Fish and Chips, my way!

 Usually I don't wake up with an alarm. I have a cat, we call her Ourania (urania) which means heavenly in Greek, a name that came from the Greek Muse OURANIA (or Urania) who was one of the nine Muses, the muse of music, song and dance. In Classical times she (Ourania) came to be titled the muse of astronomy and astronomical writings. However my cat is far away from heavenly and I am not even sure if she ever going to cross the gate to heaven one day.

 But lets talk about fish. Fish is nice, tasty and somehow expensive. Fish is nutricious, is difficult to clean, and sometimes is smelly. Yeah, it is SMELLY. However, I like fish. I LOVE fish, I grew up in an Greek island where the fishing boats were going up and down all the day long, and we were going early in the mornings to the fish port to buy some of their first catches. Then , ( thank God) my grandmother was cleaning the fish, cooking the fish, and the rest of us, eating the fish and being happy.

Nowadays, because I am lazy, or because I just can't find the whole fish easily, I buy fish Fillet. Easy and clean. Mostly wild caught and fresh. maybe not the catch of the day but I compromise.

This Is my favorite and fastest way to cook it:


Go to the market and take some seabass fillet. Thats all!
   here is what we need:

Seabass fillet ( 4 -5 pieces)

all purpose flour

sunflower oil for frying

olive oil

2-3 lemons,

A Greek Salad

Fresh Potatoes
                             

1. Wash the fish with cold water and dry the fillets on paper towels. Season both sides with sea salt.
2. In a large frying pan heat 1 cup of sunflower oil and couple of Tbsp of olive oil.
3.  In a large plate put 1 cup of flour, (I use a bowl) and make sure to cover both sides of the see. it should be lightly floured, so shake the fillets to get rid of the excessive flour.
4.  Put now the fillet in the hot oil, let them fry for 3 minutes  each side.; use 2 two forks to turn them on the other side. Usually it takes 8-10  minutes. Remove the fish from the fire and put them on paper towels. The result is a crispy nice golden fish fillet. put the fish on a platter, cut the lemons in halves and squeeze them on the fish.

Serve, with fried potatoes, ( I LOVE THEM ), and salad. EASY!

KALI OREXI!!

~Emmanuel

              

Baklava, the Greek way..my way..

Hello everyone!


The history of baklava is not well known.. Everybody ,claimed the baklava, many ethnic groups, but most probably its Arabic origin. However, the Ottoman- Turkish- Arabic desserts are similar to the old  Greek-Byzantine ones, using dough, sesame, wheat, nuts and fruits.Baklava, is documented as the Byzantine favorite  and this is how my grandmother was doing it. It is easy and once you follow the directions you will have the best Baklava you ever had!

What we need:

phyllo dough 1 or 1 &1/2 packet  ( what you don't use, you can freeze it)

 2 cups olive oil

1 1/2 cup of butter ( clarified butter is the best- pure butter, or Ghi)

here is what we need for the stuffing:

walnuts -  5 1/2 cups

bread crumbs - 2 cups

1 table spoon cinnamon ( powder)

1  teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup of sugar

1/2 spoon of fine ground orange peel

and finally what we need for the syrup :

4 1/2 cups of sugar

1 Lt water

1  1/2 cup honey

1 orange ( ONLY THE SKIN)

1 Lemon ( the juice)

a pinch of cinnamon

 In a food processor ground the walnuts. Don't make them powder but small pieces. Now combine the walnuts the bread crumbs, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the sugar, the orange peel in a mixing bowl. with a spoon mix well.

