This Moroccan lamb dish is being served in the Casa Moro restaurant in London. I love theese sort of dishes where the lamb meat gets so soft that it falls off the bone. It as well is easy to make and requires hardly any preparation. Due to the seasoning, the lamb taste is not too strong.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

cooking time: 120 minutes

difficulty: easy

Preparation:

Soak the saffron stigmas in a little bit of hot water.

Add the olive oil, the cumin, the cinnamon stick, the onion and the tomato to a pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the meat, a liter of water and the saffron with the water. Let it all boil on low heat for an hour and a half.

When the meat is tender add the peas and boil for an additional 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, serve with couscous.

This great fish dish is another result of a cooking session in the Greek Orthodox Monastery. The Abbot had prepared Stockfish – Cod. Stockfisch is found quite frequently in the Greek cuisine though it is mostly not produced in Greece. The great advantage of Stockfish is that it can be stored easily as it is dry and salted. Prepared the right way it tastes absolutely delicious. In our case the fish was kept in water for 3 day to get rid of the salt.

Preparation time: 2 days
baking time: 90 minutes
simple recipe

Preparation:

soak the fish in plenty of water for 2 to 3 days. Change the water at least 3 times.

cube the onions and spread them in a large casserole. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

Fry the diced garlic with some oil in a pot, cube the tomatoes and bring them to boil in a small pot. Add the paste and the oregano, season with salt and pepper. Cook the sauce for half an hour.

Chop the fish into 5 to 10 Centimeter pieces and place it on the parsley. Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices that are just not finger thick. Place the slices on top of the fish. Pour the sauce over the potatoes. Now pour a cup of water over the potatoes and place the baking tray in the oven.

Bake for 90 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade.

Al classic dish of the Greek Cuisine and a must during lent. The Stifado with Octopus is one of my favourite Greek dishes. Stifado can be made with chicken, lamb, or veal but the verison with octopus is the most delicious, at least for me.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
cooking time: 100 minutes
easy recipe

Preparation:

Let your fish dealer prepare the octopus. Place the octopus in a pot that fits it easily ant place a lid on top. Do not add any water and bring to boil on low heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Take the octopus out and let it cool down on a plate. Save the juices in the pot for later.

Use the same pot to fry the peeled small onions in olive oil until they have some colour. Add the sugar after a few minutes. Let it caramelize then add the vinegar. A thick sauce will develop on the bottom of the pot. Now add the bay leaves, the cinnamon, the chili, salt and pepper. Cut the tomato into the pot, add the tomato paste and a glass of white wine as well as the liquid form boiling the octopus. cover and let it boil for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile cut the octopus into small pieces. Then add the octopus to the pot and let is cook on very low heat for 40 minutes, the pot not covered so it thickens.

Tip: To store it I remove the cinnamon stick. It may turn a bit bitter when kept for a while.

This delicious – meat free - Moussakas is an other result of my excursion to the Greek Orthodox Monastery. Focusing on Greek fasting dishes the Abbot proposed to show me how to prepare this classic Greek dish with Arabic roots. What makes this dish so special is the use of tuna fish in the tomato sauce instead of minced meat. This Moussaka is perfectly light and tasty. Ideal for feeding all the family or friends that come over for dinner.

Preparation time: 60 minutes

cooking time: 40-60 minutes

simple recipe

Preparation:

Slice the eggplants into 1 cm thick slices. Coat it with some olive oil and put it into the preheated oven at 180 degrees to bake. It is best to place the eggplants on a tray in the oven. The eggplants should be well baked after 20 minutes. They should be nice and soft. They can also be fried in oil instead. In this case i recommend to let them sit in a drainer over night in order to let the oil drip off. They tend to draw a lot of oil which makes the dish quite heavy.

Slice the peeled potatoes into thick slices of about half a centimeter. Fry them in olive oil form both sides. They should not get cooked but just take some colour from each side.

Meanwhile prepare the tomato sauce. Cube the onions and fry them in olive oil. Do this in apot that is big enough to hold the tomatoes and the other ingredients. When the onions have sauteed enough add the clove and the cinnamon stick. Then add the chopped tomatoes and the pulp. Break up the tuna in the can and add it to the pot. Stir and let it simmer. The sauce should thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

Now you can start layering the Moussakas. First put the potatoes into the casserole. Lay them tightly next to each other so they cover the bottom of the casserole as much as possible. Then lay the eggplants over them. Make sure the eggplants slices close the surface almost perfectly. You do not want the sauce on top to drip through to the bottom of the pan and burn. Now spread the tomato sauce over the eggplants. cover all the surface.

Spread half of the cheese over the sauce.

Melt the butter in a pot to start making the Bechamel. Once it is melted add the flour and fry that for a few minutes until is has a light brown colour. Now slowly add the milk while stirring. Once you have dissolved all the milk take the pot off the heat, add 2 eggs and stir well.

Now pour the Bechamel into the casserole. spread out evenly and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. Broil towards the end of the baking time for a few minutes in order to give the dish some colour.

Takeout and let it cool off a bit. Tastes best when heated up a second time.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

cooking time: 45 minutes

simple recipe

Preparation:

Bring water to boil in a pot. It should just be enough water to over the following ingredients well. Add the peeled carrot, the parsley, and the shrimps. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Drain the water but collect it when draining. Set the shrimps aside and let them cool down a bit.

Cut the carrots into cubes.

Fry the cubed onion in a pan with olive oil. Add the Chili, Salt and pepper as well as the minced garlic. Meanwhile peel the tomatoes and cube them. Add to the pan and fry. Now add the tomato paste and the carrot. Fill up with 2 ups of the boiling liquid. Let it simmer on small flame.

Fry 2 cups of rice with a bit of olive oil in  a small pot. Add salt and 4 cups of the boiling liquid. Cover, turn off the heat and let it sit on the stove. This only works on old fashion stoves. In case you are using a modern stove with a glass ceramic field just let it simmer on small heat for approx. 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat.

Peel the shrimps. Occasionally stir the tomato sauce and add some liquid if needed. Once the tomato sauce has thickened add the finely chopped garlic and the shrimps. Add shredded Cheese and mix. Let the dish sit for 5 minutes, then serve with the rice.

Baked beans and spinach is another fasting dish I want to present. This combination of beans and spinach surprised me with its taste and texture. The beans are melting, the spinache is jusicy. The onion and the garlic give a nice falvour to the vegetarian dish. In later posts I will also present some fish dishes that are part of the fasting tradition. Those dishes are rather the exeption, vegetarian food is the rule.

Preparation: 30 minutes & soaking the beans for a couple of hours

baking time: 30 minutes

very simple recipe

Preparation:

Soak the beans over night. You can also use canned ones. Peel the carrots, the onion and the celery. Cut the celery in stripes and put it with the carrots and the onion into a pot with water and bring to boil. Add the beans and boil them until soft. Drain the liquid but make sure you collect it when draining. Put the liquid aside. Take the carrots and cut them into small cubes. (in case you used canned beans, you do not need to boil them. Just boil the veggies for 15 – 20 minutes)

Take a large frying pan and add some olive oil. chop the onion and the garlic and fry both in the pan. Add the well washed spinach. Fry lightly while tossing it.

Spread the beans out in a casserols. Put a layer of spinach over it. Layer the boiled veggies over it (carrot and celery root). Then again a layer of beans, the a layer of spinach. The layering should end with a layer of spinach. Now season with salt and pepper. Finally poor some of the boiling water over the ingredients. Toss some flour over the dish and put the casserole into the oven. Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 30 minuts. At the second half of the baking time I turn on the grill to give the dish some colour on top. Keep an eye on it though.

Before servinf sprinkle some good olive oil over the dish.

TIP: If you are not fasting you can add some Feta Cheese on top of the dish before putting it into the oven.

Beim Servieren mit gutem Olivenöl beträufeln.

Seven weeks befor Easter Lent beginns in Christianity. So with also here in Greece. For those who take fasting verz serious certain rules apply according to the day of the week and the week you are in. Some of the days vegan food is in demand, on other days the consumtion of oil, wine and molluscas are allowed. Other days again allow fish. I will get back with a more detailed explenation in a later post.

Quite a few people here in Greece follow the rules of Lent, event restaurants change their menu for those who want to fast.

I want to dedicate a few posts to the topic of fasting as I am fascinated by the fhought of cleansing your body and mind with sticking to certain foods.

I will start my series of fasting food with Melinzanokeftedes, a meatless burger made aout of eggplants.

The cheese on the photo would not be allowed if we were fasting already, but we sitll have some days to go before it all beginns.

Preparation time: 40 minutes

cooking time: 30 minutes

simple recipe

Preparation:

Bake the eggplants in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade. When they throw bubbles and you can poke them easily with a fork, they are done. Take them out of the oven and put them aside to cool off.

Soak the bread in some water. Squeeze it well and crumble it into a bowl. chop the ontions and fry them in a pan with some olive oil. Add the minced garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add to the bowl.

Chop the mint and the parsley and add it to the bowl. Cut the eggplants in half and scoop out the meat. Cut the meat into cubes and add to the bowl.

Add a few spoons of flour and mix all ingredients well. Let the mixture rest for a couple of minutes.

Heat olive oil in a pan. take a table spoon and scoop some of the mixture into the pan. Spread the mixture in the pan until it has the size of a small burger. Repeat this step until you have a few burgers in the pan frying. Fry on medium heat, flip after a few minutes, when the bottom side has gotten crusty. Fry well on both sides.

I serve these vegetarian burgers with some Feta cheese.

