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RECIPES
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As North America's largest supplier of Greek specialty foods, Krinos Foods is delighted to bring you recipes from "Krinos Greek Gourmet CookBook" ...
Cold Appetizers
This is a classic of the meze table. Tzatziki is usually served alone, to be enjoyed with bread, or as an accompaniment to grilled meats and souvlaki.
Another classic of both the meze and the Lenten tables. Taramosalata is creamy and rich, a perfect accompaniment for raw vegetables and toasted Krinos pita bread.
Skordalia is the pungent garlicky dipping sauce that Greeks traditionally eat with fried fish such as cod and with boiled vegetables.
There are dozens of recipes for this creamy eggplant spread throughout Greece. Some call for roasting the eggplants on an open flame, which imparts a strong, smoky flavor; others require that the eggplants be baked to soften. Some combine eggplants with little else but olive oil and vinegar, or yogurt, or walnuts. This recipe calls for the unusual duo of pureed eggplants and tahini.
Whipped feta spreads are standard fare on the meze tables of Northern Greece, as well as in Athens. Feta becomes pungent and peppery as you mash it. This is an excellent spread for bread and crackers, but it can also be turned into an impressive buffet dish piped or spooned decoratively into prebaked Athens fillo cups.
This is the Greek version of tapenade. It makes for a wonderful snack, buffet dish or meze.
Hot Appetizers
Pan-fried cheese with a spritz of lemon has to be eaten hot, right from the frying pan onto the table.
A party without tiropites, the piquant little cheese pies that you can just pop in your mouth, would be unthinkable to most Greeks.
Octopus is the ultimate Greek meze and goes perfectly with strong ouzo.
Mussels are another favorite from the north of Greece, whose coastline is dotted with small coves and bays perfect for gathering mussels and other shellfish.
By now, spanakopita is as American as pizza. There is something very satisfying about the combination of feta, spinach and onions.
In summer, peppers come to market in Greece in every shape and size. Greeks love them fried, and usually mix in a few hot peppers for some punch.
This is taverna fare- especially from the north- at its best. The Greek answer to Mexican Chillis Rellenos!
Another favorite among Greeks and non-Greeks alike- perfectly satisfying finger food that's easy to make and even easier to savor.
Soups
Vegetable soup is usually made in the heart of winter.
Greek penicillin-- a delectable chicken soup made with the classic combination of egg and lemon (avgolemono).
This is another soup staple in the Greek home.
On cold winter days the windows steam up with the aromas of this deliciously simple peasant soup. Iron-rich lentils are just about the healthiest thing you can eat.
Diehards insist that kakavia must be made with sea water! Here, we offer a practical version to what is traditionally the fisherman's dish of sustenance.
Fasolatha is one of the heartiest dishes on the Greek vegetarian table, and one of the mainstays of Lent.
Fish in any form is welcome on the Greek table.
Salads
This is probably the one dish likely to be a universal offering on Greek menus from Adelaide to Athens. Here, the pickled peppers add a hot and pungent touch, but the salad is still refreshing.
Green beans stewed with tomatoes are one of the many one-pot dishes that are ever-present on the Lenten, and later, summer, tables. This is a reinterpretation of the classic.
In Greece, olives are sometimes marinated in the juice of bitter oranges. Although this is an unusual combination, it makes for a beautiful and delicious salad, bursting with color and flavor.
Bulgur is used widely in Crete and in the north of Greece. This dish is healthy, simple, and delicious.
Greens are an integral part of the Mediterranean diet, but especially of the Greek country table, where endless varieties of wild greens abound. Greeks always cook their greens and consider this dish a salad. Serve it with skordalia, good bread and a few Krinos olives and the meal will be more or less complete.
Earthy beets make for one of the most satisfying- and healthful- Greek salads.
Giant bean salad- one of the many dishes that reflect the simplicity of the Greek table.
This is a classic on the meze tables of Salonika in Northern Greece.
A salad that brings fresh, vibrant flavor to the table any time of the year.
Cabbage is the winter choice for salad. This is a not-so-traditional rendition of an otherwise classic dish.
Savory Pies
There are many recipes for zucchini pie. This one is a simple island dish.
Many culinary historians actually credit the Greeks with creating pizza. Here is a unique twist to one of the world's favorite foods.
This is a common pie in small villages. It is sometimes flavored with mint as well.
This pie is sweet and satisfying. Leeks appear in many dishes all over the north of Greece, from soups to stews to pilafs. This is just one recipe of many for savory leek pie.
The combination of ground meat with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg is not at all unusual in Greece. Ground meat is cooked up this way in sauces, as fillings for stuffed vegetables, and for pies, as in the recipe that follows.
An unusual combination of sweet and savory flavors combine here to make this one of the most regal savory pies.
Meat and Poultry
Rich and sweet with whole onions, this is indeed a special dish.
This is one of the classics of the Sunday family table, especially in spring, when artichokes are in season.
This is one of a handful of dishes that most people recognize as quintessentially Greek.
A winter classic from the north and another favorite on the Sunday family menu.
Fricassee has nothing to do with the French dish by the same name. In Greece it refers to meat and greens simmered and served with a tangy egg-and-lemon sauce. One of the most brilliant combinations in the whole repertoire of Greek flavors.
What would Greek cuisine be without its best-known dish!
"Klephtiko" is a term that refers to any kind of meat dish that is sealed and baked. The word comes from the time of the Greek revolution, when bands of Greek guerrillas, called Klephts, hid in the mountains and cooked their dinner in pits "sealed" with dirt, so that smoke and steam would not escape and betray their positions.
