0 Recipes and Counting
This past summer Starbucks rolled out a new drink, cold foam cold brew coffee. And although cold brew is not new, the cold foam is. Cold foam milk is a great addition to the cold brew, not only due to the contrasting flavors (sweet and buttery milk with bitter-ish coffee) and textures (velvet smooth foam and the contrasting fluidity of the coffee) but also due to the great visual contrast: black and white. Also being greek I loved cold foam as it is an integral part of the greek coffee culture as part of the iced cappuccino called Fréddo cappuccino. I always wanted to make some at home, alas my efforts were futile. The foam no matter how good it was – Read More…
The summer is around the corner, or maybe where you live it is already there… or it has always been there. The bottom line is that the hot, steaming cup of coffee is not appetizing during this time of the year. You need something to wake you up and refresh you. Last 2-3 years a new caffeinated beverage joined the market. It is the “Cold Brew”. It is a welcome alternative to the hot coffee and it is not iced coffee, hot brewed coffee that was chilled and served over ice.
Cold brews is a large class of beverages that utilize cold water and a flavoring agent to flavor the water. The water has to be cold, the process takes – Read More…
First date. Always makes you both nervous and excited at the same time. And always the same questions comes up: Where to go,what to do, what to say, how long to stay… But eventually no matter how you see it, it seems that dinner, either as “just dinner” or as an event that follows or precedes something else (eg drinks or movie), is the most popular first date choice. And for a good reason too. It has several advantages: brings you close, you get to spend time doing something familiar to both and has a very specific duration 1-1.5 hrs. Deciding, however, on dinner as first date does not mean that you are done. Now actually comes the tough part. Where to go, – Read More…
The white substance that it’s flavor has been coded on our DNA as the most desirable flavor, the last few years it has been blamed for every dietary disease. I am talking of course about sugar. The crystallized molecules of sucrose, that carry with them not only the sweetest flavor, but also the most densely packed energy. Energy that once was essential for survival, now is converted to undesirable fat in our waist and hips. In the vast world of diets, and nutritional information, many alternatives have been suggested as a healthier sweetness source. I am not talking about the aspartame, or the Splenda. Those chemical options taste horrible. I am talking – Read More…
On cooking the primary reason for success is inspiration, in baking is measuring. By that of course I don’t mean that measuring is not required in cooking, but deviation from the original ratio of ingredients can be forgiving. And equally when baking inspiration is a key but deviating from the recipe ratio even for very little, will immediately cause inconsistencies in the outcome or even complete failure. So at the early age of baking and cooking the ratio and dosing of the ingredients became very significant and the cooks or the housewife will employ their homemade measuring device that will ensure that the quality will be consistent. Nowadays one more – Read More…
Every country or nation that celebrates Christianity has a special dessert that made exclusively around Christmas time. Greece is no exception, and since it had embraced Christianity for almost 2000 years the number of desserts for the occasion is huge. However, the one that is closer to my heart, because is delicious and also is what my grandma used to make every Christmas, is the Kourampies (κουραμπιές, koo-ra-byies). It is a crumbly almond cookie dusted in powder sugar. Simple ingredients, humble cookie, and big flavor. Although the Christmas reference of the cookie for most of the people comes from the white dusting of sugar, that resembles the – Read More…
One of the most used syrups in the mixology world is the Grenadine. It is the syrup that is used one in a large number of cocktails like the Jack and Rose, Tequila Sunrise, Sea Breeze, Roy Rogers, Pink Lemonade and Shirley Temple. As the name denotes, it is a pomegranate flavor syrup, that is sweet and tart making it the best additive to balance cocktails, especially those made with hard alcohols like the tequila or brandy. The Mott’s brand “Rose’s” is by far the most commonly used Grenadine in the United States. Actually, it is the reason that Jack Rose is named Jack.. Rose. Until sometimes in the 80s it was made with pomegranate. However, now it is a – Read More…
The summer is almost over (with 2 weeks left to it), but the summer food does not have to go. Summer comes with all these fresh veggies at their peak of ripeness giving us endless possibilities for creative cooking, that does not have to be confined in the salad making. In this recipe, I am making a dish that is largely inspired by a Raw Food class I recently attended in New York City. The class is regularly offered in California by Gisselle Gordon, but if you are lucky you might catch Gisselle in one of her trips. My views on Raw Food as a diet perspective are – Read More…
