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Greek recipes of cooking

Mousaka (With Eggplant)

Brown onions in butter or lard. Add chopped meat, mixing constantly until mixture becomes crumbly. Add tomato sauce, wine, water, salt, pepper, parsley and nutmeg. Cover pan and cook for one hour over low heat. In the meantime, cut the eggplants lengthside in slices about ? inch thick. Salt them, let them strain in a colander and fry in deep fat. Let the fried eggplants strain again. Prepare a thick white sauce (Bechamel) with milk, flour, butter, salt, white pepper and grated nutmeg. Add eggs. Arrange eggplants in shallow pan with a few breadcrumbs. Remove chopped meat from heat, add half the grated cheese and half of the breadcrumbs. Spread evenly over the eggplants. Pour the white sauce evenly over this and sprinkle the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs on top. Pour some melted butter over the top and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly and cut in squares. Good for 6-8 servings.

NOTE : Moussaka can also be made with only potatoes, or potatoes and eggplants, or with eggplants, potatoes and pumpkins.

Garlic Sauce (Scordalia)

Clean and crush garlic with salt in a mortar. Add the mashed potatoes. Pound well until a smooth paste is obtained. Add olive oil and vinegar alternately in very small quantities, stirring the sauce with the pestle. Or, mash potatoes in an electric mixer, add garlic paste and olive oil with the vinegar very slowly until completely absorbed. Continue to beat until the sauce is stiff enough to hold its shape. Serve with boiled or fried fish. Makes 6 servings.

Blender garlic sauce : In an electric blender, put 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 or 3 tablespoons vinegar, 1 cup soft breadcrumbs, ½ cup of water and 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend until garlic sauce is smooth. If the garlic sauce is thin, add 1 to 2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs.

Fish Roe Salad (Taramosalata)
In an electric blender put 2 slices stale bread in small pieces, 3/4 cups of water, 4 oz. tarama (fish roe), 1 cup olive oil and the juice of 1 ½ lemons. Blend at medium speed until mixture is smooth.

Spinach Pie (Spanakopita)

Wash the spinach and chop it finely. Add 1 tablespoon salt and rub it in with the hands. Leave for an hour. Squeeze it well. Add 1/3 cup olive oil, the onions, the feta cheese crumbled, eggs, parsley, dill and pepper. Take a buttered baking pan 10'' X 14'' X 2'' and line with one pastry sheet. Brush liberally with oil. Add 6 more pastry sheets, brushing each with oil. Fill with spinach mixture and cover with more sheets of filo pastry. Brush the top sheet with oil and carve the top three sheets with a sharp knife into 3-inch strips from one end of the pan to the other. Sprinkle the top with water, to prevent the pastry sheets from curling upwards. Bake the spinach pie in a moderate oven for 40-45 minutes. Cool slightly and cut into squares.
Serve hot or cold. Makes 20 pieces.

Grilled Lamb on Skewers (Souvlakia)

Cut lamb into 1-inch cubes and thread on metal skewers. Marinate in oil mixed with 4 tablespoons lemon juice, salt and pepper for about 1 hour. Grill meat over charcoal, turning once, until done. Sprinkle with oregano. Serve with pilaf or fried potatoes.

Lamb Fricasse With Lettuce (Arni fricasse me maroulia)

Saute meat and onions in butter. Sprinkle flour over meat and mix well. Add lettuce, water, salt, pepper and parsley or dill. Cover and simmer until meat is tender (about 1 hour). Remove from heat. For egg and lemon sauce: whisk egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of water. Add lemon juice. Add, by spoonfuls, about ½ cup of the lamb gravy, whisking continuously. Pour egg mixture gradually over meat and gravy, stirring all the time. Serve hot. Makes 4 servings.

Lamb Casserole With Pasta (Arnaki katsarolas me kritharaki)

Cut meat into 5-6 serving pieces and put it a casserole (yiouvetsi). Add butter, onion, peeled and diced tomatoes, salt and pepper. Mix well, cover and bake in a hot oven for 1 hour or until tender. Add 6 cups boiling water and manestra. Stir well. Cover and continue baking for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve at once with cheese. Makes 5-6 servings.

Stuffed Grapevine Leaves With Rice (Ntolmadakia me rizi)

Heat ½ cup olive oil in a frying pan and saute the onions until soft. Add rice and cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients, except grapevine leaves, lemon and ½ cup olive oil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Cool. Rinse the grapevine leaves in cold water. If fresh, put them in boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Strain and rinse in cold water. In the centre of each leaf (shiny surface of leaf downwards), place a heaped teaspoon of the filling. Fold ends of leaf over the filling and roll it up. (Do not roll too tightly, as the rice will swell). Cover the bottom of a shallow saucepan with vine leaves and place a plate over the "dolmadakia" to prevent them from opening. Cover and simmer over a low heat for about 1 hour. Allow cooling in the saucepan. Serve them as a cold entree with yogurt or as an appetizer.

Meatballs (Keftedes)

Saute the onion in 2 tablespoons of butter until soft and mix thoroughly with the minced meat, breadcrumbs, milk, salt, pepper, parsley and egg. Shape mixture into balls 1 inch in diameter. In a large frying pan saute the meatballs in butter or oil until they have turned brown on all sides. Pour the wine over the meatballs and heat for a few minutes.

Serve hot. Makes about 3 dozen meatballs for appetizers.

