I LOVE this woman! Such a great video.
Personal faves are the bacon butty, savoury pies and (of course) scones.
9 British Dishes Everyone Should Try
Reply
Category Archives: TIPS & EXPERIENCES
Vine harvest and wine juice in Greece
I don’t know if you’ve watched old films with vine harvests and wine juice making or wine making but they always seem to contain plucky villagers without shoes stepping on the grapes. That’s all very well and dandy but apparently it hardly ever happens any more.
The team in Atalanti, Greece, went about finding out what actually does happen nowadays to get wine juice. This is effectively the process before one starts wine making. A lot of people in Greece with their own grapes will just take them to a patitiri (the place where the grapes are literally ‘stepped on’) to get wine juice. They then take the wine juice and make their own wine at home.
The Real Greek moussaka, their souvlaki and the gossip
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.
Greek Easter, the Resurrection hymn and a soup with lamb intestines
Let’s get the scary stuff out of the way first. This is a post about soup with INTESTINES. (Wait! Come back!)
So, now that we are left with the brave folks here goes the story.
Mama Despoina (also my mum – she simply rocks) blogged the recipe for Magiritsa the other day, the Greek traditional soup eaten after the Resurrection. It’s incredibly yummy even though I know it sounds weird.
Greek Orthodox Lent menu: Going vegan(ish)
One of the things you have to understand about Greek food (apart from the obvious stuff like souvlaki, frappe, koulourakia and all that) is that at least once a year the word “nistisimo” appears almost everywhere. It’s probably Lent, aka Sarakosti.
Tsiknopempti – the Greek BBQ Thursday and some survival tips
If you ever happen to be walking around a Greek town or village and it seems that there are BBQ smells everywhere chances are it’s probably Tsiknopempti. (It could also be Easter Sunday but in that case the smell is the roasting lamb on a spit so you’ll know quite quickly which is which).
Tsiknopempti comes from the words tsikna (the characteristic bbq meat smell) and Pempti (Thursday). It comes about once a year, about two weeks before Lent starts.
Lessons learned | Nigel Slater’s Sea salt chocolate snaps
I’ve been watching Nigel Slater‘s (he really needs a new website) Simple Cooking on BBC lately. What actually made me watch it in the first place was the amazing title sequence. I want to bake something for the people who thought of having episode and recipe titles on food packages. So cute!
What kept me watching are the really interesting recipes. Even though in every single episode I marvel at the miles he has to walk in his kitchen to get from the cupboard to the fridge or from the oven to the garden. Seriously, this must be the biggest kitchen ever.
Stella made roxakia. And a bit of troubleshooting.
Hello “auntie” Sofia!
I am sending you this photo as historical proof that yes, I, the kitchen lazy gal, made at some point in my life roxakia!
The photo is not very good, but I will not say the same for the roxakia. They are yummy!
Food Safety in the Kitchen II: C for Cleaning
Cleaning
Now that we know all about cross contamination, it is about time to explore the second magic C that stands for Cleaning. Maintaining a clean kitchen is very important. While this is not a big secret really, not everybody would agree with the same definition of a “clean kitchen”?
Food safety I: C for cross contamination
Germs are everywhere in the environment inside and outside the house and on our bodies. In most cases they are harmless and they often help in the proper functioning of our body. For example, stomach bacteria help with good digestion and skin bacteria protect us from infection. However, there are some microbes that are dangerous to our health, especially when they enter our body through food.
Today I am starting with some basic food safety rules. They are more or less our mom’s rules – the ones we all tend to forget as university students, since we lived on take aways at that glorious time. The idea is to explore the 4 “magic” Cs. What does this mean? You’ll know pretty soon.
What you should have in your fridge (busy people version)
One of the most useful things – and nobody thinks to share this with you if you’re a newbie – is a list of what you should have in your fridge and your cupboard, especially when you’re busy and do not have time. Everybody kind of assumes that you know how to miracle food on the table or that you have time to stand over a stew. Let’s face it. You don’t.
Never ask your dear mother. Especially a Greek mother. Over the years they know all the tricks and they’ll tell you to have a lot more stuff than you actually need for quick lunches and dinners. The result will be that you’ll be throwing out about half of your fridge contents.
Walking around Borough Market
The entrance – some work is going on now
This Saturday we went for a walk to Borough Market in London, a fantastic food market.
If you are in London and like food (seriously, who doesn’t?) it is definitely worth a stroll. Have some cash on you too – you will definitely be buying stuff.
The smells and the photos are really great but people are the best feature. You end up chatting with everyone, they explain, invite you to take photos, tell you what kind of wine to choose to accompany what you bought.
Here are some photos (there is a full set on flickr)
Strawberry Beer
I was in Covent Garden yesterday (sun in London!) and a friend got a strawberry beer.
Apparently, yes, this does exist (they didn’t just tip some food coloring in to make fun of her)
Another friend tried it and apparently she thought it tasted like jam – not he most positive of comments, I have to say.
I liked it but I’m not a beer drinker generally so I’m not sure at all.
Anyway though it’s pretty sweet, right?
Mummy Despina makes roxakia
Amazing roxakia by Mummy Despina.
I’ve tried them. I practically grew up with them. They are delicious, fluffy and very very syrupy. Bite size too.
And in case you have no idea what I am talking about here are a few pics of these lovelies.
