy crust creates on top of the pie.

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus from www.dinanikolaou.gr

Remarks: I did not a very crunchy crust as you can see from the photos. Also the colour was rather yellow than golden but I guess I just should have baked it some minutes longer. I added some leftover buckwheat groat (grechka as we call it in Russia) and I think it added some… body to the filling. It did not alter the taste though.

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus from www.dinanikolaou.gr

Result: The taste might appear weird at first – with all this cornmeal and greens… But this is exactly what this Greek pie is famous and loved for – the combination of the crunchy cornmeal crust with mashy greens. You could almost mistake this pie for an omelet with its yellow cornmeal top. I liked how the greens peeped through the sunny crust! Oh that was back in August…

Blatsaria me kalambokalevro or Cornmeal Greens Pie from Epirus from www.dinanikolaou.gr

 ***

This month I was more lucky with Feta. Shhhh… I found some real GREEK Feta in a supermarket… Won’t tell you the name of the shop so that it doesn’t get fined and shut down for selling cheese from EU in Russia! Guess how glad I was to sample the real Feta with sheep’s milk, oh-oh. Why do we only have super salty Bulgarian–brynza–like cheese around?

Spanacouscous with Feta

In some earlier posts I shared with you my improvised vegetarian dishes – usually some baked or steamed veggies plus some grains or pasta. And cheese. Oh yes. This time I got something that I’ve christened Spanacouscous as it reminded me of Spanakorizo from Thessaloniki (a post on this city is coming!). It doesn’t necessarily look super sophisticated – and, well, it should not as it’s so easy. Here’s what I did:

Spanacouscous with (Real) Feta improvised by me will make a  combination of soup-like greens with salty cheese.

Ingredients

  • fresh / frozen spinach
  • some carrots
  • couscous
  • Feta or some salty white cheese (if you’re less lucky)
  • dried oregano
  • seasonings, salt

Procedure

I usually cook my veggies in water boiling in a pan under a cover (so they’re partially steamed I guess), adding some olive oil if I like to and salt plus some seasonings. When they are half ready I add some couscous as it cooks fast and absorbs the excess water. It usually ‘eats’ the salt too but don’t overdo the salt here – you will add the salty cheese later. I cover the pan and leave it on low heat for some time. Then I add some herbs like dried oregano and crumble some Feta on top. Dead easy.

Spanacouscous with Feta

Result: You will get a spoon of greens with a bite of Feta =) Also the sweetness of carrots comes in contrast to the salty cheese.

Lots of posts crowding and waiting for the turn in my Drafts. But where shall I start?!

P.S. I have a neighbour who laughs loudly almost every evening at the same time. Same time same laugh. I wonder if you can laugh on a schedule?

G.

Greek recipe · pies · vegetarian

Spanakopita and Mediterranean Vegetable Millefeuille

georgiagilmourLeave a comment

August is running fast towards September, the light has changed, the rain has  and the weather is far from that heat wave we had just a couple of days ago.  It’s been raining today, there was some lightning and thunder and then just a minute later there was this blind rain as we call it in Russia – it just ignores the sun and pours down anyway 🙂

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mint Pesto Millefeuilles from kopiaste.org

This mid-August post is dedicated to a couple of Greek vegetarian recipes, so please welcome the first of them, bringing the Mediterranean flavours to your table wherever you are:

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mint Pesto Millefeuilles from kopiaste.org

A year ago – tasty sourdough mini rolls in Summer Goes On with Sourdough Mini-Rolls

Two years ago – baked potatoes the Greek way and a creamy apple tart starring in Pommes. Pommes de Terre too

It’s a pity there’s no recipe for this first dish available online anymore as the author, Ivy, has removed it from her blog, kopiaste.org. I do respect and support Ivy’s idea of inciting people to purchase her recipe book instead cause they are really nice! I’ve tried quite a number of them and some of them I shared with you on this blog  – check these Πατάτες Λεμονάτες (Patates Lemonates or Lemony Potatoes) and Gigantes Plaki sto Fourno (Giant Baked Beans).

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mint Pesto Millefeuilles from kopiaste.org

Mediterranean Vegetable and (Mint) Pesto Millefeuille adapted from kopiaste.org will make a pie-like dish with an unusual double salty cheese crust and spicy garlic-y ‘pesto’ and vegetable filling. I will not reproduce the recipe here, will just share with you the way I did the recipe:

As with several other Greek recipes made recently (here and here and here) I omitted potatoes and add 0.5 kg aubergines instead which went well with the courgettes. As for the mint pesto which is placed in between the veggie layers I blended fresh coriander + onions + garlic + spring onions + pumpkin seed oil – so no mint but still good! Instead of 2 peeled tomatoes I used tomato sauce which anyway needed using.

The batter which will then become the double crust of this vegetable pie is made of various types of Greek soft white cheese. I had none so I had to ‘borrow’ some white brine cheese from the Greek neighbours (Serbia) which also gave me some whey (to substitute milk). To this I added the usual Adygea cheese, which seem to have become the multi-purpose cheese destined to substitute everything from mozzarella to Feta in Russia!

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mint Pesto Millefeuilles from kopiaste.org

Remarks: From my experience I would suggest adding salt to the veggies as well, probably rub them with some salt, cause if you do not get the pesto with your bite, the veggies seem a bit bland.

Result: Something different, I should say! I mean, this cheese crust which has just a couple of tablespoons of flour in it is quite a find! The pie will eventually fall apart when you try to cut it in smaller pieces but with every bite you’ll get cheese, veggies and garlicky pesto. No juices from veggies hanging around at the bottom of the dish thanks to sautéing.

You can see the layers of the ‘pie’ clearer in this photo:

Mediterranean Vegetable and Mint Pesto Millefeuilles from kopiaste.org

***

And there’s more! Enjoy the Mediterranean / Greek flavours with this enormous spinach pie, so very traditional in the rich Greek cuisine, a true treasure for the vegetarians! Greece was the place I actually tried spinach for the first time – and they do know how to make it ‘play’ with the other ingredients transforming it from a bland greenish plant into the chewy comforting food.

Spanakopita from www.toarkoudi.gr

The trick of this pie’s pastry is the added orange juice (and flesh from the orange, if you’re more lucky with fresh oranges than I was), you will certainly feel it when you take the pie out of the oven! The Greeks always eat spinach with some lemon juice, so I guess this addition of a citric acid is somewhat typical. And of course giant dark black olives from the Halkidiki region in Greece (where Thessaloniki is) is a must for this pie!

