Feta cheese balls

Remember the recipe of feta cheese pies (tyropitakia)?
It's one of our favorite salty starters and if you have never tried it before this is the moment to do it!

I am giving you an alternative that is pretty simple, much simpler than the original recipe.

You just mix all the ingredients together using the kneader tool of your mixer and you just make small balls and bake exactly as in the original recipe. 
HUmmm, delicious!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Hummus

Ok, I won't pretend that I managed to have a nice hummus on my first attempt neither on my second, I do not know why actually, as it is one of the easiest dip recipes to make.
I want to thank Katia (my ex zumba teacher that makes the most delicious hummus :) for her recipe and Aneta for being the intermediate (and for iniating me to zumba btw :)
So, what is hummus ? It's a Lebanese food dip made of chickpeas that I just loooove and that it takes a few minutes to make at home (much better than store-bought).



Ingredients
1 can of cooked chickpeas or 250gr of cooked chickpeas
fresh lemon juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove minced
2 spoonfuls of extra-virgin olive oil (plus some extra for serving)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
some salt
1 spoonful of tahini
(Katia likes to add some parsley or celery also, so you just improvise for the rest :)

Procedure

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Mix all the ingredients in a food processor apart from tahini.
When you have a smooth puree, then add the tahini and mix once again.
Empty in a nice serving dish, sprinkle with some olive oil and paprika and use pitas to taste it!
You can store in an air-tight container and in the fridge max for a week.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Zucchini muffins

Remember the delicious zucchini balls that I have presented a long time ago?
Discover today my personal touch to turn them to muffin-like starters in a xmas dinner that I have organized recently. They looked gorgeous and they tasted even better! Just try them...
Procedure

• Use the same recipe for the filling and simply pastry dough (cut in disks) and assemble them in a muffins tray. 
• Sprinkle on top with some yellow cheese. 
• Bake for about 30min at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Aperitif (or cocktail hour) flower!

Living in France, I became keen with the idea of an "aperitif" that is a cocktail hour in between meals that might include a simple drink or a small buffet with some finger food.
Have a glimpse of the latest trend that I did in a hurry with whatever I had in my fridge and that was still delicious despite all odds :)
I had only 1 pastry dough so I made half the flower but it's enough to get the idea still...

Ingredients
2 round ready-made puff pastry (pate feuillete in french)
2 eggs
1 cup of grated cheese (Gruyere is great)
some decoration seeds e.g, sesame 

Procedure

Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees of Celsius and fan.
Beat in a small recipient the 2 eggs with a fork.
Open one pastry and with a kitchen brush you cover all the surface with half of the eggs.
You add on top the cheese trying to cover evenly all the surface. You cover with the other layer of pastry dough and you "close" the edges by pressing with a small fork.

You cover the middle part with a round mug or bowl and you cut evenly all around in 1 cm parts from the edge to the mug. Once done, you twist each part 2-3 times and finally you cover the top by brushing it with the rest of the egg. Add some decoration seed in the center to make it look as a flower. Bake for about 10min or until it has a nice golden color.
The result is really delicious that I managed to eat only one tiny part that was left from my family's excitement :))) And my, it was divine! and beautiful too btw...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Recipe reminder (Tyropitakia)

I would like to remind you a salty greek recipe that I just cannot resist :
"Tyropitakia", the feta cheese pies!
If you haven't tried it yet, just do... if you have, just give me some feedback of what do you think of it or tell me your own recipe, if you like sharing :)
You can even offer them in a nice gift box to someone, to give you some ideas. I always do that, when I want to thank someone ...
Specifically made today as a surprise for one of my kids that I missed soooo much ;) Enjoy!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

"Tigania" or fried pork

"Tigania" is a fast and tasty way to prepare a starter for a nice dinner. Actually these starters in Greece we call them "mezes" and we can eat several starters like this instead of following the classic procedure of a dinner.
Once again, a Greek recipe that in old times, people were cooking in villages with meat coming from their own pigs and instead of olive oil, they were using the pork fat. Not so healthy, but soooo delicious! Even the modern version is very tasty, so do not hesitate to try it :)

Ingredients
700-1000 gr of pork tenderloin or whatever part you like most, cut in cubes
some lemon juice (my case) or white wine (depends on your style of cooking :) 
salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice, olive oil
1-2 green peppers (my case) or leeks washed and cut in pieces (depends on what you have available :)

Procedure
Start by washing and cutting the meat and the vegetables.




Continue by boiling the meat with enough water that covers it in a low covered casserole. Leave it until almost all the water will be evaporated (about 30min).

 Continue by adding the vegetables and enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the casserole (about 1/2 of a cup).