I do admit, that the photo has not much to do with the title. The bag is used for cooking only. I use a baking bag, to be precise. This high tech product allows a smooth and slow baking in the oven but also enables the things to get some colour at the same time. This is a huge advantage to using a casserole. The other advantage is that you don’t need to use any fat or oil in the process. I served this lamb roast at the last Secret Supper event I did and everybody was very enthusiastic about it. The lamb leg gets soft and melts off the bone. The juices are divine. I can only recommend it.

Preparation: 15 minutes. let it marinate over night

baking time: 2 hours +

very soimple recipe

Preparation:

Cut a few holes into the leg of lamb so you can stick some slices of garlic into the meat.

Smash 2 peeled cloves of garlic with a knife. Add some salt to turn it into a paste while crushing it. I do that on a wooden board. Then put the paste into a small bowl, add honey, some pepper and a few drops of oil. Mix well. Spread the mix over the leg of lamb. Make sure it is all covered well. Wrap it into a foil and let it sit over night.

Turn on the over to 200 Degrees Centigrade.

Cut a piece of the baking bag foil and close it on one end. Add half a tea spoon of flour into the bag, hold the open end close and shake, so the flour covers all the inside of the bag.

Peel all veggies and place them in the bag. Add the leg of lamb and close the bag. Make a few tiny holes into the bag with a toothpick. Make sure that the holes are on the very top og the bag.

Put into the oven and let it bake for approximately an hour and a half to two. Reduce the heat after 1 hour to 150 degrees. Keep an eye on the lamb towards the end of the bakeing time in order for it not to get to dark. Reduce the heat if necessary.

Cut the bad open and place the meat and the vegetables on a serving platter. Serve with the sauce that you find on the bottom of the bag.

These little, soft cookies that are dipped into a Honey syrup you can only find around Christmas here in Greece. Melomakarona are made form late November on, they are the classic Greek Christmas cookie. You can find them in bakeries but also may of the small grocery stores around the neighbourhood sell these home made sweets on big trays. I love this juicy cookie so I had to try to make them. Melomakarona, as well as Ravani, are sweets that a baked dry and then dipped into a Syrup from honey, orange, cinnamon and cloves. The trick is to make them soft but not soggy, light but not falling apart.

A great french language version of this cookie I found at en direct d´Athenes as well as a “Greek moms version” on Yannis blog, my little baklava.

Preparation: 15 minutes

baking time: 25 minutes

have to sit over night

medium difficult recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Mix the olive oil with the sugar and the orange juice.

Blend half of the flour with the baking powder. Mix the fower mixture with the olive oil orange juice mix.

Add the metaxa, the wallnuts and the semolina adn mix well. Add orange and lemon zest to the dough.

This should result in runny bur thick dough. Now you have to knead the remaining flower into the mixture until you have a hunid, non sticky gough.

Let it rest for an hour.

Now you can form the little oval cookies that are just like oversized olives. Place them onto baking paper on a tray. Press them with a fork jsut a loittle bit, so they get an inprint. This the typical pattern of the cookies.

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven at 180 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes. Then let them cool down.

Fpr preparing the syrup you have to just put all the ingredients into a small pot and let them simmer for a few minutes.

Dip the cookies into the syrup and let them soak for a couple of minutes. Then place them on a roasting tray. They should sit on the roasting tray over night in order to soak perfectly. You can check on them occasionally and even dip them once more. It is good to use up all the syrup that you made. The cookies need some time to soak and will develop their taste fully over night. This is true slow food!

Be careful though that the cookies never sit for a long time in the syrup in order not to get soggy.

The next day place the cookies on a plate and sprinkele some crushed wallnuts over them.

The cookies will be good for approximately 10 days.

The German version od this recipe you will find here

As Christmas is approaching I am doing more sweet dishes and try to find tastes that fit the season. Although you can find Loukoumades all year around in Greece the combination of honey and cinnamon over hot puffs is really a wintery dish for me. Loukoumades are a perfect desert in the cold time of the year. The fragrents remind me on Christmas and the golden, shiny colour fits perfectly a fesive table.

Preparation : 40 minutes

+ 90 minutes of letting the dough sit

Frying time: 6-10 minutes
easy recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Disolve the yeast in 400 ml of warm water. Stir a hand full of the flour into the water. Add sugar and salt. Let the mixture rest for 30 minutes at a warm spot.

Meanwhile boil an puree the potatoes.

Stir the remaining flour and the puree into the water-yeast mix. Let it rest again for 90 minutes.

for the syrup, heat the honey in a pot and add the cinamon. If the sauce gets too thick add some water.

Heat the oil. Plunge the dough with a teaspoon into the oil, using a second teaspoon as a scoop.

Let the puffs fry at medium heat until they are golden. Make sure the oil is not too hot. They should be baked throughout.

Drain them on kitchen paper, then transfer onto the serving plate. Pour the honey sauce over them. Serve while still hot.

The German version of this recipe you can find here.