I love you more than Baklava!

What do I love more than Baklava?

The lesser known Galaktopoureko.

Yes, I love it much more than Baklava, a huuge amount more than Kateifi, in fact it may just pip my Mother's semolina cake into first place in my affections.

Only just, mind.....

What is Galaktopoureko?
Well, if I tell you that 'Gala' means milk.....and 'Pourek' is the Turkish word for a pie or pastry.....perhaps it becomes clearer?

Galaktopoureko is a Greek pastry/dessert, either made individually (my preference) or in a large tray, where it is cut into portions. It's based on a set semolina custard, rolled in phyllo pastry and dunked in sugar syrup.
What's not to like?

Galaktopoureko


2 pints of milk
2 eggs
6 tbsp semolina
2 tbsp cornflour
4 tbsp sugar
1-2 packets of phyllo pastry (I can't be more specific than this I'm afraid, as brands tend to vary in the number of phyllo sheets they have in their packets. It also depends how many pieces you cut your semolina custard into)

For the syrup:
2 and a half cups sugar
2 cups water
juice of 1 lemon
few shards of cinnamon stick and a few whole cloves.

1. Warm the milk gently, but don't let it come to a boil.

2. Beat the eggs and slowly add to the warm milk.

3. Slowly add the semolina, cornflour and sugar

4. When it has slowly come to the boil and thickened considerably, pour into a rectangular pan, let it cool and refrigerate until set.

5. Cut into rectangular slices and roll in sheets of phyllo which have been greased with either melted butter or a flavourless vegetable oil, tucking the corners in, so that you end up with neat, rectangular parcels.

6. Place on a greased baking tray and bake at 160 degC until golden (They may take about 25-30 mins, but just keep an eye on them)

7. Meanwhile make the syrup, boil together the sugar, water, lemon, cinnamon and cloves for about 5-10 minutes.

8. When the Galaktopoureka are out of the oven and slightly cooled, dip them into the syrup and place one-by-one onto a serving dish.

9. Wait for the ooooohs and aaaaaahs which will surely come!

Psarosoupa (Fish soup)

I'm lucky enough to have unlimited access to beautiful, fresh fish, which is delivered daily to my workplace. I'm usually fast asleep when I hear the fish man delivering his wares at ungodly hours of the morning. Sea fresh cod, haddock and plaice are readily available to me, so I really have no excuse not to be using them more often. Healthy, nutritious and low in fat:

Fresh Cod

I was reading through a few blogs today when Elpiniki's post caught my eye and being as I hadn't even started planning the evening meal, it didn't take me long to put 2+2 together and decide to make Elpi's soup. I did change a few things, so here is my version of psarosoupa:

Elpiniki's Psarosoupa
Serves 3.

400-500g fish fillets (I used the large piece of cod you see above)
1 potato, peeled and finely cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
3 spring onons, finely sliced
Half a cup of rice
1 vegetable stock cube
salt & pepper
fresh parsley
Olive oil to taste.
Juice of half a lemon.

1. Place about 1 litre of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, add the vegetable stock cube and the potatoes, carrots, onions and potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are half cooked.

2. With a slotted spoon, remove some of the vegetables with a little stock, blend with a stick blender to a puree and set aside.

3. Add the fish which you have cut into large chunks to the soup in the pan along with the rice, simmer for 10-12 minutes until both the rice and fish are cooked.

4. Add the pureed veg back to the soup and stir, add salt and pepper, parsley and olive oil and lemon to taste.

5. Your soup is now ready!

Enjoy!

Happy cooking from my kitchen to yours.....and thanks to Elpiniki for the inspiration!

Nigella's Scallops with chorizo

I've been a little quiet here on my blog lately and I feel that I should explain why, so that if I do post a little less regularly than is usual, you'll at least know why.
I've been on a bit of a health kick recently, trying to lose some extra weight which has crept on steadily over the past few years. Unfortunately when you like your food and baking as much as I do, this can be one of the side effects.

I'm not very good at moderation.

I've decided that I'll be very strict with myself until most of the weight has gone and then try Weight Watchers or similar to help keep the weight off.
That being said, I can now tell you that I had quite a tough time, because I decided to cut out carbs, sugar, diet coke (My great vice!) sweeteners, caffeine and most dairy in the space of a week! Looking back now, that may not have been the wisest thing to do...I had headaches, nausea, aching bones for a whole week. A really bad case of Induction flu. I really felt awful.
But now it's over, I feel great, like a fog has lifted, that's the only way I can think of to describe it.
Being as I'm restricting myself so much, I feel that the little food I do eat, must completely satisfy me and be of the highest quality my pocket can manage.