Add salt, pepper and oregano and start frying the meat by stirring regularly.
Just a bit before the end, pour on top the lemon juice or the wine and cover for 1-2 min.
Take out of the fire the casserole and your dish is ready to be served!
Warm is the best :)

 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Feta & dried tomatoes cake

I promised to give you the recipe of the mozzarella cake with feta and I always keep my promises :)
So, find today another version of this salty cake with a greek touch this time ...
Just replace the mozzarella with feta cheese and fresh tomatoes with dried tomatoes and add more flour so that in total will be about 250gr. Try it! 
See some photos from the preparation below...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Greek tzatziki!

Tzatziki is the famous greek dip that is actually a white sauce made with strained yoghurt, cucumber and garlic. It's easy to make, veeeery tasty, great for your bbqs, and is the perfect condiment for "souvlaki", the greek skewers. Find today, how easy it is to make it at home in just a few minutes!

Ingredients (approximately :)
1 cup of plain yoghurt (if you can find real greek one is the best :)
1/2 of grated cucumber
1-2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
salt, olive oil (like 1-2 spoonfuls)
some chopped dill for decoration

Preparation

Put in a strainer the yoghurt and the grated cucumber, add a bowl underneath and let them drain for a few hours in the refrigerator. When most of the water is out in the bowl, throw it away and empty the ingredients in the bowl and mix with a spoon. Leave it to cool in the fridge and serve with some olives or some chopped dill on top. Enjoy!
P.S: Having inside garlic. it is not meant to be served in a romantic dinner for obvious reasons ;) 

   

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Tomato-mozzarella-oregano cake

Summer is coming soon and I would like to urge all the fanatic ones with cakes like me to calm themselves down by doing salty cakes ! I start the sugar banning :) today by proposing to you a tomato-mozzarella cake that has my favorite oregano to boost it. Easy, fast and excellent starter for a nice dinner or a fancy aperitif.
I would add feta cheese instead of mozzarella to be honest, but I live far from Greece and feta is a precious cheese at home, especially for my daughter :)
As far as it concerns the sugar banning... it was a joke ! I am addicted to sugar, so it's not easy to ban it, for the time being, I can only lower my daily intake ...
Ready? Let's go for it then!


Ingredients
200gr flour
1 baking powder
3 eggs
100ml milk
100ml olive oil
salt, pepper and oregano
125gr mozzarella
several cherry tomatoes (as many as you like :)
you can improvise by adding e.g., olives, some grated yellow cheese ...

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan.
Put in a bowl all the ingredients apart from the tomatoes and the mozzarella. Mix well with a mixer for a couple of minutes and then add the mozzarella and the tomatoes cut in small pieces. Be careful to take out the grains (or whatever is their name :) of the tomatoes before adding them to the dough.
Pour in a rectangular cake mold that you have well buttered before.
Bake for about 40min or until it gets a nice golden color (see for yourself in the photo).

Share with your guests and let me know for the result!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The greek focaccia with feta ("tyroklouri")

Want to try a different focaccia, this time with feta? Actually it is a traditional greek recipe from my region Thessaly, that looks like focaccia but more to the crunchy side.
It is very tasty and for the ones that like focaccia style breads, you will love this one!
It takes time to make it, so choose a cold day that you will stay at home, as you will have to wait for the dough to rise.
The result will reward your patience :)



Ingredients
1Kg of flour
42g of yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
150gr of butter
olive oil
200gr of feta cheese

Procedure

Make a soft dough with the flour, the yeast, the salt and 2 cups of warm water. Knead well and let it to rise and double it's volume at a warm place (I usually cover it with a towel and then with a blanket). Let's say for about an hour.
Once it's done, knead it softly and split the dough to 5-6 small dough balls. Take one by one and let the rest covered with a towel. Use some flour and with a roll turn the dough ball to a thin round layer. Don't worry if it is not exactly round, it does not matter much.

Add evenly some butter and small pieces of the feta cheese here and there. Pour also some olive oil. Oil a big oven dish like in the photo and put it on it. Repeat the procedure with every dough ball adding it on top of the previous one.
When all the balls are over, start rolling this layered dough and start twisting it all over as much as you can. Eventually, start spreading the dough using your fingers all over the surface of the dish.

Add once again butter on top, some olive oil and according to your style, sesame or oregano and bake at 180 degrees of Celsius for about 30-40min. Add also in the oven an extra bowl with some water that will keep the dough softer.

Your "tyroklouri" is ready! Cover it once again with a towel for a few minutes if you can resist until it cools a bit.
And now you can try it :)
  

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

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): 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

"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.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad