Melomacarona and kourabiedhes

When I was growing up, I was very close to a cousin of mine who used to live in Bristol, I had no sisters, so I suppose she was the closest thing to a sister to me. We'd stay up at night talking for hours about how life would be, and how we'd stay close, and have kiddies and hubbies and huge wedding cakes....

We were so close, and so young.

When my cousin was 16, she was taken to Cyprus on holiday and introduced to a very nice man, who ended up becoming her husband. My cousin never returned home to England, but as far as I'm aware she's very happy living out there, and she has gone on to have 2 lovely daughters, who are themselves all grown up now.

This cousin of mine is a fantastic cook, adventurous in the kitchen, and you can tell that she loves cooking!
About 10-15 years ago she sent some recipes to me, recipes for traditional Greek Christmas cookies, and almost every year I take out her hand-written recipes and make the Christmas cookies, and while I'm mixing and shaping I remember the two little girls who used to share their innermost secrets and smile...

...and sigh.

Here's to you Cuz, far away in miles, but never far from my heart.



melomacarona are plain cookies, dunked in a syrup made from Greek honey, sugar and water, then sprinkled with chopped walnuts. They're better a couple of days after being made as the honey has a chance to really seep into the cookie and make it lovely and soft.
The kourabiedhes are butter cookies with mixed chopped nuts in the mixture, cooked, cooled and covered in icing sugar.
Both are delicious!

The book of New Israeli food

I have a confession to make. I seriously coveted this book after seeing Ilana blogging about it. It sounded like just the kind of book I would love.
Disaster though, it wasn't even listed on Amazon, how could that be?
My angel arrived in the shape of Francesca who kindly sent me the book, and I must say, I LOVE it.
My ancestral island Cyprus, whilst being a Greek Island, is so Eastern, that it's almost, but not quite, Middle-Eastern. To me, Cypriot food has more in common with Israeli food than it has in common with Greek mainland food, which in turn seems to have more in common with Eastern European countries.
I love Cypriot cooking, the liberal use of cinnamon in sweet and savoury dishes, mastic, tomatoes, onions, lemons....
I often laugh with my Mom, because everything we cook seems to start with 'fry a chopped onion until darkly golden before adding a tin of chopped tomatoes'.
So when I did finally lay my hands on this wonderful book thanks to Francesca, I seemed to instantly bond with it, it was just the book I'd been searching years for. And I mean years. Always buying Greek cook books and putting them down. THIS was the book I was meant to own.

1. Jewish pretzels - I made these last night, and boy were they GOOD. It seems to be the addition of full-fat milk powder which makes a huge difference. Oh, I also doubled the sugar in the recipe from 3 tablespoons to 6 - and they were JUST right.


2. Chicken and vegetable ptitim casserole - A delicious one-pot dish. When my store of ptitim runs out, I'm going to be making this with orzo, I don't think the taste will be discernably different. The whole family enjoyed this dish, which is an achievement in itself.


3. lamb patties with tahini sauce. We have grown up eating tahini 'salad/sauce' (by that I mean tahini mixed with water, lemon juice, plenty of garlic, salt and topped with flat leaf parsley) So I was instantly drawn to this recipe. It was so easy to make, the only thing I've never tried before is actually baking the tahini sauce after it's been made.


A big thank you to Francesca for this wonderful book.

More recipes from Express.

1. cocktail sausages - with honey and soy. Sticky, sweet, moreish. But in my eyes too messy for a party, unless the tap and sink happen to be in the living room or very near!


2. Butterfly cakes - memories from school cookery lessons with these. Nice and easy for an after tea treat.


3. Chicken, mushroom & bacon pie - Deliciously warming for cold days (easy too)




4. Holiday hot cake with egg nog cream - another comforting, warming treat, definitely to be made again.



That makes about 72 recipes I've made from 'Nigella Express', it's catching 'Feast' up, that's for sure!

Ilana and the rugelach.

My friend in New York, Ilana,recently challenged the readers of her blog to make Nigella's rugelach from 'FEAST', which for those who don't know by now, is my most favourite cookbook of all time
Now, whenever I look through 'Feast', I always think how I really should try making them. I mean even the fact that Nigella says you should pronounce the 'ach' bit of the word as if in exasperation, That just makes me smile....When I was small I can't tell you how many times I heard the 'ach' word said in exasperation towards me from one parent or the other!
I must admit to feeling astounded at the fact that a whole packet of butter went into that tender,squidgy dough. Oh, and some cream cheese and some soured cream. No wonder the darn thing was fantastic.
The dough was superbly light, tender, squidgy, think of a new born baby's bottom before it's had the chance to grow and fill out. That's just
what it felt like!
The dough is cut and filled with a mixture of dark chocolate and brown sugar. Next time I'm going to use a mixture of dark and milk chocolate - I'm not really overly keen on things that are too bitter chocolatey.
The rugelach are rolled up (think croissants) baked and painted with a sugar water glaze to make them shiny.
They really were stunning, the pastry so light, chocolatey,delicious.
So thanks Ilana for challenging me, it was just the push I needed!

Retro recipe for Vi's challenge

My lovely friend Violets who runs 'Violets pantry' has challenged her members to cook and blog a favourite retro recipe.
I have been thinking long and hard about joining in, but my family retro recipes are mainly Cypriot ones, and I wanted to make something that would be familiar to more people than just me :-)
Another friend of mine Norm has a great blog, which makes for interesting, humorous reading, and recently she blogged about an old favourite- semolina.
Well, that was all the push I needed, full of flu last night, and with a delicate tummy, I thought it would be an ideal ,tummy filling ,comforting, easily digested dish.
I cooked the semolina, milk and sugar in the microwave for 3 minutes, and it came out fabulously!
Topped my Norm's hubby's favourite golden syrup, Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
Thanks for the inspiration Norm, and Vi, thanks for the challenge!
Apologies for the awful photo, blame it on the flu! :-)

Hello from me!

I feel as if I'm on the outside looking in at the minute.
Flu is a rotten thing to go through, something so common can knock you off your feet and keep you down for days. It's cold and miserable outside too, so all I want to do is stay home, keep warm and sit in the semi darkness looking at my Christmas tree.
I don't feel at all inclined to cook either, but what can one do when there is a family that needs feeding?
Trahanas soup is a Cypriot soup made with cracked wheat and yoghurt, small pieces of halloumi are simmered in the soup for the last 10-15 minutes, it's warming,comforting and nutritious, but VERY hard to come by. We usually bring some back with us from Cyprus, but as I'd run out, I managed to find some at the Greek cash and carry where we do the shopping for the fish and chip shop.
Here's my assistant cutting the halloumi:

I've been waiting months for my new display unit and coffee table too, which were being imported from Italy, I think they're beautiful:



Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, that I'm here in the background trying to overcome this rotten feeling and get back to normality.