Tomatoes Stuffed With Rice (Tomatoes yemistes me rizi)

Wash tomatoes and cut the top from the stem end. (These must be saved and used later as lids). Scoop out pulp with teaspoon and sprinkle with sugar inside. Heat ½ cup olive oil in frying pan, and cook the onion until soft. Add the rice, stir well and cook for a few minutes. Add half the tomato pulp, drained and chopped, ½ cup hot water, the currants, the parsley, the remaining sugar, salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Fill tomatoes with mixture, leaving room for the rice to swell. Replace the lids and arrange in shallow baking pan. Force the remaining tomato pulp through a sieve and pour into the pan. Pour 1 tablespoon oil over each tomato and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake in moderate oven for 1 ½ hours. Serve cold. Makes 5 servings

NOTE : A few green peppers can be filled with the rice mixture as well and baked with the tomatoes.

Greek salad (Xoriatiki salata)

Greek salad, "'village salad", is a salad made in the Greek fashion and is a common component of a traditional Greek meal. It is one of the most popular salads in Greece and Cyprus as it is light, refreshing and easy to make and especially popular during the summer months. True Greek salad is made of sliced or chopped tomatoes with cucumber, and red onion, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oregano and dressed with olive oil. Common additions include feta cheese, bell peppers, capers, anchovies, sardines and kalamata olives. Lettuce and vinegar are not used in a Greek salad.

A lettuce salad is a distinct salad, also popular, especially in the autumn and spring, consisting of finely sliced lettuce, scallions, and fresh dill, and dressed with salt, black pepper, olive oil and red wine vinegar or lemon juice.

Other usage
The term "Greek salad" is also used in North America, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom to refer to a lettuce salad with Greek-inspired ingredients, dressed with vinegar and oil. Tomatoes, feta, and olives are the most standard elements in an American "Greek" salad, but cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, radishes, dolmades, anchovies/sardines and pickled hot peppers are common. In the Detroit, Michigan area, for example, a "Greek salad" also includes beets. Rather than simple olive oil and vinegar, as in a ìáñïýëé - lettuce salad, prepared dressings containing various herbs and seasonings are frequently employed. This style of "Greek salad" is rarely encountered in Greece except in the homes of American Greeks or restaurants that cater to tourists. In these countries, the true Greek salad, when encountered, may be called by the Greek term horiatiki or by such terms as "country salad", "peasant salad", or "village salad", to avoid confusion.

Various other salads have also been called "Greek" in the English language in the last century, including some with a very old connection to Greek cuisine. For example, one 1938 American recipe called for a mayonnaise-dressed lettuce salad with shredded cabbage, carrots, and diced smoked herring ( rega / renga ).

Christmas Sweets (Melomakarona)

Beat together the first 4 ingredients. Sift flour, baking powder and soda 3 times. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the oil mixture and stir gently. Pinch of small portions of dough the size of an egg and form into little patties. Roll them to make oblong rolls. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. Boil honey, sugar and water for 5 minutes. Pour syrup over melomakarona. Allow 15 minutes to soak. Take them out of the syrup and place on a large plate. Sprinkle with shopped walnuts and cinnamon. Makes 40 servings.

Almond Pears (Amygdalota) - From the island of Hydra

Mix the almonds with 2 tablespoons sugar and grind them fine. Or use commercially ground almonds. Add remaining sugar, semolina, and 6 tablespoons orange flower water. Stir this mixture to soft dough. If too stiff, add 1 to 2 tablespoons orange flower water. Break off small pieces the size of a walnut and shape these into "pears". At the end of each, insert 1 clove for the "stalk". Arrange on a buttered and floured baking sheet and bake in an oven for 20 minutes. When the almond pears are cool, dip them quickly into orange flower water and then coat with icing sugar. After a few minutes coat them again in icing sugar.

Milk Pie (Ghalaktoboureko)

Beat the eggs with the sugar until thick. Add semolina, milk and flavouring. Cook over a low heat until mixture thickens stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Add 3 tablespoons butter. Butter a baking pan 9 X 12 X 2 inches and spread 2/3 of pastry sheets, brushing each sheet with melted butter. The edges of the pastry sheets should exceed the top of the pan. Spread milk mixture over the pastry sheets and turn in the edges of the sheets over the cream. Cover with remaining pastry sheets, brushing each with melted butter. Pour any remaining butter over top. Cut through the first 3 sheets in 3-inch squares and sprinkle with water. Bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes.

Syrup preparation : Boil sugar, water and lemon juice for 5 minutes. Pour lukewarm syrup over the ghalactoboureko. Allow cooling before serving.

Mpaklavas

Place 1 pastry sheet in well-buttered 9 X 13 inch baking pan and brush with butter. Place second pastry sheet on top of the first and butter again. Repeat until 6 layers of buttered pastry sheets have been built up. Mix walnuts or almonds, breadcrumbs, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Sprinkle top pastry sheet with a thick layer of walnut mixture and place two buttered pastry sheets over this. Repeat in same manner until all ingredients have been used, ending with 6 pastry sheets. Brush top with remaining butter and trim edges with sharp knife. Cut diagonal lines over the length of the pan to make diamond-shaped pieces. Sprinkle with water. Bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hour until golden.

Syrup preparation : Boil sugar, water and lemon juice for 10 minutes. Pour the syrup over the baked baklava after it cools. Wait a few hours to serve. Makes 30 servings.