Spanakopita from www.toarkoudi.gr

This pie is huge, really. Very Greek : ) So please invite your friends and make a Greek party! Also check another spinach pie recipe from the same source, Hortopita me Spanaki (Greek Spinach Pie) which I made back in February.

Spanakopita from www.toarkoudi.gr

Σπανακόπιτα (Spanakopita) or Greek Spinach Pie with Whole Wheat Pastry adapted and translated from www.toarkoudi.gr will make a large pie with salty green-y filling wrapped in the pastry with tangy orange flavour. See my remarks in italics.

Ingredients:

for the pastry:

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all purpose glour
  • juice and flesh from 3-5 oranges – I used plain orange juice
  • 2 Tbs salt
  • baking powder
  • olive oil – Greek, please!
  • water

for the filling:

  • ½ kg fresh spinach – I used 400g frozen spinach + added some wheat bran to suck in the juices
  • olive oil
  • 4-5 fresh onions – I used 2 big onions
  • ½ bunch of fresh coriander
  • ½ bunch of fresh dill – I used fresh basil + dried lemon balm (aka balm mint or Melissa)
  • ½ bunch of fresh parsley
  • 2-3 eggs – I used 2
  • 2 leeks – I used sorrel
  • nutmeg
  • salt
  • pepper
  • milk – didn’t find the use in the recipe, probably to brush the crust?

extra, if you want to add some cheese:

  • 50 g low-fat Feta – I used Adygea cheese, for the lack of both
  • 50 g grated hard myzithra

Procedure:

Mix the whole wheat flour with the all purpose flour, add some salt, a bit of olive oil and the baking powder. Add freshly squeezed orange juice, making sure that you add the flesh too.  Knead with one hand, adding either extra flour or water with the other, as needed. You should get elastic homogenous dough. Leave the dough covered for one hour in the fridge.

Sauté onions in a little bit of oil, add the leeks (I opted for the fresh sorrel from our dacha), spinach (I didn’t defrost the spinach), parsley and half of the coriander leaves. Leave the greens to cool and drain them (that was tricky, but I guess I got rid of most of the juices by sautéing already). Transfer to a bowl, add the rest of the coriander, the eggs, dill, nutmeg (Greeks do love adding nutmeg or how about cinnamon to meat, which is very weird for the Russian cuisine), salt and pepper and, optionally (but really great!) the soft white cheese.

Roll half of the dough out and place it on a greased oven-proof dish. Add the filling and cover it with the second half of the dough (also rolled out to match the size of the pan – I used a round pan lined with parchment paper). Bake at 180 C’ for 45 minutes to 1 hour (it took my oven 45 minutes to get the top crust golden brown).

IMG_0151

Remarks: Although this recipes also uses sautéing to take away the juices, the pastry gets soggy and less crunchy after keeping the pie in the fridge. At the same time, the spinach filling really gets so infused with its own juices that the pie becomes even more … spinach-y!

Result: An impressive large Greek-size pie with lots of spinach in each portion! Do add some white cheese, I think this pie gets even better with it.

Even more Greek recipes can be found under ‘Greece’ on this page.

P.S. Just tried an Italian recipe using aubergines – will share it with you if I get the chance to take a photo! : )

G.

Greek recipe · leftovers · vegetarian

While Zucchini Are in Season…

georgiagilmour4 Comments

While zucchini / courgettes are in season (and yes, it’s already August!), here are some ideas you could try to make a nice vegetarian lunch or dinner. Ideas rather than recipes as surely you can adapt them to the veggie in season – these ideas are very flexible. And moreover three of these 4 recipes are actually improvisations – using leftovers. Anyway, summer is just a perfect season for vegetarians (and a cheaper season too) and there’s just no excuse for missing all these fresh vegetables.

Let’s start from a Greek recipe I’ve made in the Spartan conditions of our dacha : )

Haniotiko Boureki from www.kalofagas.ca

A year ago – Italian Delicacies a la Russe

Two years ago – Fruit Post and Vegetable Post

Haniotiko Boureki (or Zucchini and Potato Bake / Pie from Crete) adapted from www.kalofagas.ca will make a really soft veggie dish with a super tasty cheese crust. See the website for the original recipe.

My changes: Well, they were quite a few to say the least. Instead of flour I used oat bran (not your common choice…) and as a Feta substitute this time I had some super salty white brined Chanakh cheese from Armenia (well, I hope so). I was lazy about two things in the recipe – picking up fresh mint from the garden (too hot outside!) and peeling potatoes. So I used dried basil and… no potatoes instead. As there were no sesame seeds at hand (and I had to take almost all the non-dacha ingredients with me, of course), I just grated some cheese on top – and that was a success! There was no foil at my dacha either, but this cheese created a real crust on top.

Haniotiko Boureki from www.kalofagas.ca

Remarks: The zucchini will produce a lot of liquid while baking so you might want to ‘drain’ your dish before serving. Don’t ask me if I discard the liquid. No, I don’t!

Result: The still crunchy zucchini and that cheese crust is a great combination, especially with lots of salty cheese in the middle. The super salty Chanakh cheese was quite decently salty once baked – I guess due to all the milk and almost neutral ricotta that it goes with.  This dish reminded me of Χανιώτικο μπουρέκι (Courgette and Potato Boureki or pie from Chania, Crete) I made back in July 2012 and was somewhat similar to a recently tried Kolokithoboureko or Greek Zucchini Cheese Pie which I also lightened up by skipping the potatoes. I guess that makes a more summer-y version to this dish!

***

The next recipe, Zucchini Rye Pizza from Leftover Sourdough – was a pure improvisation with what was left from the above recipe. I also had to refresh my sourdough culture and since my freezer is already full of bread, I had to find another use for the leftover sourdough. So here we go, a sourdough rye pizza in just about no time! No kneading, no rising, no S&Fs if you know what I mean =)

Zucchini Rye Pizza from Leftover Sourdough

What I did was to mix my rye sourdough culture (some tablespoons) with some all purpose flour and a bit of water. That was my crust. For the topping I had some zucchini, spring onions and Chanakh cheese which I just crumbled on top. And that’s it! A Northern version of a pizza it is : ) A bit rubbery (the crust) but still nice when warm.

Zucchini Rye Pizza from Leftover Sourdough

***

Then comes Zucchini and Couscous Cheesy Bake which was another improvisation using the stuff from the fridge. These were: onions, leftover cooked couscous, herbs, some tomato sauce, zucchini of course and cheese – soft white and regular hard. I made several layers, starting with a zucchini layer and going up building this:

zucchini and couscous cheesy bake

The only problem, I overused the fan option of the oven and the dish got dry a bit. But again – an easy way to use up your lunch leftovers!

***

baked stuffed zucchini and aubergines

And here’s the last idea: Baked Stuffed Zucchini and Aubergines which shows I can sometimes be less lazy if I want to. So at first I just wanted to bake some aubergines and zucchini, so I cleaned and halved them, placed on baking paper and used the fan option for some minutes and then just baked them. Then there was an idea to make stuffed veggies, which in the end made me scrape the flesh out of both zucchini and aubergines, mix it (looks like someone’s brains…) with mozzarella, herbs, tomato sauce and LOTS of fresh garlic from our dacha. I seasoned the stuffing with lots of things and filled the veggies. I also grated some hard cheese on top + sprinkled with sesame seeds. More baking and some minutes with the fan on – and they were ready!

baked stuffed zucchini and aubergines

The zucchini version were sweeter than the aubergine one although both had the same stuffing. But I liked them! I guess the trick in the baked stuffed veggies is to avoid scraping them down to the bottom – this way you will leave some of the flesh on (oh my god) and the veggie ‘boats’ won’t get too dry or hard to swallow. Another dish that you could try – and this time with a recipe – is Baked Aubergine and Courgettes Stuffed with Roast Pumpkin.

baked stuffed zucchini and aubergines

So, enjoy! And leave some space for improvisation in your life : )

Again there’s a long queue of posts still in drafts… I’m trying!

G.

Greek recipe · sweet · vegetarian

Greek Zucchini Pie plus Galatopita for Dessert

georgiagilmourLeave a comment

Kolokithoboureko or Greek Zucchini Cheese Pie from www.greek.ru

It’s weird how you sometimes get your recipes. I found this Greek Zucchini and Cheese pie at a Russian website dedicated to all things Greek. The recipe comes from a Cretan woman so that you could also try a traditional Greek pie at home. And getting the recipe from various sources and through other languages makes it even more exciting. So, yes, Greece again cause you can never get enough of the tasty and colourful Greek cuisine – this time I’m sharing with you a main (vegetarian) dish + a dessert idea for a Greek meal:

Kolokithoboureko or Greek Zucchini Cheese Pie from www.greek.ru

A year ago – A Red And White Post: Red Currant Meringue Pie (made a red currant vatrushka today!)

Two years ago – Moscow and Courgette Pies (it’s courgette season again!)

Kolokithoboureko or Greek Zucchini Cheese Pie translated and adapted from www.greek.ru will make a huge pie with chewy filling and a crunchy crust. The recipe comes from Crete, its author is Anzhelika Hatzimanolaki. I actually halved the recipe and lightened it up a bit – and still got a huge pie. See my remarks in italics.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

  • 1.5 kg zucchini
  • 1 kg potatoes – I was too lazy to peel them and so I just omitted them!
  • 1 kg Mizithra cheese (or low fat cottage cheese) – I used Adygea cheese
  • 1 glass olive oil – I skipped even this… or rather – forgot!
  • salt, pepper, mint – I put in lots of a Georgian seasoning called Khmeli-Suneli, plus salt, pepper, fresh basil and parsley

For the pastry: 

  • 0.5 kg flour
  • 1 glass water
  • 1 glass olive oil – this time I  did not skip it!
  • a shot of grape vodka – I used Greek kumquat liquor
  • 1 tsp salt
  • sesame seeds to decorate the top crust

Procedure:

Mix all the pastry ingredients together and knead them. Peel the potatoes (see? Just skip them and be free : ) and clean the zucchini, then slice them thinly. Grease an ovenproof dish. Roll half of the pastry out and place the filling in layers: potatoes, cheese with mint, zucchini, cheese again – until all the ingredients are out (here’s where I forgot to put in the olive oil – and in my opinion the pie did not lose anything from that!). Place the second half of the rolled out pastry on top of the filling, pinch the edges and sprinkle with sesame seeds (before sprinkling I brushed the crust with … oil : ) BEFORE placing the pie in the oven cut it in portions. Bake at 180-200’C until it’s getting browned (my pie took me about 35 min at 200 ‘C including 2 short periods at 150’C with the fan on).

Kolokithoboureko or Greek Zucchini Cheese Pie from www.greek.ru

Remarks: With all these zucchini their juices tend to gather at the bottom. I just removed the excess liquid and the pie was ok. I guess I was too enthusiastic while loading this pie with that Georgian spicy mix so the pie really got a taste! So just be careful in your quest of adding the taste to the zucchini : ) And yes, I did forget to pre-cut the pie in potions but remembered it just a couple of minutes after I put the dish in the oven, so I could just quickly cut the pie.

Result:  I was somewhat in a hurry when baking the pie so the zucchini in the filling were really crunchy! I just guess that with the potatoes you will surely have to bake this pie for an hour or so. But with the zucchini which are now in their young and crunchy season, there’s no problem if the filling is a bit under-baked. The crusty pastry makes a nice combination with the juicy although chewy cheesy filling. All in all, μια χαρά!

 ***

Galatopita from cookmegreek.blogspot.com

What shall we make for the dessert? Something Greek, βέβαια!

Galatopita or Greek Milk Pie adapted from cookmegreek.blogspot.com will make an easy sweet, pudding-like dessert. Follow the link for the recipe.

The recipe is really easy although you will first have to heat a part of the milk and cook the mixture before baking it. This is when I realized my milk had gone off, oooops… It curdled but in the end nothing bad happened as it all just turned out right when baked. I baked my Galatopita a bit longer and I also used a square silicone pan.

Galatopita from cookmegreek.blogspot.com

Result: A melt-in-your-mouth pudding which is better than pudding. =)

This milk pie can be found in Greece under a variety of versions, I tried it with phillo pastry (then it’d be rather called Bougatsa) cut in pieces and dusted with lots of sugar+cinnamon. The author also suggests adding zest instead of vanilla, it’s up to you!

And καλή όρεξη to all of you!

More Greek recipes can be found under Greece here.

G.

Greek recipe · pies · travel

Isabelle’s Tyropita Baked with Agapi

georgiagilmour1 Comment

Gavrilis and Strasbourg rooftops

I envy Isabelle’s cat called Gavrilis (Gabriel in Greek), he can enjoy the view over Strasbourg’s rooftops all day round : ) If you’re not new to this blog you already know that I have a special soft spot for Strasbourg where I lived as a Master’s student for almost a year. This year marks the fifth ‘anniversary’ from the day I first arrived in Strasbourg without having a slight idea what the year would bring. Now that I have this attachment to this very St Petersburg-like city (in several aspects), I was really glad to come back there and feel at home – although not having any official home there, I must say that my friend’s place welcomed me so warmly that I felt just like at home. Isabelle is a very special person for me, now almost indissociable from Strasbourg. What is this secret ingredient with which she bakes and cooks and welcomes guests? It’s agapi (αγάπη), love!

Gavrilis and Strasbourg rooftops

Staying at a Greek’s home most definitely entangles lots of very tasty food at any time of the day, infinite hospitality and generosity. It doesn’t really matter which country you’re in, a Greek’s home is always a Greek’s home. Over those several days I spent in Strasbourg this time I sampled (or better gobbled down!) both Greek home cooked dishes and French foods. We even tried some Chinese food while doing some shopping in the nearby tiny German city (I love Europe, haha) and finished the gourmet journey by eating Russian blini (from this recipe) with… Camembert cheese! When I was baking blini, one of them puffed up so much that it turned into a… heart!

Love Crepe

…expressing well my own agapi (love) towards Strasbourg, Isabelle and all things food =) Well, almost all things. I would not like to eat those pigeons Gavrilis seems to be so very interested in! Don’t worry none of them got hurt, Gavrilis is a true spitogatos (stay at home cat) who has only travelled to Greece once in his life and I guess that was it.

Gavrilis and Strasbourg rooftops

I finally learnt the recipe for a typical home-made cheese pie Greek mothers and wives make for their families directly from a Greek person who shares my love for food and cooking for others. Really, that was quite a change, not cooking for others but having everything cooked for me with such agapi (love) and gousto (taste)! That’s why the last day I managed to bake some Russian blini for a change : )

Isabella's Tyropita

Here’s how an authentic crusty Greek tyropita looks like (with Strasbourg roofs in the background) when baked by loving hands of a hospitable Greek. You can see that the phyllo is hard on top while inside it’s soft taking in the juices from the filling.

Isabella's Tyropita

And when you cut a piece of the pie, here’s what’s inside:

Isabella's Tyropita

And here’s the recipe! Ευχαριστώ πολύ, Ισαβελλάκι!

Two years ago – Ualibah, Caucasian Cheese Pie

One year ago – Greece on My Mind (this is chronic!)

Isabelle’s Tyropita or Snail-like Greek Cheese Pie, will make a savory pie with thin dough and white cheese + herbs filling. My remarks are in italics.

Ingredients

For the dough (phyllo):

  • 0.5 kg all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 tsp soda
  • salt
  • 3 Tbs vinegar – I used apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbs olive oil – no problem if you use sunflower oil either
  • 1 cup lukewarm water (approximately)
  • sesame seeds for top – optional
  • corn flour / flour for rolling the dough out

For the filling:

  • feta or white brine cheese – I also added some cottage cheese
  • some hard cheese
  • 1 egg
  • yogurt or sour cream
  • pepper, salt – be careful with salt, the cheese might be already quite salty
  • dried herbs of your choice: parsley, dill, mint – I also tried adding frozen leeks, fresh spring onions and parsley as well as some dried herbs

Isabella's Tyropita

Procedure

Dough: Mix the flour with salt, make a well in the center, add soda and pour over three tablespoons of vinegar. Add the oil and then bit by bit start pouring the water (its amount will depend on the flour you use). The dough should be quite thick but flexible, knead it well like plasticine, adding flour if needed. Make a ball, cover the dough and leave it while you’re making the filling.

Filling: Crush white cheese with a fork or fingers, add coarsely grated hard cheese, mix in one egg, some sour cream or yogurt (for better texture) and add salt and pepper to taste (also judge by the white cheese you’re using, it might already contain a lot of salt). Add herbs (I also added some seasoning for vegetables, fresh herbs and even frozen chopped leeks as there was not enough cheese) and mix well.

Isabella's Tyropita

Assembling the pies and baking: Take a forth or fifth part of the dough and roll it out on a surface dusted with corn flour (Isabelle says as corn flour is finer than the regular flour, the rolling out is easier). You should attain a thin smooth sheet of phyllo but without tearing it. If you’re making snail-like pies, you should get a long sheet and place the filling in the center. In the photo above you see actually TOO much feeling, better just drop several tablespoons all along the central line of the phyllo sheet. Start rolling the dough from the top edge without making it too tight, you should leave some air inside. When you make a roll, twist it holding both ends in your hands, so that you get a nicer snail – or leave it as it is. Coil the rolled dough into a snail on a greased pan or baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Don’t forget to brush the pies with Greek olive oil : ) And don’t be afraid to leave the pie in the oven for some minutes more even if it looks done – the crunchiness of the pie is one of its tricks! You can also decorate the pies with some sesame seeds (though they will most certainly come off when baked : ) Bake in the oven preheated to 200-210 ‘C for about 30 minutes (time depends on the size of your pies). I baked my pies one by one, not all at once.

Isabella's Tyropita

Remarks: The phyllo recipe will result in quite a lot of dough with which you will be able to make at least 4-5 medium pies. You can choose to make smaller snail-like pies (as seen above) or put several ‘snails’ together to make a larger pie (see further). You can also easily double the recipe, just bear in mind that for each 0.5 kg flour you will need about 1 cup water. I’ve tried the recipe two times already, the dough is easy and the filling is flexible, which I like. Also the phyllo contains no yeast so you can keep it as balls wrapped in plastic or as pies ready to be baked, covered in the fridge if you’re not going to bake all the pies at once. This is how my first try at the recipe looked like inside:

Isabella's Tyropita

Result: A very easy and fun-to-make cheese pie! It’s not greasy, nor is it bland. The dough is really nice and crunchy! Would try it with more white cheese next time. In the photo which follows you can see that I took the pie a bit too early and it did not turn out crunchy enough:

Isabella's Tyropita

And here’s a shot of the meat version I made for my Dad – my Mother prepared some minced meat with onions, egg, spices and herbs which – according to my Dad – went well with the crunchy phyllo. Just be careful not to overload your meat pie with filling as it tends to be quite runny. I decorated the meat version with some Turkish black sesame. This pie was more crunchy than the cheese version pies I made earlier.

