Σάββατο 14 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019

Flavors of times past

Anna helps her mum
Family is not as it used to be and food on our table isn't either. In our globalized fusion kitchens we tend to experiment with tastes and flavors from all over the world. Greek cuisine is not an exception since the land itself has been the crossroads and the melting pot of different civilizations and cultures for thousands of years. Modern greek cooks cannot identify themselves with what was served on Plato's "Symposium" nor with the extravaganza of the byzantine times.

However, apart from the elaborated dishes that have ornated the tables of the mighty and rich, what actually remains in the collective subconscious is the simple and often poor food, served on the tables of the humble people, dictated by seasonal ingredients and more often than not by what was affordable or available by foraging.

The women of the house, since cooking was a chore totally assigned to them, had to improvise from what little provisions they had in their pantry and provide a meal to satisfy the hunger of a usually extended family. A household which had stored in its cellar flour, olive oil, cheese and wine, was considered to be well-off and the rest of the staple foods were provided by the kitchen garden for vegetables and herbs and the nearby fields or forest for greens and various nuts.

Areas near the sea were also blessed with an abundance of fish and seafood and the mountainous people relied on hunting, mostly birds and hares. Wild boars have never become extinct even though they were hunted fiercely because they damaged farmer's crops.
Selling fish


Farm animals were mostly raised for their products - milk, eggs, wool- and rarely consumed as meat,

A very popular traditional wedding song says " In my child's joy (=wedding), we slaughtered a rooster"! Imagine a feast, where the whole village was usually invited, with only one chicken as the centerpiece of the celebratory dinner!

This culture of self-sufficiency is gaining ground worldwide, especially in times of economic crisis such as these but I wouldn't imagine myself making an absolute 180⁰ u-turn and start doing everything from scratch. What I'd really like to do is to preserve those unfamiliar and unknown recipes, handed down from our grandmas, and maybe, just a little, taste the original flavors of a difficult but equally fascinating bygone time.

(The pictures for this post were taken from the alphabet book of my childhood)
unless they were very old or on festive days, such as Christmas or Easter. Even then they made the most of them and nothing was wasted.


Πέμπτη 12 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019

Lazy Girl's Pasta

Lazy Girl's Pasta


A popular greek saying goes like "a greek mum knows everything except for tonight's dinner" 😂😅, and who am I to disagree?

When it comes to desperation the best solution is pasta and an especially quick version for working (or lazy) girls like me, is this "pastitsio".

I was given the recipe by my late aunt Ifigeneia (I will always remember Robin Williams in "Mrs Doubtfire") when I was very young and just learning how to cook. It was a hit from the very first day!

This is an all-in-one pan recipe. The ingredients are for 6, or 4 very hungry people!!!

We'll need
500 grams of  big tube-like pasta such as rigatonni, raw, not cooked!
300 grams of crumbled feta cheese or similar goats cheese
150 grams of grated hard cheese such as "kefalotiri" or "pecorino"
5 medium size eggs
3.5 glasses of milk (about 1lt)
3.5 glasses of water

The original recipe didn't include it, but you can add 100 grams of chopped salami or bacon.


Preheat your oven at 180C. Put some oil or melted butter in a baking pan and throw inside the pasta, the cheeses, the salami and the water and 2 glasses of milk. Beat the eggs with the rest of the milk and pour it also in the pan. Use a big laddle spoon to mix them all and put it in the oven. Wait for about 45 min to 1 hour until the top is set and it's got a nice golden brown color. Ready!

Enjoy!









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