Preparation time: 20 minutes

Frying time: 6 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Take a 15 inch piece of plastic wrap an place it on a cutting board. Cut the chicken breast horizontally in half and place the half onto the board. Place the meat in a way, that you can fold the remaining foil to cover the meat.

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Wash the lemon with hot water, rub dry and grind some zest over the meat. Drizzle first some Oregano then a quarter of the Parmesan cheese over it. Now place one slice of Prosciuto on top. Fold the foil over it.

Take a frying pan and bang the pan with the flat side onto the meat. Three to four hits should be enough. Repeat this procedure with the other pieces of chicken breast.

Place the pan on the stove, heat some oil in it. Unwrap the meat and fry with the Prosciutto side down first. Turn the meat after approx 3 minutes and fry for another 2 minutes. Keep the pan covered while doing so.
Place the meat on a board and cut into stripes. Place on the serving plate and drizzle some Aceto Balsamico over it.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Heat the oven to 392 F.

Grind the peeled garlic with some salt and pepper in a mortar. Add half of the mustard seeds and grind them as well.

Add the orange juice, lemon juice and the zest and mix well using a spoon.

Wash the chicken parts then dry them with kitchen paper. Lay them out on a baking tray, add a little bit of olice oil to cover the tray and pour the content of the mortar over the chicken. Make sure all parts are well covered in the sauce.

Add the apricots and place the tray in the oven for about an hour.

This pork is roasted at low temperature in the oven. The result was a juicy and soft meat with nice flavors from the stuffing. The method as such I have not used that much before but I will from now on as the meat turns out nicely. The clue is that you don’t heat the core of the meat more than 65 C or 149 F. This you can check with a meat thermometer. The oven is heated up to 100 C or 212 F, not more.

Preparation time: 25 minutes

baking time: 90 minutes

difficult: medium

Preparation:

Turn on the oven at 212 F.

Remove the dried tomatoes form the oil and put them into a small blender with the pine nuts the rosemary, salt and pepper. Chop them up well.

Set the tomato stuffing aside. For the filling with the peppers cut those into pieces and add them to the mixer. Add the walnuts, the oregano some salt and pepper. Chop up as well.

Cut the pork loin in half. Poke both pieces at both ends in the center with a sharp knife. Then use a cooking spoon handle to push an even hole through the loin. Widen the hole a bit with the spoon handle.

Now stuff both pieces of the loin with both types of stuffing using your fingers and the spoon handle.

Heat up a pan and add some butter. Fry the meat on medium to high heat form all sides until nicely tan. This should take about 5 to 6 minutes. Now place the meat on a baking tray and stick it into the oven.

Check the core temerature occasionally. It should not exceed 65 C or 149 F.

For the letscho chop up the onion and fry it with some oil in a small pot. Add the cubed bell pepper and the crushed fennel seeds. Fry for a few minutes then add the canned tomato including the juice. Chop up the tomato a bit. Add the Aceto Balsamico and let the sauce simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

Once the pork is done remove it from the oven. The juices on the baking tray you can add to the Letscho.

Slice the meat. Heat up the Letscho once more and season it with salt and pepper.

Serve the meat slices on top of the Letscho sauce.

The “Oregano Chicken” is a classic dish of the Greek cuisine. Cooked wit few ingredients the oregano is added in the end. The “Riganato” as the Greeks call it can be prepared with different sorts of meat such as pork. This time I chose the chicken though. “Kotopoulo Riganato” can be made out of chicken breast but also legs can be used. I serve it with rice.

If you have fresh oregano at home, use it!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

cooking time: 40 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Dice the peeled onion and fry it in a pot with some oil. Use a pot that will fit the chicken and the wine, but not bee too large. Let the onion get some color.

Meanwhile cut the meat in 1 inch cubes. Add the meat and fry it from all sides.

After a few minutes add the lemon juice and the wine. Put a lid on top and let it simmer for approx. 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and let the liquid reduce for another 10 minutes. Add the oregano, season with salt and pepper.

Garlic could be added to the dish. That is a matter of taste.

This veal roulade is a very untypical recipe for my blog as it hat nothing much to do with Mediterranean food. Still I need to post some Austrian or German food as well. It was a cooking evening with Ralf and at least we tasted some Greek wine while cooking and later on with the food.

The only Mediterranean ingredient is the anchovies that we have added to the recipe. Unusual for this this but it tastes great.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

difficulty: advanced

Preparation:

Have your butcher cut the schnitzel really thin.

Wash the carrots and cut them into sticks. Also cut the pickled cucumber into sticks.

Put the schnitzel onto a plate. Spread a table spoon of mustard on in. Now lay some pickles, some carrot, some capers and one anchovy on top of the mustard and role the schnitzel. Pin the roll with a tooth pick, so it stays. Repeat these steps for all the 8 schnitzel.