Warm the butter to melt and mix it with the olive oil.  Take a baking dish ( I use aluminium or metal, it bakes much better than the glass) which is almost the size of the phyllo dough in length. Grease with a brush the baking dish.
 Take 9 sheets of  phyllo dough (one by one) and place them in the dish in this order: phyllo dough- a spoon of the oil butter mixture on it- phyllo dough- a  tbl spoon of the oil butter mixture etc until you are done with the 9 sheets. make sure to use your greasing brush on each of the phyllo sheet to grease it well.
Now take a hand full of the walnuts mixture and put it evenly on the last phyllo you have placed on the dish. add one more phyllo sheet- grease- add a handful of the walnuts mixture and continue until you have no more walnuts. Carefully, the walnuts must be spread evenly  Finally, use 9 phyllo sheets to add on the top, following the line of - phyllo- oil butter mixture- phyllo -oil butter mixture etc.
 At last with a sharp knife cut away the edges- if any- and cut your dessert carefully in triangles or squares. Poke each triangle with  1 whole clove. 1 for each. The cloves they keep the phyllo in place while in the oven.
  Now, pour evenly on the baklava the rest of the warm butter mixture. all of it. Bake it in medium heat until has changed color and turned golden.

Meanwhile in the oven,  combine the ingredients for the syrup in a large pot on medium fire and stir for 15 minutes .  Remove the foam with a spoon ( the honey is foamy  once its boiled). Keep the  syrup warm .

When the baklava is ready ( it takes up to 1 hour and 10 minutes , depends on the oven), take it out of the oven and  pour evenly the warm syrup on it. It has do be warm and the desert hot.

After you are done with the syrup, let it stand, to cool down. Don't cover it. If you cover it, the phyllo dough with become soft and yukky and we really want it crunchy and yummy!

Enjoy!!!! its divine!














~ Emmanuel

Christmas Cookies! The traditional Greek Melomakarona

Merry Christmas!καλά Χριστούγεννα! Hyvaa joulua! Sarbatori Fericite! God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt Εr! Chuc Mung Giang Sinh! Sawadee Pee Mai! Feliz Navidad! Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva s Novim Godom! Froehliche Weihnachten! Joyeux Noλl ! Maligayang Pasko!Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand! Selamat Hari Natal! Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!


Yesterday, was the day to make some cookies. I am not a big cookies eater but I do like to keep some traditions. The "melomakarona", the Greek traditional Christmas cookies is one custom I follow every year. When I was a child. me and my lovely Grandmother we were making melomakarona on the 20th of December. Yesterday was 23rd but she won't mind I guess.

Here is what we need for the dough:

1/ 1/2 cup of fine semolina

all purpose flour ( as needed, it might be up to 4 cups)

2 oranges and 1 lemon ( the juice and the peel crumbs)

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
  
1/2 teaspoon of cloves ( powder)         

1/2 spoon baking soda

1/2 cup of warm water

2 cups of olive oil

2 tablespoons of brandy

1/2 cup of sugar

For the syrup we need:

4 cups of water

1/2 cup of honey

2-3 cloves, 2 sticks of cinnamon( or powder)

1/4 of lemon,     2 1/2 cups of sugar

In a mixing bowl combine the olive oil and the sugar. mix well and add the soda and the juice( lemon + orange). The juice with the soda will create bubbles, that's good! Then, add the semolina, the orange and lemon peel crumbs,the water, the brandy. Mix well. Now, add the flour. Cup by Cup.
Mix with your well-washed hands! Add the flour as needed until the dough is not sticky on your fingers.  The dough is kind of oily but doesn't matter. Now shape the dough into long fat fingers and place them on parchment paper in a pan. (I use a fork to "mark" them .Do it, it's fan!). Bake them in a hot oven around 350 F (170 C) for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile the melomakarona are in the oven prepare the syrup. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil. (If you use the honey will be some foam, remove the foam). Let it boil in low fire until our cookies are baked and remove from the fire.. Now remove the cookies from the oven, give them a bath in the hot syrup, deep them in for a minute, not longer. Put the cookies in a serving platter, season with some honey and crushed walnuts! READY!!!

Enjoy, this is my favorite season dessert, I hope you will like! The texture is crispy and has the syrup in the middle! Marvelous!


Emmanuel~

Banana+ nutella= BANANATELLA

Hello!

