For Dave and I, Greek food conjures up images off our teenage years, when we used to visit our friend Phil's house, always to be greeted by the smell of food as we walked through the door. It seemed to us, that his mother was always cooking, and she always insisted on feeding us her latest batch of food, proclaiming that we were "too skinny"! I remember dolmades, baklava and honey cookies among the delights we were fed.
So this week we ate food from a "cuisine shaped through 3000 years of history; through the geography and climate of a country lolling in the azure blue seas; through sloping mountains thrusting upwards to the heavens where humans and nature vie for control; through the people of the land those joy for life is evident every evening at the quaysides, in the tavernas, in town squares at the kafenia". A quote from "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook", given to me by my friend Mel for my birthday. It's full of great middle eastern recipes from all countries in the middle east, and has the most gorgeous food pictures.
This week Eliza's best friend's mum also got excited we were doing Greek food - so she lent me some older Greek/Middle Eastern cookbooks as well - one of the cookbooks was an old Women's Weekly cookbook, which had some delicious recipes in it as well.
On the menu this week:
Monday
Spanikopita me Salata Horiatiko
aka Spinach Pie with Village Salad
from the "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook"
Tuesday
Kolokithokeftethes me Tzatziki
aka Zucchini Fritters with Yoghurt Dip
from the Women's Weekly "Easy Greek Style Cookery" book
Wednesday
Stifatho
aka Braised Beef and Onions
from the "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook"
Thursday
Kotopoulo me Spanaki ke Feta me Briami
aka Chicken with Spinach and Feta, with Vegetable Casserole
from the Women's Weekly "Easy Greek Style Cookery" book
Friday
Takeaway night & Cheat's Baklava
Baklava from Donna Hay's "Easy" cookbook
Saturday
A break in program to have some more American food, today we had a planning session to plan a USA holiday towards the end of the year. I thought we would all get in the mood with some American food, so I made:
Rio Grande Chilli
(from the "Cowboy Cookbook")
Southern Fried Chicken
Cola Cakes for Dessert
from "Love to Eat"
Sunday
Pastitso me Salata Eliniki
aka Macaroni and Meat Pie with Greek Salad
from the "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook"
Some observations about this week's recipes:
- Once again, the ingredients are really easy to source, and are available from our regular supermarkets;
- Every dish featured herbs including dill, mint, parsley and in some cases basil;
- I had to top up my supply of cinnamon sticks which featured in many of the savoury dishes, along with cloves and nutmeg;
- I purchased a lot of Feta Cheese this week - and now understand why I've seen it sold in large tubs in many supermarkets!
- Other ingredients that featured heavily included tomatoes (both fresh, tinned and passata); olives and olive oil; green vegetables such as spinach, zucchini, cos lettuce, green capsicums and cucumbers; lemons and nuts - especially walnuts; and filo pastry - used in both savoury and sweet dishes.
- Also - they love cooking with wine, both red and white (which is just fine by me!).
Although I didn't select any lamb recipes - lamb is a very popular meat in Greek cookery, and in fact in most Middle Eastern countries.
Our food week in pictures follows:
Monday
We couldn't resist purchasing some Greek beer - Mythos (love the name), whilst in Dan Murphy's on the weekend, just to make it an authentic drinking experience as well. I was tempted to get a small bottle of Ouzo - but I don't like aniseed flavours, so suspect Dave would have been left to drink the whole bottle!
Monday we had Spanikopita (spinach pie), with Village Salad. The village salad was similar to Greek Salad, but didn't include any cos lettuce.
Tuesday
My dad gave me a mutantly large zucchini on the weekend we went back for fruit picking - so it was great to find a zucchini fritters recipe in the Greek cookbook Rebecca lent me. I made a delicious little Tzatziki to go with them.
Wednesday was swimming night, so I decided to do the Braised Beef and Onions (Stifatho) in the slow cooker, so it would be ready by the time we got home. Served it with mashed potato (as well as some Brussels sprouts - on account that Jassy really wanted some). I used up one of my jars of home-made tomato sauce in this recipe.
Thursday
Chicken with Spinach and Feta (Kotopoulo me Spanaki ke Feta) was on the menu for tonight, and I made a vegetable casserole (Briami) to go with it - this used up the last bit of massive zucchini dad had given me! I think this was one of my favourite dishes this week - the Chicken was stuffed with the spinach and the feta, and the sauce was essentially a white wine and chicken sauce.
Friday
Every cook needs a bit of a rest - so we had Pizza and Movie night, but I couldn't resist making some Baklava for dessert. On account that it's the only night I don't normally cook, I made it easy for myself and made "Cheats Baklava" from Donna Hay's latest cookbook "Easy".
Sunday
The final Greek dishes for the week. We went around to Eliza's best friends place and had a gaming afternoon with Rebecca and Wade, while the Eliza and Isabelle played together. We took dinner around with us, which included Pastitso (Macaroni and Meat Pie), a great dish for feeding lots of people, and a Salata Eliniki (Greek Salad). Rebecca had found an Orange Cake for dessert which we had with Greek Yoghurt.
OK - so the verdict weight-wise was good. I managed to shed about 1.5kgs, so most definitely a healthier choice than the American food I had cooked the week before. I'm not sure how we will fair next week, as Jasmin pulled "Fiji" out of the container. A nice challenge, given that none of my several hundred cookbooks have any Fijian recipes in them - so I had to do some "Googling". The results - quite a few curry dishes, as a lot of the food of Fiji has Indian influences.
Stay tuned for next week's cooking adventures from Fiji.
Di :-)