In the previous post we saw a brief history of the diets and the evolution of the dietary habits. The important questions answered were the ideal weight and the concept of calories. At the end what we saw was a comparative study of the various diets according to a US News article. From the discussion that preceded the ranking it became evident that there are two trends in dieting: restricting calories, or restricting certain foods, primarily carbohydrates. And we were left right there, hanging from a few more important questions. If the calorie intake is so crucial to the weight loss how can we see how much we need and you much we must take to maintain or – Read More…
That’s an awful title for a post. Especially at a cooking blog where the daily activities include a large number of indulgences with decadent desserts and rich dishes. However, it seems that it is the motto that society seems to like. I am not going to be cynical and discuss how the super thin models is the image for men and women projected by the media, I think that this blog has already made it clear that this is not what we care about. But it is true that there is an overwhelming pressure of people to look thin not by their peers but mainly by themselves. And that need, as every need that has to do with the self-esteem, has given rise to – Read More…
In this blog, I don’t usually make desserts. But when we do, they are amazing. Today I chose to make a simple cookie with a big character. Cookies are not just a baked good that we eat. Making cookies is just a part of the process that makes a house a home. The moment the air is filled with the amazing aroma of the baked goods that are based on butter herbs and spices it becomes so much more homey, familiar and inviting. In this attempt, I am making a somewhat odd, but a familiar combination. I am inspired from the spring that finally decided to dawn upon us after a long and cold winter. I blend the aroma of spring herbs like rosemary, lavender, and lemon to a – Read More…
The last few years there is a growing number of grains that have hit the market. Many of them have been around for a while (a few thousand years) but their nutritional value was hardly been recognized. In their majority, they emerged as an alternative to the existing grains that recently have been under the gun for not being as healthy as we thought they were. A major concern is gluten. Gluten is a form of a tough network of proteins that are created by the cross-linking of gliadin and gluten with the help of water. Both gliadin and glutenin are in abundance in many grains, primarily in wheat, rye, and barley. Several people have an immunogenic response to – Read More…
I am about to kick of the New Year with the probably most underrated legume of all times. Actually it is one of the most underrated food items of all time (except probably in India). Lentils! It is the one food that I used to hate as a kid and I love as an adult. As a kid all legumes were by far the worst food I could ever have. They were always served as a substitute to meat, especially during lent before Christmas, Easter or Dormition of the Theotokos (Assumption of Mary in the Roman Catholic Religion). They were usually (and by usually I mean 100% of the times) served in a soup form with tomato, garlic and the optional vinegar that very well suits – Read More…
In the previous post we made an awesome, kick-butt cranberry sauce. Although delicious and amazing, chances are you still have some left over sauce. The leftover once we adjust the viscosity a bit with some water are an amazing versatile syrup and condiment. It is sweet and tangy able to mingle with many different flavors. The Sugar can help reduce the spiciness of the various dishes, the acidity can pair well with meats as it changes the pH making our taste buds more sensitive and more receptive to the other elements of – Read More…
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. The highlight of the thanksgiving holiday is of course the thanksgiving dinner. It is a staple all across the United States, and although the turkey is the star of the table, there is plethora of side dishes that complete the feast and are equally important. Potatoes, stuffing and the cranberry sauce. The last two actually, are almost exclusively consumed during only that dinner. Stuffing and cranberry sauce. The stuffing is a very complex and diverse dish, ranging from the cornbread, that seems to be the most common, to rice stuffing, that I make and is the best. But cranberry sauce is as simple as it gets. It is – Read More…
Thanksgiving is coming and the web is flooding from the side to side with tricks and tips on how to make thanksgiving dinner easier, better, less stressful, cheaper and everything else that will make your life easier. Among them I stumble upon the Buzzfeed post that describes 17 tricks to make Thanksgiving better. Everything from just making the mashed potatoes fluffier to cost saving tips. However, many of these tricks are not really justified and they might not even work well. I will go over these tricks and evaluate them. I will give you my verdict and you can judge – Read More…
Food is influenced by the times we live in. Certain times we need to change our habits due to food supply restrictions. Nowadays this happens in the winter when the watermelon supply gets short and the prices go up. And we are bumped. Awwww 🙁 . Did I mention that it is not even seedless? I know! Total agony. We turn to forget some other times back in the turn of the last century when war was a reality to every part of the world; from Europe to Americas and from Asia to Africa. Back then food supply was already short and the war made it even worst. Lucky people had to improvise and adjust their – Read More…
This is an inevitable post. Inevitable since just in the previous I presented the sibling dish of this one, the hummus. This one is all about eggplant. The one plant that has become a stable food around Mediterranean and primarily in the middle-eastern countries. Most of these countries rely heavily on vegetables as power source. Eggplant is not one of them. It is a plant, but not a power source. With a mere 25 kcal per 100 g of the fruit, eggplant is food with low energy value. It does have some other minerals and vitamins, but again they are not even enough to make eggplant a “super-food”. Then why do we eat it? Why is it so valuable in Middle East, – Read More…
Greek restaurants across the USA had to adapt and adjust their menu and recipes. This usually happens with in three ways: i) the adaptation of classic recipes to whatever ingredients are available ii) the adaptation to the taste palette of the locals and iii) the adoption of dishes from other countries just because the locals seem to like them. Actually one of the most classic dishes, the poster child of the Greek food, the gyro sandwich originated in its final form in New York by Greek food track vendors out of necessity to battle tacos and shawarma as a fast food alternative. In the restaurant scenery, one of the Greek adopted dishes was, and still is, – Read More…
If you need to add a sweet element, but the temperature required does not facilitate the melting of raw sugar, simple syrup is the way to go! Like most Greeks desserts, simple syrup is applied to a large variety of sweets like baklava and galactoboureko. In America, simple syrup is the common sweetener for iced tea and coffee. Simple syrup is also on of the best ingredients for cocktails. Syrup brighten ups the flavors and take the sharpness of harsh liquor. Plus making simple syrup gives us the opportunity to dive into the relationship between sucrose concentration, boiling and freezing point.
As – Read More…
This is a strange post. It is the one and only post that has been created out of pure necessity. It is some of the inspirations of the moment that just make the difference between eating and indulging. And indulging in 5 mins is a lot more than just indulging! Sometimes I work late. I come home and easiest thing to cook is a sandwich, but a sandwich is not really cooking. Is more like putting things together! So one day inspiration came to me. And here they are the peanut butter and chocolate sandwich and the mexican chicken dog! Two recipes 3 or 4 ingredients and 3 minutes. Get your timers ready, time flies… All the ingredients are from Trader Joe’s. You – Read More…
This is a strange post. It is the one and only post that has been created out of pure necessity. It is some of the inspirations of the moment that just make the difference between eating and indulging. And indulging in 5 mins is a lot more than just indulging! Sometimes I work late. I come home and easiest thing to cook is a sandwich, but a sandwich is not really cooking. Is more like putting things together! So one day inspiration came to me. And here they are the peanut butter and chocolate sandwich and the mexican chicken dog! Two recipes 3 or 4 ingredients and 3 minutes. Get your timers ready, time flies… All the ingredients are from Trader Joe’s. You – Read More…
Today the 13th day of October it is my mom’s name day. It is a typical Greek traditional celebration to celebrate the day of the saint or martyr that you are named after. So today it is my mom’s day and we are celebrating by making the best pizza ever. It is all that my mom’s cooking is all about simple ingredients, simple flavors that they highlight and accentuates the taste of simple ingredients, like feta and tomato. And this is the bottom line of the greek cuisine: simple ingredients brought together in a simple manner. So this sort of pizza is just that. And I call it sort of pizza, because it does not share anything of the typical pizza – Read More…
If you are greek, probably you should not read this post. This is about the most common way of Greeks to enjoy the neurotoxin also called caffeine. And as all simple things each one has a way of enjoying it, and even worse a way of making it. Being an unconventional coffee this one imposes a whole new set of layers to personalize it. So again, if you are greek, skip this, you will probably disagree with what I say and How I make it. If you insist in reading please go ahead on your own risk. This is different from all other coffee, because it is made with instant coffee.
The instant coffee is an idea that started somewhere – Read More…
Bruschetta has been in the italian culinary dictionary for nearly 6 centuries as it was first appeared in written in the beginning of the 15th century. It was initially a bread contraption made with the leftover bread of the previous days in a way to utilize leftover heat of the fire and had maximum five ingredients: bread, olive oil, garlic, salt and paper smile as this. Roast the bread until it becomes golden brown and then mince some garlic, pour some olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. With the time going by, there were some more ingredients added, some tomato maybe some basil, but always made simple.The italian immigrants brought that neat, simple – Read More…
Greek salad is one the poster foods of greek cuisine. And for a good reason. It combines in a plate all the vegetables that mean summer in Greece; sweet juicy tomatoes, succulent snappy cucumbers, peppery sweet onions, crisp peppers and of course who can leave out the greek briny cheese, also known as feta. All of them held together with the power of olive oil, topped with oregano. A herb that is 100% greek. You find it in abundance in the hills and mountains of the greek country side. The greek salad is not only a delicious combination, but it is also visually appealing. As they say: you eat with your eyes first. And the crispness of the vegetables also – Read More…
Usually around this time I start posting a series of post entitled Summer Food. But, what is summer food? What makes a great summer food plate? It has to be, simple, fresh, not heavy in oils and fats, and most importantly remind you of summer. Being in Boston the summer food time is a little late, but it is here at last, and being in Boston it is a great opportunity to get our hands on some fresh amazing fish. This time some freshly caught (or at least I want to believe freshly caught) swordfish. Served with an unusual type of pasta…
Swordfish is regarded as an oily fish although it is significantly less oily than salmon – Read More…
Finishing the first hundred post was amazingly gratifying. The blog evolved over the years, but always stayed true it its values. To kick of the next hundred posts I am starting with a more philosophical approach to food; this time some unfortunate names of the food industry. Food industry has evolved. Evolved significantly. From the hunting to just going to the neighbor to trade goods, to the stores that sell foods to the modernization of the ready made foods. The industrial revolution. The food prices drops, the quantities increases and the competition among vendors grows. And that s the beginning of marketing, the beginning of a new era in the food – Read More…
Feta cheese is the most famous cheese of Greece and it is selected as PDO (Protected Designation of Origin). It is made almost exclusively with goat’s or sheep’s milk or a mixture of the two. The milk is boiled gently and rennet is added as is typical of all cheeses. Here however the temperature is slightly higher to separate casein (traditional protein in hard cheeses) from whey (typical byproduct of cheese making, used for creamy cheeses as ricotta). The curds are separated and are places in large containers left to dry. They are salted regularly each day for 5-6 days. For other cheeses normally the process will carry on for months multi it is dry and hard. – Read More…
This is the fourth significant recipe towards the countdown. In a way it is one more tribute to my island. It is the traditional way we are curing the green olives. And this recipe is from my grandma. The one person that knows how to make them perfect. She is making them every year for more than 50 years. This particular variations in Crete are called tsakistes ( τσακιστές ). This means crushed. You used to take the olives, and crush then with a rock or a small hammer, enough to crack open the meat of the olive. More on why later. They are served with lots of lemon and sea salt. My favorite treat since I was a kid.