You can pepper the meat. Usually it won’t need much salt as the anchovies are containing enough salt.

Heat up a heavy pan and fry the roulades in the clarified butter for a couple of minutes from all sides. They should get some color. Then remove them from the pan and put them aside.

Meanwhile dice the onions. Add them to the pan and fry them until brown. Add the wine and let it boil for a minutes. Now add the beef stock and return the roulades to the pan. The meat should be just covered in liquid. Let the dish boil uncovered for 30 minutes on low heat. The sauce should have reduced by then and the meat will be tender. Rotate the roulade occasionally.

I served this dish with home made pasta.

A classic Turkish dish that the Greeks also love to eat. Imam Bayildi or Imam Baildi as it is often written can be prepared as a vegetarian dish as well as with meat. I have prepared a version with minced meat. You can also leave the meat out and serve it with a nice tomato and onion sauce as you can see here at my friend Peter’s blog.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 40 minutes

difficulty> easy

Preparation:

For the meat sauce dice the onion and the tomatoes. Fry the onion in a pan with some oil for a couple of minutes, then add the meat. Now add the tomatoes, a sip of wine the thyme, salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer for a bit.

Wash then dry off the eggplant. Use a vegetable peeler or knife to stripe the eggplants length wise.

Fry the eggplant in some olive oil form all asides, so they take some color. Remove them form the pan and place them on some kitchen paper to set aside.

Then cut them open along one of the stripes. Be careful to just slice them open but not to cut them through. Use a spoon to remove a little bit of the meat of the eggplant, so you create some space for the sauce.

Fill the eggplant with the meat sauce and place in the oven for 40 minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is a recipe from my mother in law. She promised me that the chicken would be easy to prepare and taste delicious. I gave it a try and must say considering the fact that the recipe uses ready made products it is truly delicious.

Preparation time: 3 minutes

cooking time: 60 minutes

difficulty easy

Preparation:

Have the butcher cut the chicken for you.

Oil a baking form with olive oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Place them in the form.

Peel the potatoes, cut them in quarters and place them with the chicken.

Pour the onion soup powder over the chicken and potatoes, then add the can of apricots. Cover the baking tray and place it in the pre heated oven for an hour at 180 degrees centigrade. for the last 15 minutes of baking time, remove the cover and turn on the broiler.

This is a chicken dish that is done very fast. The fillet of chicken is stuffed with Feta cheese and it is served on a variation of Lecsó (or Letcho) which is a Hungarian dish with Peppers. This makes it pretty much European fusion food.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

difficulty easy

Preparation:

For the Lecsó: Dice the onion and fry it in some olive oil for a couple of minutes. Then add the diced peppers and tomato. Add the wine, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and let it cook.

Meanwhile cut the chicken breast pieces in half. Fry them on each side for 4 minutes so they get some color. Take them aside and let them cool down. Cut a pocket into them and fill the pocket with some Feta cheese.

Cut a 60 cm piece of aluminum foil. Spoon some of the vegetable into the middle. Place the chicken on top. Season with salt and pepper. Close the foil and bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade.

The sauce looks like cream but it is not. It is an almond sauce, that is light and smooth and tastes great with some grapes in it. I serve this dish with rice or Bulgur and boiled vegetables.

Preparation time: 40 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Put the almonds into a blender. Add a cup of water and blend until smooth. This may take up to 5 minutes.
Add a dash of vinegar.

Put some oil into a large frying pan. Fry the garlic on medium heat for a few minutes. Remove the garlic and add the chicken pieces to the pan. Fry on each side for 5 minutes. The meat should get crusty and tan.

Remove the meat from the pan. Add the white wine to the pan. Stir well and let it cook for a few minutes. Now add the almond sauce and the grapes. Let it boil and add the meat. Cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes turn the meat.

Lamb Jus is something one should always have at home. It is easy to vary and flavor and you can use it in many ways. The best way of storing it is to make ice cubes from it and keep them in a Ziploc bag. This way you can take as many cubes as you need at the time.

You will certainly need some time to make the Jus, though. Not that it is a lot of afford but reducing the liquid takes time.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 4-6 hours

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Have the butcher cut the bone for you.

Peel and cut the vegetables. Add them with the bone to a big pot and fry them with some oil. They have to get almost burned to develop the right aroma.

Add the spices and some water. The ingredients should be covered with liquid. Boil at medium heat.

When the liquid has reduced to a quarter add a third of the wine. Reduce again to a quarter of the liquid.

Repeat the last step until the wine is used up.

Drain the liquid through a fine colander. Reduce the liquid again, just a bit.

Now you can refine the Jus with figs, honey, Madeira, Cognac or jam, according to your taste.