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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Spetzofai, weird name, greeek taste!

Another traditional recipe today, coming from the mountain of the Centaurus, Mt Pelion (remember from the greek mythology the half men half horses?) We combine the sausages with a spicy tomato sauce and peppers with eggplants to make this dish that is called in greek "spetzofai".
It's tasty and according to your style can be used as main dish or as a starter. Here it goes...


Ingredients
some fresh beef sausages (country sausages in Greece) if you like spicy food, choose something spicy, here spanish chorizo sausage
peppers (green bell peppers in Greece, but anything that you can find could do :)
1-2 eggplants
2 potatoes (optionally, especially if you have kids)
2 tomatoes or the equivalent can tomatoes
salt, pepper, olive oil

Procedure

Prepare the vegetables and cut them in big parts. Cut also the sausages in slices or as is if they are small. I live in France, so impossible to find the exact sausages for the recipe, so I use french "diots de savoie" sausages and a spanish chorizo sausage.

 Start by frying slightly the sausages, take them aside and continue by frying again slightly the vegetables.

 Once done, put ALL the ingredients in a low casserole, add water up to half of them, cover and let simmer for about 45min or until it ends up with a nice thick sauce.
Serve with a glass of red wine!

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Milk pie (galatopita)

"Galatopita" is the greek name for this pie that can be translated literally to "milk pie" and which is actually a cream pie.
If you have kids at home they will love it! Keep some of the cream and serve it to small bowls with cinnamon on top and you will drive them crazy :)))

and they will be more patient for the final result... the full pie!

Ingredients
6-7 layers of "filo" pastry
1 lt of milk
2/3 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour (approximately) + some corn flour 
3 eggs
vanilla flavor
2 spoonfuls of butter
Olive oil
some cinnamon

Procedure
Put in a small casserole the milk, add the sugar, the vanilla and the flours. Boil in medium fire and mix continuously until it starts to thicken enough.







Take out of the fire, add the butter, mix well and then add the eggs that you have previously beaten well as for an omelet. Mix once again and your cream is ready. (Here is the time, if you have kids to take some out in a bowl and give it to the kids ...)





Oil a big oven tray (quite deep) and put the layers of filo by adding a few "lines" of olive oil to each one of the them and by letting them about 5cm hanging out of the tray all around (see the photos).
Roll the exceeding filo all around to create a barrier and empty the cream inside it.

Sprinkle as much cinnamon as you like :) on top.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees of Celsius and fan for about 30min or until it gets a nice color.

    

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Hearty lentil soup!

Full of proteins, vegetarian and so yummy, lentil soup today! Recipe coming directly from Greece, traditional and so healthy that despite the sunny days in my place and the temperatures that have rose high I decided to do it. No-one complained :)




  


Ingredients
500gr of lentils (bio, if it's possible and the best quality that you can find)
2 carrots
1 big onion
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
salt, pepper, oregano
1/2 cup of good olive oil
2 red tomatoes or equivalent tomato sauce
1 spoonful of good vinegar

Procedure
Start by emptying the lentils in a big tray and check little by little all of it to be sure that there is nothing else in there. Once done, put the lentils in a big casserole with enough water to cover them and boil them for a few minutes. Drain the lentils and add once again water up to half the casserole and put it back to fire.
Add the carrots in slices, the minced onion and the smashed garlic and the rest of the ingredients. Cook in medium fire for about 45min or until the lentils are quite soft.
Serve the soup warm together with good bread (whole grain would be great) and accompany with olives, feta cheese or even tuna.

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