Isabella's Tyropita, Meat Version

Will soon come back with more photos and recipes from my journey and, well, just all those recipes : ) And yet another glance at the rooftops of Strasbourg, the city which welcomed me with rain and wind and bade me goodbye with sun as if hinting at that I should have stayed longer, perhaps? : )

Strasbourg rooftops

G.

Greek recipe · no-dough · pies

Two Spinach Pies and Spinach…Rice

georgiagilmourLeave a comment

And finally – I would like to share with you two recipes from the Balkan cuisine, don’t ask me how long I’ve been meaning to do that!

Back in December 2013 I was planning a Bulgarian party (which never happened) and before I knew no one was coming I made an imitation of Banitsa with spinach, sort of Spanakopita (Greek Spinach pie). Banitsa is a traditional Bulgarian pie with fresh cheese which also exists in spinach ‘edition’. In my version of the pie I used two recipes – the phyllo pastry recipe from a blog on Mediterranean diet and the filling from some ski resort website : )  I should have posted this recipe a long ago cause it might be used for the New Year’s meal, when you make wishes for the upcoming year… For the lack of guests to eat the pie and read the wishes hidden inside each bite of the pie, I took my Banitsa to work and here’s the only surviving photo of it:

Banitsa

Two years ago: Two Rrrrrye Breads (Raisin and Riga)

A year ago – Polenta, Sempre Polenta and Broccoli

So let’s reconstruct the Spinach Banitsa as I did it: 

Spanachena Banitsa (Bulgarian Spinach Cheese Pie) with pastry adapted from www.hestiaskitchen.com and filling + preparation from www.villastresov.com will make a truly savoury pie with a wish hidden in every bite!

The phyllo pastry recipe is one of those times when I have this recipe copied long ago into my to-do-bi-do-bi-do collection and since then the website has moved or changed names. Sometimes I fail to find those recipes online…

Follow the links above to see the recipes, to which I made these changes:

Pastry: I followed the recipe but did not add sourdough because mine is from rye flour. But without any sourdough culture the pastry turned out just fine! I rolled out two very thin layers for the bottom and 2 layers for the top, thus imitating the phyllo pastry which usually has several layers of very thin pastry sheets.

Filling: I defrosted 400 g of finely chopped spinach (the only sort I could find here), drained it and mixed with crumbled Adygea cheese (you can substitute with some fresh cottage cheese) + added some really salted Bulgarian white cheese (drained from brine and soaked in cold water for some time). I did not add any salt as this Bulgarian brynza is very salted. I just chopped in some fresh basil. Mixed everything well.

Optional: Traditionally this pie is eaten for Easter and there are these tiny bits of paper with wishes written on them. I made 6 wishes, folded and wrapped them in aluminum foil but sure enough the juices from the cheese got inside, however you could read the wishes OK. Just try not to forget to warn your guests to chew carefully on this pie =)

Assembling the pie: So, 2 layers on the bottom then the filling then two top layers (although a more authentic way will be to make more layers with filling), pinched the edges, decorated the top with check board pattern (without actually cutting through) and made some holes in the top (I would suggest to make even more because the pastry puffs up a lot!). I used baking paper which helped lift the pie later. I did not brush oil in between the layers, just forgot about that.

Baking: Just about 40 minutes at 180 ‘C, be careful the pie gets really brown quickly.

For a plain Banitsa pie with just cheese and eggs, see the link above.

Result: This was my first time trying to create a Bulgarian dish + the first time baking with spinach! We do not eat it almost at all here, you can find it frozen not in every supermarket and I just used to skip recipes with spinach before. The pie is nice, haha, interactive with these little wishes that even you forget where you placed them and that you actually did place them there ; ) A very much like a big Spanakopita, well, Greece and Bulgaria are neighbors!

BTW, let’s visit the neighbors and see what they make of their Greek spinach:

Spinach pie from www.toarkoudi.gr

Hortopita me Spanaki (Greek Spinach Pie) adapted from and translated from Greek with the kind permission of www.toarkoudi.gr – will make pretty spinach snails =) The dough ingredients can be cut in half and yet you will get 6 pies, although the filling is definitely not enough even for this half. My remarks are in italics.

Ingredients:

To make the pastry:

  • 1 kg flour – I cut the ingredients in half and still got a lot of dough!
  • 0.5 l water
  • vinegar – I skipped it
  • salt

To make the filling:

  • 2 eggs
  • 0.5 kg spinach – I defrosted 400 g of finely chopped spinach
  • 0.5 bunch of fennel, chopped – I had no fennel… also one of those things we hardly eat here in Russia
  • 2 onions, chopped – I chopped one red and one yellow + some spring onions
  • salt & pepper + I added some herbs
  • 0.5 cup milk – skipped that
  • 250 g grated feta cheese – for the lack of which I used a mixture of Bulgarian brynza + Adygea cheese, and considerably more
  • 1 cup sunflower oil – I just brushed pies with olive oil

Procedure:

1. To make the pastry: put all of the ingredients in a bowl and knead until you get soft dough. You might need to adjust the amount of flour or water. Leave the dough to rest.

2. To make the filling: Really easy, just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, but make sure that you have drained the greens really well so that the filling is thick enough and does not contain too much water. My filling got a bit velvetish because of the red onion:

Spinach pie from www.toarkoudi.gr

3. To assemble the pie and bake: The original – not halved – dough recipe will make 10 sheets of pastry. Roll out each of the dough parts, put some filling on the edge and roll up into a cigar, then create a snail-like shape. Place the ‘snails’ on a greased baking sheet (I used baking paper, really helps to avoid all the cleaning!) and bake for 40 minutes at 180 ‘C. The pies will get brown (mine did not). 

Result: Crunchy snails with soft filling=) Well, I’m vegetarian but the similarity is not just in the appearance! I froze a part of the pies once they cooled down and my parents reheated them afterwards.

spanakorizo

IDEA: You can use leftover spinach / spinach water left from draining spinach to make a lighter version of spanakorizo (σπανακόριζο, literary spinach rice), one of the dishes Greeks serve during Lent and, well, anytime. I just cooked a mixture of wild + regular rice in this spinach water as I would do with any rice, and as a result it gets all green and… well, green : ) The real σπανακόριζο is a rather soup-like dish with equal amounts of spinach & rice, so it’s even greener .)