And be lovely. Really lovely.

That's why I treated myself today to these lovely Waitrose King scallops, which I generously shared with my husband.

Aren't I kind?

I've made Nigella's scallops with chorizo a few times and to me it feels like you've been spoilt when you've had this.

Spoilt but happy.

Nigella's Scallops with Chorizo
Adapted from Nigella Express.

110g Chorizo sausage
400g Small scallops (mine were huge, so I halved them)
Juice of half a lemon
Chopped fresh parsley.

1. Slice the chorizo into rounds (No thicker than 3mm says Nigella)

2. Heat a pan on the hob and fry the chorizo until crisped on either side, you won't need to use oil as the chorizo releases lots of lovely orange oil.

3. Remove chorizo from pan and fry scallops in the chorizo oil for about a minute a side.

4. Return the chorizo to the pan with the scallops, add the lemon juice and let it bubble for a few seconds before adding the parsley.

(Apparently serves 8 as a starter. I must disagree here, 4 sounds better, but then maybe that's why I need to diet in the first place!!)

My Mum's Stifado

I think my Mother's father was a foodie!
He had a great love of Cypriot delicacies and when I was small I distinctly remember him coming round with a hare, or failing that, a rabbit, in order that my mum could make stifado for him.
His appreciation, I have no doubt, made the 'labour of love' distinctly worthwile.
Now, I love it made with either meats, but I find that I tend to make it more with beef cubes as it is more readily available than game.
Stifado is a Greek stew made with the aforementioned meats and plenty of onions...when I say plenty, I really do mean that, there must be twice the weight of onions as there is meat, so for instance, if you make the stifado with 2lb of meat, you must use 4lb of onions!
It's lovely served with a steaming pile of Basmati rice, though I have heard that in parts of Greece it is more generally served with noodles.
My mother's recipe is very basic, there are no additions that I have heard about and read about, no red wine, no tomato paste.
Just beef, onions, olive oil and red wine vinegar and a couple of bay leaves.....it couldn't be any easier.

My Mum's Stifado


2lb beef stewing steak, cut into medium sized cubes (about the size of a walnut)
4lb Spanish onions, peeled and sliced
Extra-Virgin olive oil (For frying)
1 small wineglass of red wine vinegar
2-3 bay leaves.

1. Fry the beef in plenty of olive oil until well browned, place in the bottom of an ovenproof dish.

2. Fry the onion slices in batches, in the same oil, you want the onion slices to become well browned and golden, this helps with the flavour and colour immeasurably.

3. Place the onions on top of the beef.

4. Pour over the glass of red wine vinegar, season with salt and place 2-3 bay leaves on top also.

5. Cook in a medium oven (Gas mark 3, 170degC, 150degC fan oven) for about 3 hours.

I never grew up with meatloaf....

....At least I don't think I did. Others? Maybe.....but us....
We may have grown up on squid and octopus and halloumi with watermelon...but not meatloaf.

The first time I remember eating meatloaf was at my sister-in-law's house in Cyprus, but there it was wrapped in caul fat and enclosed a layer of hard boiled eggs.

Now, if you know me well, you will know I don't do eggs.

Not fried.
Not boiled.
Not scrambled.

No way, uh uh, never!

We can attribute this loathing to Mama Kouzari who fearing her little girl would be missing some kind of valuable vitamins and minerals that only eggs have, would try and feed me with it, only for me to spit it out.
I would probably have the same reaction now.
Unless of course they're heavily disguised in a chocolate cake or something.......
She even mixed it up with my weetabix, trying to disguise the taste...

Mom, did you really do that?

The best meatloaf I've ever had was a recipe that my Australian friend Coby supplied me with.
It's great hot, served with mash or rice or whichever carb you prefer, but try it cold the next day in thick slices sandwiched between thick white bread.

To die for.

Here's the recipe, which Coby kindly agreed to let me share:

Coby's Meatloaf.


In Coby's words "The sauce is interesting and really delicious in this. I don't like coffee, but I like this sauce inspite of it. There's always a long list of ingredients in meatloaf, but it's super easy to just scrunch it all together".

I would have to agree Coby, but say that I love the sauce because of the coffee. :))
Just the very idea that it's there, makes it all a bit more adventurous and gets people intruiged and wanting to try it. Even though the finished sauce doesn't actually taste of coffee.....