Let's talk about Bananas. Bananas are yellow, long, tropical and have a long term relationship with nutella. Together they created a miracle in my kitchen. I called it bananatella..
To make the bananatella you will need:

Greek phyllo dough ( You can find that almost everywhere)

2-3 bananas

1 cup of sweetened condensed milk

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

4 table spoons of nutella, (or 5)

4 tablespoons of clarified butter( pure butter)

1 working oven

Some vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and choco sauce for serving

In a large pot put the sweetened condensed milk, the vanilla, the salt,the egg yolk and mix well. Let the pot with this mixture on low fire to thicken up, it takes up to 10 minutes. Always remember when you make custard to stir with a wooden spatula every now and then ( often, dont forget it!). We don't want to burn the cream.. !
10 minutes later combine the cream with the nutella and the bananas in small pieces and mix them all together. Let the mixture cool.You can add even nuts if you like..
Now use 10-12 sheets of the phyllo dough . With a brush, grease each phyllo sheet with the warm melted butter. Its easy, each phyllo you grease put another above it grease again,  repeat until all the 10 sheets are done. Now put the bananatella mixture on the phyllo and spread it around with the spatula. Be careful if its hot still. Roll the phyllo. Place the rolled bananatella on a parchment, grease it with the rest of the butter and season with some sugar. Bake it in the hot oven on 350 degrees until its golden ..

Serve it with ice cream and whipped cream.. Bananatella it is, and am all about it!!! mmmmmm..

 Hahn, you will love it!

Enjoy

 Emmanuel ~

"Greek Burgers", a different but delicious recipe

Hello!

  Finally we are off work! It is time to enjoy and rest. Thank God! Yesterday evening my first thought was Not to cook.. Maybe some fast food could be better, I was thinking. And then I checked the calories online for the "junk in boxes" fast-eating-fast-building-extra-pounds..Was not good.
    And so I got into the kitchen to make some fast food my self!Only wasn't that fast, but was way much better, different, and unique! I made beef patties with coconut milk. sounds weird hah?
 Try it! It is Divine!!!

Here's what you need:

2 pounds of beef ( the best ground beef is not the lean, trust me!)

4 medium onions

2 eggs

2 cloves of fresh garlic

salt and pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda), wet and strain bread crumbs ( 1/2 cup)

1 beef bouillon cube (Maggi)

3-4 tablespoons fire roasted tomatoes ( the spice)

1 can of coconut milk

3 spoons of olive oil

3 spoons of pure butter ( clarified butter for cooking)

a kind of past you like

Cheese ( 1 cup)


In a pot combine 3 of the onions -well chopped - the 2 spoons of olive oil, 2 1/2 spoons of clarified butter, the bouillon cube mix and let it cook in low fire for 30 minutes , stir occasionally.Mix the beef mince with 1 well chopped onion, the garlic ( chopped), 1 1/2 spoon of the fire roasted tomatoes,  the rest of the olive oil ,eggs, salt and pepper, baking soda, the bread crumbs. Mix well with your hands and shape the patties into small long meatballs! Grease a grill pan with the rest of the butter and grill your patties up to 5 minutes each side in a high -medium fire. Pour into the pan with the patties the coconut milk, a cup of cheese, the rest of the fire roasted tomatoes. Let the burgers cook into the coco milk, turn them occasionally, and remove from fire when the sauce is thicker( is not getting too thick, don't worry).
 Meanwhile your onions are done, are sweet and are  ready to mix with your pasta (which I suppose you have prepare all ready), add some cheese, I used a strong smoked cheese on the pasta and couple of spoons of fresh spinach..

Serve the pasta with the patties on the side. You are not going to eat only once.. At least, I didn't..

Enjoy

Emmanuel~

Homemade bread with raisins

Hello!