An offering from the culinary traditions of Corfu.
Rich and simple, this is a great dinner party choice.
Another delicious combination of meat and vegetables, okra holds a special place on the Greek table, and is one of the best-loved of all the summer vegetables.
A fresh and flavorful way to prepare chicken. Feta cheese, tomatoes and olives give everyday chicken Greek flair.
Like sofrito, this dish also hails from Corfu.
Yiouvetsi is one of several recipes that takes their name from the dish actually used in cooking. The "yiouvetsi" is a large, usually round, deep clay dish. This recipe may be made in any oven-proof baking dish, but clay or earthenware is preferred, as it imparts a delicious, earthy aroma to the stew.
Smyrna and Poli Greeks popularized this exotic dish, which has become one of the Sunday favorites.
Fish and Seafood
This dish also comes from Corfu. The name comes from the Italian brodeto, for broth. Bourtheto is one of the island's four signature dishes. Traditionally, it was reddened with paprika, but since the arrival of the tomato on the island about 100 years ago, it takes its color from the New World fruit. Any firm, white fish can be used for this recipe.
Try this as a meze or main course - it is always irresistible.
Ouzo and octopus go naturally together in the mind of the Greek gourmet! Usually though, they appear in another form- grilled octopus accompanied by a few shots of sweet, anise-flavored ouzo as one of the best mezes. Here, the flavors meld instead inside the pot!
One of the most elegant fish dishes in the Greek repertory and an excellent, easy choice for a festive meal.
A classic in fish tavernas throughout Greece.
Greeks usually prefer their fish cooked plain and whole on the grill. This classic dish is one of the few in which fish and vegetables are baked together.
A favorite dish all over Greece. Dried cod comes in two forms in Greece- salt cod, which is the more common, and kofisi, which is a transliteration of "stock fish," which is air-cured cod. The latter used to be a popular fish in the Ionian.
Corfiot recipe with an Italian sounding name, bianco is pungent with garlic and pepper.
Pasta
An unusual dish and one of the many that call for sesame paste.
Greeks don't traditionally cook with olives. They prefer to savor them as a meze. But in the last few years the combination of olives, tomatoes and herbs has caught on. No wonder- it's delicious.
Not a dish for the faint of heart! Pastitsio is rich and filling, the perfect food for a cold winter's day, and the kind of dish made often for the Sunday family meal.
Vegetable and Bean Dishes
Don't be confused by the name- fava to the Greeks means a creamy puree of yellow split peas and does not refer to what Americans think of as fava beans. This dish is exquisitely simple. Topped with good red wine vinegar and raw onions, it is one of the best, and healthiest, Greek dishes.
When the warm weather comes, green beans pile high at markets all over Greece. Greeks like their beans slowly stewed as in the recipe below.
Another springtime classic on the Greek table, and one of the very special dishes.
Artichokes and fava beans come to market in the spring in Greece. The farmer's markets are filled with mountains of these rough-and- tumble "flowers"- artichokes are a distant relative of the daisy- and of the downy-skinned broad beans. This is a favorite dish and one that is strictly seasonal.
Briam is a summer favorite. The whole garden seems to be in this beautiful, colorful dish.
A rich but healthful dish and one of the classics at the Sunday family meal.
Another vegetarian favorite. Try this as a bed for sunnyside up eggs.
A rich and filling vegetarian dish.
The ultimate Mediterranean Diet recipe. This aromatic combination of vegetables, grains, herbs and olive oil contains the essence of all that's good about Greek food. It's fresh, seasonal, healthful.
Sweets
Melomakarona, rich, dark and intense, are another standard on the Christmas table, but they are also made in a Lenten version (below) in which butter is replaced by olive oil. The cookies are delicious either way.
Shredded wheat pastry - kataifi-is one of the least known ingredients in the Greek kitchen, but it is easy to use and makes everything look unique and delicious.
Basic syrup recipe for baklava, galaktoboureko and melomakarona.
The quintessential Greek fillo dessert.
This luscious, cream-filled fillo dessert is great served warm.
"Rizogalo" literally translates as rice milk. Deceptively light, creamy, and satisfying, rice pudding is one of the simplest but most delicious Greek desserts. Serve it sprinkled with cinnamon, the way it is delivered at Greek pastry shops, and have a good cup of coffee ready.
The word actually means "sweet" in Turkish, and it can refer to any of a number of confections found from Russia to India. Greeks make several versions of halvah. This one is the home cook's classic, made with semolina flour, nuts and cinnamon. Like the tahini cake on page 79, halvah is one of the standard desserts of the Greek Lenten table.
This is an old-world dessert, a classic in the Greek pastry repertoire, and rich to boot. But it is also delicate and moist, a great cake for good strong coffee.
The Greek Christmas table is never without this rich dessert.
A great, healthful breakfast dunk!
Tahini-sesame paste-is traditionally eaten during Lent.
Greek home cooks do all their Easter baking on Holy Thursday. These crunchy, butter braids are a constant at the Easter table.
This dessert has it all- it is simple to make, gorgeous, relatively healthful and unique.
There is probably no fruit whose flavor evokes Greece more than the beautiful, plump fig. In the summer, the lush ripe fruit flourishes all over the country. This combination of figs, sweet wine and delicate manouri cheese is among the greatest trios in the Greek kitchen.
Various Greek restaurants around America have adopted this traditional recipe. The cake is light, moist and very lemony. It may be served with a dollop of thick strained yogurt or ice cream on the side.
Christmas without kourambiethes is like Easter without lamb! These sugar-dusted butter cookies will melt in your mouth.
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