Panagiotis Plotas is one of my oldest friends who sends amazing recipes from time to time.
Today he is tackling octopus. I am well aware that most non Greeks find octopus extremely yucky but – trust me on this – you are wrong! No offence. Just try Panagiotis’ recipe and you’ll see the light!
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Of course we love food but one should not forget drinking. We do have a number of recipes in the Greek side of the blog for making some drinks but now it’s time to make Raki Apple Pie. Not exactly… pie of course.
So this might seem a bit weird. Why would a Greek go to see The Real Greek chef make moussaka? “Isn’t it like your national dish?”, “Don’t you know how to make it from birth?” Yes, thank you I get the point, even though I learned how to make it when I was 23.
When I got the e-mail for a moussaka making experience from the lovely Megan I thought exactly that. However, I’m always learning so I really wanted to see this staple of the Greek family table done from a professional chef. Secondly, I had completely stopped going to The Real Greek three years ago so I was super curious.
I uploaded a pic of our dinner today on Google+ and Stratos asked for the recipe. That is to say he actually threatened that he would have a heart attack if I didn’t share it. Fine. You know me, I’m here for my friends.
What you need to know about this recipe is that roasted chicken with potatoes is one of the most frequent things we have in Greece. It is considered ideal for a family Sunday lunch so after a few years you are sick and tired of it. So I just gave the recipe a little twist to make it more interesting.
I know I know. I haven’t been writing a lot. The fact is I haven’t been cooking a lot so I don’t have anything to share. Sorry.
There is something today there. A special salad. Dear Prophet I don’t want to see you nagging. Salads go wonderfully with all your special meat recipes… even if the salad is a strawberry salad!
One more Digital Scullery lovely friend cooked, ate, took a picture and sent the recipe. Somewhat stolen from his mum Katy – (well done Katy though, for raising a son who is not afraid of the kitchen)!
This goes to all of you out there – in an attempt to take you back to our years of innocence and lemonade.
I was always a sour kid. My mum says that I was a baby when I started eating raw lemons and my face use to go all funny from the sour and burning taste but I used to keep on eating.
Panagiotis Plotas is an old friend who sends recipes from time to time. Today, he went for some Cretan limoncello.
Contantinos Giannoulis from World of Flavors sent a new recipe with a bit of chocolate (which we love).
Roast Beef with Chocolate-Orange sauce
Ingredients (for 4-6)
The roast beef
The chocolate sauce
How – To
Remove the roast from the fridge 1½ hours before roasting.
Crush the peppercorns, the clove of garlic, the mustard seeds, the thyme and salt into a fine mix (not puree). Coat the roast very thoroughly and let it rest.
You could marinade a day in advance for a more enhanced flavor, in which case remove the roast from the fridge about 1 hour before roasting.
Place the roast in the middle of your oven tray, cut the onions, the fresh garlic in quarters, the tomato in half and place around the roast, add salt & pepper, dress with olive oil and put in a preheated oven at 180.
For rare, temperature in the center of the roast should bed be around 55 Celsius, around 60 minutes.
For medium, temperature in the center of the roast should be around 60 Celcius, around 70 minutes.
For well done, temperature in the center of the roast should be over 70 Celcius, around 85 minutes.
Don’t forget to turn the roast half way.
Remove the roast from the oven and coat it with a knob of butter and place on a medium hot pan to create a gold cover. Around 2 minutes each side. We are looking for a golden and kind of crispy outer texture. Remove the roast and let it rest on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, and then slice it as thick or as thin as you fancy. Don’t clean the pan!
While resting the roast we puree all the roasted vegetables, and the juice from the tray with a food processor, adjusting with a little olive oil and salt for thickness and flavor. If you prefer it chunkier you can just mash everything with a fork.
Time to prepare the chocolate sauce!
Use the same unclean pan where the roast was crisped and put it on medium low heat, add the orange juice scraping all that’s stuck in the bottom of the pan from the roast, that’s nothing but flavor! Add a knob of butter, the orange zest and finally chocolate. Be fast! Once you have a shiny chocolate creamy texture you are there!
Now you can either mix the vegetable puree with the chocolate sauce or serve it separately as in the picture above.
Serve the slices of meat over a bed of salad, which is recommenced to be a bit acidic (use a dressing rich in lemon or vinegar). We prepared a cabbage & carrot salad with a mix of olive oil, red wine vinegar and lemon juice.
Enjoy!
Hero sent me a little message in Greek via facebook. She has a lot of apples and no food mixer so she was wondering if I have a recipe for Apple pie with only kneading by hand.
Here goes
Ingredients:
For the dough:
For the filling:
Do it
Mix the flour with the sugar and baking powder.
Put in the softened butter, the egg yolk and the cognac.
Knead with passion, first just rubbing between your fingers and then normally (punch it). The dough should be relatively crumbly
Just place the dough on a pastry dish (preferably a pie dish). It might be impossible to use a rolling pin so just beat it into the dish and flatten with your fingers.
Prick with a fork since you don’t want it to rise.
Place in the over for about 20 minutes (180 fan – Celsius) so that it just starts changing color. If you want to be a perfectionist cover with baking parchment and fill with red or other beans to stop it from rising.
While it’s in the oven slice the apples and sprinkle with sugar (consider brown sugar for this), cinnamon and the egg white.
Take the pie base out of the oven and just place the apples in with all their juices. concentric circles work well here. Pour any remaining juices over. Melt the butter and pour that over too.
Place in a moderate oven for about half an hour more.
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Recipe: A really old Greek cook book by Sofia Skoura, Μαγειρική Ζαχαροπλαστική του Ελληνικού Σπιτιού, Athens, 1967
Photograph: Caramel-Apple Streusel Pie Recipe Uploaded by Pillsbury.com on 20 Aug 09, 9.10PM GMT.