What is the provenance of a dish? Who does the recipe belong to? Help me search for the answer… To me, food, recipes, dishes, cuisines represent a continuum – an ombré of flavours and textures from the far east to the far west. Cuisines are not discreet culinary scripts practiced within prescribed borders. Geographical borders are […]
Stella’s Barbounia are my favourite beans of all time. I love them for their uncooked fuchsia hues and their sweet and satisfying braised eating experience. Whenever my father-in-law delivered a bowl of these beauties to us, I would dance a happy dance inside me because I would not only get to enjoy eating them myself, […]
My parents-in-law were born and raised as Greeks in Constantinople/Istanbul. Living in a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural city and immersed in the cuisines of many, influenced their kitchen and that of others residing in that great city. This never-ending fusion of many co-existing cuisines over aeons has been termed “politiki kouzina” – food of the πόλη/city – although I prefer to interpret […]
Our final offering for Week 2 – “Starting your day the Greek way” is Antigoni’s Katsamaka – a dish my grandmother made for my mother and a dish my mother made for me! Polenta with fried onions and petimezi – such an unusual combination but it’s warm, comforting, sweet and soulful. This is a dish my […]
Our second offering for “Starting your day the Greek way” is Papara! Stale bread cut into chunks and served with warm milk OR loaded with lashings of creamy natural yoghurt… that is Papara. It is usually savoury and it’s enjoyed as a light meal or snack. The meaning of Papara also extends to the dunking of bread […]
Our 5th offering for “Starting your Day the Greek Way” is the Cycladic Pizza: LADENIA – which is shared by Fofi @fofimeli from the family of @ladi_biosas. “Ladenia is considered to be the oldest recipe for Pizza! It gets its name, ‘Ladenia’, from the olive oil used for the preparation and whose flavour dominates. Ladenia is a local taste […]
Our 6th offering for “Starting your day the Greek way” is Antigoni’s Strapatsada. My parents had a stall at the Prahran Market for over 20 years. In the early years, trading was limited to all day Tuesday and Friday; and Saturday till 1pm. The market was open to stall-holders on Thursdays to prepare their stalls […]
Dezi, a joyful, irrepressible force of nature, kicks off Week 2 of the Meri Month of May – “Starting your day the Greek way” – sharing her Kick-Arse Bougatsa Parcels. These generous individual serves of rich creamy custard wrapped with crispy, crunchy fillo and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, will start your day in […]
The 4th recipe for the Greek Pie Drive is a delicious take on tiropita – pan-fried tiropita! Enjoy the fried tiropita as is, or drizzle it with honey and dust it with cinnamon… or both!!! 😋😋😋 The fillo method I use here is the Dry Method. For a full explanation of the difference between the Dry […]
For our 5th recipe for the Greek Pie Drive I am sharing a delicious Patatopita (potato pie) recipe from the island of Ios! This recipe has been shared with me by one of my fillo students @jbertovic who discovered these patatopites in a hole-in-the-wall bakery on the island of Ios and recreated them using my Dry-Method Fillo. They […]