For the meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into squares.
Half a cup of milk
500g beef mince
500g sausage or pork mince (sausage is the tradition)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
Quarter cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 grated carrot
1 grated turnip (I sub another carrot or a parsnip if I don't have turnip at home)

For the sauce:
Half a cup water
Half a cup of tomato sauce (Ketchup)
Half a cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
1 teaspoon instant coffee
30g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
Quarter cup brown sugar.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 160 deg C, if you have a fan oven.

2. Pour the milk over the bread and let stand until milk is absorbed.

3. Place all the meatloaf ingredients in a bowl. Add the bread and mix until very well combined.

4. Press mixture into a greased 4 litre capacity loaf tin. Bake for 30 minutes.

5. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

6. Drain fat from the meatloaf and invert onto a baking dish, pour over the sauce and cook for a further 30 minutes, basting every ten minutes.

Thanks to Coby for a recipe which has become part of my family and our lives.

A huge and heartfelt Thank you!

....to Caroline Smith AKA CARRIE from  The Patterned Plate  for making my title header look so beautiful! It is something I could never have done without you!

What's in a name?

My favourite posts are unsurprisingly maybe, centred around my most favourite recipes of all, the ones that I grew up with, the ones that are closest to my heart. I'm hoping that these recipes are the ones that my daughters will one day ask my help with, as I did with my mom and I can direct them to this blog if circumstances dictate that I'm not in the same kitchen helping them- you could say that they can come here to my virtual kitchen! :))
I needed mom's help with the naming of this recipe, because it gets a little complicated.
When I was small this dish was called 'Kapama', a casserole made with either meat or chicken, potatoes and red wine, I remember my mom adding crushed coriander seeds to the finished dish, but after I got engaged and was influenced by another village's way of cooking (the village is Aradhippou, in Cyprus by the way) and another woman's way of cooking (My Mother-in-law) I saw that she and most of the other women there, made the same dish that I remember when growing up, but made it without the crushed coriander seeds and called it 'Kokkinisto' which means 'reddened' in Greek.
Bear with me reader, for here is where it gets complicated.....talk about regional cooking.....
In Xylophagou, which is where my family's from, 'Kokkinisto' refers to a dish that has been cooked with tomatoes, not red wine. But also to a dish which involves meat and potatoes being dunked into red wine and the fried until golden and cooked through.

So what's in a name?
I call this glorious dish 'Kokkinisto', it's my blog, here we go:

My Mom's Kokkinisto

Kokkinisto


1. This is how I usually calculate how much to make. For every person eating, allow 1-2 chicken portions (by a portion I mean either a leg, wing, thigh or breast of chicken) and 1-2 potatoes each.
You know the appetite of your family!
One can also use pork chops (1 per person is fine) lamb chops, pork ribs or belly slices, anything you fancy really.

2. You will also need a bottle of good, full bodied red wine.

3. Open the bottle of red wine, and pour it into a large bowl (if you wish for a lighter colour to the finished dish and in fact a lighter taste, too, you could use only half of the bottle)
Place the chicken or meat portions into the wine and get on with heating some vegetable oil in a large, shallow pan, we are going to brown the meat next.

4. Heat the oil to a high heat, and being very wary of splashes, place the meat carefully into the pan, now, you want to brown the meat very well, so that it's lovely and dark brown (the wine will aid with the colouring)
Now place the halved potatoes in the same wine.
Place the meat into a large casserole, or Dutch oven.

5. Do exactly the same with the potatoes, brown them off well in the oil and place over the meat in the casserole.

6. Pour the wine over the meat and potatoes, Pour water in too, to barely cover them, also salt and pepper to taste, if liked one can also add a pinch of cinnamon (This is a Cypriot recipe- we put cinnamon in everything!)
And the secret ingredient...pour in about a tablespoon or two of the oil...mmmmmm.
Bring to a boil, turn down heat to a simmer and simmer until the potatoes are tender, by this time both the meat and potatoes will be cooked through.

7. Serve in bowls, with lots of the lovely sauce and lots of good, crusty bread.

As you can see in the photo, it's also possible to add a layer of cauliflower florets which have been fried off in the oil and placed over the meat and potatoes. My eldest son loves it this way!
This is a beloved dish in my part of Cyprus, it's made weekly without a doubt, loved by everyone!
The first time I made it, mum reminded me just the other day was when I was about 15-16. As Mum used to work, she'd tell me what she wanted cooked that day and I would write the instructions down and by the time she got home, there'd be a cooked meal on the table :)) You see I loved cooking, even back then.....