Fouf, I did it! ; )

Enjoy the pies and let us all hope for the spring to come!

P.S. Going to Novosibirsk in a month! Finally will get that far in my own country… Siberia, I’m coming!

G.

cookies · Greek recipe · St Petersburg · sweet

Cookie Time: Cheese Biscuits and Pistachio Biscotti

georgiagilmour4 Comments

Winter time, cookie time… This year winter has been amazingly reluctant to flood us with snow before the calendar winter. Yes, here in St Petersburg winter comes quite early with its short days and loooong dark mornings and evenings. So the first official snow fell just before my b-day which I usually use a kind of a winter point – the first snow normally arrives before the end of November. This year I was busy with the 2-day educational fair I was participating in, so I kind of missed my b-day actually! Anyway, it was a great experience actually being responsible for an effective performance at the fair!

So instead of a b-day meal there was a three-layer sandwich from home-made buns (one of the best basic bread recipes that I’ve been twisting around for quite a lot of times already, last time even turning it into hamburger buns for easier sandwiches, check it out!) and instead of a b-day cake there was pain d’épices (which can be easily turned into quicker baking muffins), another staple of mine – a great recipe to use the (now seeming to be finally ending!) jam leftovers! I’ve made these 2 recipes so many times already, they just deserve more than mentioning here!

River Moyka Embankment, St Petersburg

The best view from my office window,well, almost, because this photo was taken from the street. Thanks to my parents all the materials made it safe from the office to the fair venue. And then mounting and decorating together. Feels like a family business,)

Lenexpo, Vasilyevsky Island, St Petersburg

The next day was so busy I didn’t even take a photo of the grounds. The fair venue was one of the blocks of Lenexpo, the largest fair ground in St Petersburg. Been there last time with Mariinsky theatre, the same block #3 where they were rehearsing the opera. It’s near our city seaport, so the view is what you’d expect in such a place. Looked a bit like Arkhangelsk to me. Yesterday it was below zero in the morning and the sky was … freezingly beautiful. And in the evening too:

Lenexpo, Vasilyevsky Island, St Petersburg

So, since winter is here now, with its piercing wind and snowflakes circling outside the window, let’s see what we can do to bring in some warm comfort. Cookies, right?

The first recipe has been waiting for its turn for ages already, so let it go first.

Garlicky Cream Cheese & Buttermilk Biscuits from sinfullyspicy.wordpress.com

Garlicky Cream Cheese & Buttermilk Biscuits adapted from sinfullyspicy.wordpress.com will make crumbly thick savoury cookies to go with your soup or butter : )

I’ve made a number of changes to the original recipe: I used a thicker Adygea cheese rather than cream cheese and added black olives for … extra savour, I guess. It just came to me that olives should be there too. I used kefir instead of buttermilk, but it’s more or less the same soured milk thing.

Garlicky Cream Cheese & Buttermilk Biscuits from sinfullyspicy.wordpress.com

Result: The recipe will make a bag of these cheesy garlicky things. I think that some herbs would be a good addition to them next time. I’m sure you can leave the garlic out if you don’t like it but after being baked it doesn’t make the biscuits overly garlicky.

Garlicky Cream Cheese & Buttermilk Biscuits from sinfullyspicy.wordpress.com

Ok, so those were to accompany your main dish, here’s what you should do to satisfy your sweet tooth (or more likely teeth : ) Let’s try a Greek recipe for change! Thanks to my sis we have a bag (well, we HAD it) of authentic pistachios from my favourite Aegean island Aegina. I reeeeaaaally owe it an entire post, this is a place which is just like my third home, so very dear to me. The first place I ever been to in Greece and in Europe, back in 1996 was our first visit to this island and since then I’ve returned there several times and will certainly return again. Should you have some (equally gorgeous!) pistachios on hand, here’s what you can do with them:

OUZO AND PISTACHIO PAXIMADIA from souvlakiforthesoul.com

Ouzo and Pistachio Paximadia adapted from souvlakiforthesoul.com will make sweet and oh so creamy (!) Greek biscotti with nutty pistachios.

Changes: I used regular sugar instead of caster sugar and I guess this is why I had to add in more flour as the dough seemed to be too liquid. When I made it into a log and put it in the oven, it continued to spread and flatten, and didn’t brown much on top. And as for the pistachios, tsssss… I think they are salted 🙂 Well, I KNOW they are salted, actually but the sweetness of the dough was such that it overdid the salted pistachios.) I had no ouzo so used vodka instead, the biscotti lost the anise flavour they should have but we didn’t mind.

PISTACHIO PAXIMADIA from souvlakiforthesoul.com

Result: Chewy, sweet and yes, creamy! The procedure with biscotti (and paximadia is a type of twice baked cookies) is usually long, well, at least it seems so with its two bakes (I forgot to turn the paximadia over when baking!). But it’s worth it. Really! These paximadia were somewhat… creamy! I’m not sure what added this creaminess to them, perhaps the eggs or the sugar.

PISTACHIO PAXIMADIA from souvlakiforthesoul.com

The brownish hue of the photos is due to the lack of sufficiently long daylight here… I had to put the board with the paximadia under my desk lamp which has this old school yellow bulb. So actually the true colour would be more on the white side with distinct green specks of pistachios, amazing!

PISTACHIO PAXIMADIA from souvlakiforthesoul.com

Paximadia is a traditional Greek treat. I don’t remember trying such cookies in Greece but I definitely saw them around, especially at bakeries. Oh God I miss Greece these winter days… The author suggests dunking these crunchy biscotti in good coffee (as it would traditionally be, with a cup fo Greek coffee to make it more authentic) but I assure you any drink will do (ouzo too? :), as long as it warms you up. Thank you Peter for this great recipe!

