The latest video: Mary’s Rizogalo

KO’s latest video offers 2 recipes – the first is a beautiful rizogalo (rice pudding) recipe shared by the talented cook and cookbook author Mary Valle. Mary’s rizogalo has the perfect combination of al-dente rice bathed in sweet, creamy milk and seasoned necessarily with cinnamon. It is simple and delicious and you will definitely want to add this to your cooking repertoire!

The other recipe we are sharing with you is ‘the recipe of life’! The recipe of life combines three essential ingredients: purpose, passion and perseverance, and seasons them liberally with serendipity and chutzpah. Mary Valle’s story of becoming a cookbook author and workshop facilitator embodies this recipe perfectly – a journey where life offered Mary natural opportunities to explore her interests; required her to remain focused and persistent; and challenged her to push through openings requiring a leap of faith and steadfast gutsiness!

Watch Mary’s video and learn about both recipes… and Mary’s hidden talent!

Mary’s Rizogalo
KO’s Yiouvarlakia

KO’s Yiouvarlakia

KO’s Yiouvarlakia (Meatball Soup with Rice) is one of my mum’s recipes. This is a recipe she learned from her mother and one that I took with me, when Eugene and I moved to Seattle, almost 30 years ago. It is a wholesome and hearty soup that nourished and comforted us while we lived there and has nourished and nurtured our children since our return to Australia 7 years later.

It’s a soup that I would make when we stayed in accommodation that had a kitchen, when we travelled, and I would feel satisfied that my children had at least one nutritious and satiating meal that day.

It’s a soup that my beautiful thia Vanggio would make, and have ready for us to eat, when we arrived after 30 hours of journeying from Melbourne, Australia, to Kastraki, Greece… In fact, my aunt would also make a large batch of the meatballs and freeze them uncooked. I would then take out as many as I needed and turn them into soup, for an easy dinner for my children, when they were tired after a long day touring around the Meteora.

Just writing this makes me see how this soup for me, for my family, expresses connection, continuity and commitment to life and each other… and the fact that real food isn’t just food, it’s so much more…

KO’s Yiouvarlakia

KO’s Yiouvarlakia (Meatball Soup with Rice) is one of my mum’s recipes. This is a recipe she learned from her mother and one that I took with me, when Eugene and I moved to Seattle, almost 30 years ago. It is a wholesome and hearty soup that nourished and comforted us while we lived there and has nourished and nurtured our children since our return to Australia 7 years later.

It’s a soup that I would make when we stayed in accommodation that had a kitchen, when we travelled, and I would feel satisfied that my children had at least one nutritious and satiating meal that day.

It’s a soup that my beautiful thia Vanggio would make, and have ready for us to eat, when we arrived after 30 hours of journeying from Melbourne, Australia, to Kastraki, Greece… In fact, my aunt would also make a large batch of the meatballs and freeze them uncooked. I would then take out as many as I needed and turn them into soup, for an easy dinner for my children, when they were tired after a long day touring around the Meteora.

Just writing this makes me see how this soup for me, for my family, expresses connection, continuity and commitment to life and each other… and the fact that real food isn’t just food, it’s so much more…

KO’s Yiouvarlakia

KO’s Milopita

KO’s Milopita is an upside-down apple pie. This is my mum’s recipe, which was passed on to her by a friend and now down to me and you! The morish, sweet and tangy, baked apples are spiced with cinnamon and layered onto a lovely moist cake base.

Everyone who tries it, loves it, and asks for the recipe. So here it is! But make sure you have friends and family around to share this one, because once you get started, there’ll be no stopping you!
KO’s Milopita

How Kali Orexi began…

A few years ago, I offered some of my mum Antigoni’s ntomatofai (tomato-eat dish) to my friend Sara. Sara enjoyed the ntomatofai so much, she asked if my mum would teach her how to make it. As it was also one of my favourite dishes and I had yet to learn it, I organised a cooking lesson for both of us. When other friends heard about this cooking lesson, they also wanted to join. The numbers grew, so the venue changed from my mum’s kitchen to my kitchen (now the kitchen used in filming Kali Orexi). Read more…