A few months ago Mama Despoina (my rocking mum) called to inform me that at a dinner with friends she had a mythical cheese pie. I initially failed to grasp the significance of this since my mum rarely expresses such admiration for food. Even rarer is for her to gobble down THREE PIECES of feta pie in one go. So this was clearly a feta pie I needed to know all about.
Category Archives: Pastry
Lagana bread recipe for Clean Monday
Lent for the Greek Orhodox people starts on a Monday. Much neater that way, don’t you think?
I already posted the other day on Tsiknopempti, our BBQ Thursday. Then there is the Sunday of Apokreo – very similar to Halloween, but probably a bit more Dionysian in nature – when we dress up, eat, drink, dance and generally go a bit crazy.
The next day is Clean Monday, the start of the Great Lent, 40 days of no animal products whatsoever. Supposedly. Most Greeks don’t fast during Lent anymore. However, I’ve heard it’s quite good for detox to abstain from animal products now and again.
How to make roxakia (Greek cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla syrupy goodies)
Roxakia are a Greek type of sweet dough. I hope it’s mainly Greek but you never know. Anyway. They are bite sized cocoa and vanilla and cinnamon goodies that look lovely and taste like heaven. Avoid if syrupy stuff is not your cup of tea, but you will love them if you like any of the syrupy Greek, Turkish and Arabian goodies.
So. Friends of the Greek blog LOVE this dessert and have been asking me to do a video for absolute ages. I got around to it over the weekend (you can watch the video here – it’s in Greek obviously but you’ll see the technique I am describing below) and I managed to take some pics for the English side too.
A taste of the US of A: Burger and home-made buns
Dear children, I know I’ve been truant and do not write often, but I’m back now that the temperature will drop and it is again time for meats, sausages, etc.
Today’s culinary hell, takes us to the much berated US of A, and its capitalist burgers. Most people love a burger, but unfortunately it’s irrevocably connected in their mind with the disgusting plastic versions in the fast food joints or even the less disgusting plastic versions of more upmarket burger places. For the latter I will admit that they serve burgers more reminiscent of normal meat than the type served in the haunts of alienated youths the world over.