One more fair next weekend and just two weeks before the deadline for my Russian applicants, hopefully future students. I hope snow will encourage them to apply and move to a warmer country to study : )

G.

bread · Greek recipe · no-dough · sourdough

Greek Briam with Dannish Rye Rolls

georgiagilmour5 Comments

The weather’s suddenly changed to a cool-windy-cloudy-clear-air kind and just like Mary Poppins I feel as if there’s something in the wind for me, perhaps. It’s a weird feeling for this time of the year (the waiting for changes season=spring, eh?), but who knows. And there’s a new job, by the way, oh yeah. The search of the job has recently become some kind of leitmotif of my life. It seems I’m just better at baking : )

Whole Grain Rye Rolls

It just came to my mind some days ago (while listening to Pink Floyd, obviously) that the best things in our lives are those intangible precious diamonds like your favourite music, sunlight touching your skin (ok, quite tangible), endless sky, welcoming sea… There are myriads of them, and only you know for yourself just what brings you happiness. And it is up to you also to share these tiny little treasures with others. However egoistic and self-sufficient we might be, we need those sharing moments a lot.

And now to food. I almost forgot about this post as the draft moved down the list on my WordPress dashboard. But sitting on our balcony that has come back to life thanks to my Mom reminded me of my balcony in Ano Poli (Upper Town) of Thessaloniki… Greece for me is hugely related to particular smells, taste, colours and sounds. Surely any place has something different and special but the thing is, Greece makes all of these senses so acute and thus the memories of it are equally pronounced. Recently I’ve been catching food aromas in the streets here in St Petersburg similar to those in Greece, but just several times. And I thought of those vegetable dishes that the Greeks know very well how to make – they have super vegetables so why not? Just go to the market and avoid supermarkets in the big cities.

Whole Grain Rye Rolls

As we’re having our own zucchinis right now, I thought about making something baked with them, aubergines and feta, that you can eat with a nice slice of bread, dipping it in the sauce… The answer came at once – briam! And then, why not make a menu with a Greek and a Danish recipe, hm? A great combination of southern and northern cuisines, by the way. I’ve already had a ‘menu’ with bread and a Greek baked vegetable dish on my blog – Fried Flatbread and Beans a la Grecque. And here is a new one.

First – bread, to accompany your dish and to soak in all the extra juices from the extra juicy vegetables:

Whole Grain Rye Rolls

Mørke Rugboller (Whole Grain Rye Rolls) adapted from seitanismymotor.com will make 100% rye flat bread which is just so cooooool inside. This is a sourdough bread so be ready to make an overnight starter with your sourdough culture first. The rest will be quite easy although this is a 100% rye bread.

For the recipe please follow the link above, I’ll just tell you about my changes:

I used less cracked rye kernels, adding some wheat grains, the same with sunflower seeds, to which I added some pumpkin seeds. As for the malt, I used my rye malt, which I scalded with boiling water beforehand. When shaping the rolls, I made them larger and thus made a smaller number. As I had to stay away from home for some time, I put the rolls already baked and packed in a plastic bag in the freezer. When we defrosted them in the fridge they were just alright.

Result: chewy small rolls packed with seeds… and the flavour is great, cause these are truly amazing 100% rye rolls + malt + sourdough! Tsss, I’ve even tried this bread with some apple jam, wow, as with almost any rye bread the combination is just wohoo (well, for Russians at least, we do love it!)

Briam

And now – vegetables, to take the best from them this summer:

Μπριάμ (Briam) translated and adapted from bettyscuisine.blogspot.com. This traditional Greek recipe will make a nutritious (really!) and truly summer vegetarian dish fit for a crowd (for some more of Elizabeth’s wonderful recipes from the Greek cuisine see a selection of pies and the traditional rolls of Thessaloniki). As usual my notes are in italics.

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 medium aubergines *
  • 3-4 potatoes
  • 3-4 zucchinis
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped – I prefer my pepper fresh so I added… garlic instead
  • 2-3 ripe tomatoes – I omitted these completely
  • half a can of passata (crushed tomatoes) – mine was a small package and I used it whole
  • 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped – I used coriander
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup of olive oil – I used much less… see further

Directions:

Clean, peel and cut the first three vegetables and cut them into medium slices. Put them in a large pan, season with salt and pepper and mix everything well. Then add the chopped onions, pepper, tomatoes, parsley, crushed tomatoes, oil and 2 cups of water, mix everything again and bake at 180 ‘C for at least 1 1/2 hours. Mix the vegetables while they’re baking and add water if needed. In the end you should get cooked through vegetables with some thick sauce left.

What I did was to bake the dish under foil, switching on the fan-assisted option at times (and lowering the temperature). I had to add some extra water. It took me less time to bake. Plus I added some brine cheese and scattered oregano on top at the end of baking, leaving the dish uncovered in the oven for some time.

* If you want to make smaller portions, you can just reduce the amount of everything respectfully, just like I did, taking less vegetables and, well, almost less of everything else. Briam is initially quite a flexible recipe, you can add garlic, carrots, beans and more hot spices, as you wish. I remember eating briam in a hospitable taverna just outside the parking space on the posh island of Santorini (will surely make a post about that trip!), and it was super-hot.

Briam

Result: These are not your bland vegetables! Perfect with bread, green salad and salty brine cheese. Yes, the addition of cheese is actually quite traditional and it was a very good idea, I should tell you. Also, as a bonus you’ll get all those juices from the vegetables that you’ll be most happy to soak your bread in. And even if you cannot live on vegetables and need meat, no worries, briam can work as a side dish too but be aware of its nutritional value, especially if you pour that whole cup of olive oil there 😉 It’s not for nothing that people warned me that even if you’re vegetarian when in Greece you might gain weight just like that, easily! So if you’re skeptical about this vegetarian thing, try some Greek vegetarian dishes.

And the overall result of the improvised international menu – great : ) The combination Danish 100% rye bread + Greek 100% summer vegetables worked!

Eh, I have this soft spot for Greece, you see… maybe I just know it (or rather feel it) better than any other country apart from Russia. Just recalled this thing about the Greek mentality: It’s most common in Greece to ask you straight away, even if you know each other for 5 minutes, what is your marital status (especially the girls), whether you have kids and all sorts of questions apparently uncomfortable for other European nations…

And yes, it’s not the first time I’m sharing anything (delicious) Greek here, so you can find more Greek recipes here.

G.

Greek recipe · sweet

Coffee Cheesecake and Cinnamon Cake from Asia Minor

georgiagilmourLeave a comment

Nistisimi mikroasiatiki kanelopita

It’s really hot here in St Petersburg and you realize it only when you leave office and face the unexpectedly stifling thick hot air outside. The thing is we have rather high level of humidity here and every extreme of the weather is a true challenge for us. Actually I thought these extremes of bitter biting cold followed by stuffy sticky hot weather are an example of our quite extreme lifestyle here in St Pete (and Russia), there’s hardly ever any ‘golden middle’. For the latter Russians escape / move / travel abroad. To experience the former foreigners come to Russia. Interesting, eh?