As a child, the raisins bread was a treat for me. Every time I was going with my grandmother to the bakery for the daily bread, I wish they had this amazing bread. Eventually we started making it home. Wasn't that difficult! I know that raisins bread exist everywhere, but this one is not with eggs, butter, etc. It is a plain bread sweetened naturally from the raisins. Check it out!

yeast mixture

Here is what you need!

2-cups of flour ( preferable unbleached)

3 spoons of olive oil

1 cup of raisins ( I use a mixture of white and black raisins)

7 g -(1/4 oz) Dry yeast ( or fresh if you are lucky to find)

salt

2 table spoons of sugar.

warm water (not hot lets say 1/2 cold , 1/2 hot)

Mix in a lurge Coffee mug the yeast with a spoon of sugar and fill up to half with the warm water. Mix well with a spoon and cover with a small plate. After 20 minutes the mixture with the yeast is doubled sized and has bubbles. Very good!

before

after

Meanwhile, In a mixing bowl combine the flour , a pinch of salt( 1/3 of the teaspoon) , olive oil, 1 spoon of sugar (optional) and the raisins. Add in the mixture  the yeast . Add more water if it is necessary ( or flour). Mix well. When your dough is not sticky on your fingers its ready. Now, in a metal or plastic bowl let the dough to rise for 30 minutes. Cover the bowl with something warm ( a blanket?) and let it be.


When its double sized shape it gently, cover it again for 15 minutes and then bake it on parchement papered pan to 300-350 until the bread it gets a nice roasted color ( it might be 20-30 minutes)

Remove from the oven and let it cool. Serve! I use it for dinner rolls, or sandwiches. I love it!

Secret- Put the bowl with your bread dough in a large bowl with warm water (not hot!). This is going to make it easier and faster ( bouble sized)..

Enjoy

 Emmanuel~

Pork roast with potatoes.

Hello out there! Its been a long time...

   Early at the morning I decided to make a pork roast with potatoes and fresh lemon juice. This is a dish we make in Greece on Sundays, on Celebrations, on family dinners. It is a beautiful, full of flavor pork roast you gonna love.

 Likely in the neighborhood is a good place that i can find the best meat in town! so, here we go! To make the pork roast you will need:

Pork shoulder--- preferable with a middle bone and some fat around.

Potatoes (5-6 big potatoes)

2-3 lemons

garlic ( 2-3 cloves)

oregano,

orange-green-red sweet bell peppers ( one each)* optional

salt and pepper

olive oil

foil

Parchment paper ( important!)

I use a round baking pan ( metal) I bought from an Arabic groceries market which I cover with parchment paper ( two big big pieces cross shaped)

Usually I bake two big pieces of pork shoulder about 4-6 pounds ( depends on how many are for dinner).After I wash the meat  I poke it  with a sharp small knife and I fill up the holes with some garlic and bell pepper stripes.Make sure you have make holes all around, both of the sides. After you fill up the holes with the garlic and the peppers. Give a nice "massage" to the meat with 1/2 cup of olive oil, season with salt-pepper-oregano and place the meat in the baking dish, on the middle of the crossed paper. 

 Then, peel off the potatoes and cut them in 4 pieces( have to be big pieces). in a mixing bowl put the  potatoes, season with some garlic, salt, pepper oregano, the fresh fresh squeezed lemon juice and 1/2 cup of olive oil. Put the potatoes and all the juice from the mixing bowl into the baking dish . I fill up the baking dish with the potatoes all around the meat. Add a cup of hot water and if you like a pinch of sugar ON the meat. Wrap the food in the parchment paper and cover the dish with foil paper.

 That's it! Ready for the Oven .!

I bake it for several hours., Sometimes I have it in the oven throughout the night ( 12-7 o'clock in the morning) at 200 degrees.  You can bake it for 3-4 hours at 250 degrees. Remove the foil after that time , open the paper and turn your oven up to 350-400 for 20 minutes . These 20 minutes will give a beautiful color to your pork roast!

I can guarrantee you , this will be melting in your mouth .It is a favorite dish for my work collegues, and family .

Enjoy!

Emmanuel~