Orange cake, oh my!

Want to change from chocolate cakes? Looking for a recipe that has a strong orange taste? Then this is your cake! Pity that you cannot smell from your computer :)
It is true that it does not have the glory of a chocolate cake but if you accept this, and dare to try, you will be addicted!
(Photos and precious help provided generously from my son :*)



Ingredients
1 cup of margarine
2 cups of sugar
4 big eggs
3 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
2/3 cup of orange juice
the orange zest

Procedure
Soften the margarine in the microwave oven, add the sugar, the eggs and the zest. Whisk using a mixer for a few minutes.



Add the flour and the orange juice and you mix again until a smooth soft result.










Pour in a cake mold that you have butter before.      

Bake in 180 degrees of Celsius in fan for about 45min or until you dip a knife and comes out clean. Time depends from the molds that you will use, here I baked the rectangular mold for about 30min and the round one for about 40min.

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Easy feta rolls!

(Updated recipe!) Want an easy and tasty starter? Make this feta rolls with "filo" pastry! You will need :

12 filo layers
1-2 eggs
some feta cheese and maybe some emmental cheese
some white pepper






Procedure
Beat the eggs, add the smashed feta and emmental, add the pepper and mix them all.
There are two ways to make either rolls or "snails" :)
See the photos to understand the procedure that is very easy though.
1st way (rolls) : 
Cut the filo layers in half. Add a spoonful of the mixture and wrap in rolls like shown in photos.

Bake in the oven (180 degrees of Celsius/fan) for about 5min or fry in hot oil for a few minutes until they get a nice golden color (like shown here). Serve with a nice white dry
wine.

2nd way (snails): 

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Crusty cod fish

The traditional dish on 25 of March is "mpakaliaros skordalia", which is actually fried cod fish accompanied by skordalia that is a potato-gralic puree.
Tasty and changes from usual, so here's a new idea for cooking :)
Normally, it is used salted dried cod fish, but it takes sometime to prepare it, so I use here a fresh one, to stick to our moto "simple...but delicious!"


Ingredients
4x200gr of cod fish
1 cup of beer
1 cup of flour + some extra
1 spoonfuls of corn flour
some salt
frying oil

Procedure
Mix well the beer, the flours and the salt.








Cut the fish in pieces like in the photo and pat the pieces in the flour.

Warm in a deep frying pan the oil and when it is ready put each piece in the batter all over and fry them from all sides to get a nice crust. Take them out to dry in a kitchen paper.
Serve with "skordalia", the potato-garlic puree.

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"Skordalia", the greek puree

Find today a different way to make a potato puree, the greek way :) that has (what else?) olive oil and plenty of garlic. Beware, no romantic evenings that day ;)
Ingredients
4 potatoes
2 spoonfuls of apple vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil
5 garlic cloves
some salt


Procedure
Boil the potatoes with the skin for about 30min or until they are soft enough (use a knife to test).
Then, peel off the potatoes and smash them slightly using a mixer. Add the salt, the smashed garlic and while mixing them, add little by little the olive oil until it gets a nice soft and glossy texture.  
Use it as a starter or to accompany meat or fish. Great combination is a traditional Greek dish that is called "mpakaliaros skordalia" that is actually fried cod fish with "skordalia" usually made on 25 of March, national day for Greece.

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Whole grain bread

A bread today with the healthy (and also tasty) touch of the grains. It's an easy recipe and apart from the fact that I use whole grain flour, the procedure it's similar to the one that my mother and grand mother were doing for any kind of bread. The result was soooo great that I would urge you to try it@!


Ingredients
500gr of whole grain floour
2 packages of yeast for bread or the equivalent for the amount of the flour used
2 spoonfuls of olive oil
some salt
200-300ml of warm water

Procedure
Mix the ingredients either by hand or using the mixer and adjust the flour or the water to make a nice dough that does not stick to your hands but at the same time is not very dry either.






Cover the dough and leave it in the sun or in a warm place for about 30min.







Knead it for a 2-3 minutes and make a nice ball. Place it in an oven tray that is slightly oiled. Cover it and leave it again in a warm place for about 40min. Five minutes before the end, warm the oven at 240 degrees of Celsius and fan and when the time comes, lower to 210, with a knife give some style to your bread as shown in the photos and bake it, for about 35min. Special detail, add below a second but deeper oven tray where you have added some warm water. This won't let your bread to dry.

 
When done, take it out of the oven, cover it completely with a kitchen towel and put inside a thick blanket! Yes, a blanket :) This will keep fresh and warm your bread until your dear ones will come home and enjoy the nice surprise.

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"Mpriam" or vegetables in the oven

A summer dish that needs all the freshness of the vegetables to be tasty... Mpriam! It is very easy to make and needs some greek feta cheese to boost it if you want the ultimate Mediterranean diet :) or anything else that you can come up with (like in the photo).

Ingredients
Various vegetables like in the photo:
eggplants, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, onions
salt, pepper, olive oil, parsley

Procedure
You cut all the vegetables in small pieces, add the rest ingredients, you mix well with 2 spoons and add enough water to cover up to the half height. Cook in the oven in a covered dish at 180 degrees of Celsius for about 1 hour. Enjoy!
Below you can see various versions that I have done according to the vegetables that I had the day that I cooked mpriam.
 

 

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