Ah yes, here is the first poll on this blog, scroll down to submit your answer to my question (not connected to food: ).

Meanwhile, here are some sugary treats I’ve tried recently. As my copywriting job already comes to its end, there’s a chance my ‘queue’ of perspective posts are going to be finally published. Let’s begin with something sweet then, not much interconnected if not by the chocolate as one of the ingredients. For more chocolate recipes, see this or this post, or better both and the chocolate category of the Sweet Recipes page.

Nistisimi mikroasiatiki kanelopita

Cannot let Greek recipes pass by unnoticed, so here is one. Moreover, I like those Greek cakes that are moist without any syrup and they usually contain orange juice and zest for extra flavour. AND this cake – not like other super-Greek cake like this one for example – doesn’t contain even a single egg, surprise-surprise! Maybe because it’s originally from Asia Minor, the part of the continent where the Greeks traditionally settled and lived… until they got expulsed and moved (fled) massively to Thessaloniki and other Greek cities (have you seen Rembetika movie?). I’ve talked about Thessaloniki and its characteristic mix of nations here.

Nistisimi mikroasiatiki kanelopita

A year ago – various pies like Patatopita, Hortopita and… Kolokithotiropita! and several Sour Cream Bread(s)

Lenten Cinnamon Cake from Asia Minor (Νηστίσιμη Μικρασιάτικη Κανελόπιτα, Nistisimi Mikroasiatiki Kanelopita) translated and adapted from eri-captaincook.blogspot.com with the permision of Eri – will make a moist (most) flavourful cake. My remarks are in italics.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup oil, either light olive oil or seed oil – I used sunflower oil + that very apple puree which we still cannot finish
  • 1 cup of sugar – I used less
  • 1 1/2 cups orange juice – mine was store-bought, left from my sis’s wedding : )
  • zest from 1 orange – I roughly zested 1 small orange
  • 2 cups all purpose flour or half plain flour half whole wheat flour – I chose the latter option + added wheat bran
  • 2 tsp baking powder, leveled
  • 1 tsp baking soda, leveled
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg, leveled
  • 1/2 cup raisins – I left them out (I should probably make a poll – who likes raisins and baba au rum?!)
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped – I used hazelnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips – I used a bar of milk chocolate with marzipan filling
  • powdered sugar and ground cinnamon to decorate the cake

Directions:

In a bowl place flour, soda, powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix well.

Preheat the oven to 180 ‘C.

In another bowl place raisins, nuts, chocolate bits and 1 Tbs of flour. Mix.

In the mixer bowl pour oil and sugar, and beat well at medium speed. Add zest and juice. Bit-by-bit add the flour mixture and finally the choco-nut-etc mixture.

Grease and flour a 24 cm cake pan and pour the mixture inside, leveling the top with a spoon. Bake for 45-50 minutes (I had to bake it longer) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (I think I know this phrase about toothpick by heart!). Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then invert it to cool down 100%. Decorate the cake with powdered sugar and ground cinnamon.

Nistisimi mikroasiatiki kanelopita

The sweet cherries have nothing to do with the cake, they just looked kinda cute : )

The author of the recipe, Eri, made a beautiful heart right in the middle of the top of the cake by first sifting sugar over the cake then placing a paper heart in the middle and sifting cinnamon over the rest of the surface. She also suggests placing a pan filled with water into the oven next to the cake or on the rack underneath it, in order to make the cake’s crust thinner and … crustier 🙂 I didn’t do that but tell me if you tried!

IMG_0757

Funny, those cherries look like aliens ; )

Result: A really moist cake with a distinct orange flavour and crunchy hazelnuts. If you fancy a honey (rustic) cake-like treat, that’s it. The procedure although requiring several stages is actually easy.

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Brownie Latte Cheesecake

Brownie Latte Cheesecake adapted from marzipanmom.blogspot.com – will make a mixed cheesecake with a fudgy sugary base and a soft cheese layer. Go to the original blog for the recipe, here are just my remarks:

For the Brownie Base I used some plain chocolate + a bar of chocolate with nuts, about 110 g in total, and less salt. Instead of instant espresso powder I added some ground coffee.
For the Latte Cheesecake Filling I used 5% tvorog (cottage cheese) and less in amount; less sugar; ground coffee instead of instant espresso powder, which I passed through a sieve to eliminate large granules. As our cottage cheese usually blends into almost a liquid state (especially with FOUR eggs), I omitted Kahlua which anyway I have not + for the same reason I added some semolina along with potato starch (instead of cornstarch) – and that’s why the top of the cake got quite … cake-like rather than cheesecake-like. I did not decorate the cheesecake with any of the suggested add-ups, I just left it as is. That’s it!

I don’t have much photos of the cheesecake and those which I managed to do aren’t that nice but at least you can see the distinct coffee and cheese layers:

Brownie Latte Cheesecake

The procedure is not that easy-peasy I should warn you as first you should make the brownie base and there’s a water bath involved two times! in the recipe… But it’s worth it. Sometimes when I have additional free time I just cannot keep myself from doing something time-consuming and more complicated than a simple cake or muffins. And here’s a good… exercise! ; )

Brownie Latte Cheesecake

On this photo the top layer really looks more like a cake rather than a cheesecake.

Result: I did not get a giant cheesecake as was pictured on the original blog, but I’m sure it was quite a hit here in my family. The base is really sweet and coffee-flavoured, rather a fudge than a brownie I would say. Also, as our local cottage cheese (tvorog) has rather distinct curd granules, all the cheesecakes I make with it get this particular texture (and flavour) of a ‘tvorozhnaya zapekanka‘ (a cottage cheese bake). If you choose a finer cottage cheese, you’ll definitely get a true cheesecake layer.

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And as promised, my first poll, with a quite existential(ist) question… It came to me εξ ουρανού this morning on the way to work.

The question is (to be or not to be…):

Wooo, I’ll vote first. Khm, I think I’m going through a 100th minor (micro) personal crisis and still cannot figure out… the way out of it. Well, I can advice myself not to think too much and too seriously, χα-λα-ρά!

G.