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This is the second very special post. It is one other special recipe that was made for some good friends long time ago and it was promised that will be featured on the blog. Promises in a way work like thermodynamics. They tell you if something is going to happen and in what degree, but not when. Time is the elusive dimension that although very interesting does not belong to this blog. Here we talk food… Speaking of which… This is recipe the was kinda featured before to the blog, but never full. It is based largely on the meatloaf cake that I made before for Kathryn for her birthday. This one is very particular, however. Oaklianna, a dear friend, is – Read More…
This is a very special post. For many reasons. For one thing this is the first of the 5 that will complete the 100 recipes on the blog. Very special. It is dedicated to my eternal second home the good old state of Florida. There were the South opened its arm and welcome me. A desert with character and the true meaning of soul food. Also it was created only days after a dream just died and took me back to square 1. Not the first time. But enough with emotions. Let ’s go together and see what makes this desert so special, so incredible and so surprisingly fresh.
Strawberry shortcake is one the most traditional southerner – Read More…
French toast is my choice of breakfast when I want to treat myself to something awesome. Something Amazing something great. It is one of the quickest things to put together requiring only a few ingredients that you can find almost in every standard household. Usually made with stale bread, but now I don’t really wait fro bread to go stale. I just go for it. And so will you. Before we get to that though, we need to learn about its history. Origins etc. It is been a while that we felt with historic facts in this blog but, we are back to it. You missed it?
We call it French toast, but is it really? Yes. The french toast that – Read More…
Bread is the quintessential food item; The base of every civilization; The ultimate utilization and refinement of grains. It is the beginning and the end each meal. I know to much to tell, but imagine this world without bread. Bread through the history of the humanity has been the solely energy source. In ancient Egypt the slave working in the pyramids were fed on bread onions and garlic. In Greece there is a saying that describes friendship that goes like “We ate bread and salt together”. Bread and salt. Bread the basic food. The elemental food source. Salt the most precious commodity.
Bread is a simple item that is – Read More…
This blog had already made the two most famous brews: coffee and tea. The one item that is mostly used in cooking is the stock chicken stock, beef stock, fish stock, vegetable stock…. or is it broth? Stock or broth? Is it different? The terminology stock and broth can be confusing not only to the daily household user, but also chefs all over – Read More…
A hot summer day there are very few things that can beat the refreshing taste of lemonade. It is not only the aroma of the lemon but also the sour and sweet that battle on your tongue for the last word. It is also the cold liquid, very often sparkling, liquid that accommodates such an event. There are many recipes for lemonade, but the one that is the most close to my heart is the one that the best cook I know used to make. That is my mom. The best lemonade period. Why? Well it is so simple! No need to make syrup boil the juice. A few simple ingredients and that’s all. Although I added a few tweaks myself, just so it can be closer to what I like the recipe – Read More…
Risotto is one of the most well known dishes of the italian cuisine. There are many elements involved in making risotto and frankly making a risotto quickly is like making fat free butter. But there is no reason why we cannot replicate the taste, and the texture of the risotto in an alternative dish. The two basic structural elements of the risotto texture are the chewy, but cooked, rice, and a very creamy texture. The creamy texture, although there is the addition of the a little cream, come mainly from the rice. Rice… A quintessential class of a grain that literally changed the world. A grain that for centuries has been the power of an entire continent, – Read More…
It is the least, utopia, to try to condense the history of the tea, to a blog post. It is the one beverage that is second in consumption world wide; second only to water. It has a rich history that implicates, Chinese dynasties, India, the British and the West India Company. It’s story is lost in the centuries. It’s benefits are flooding the internet. The ways to make it, are as many as the people on this earth. Why tea is so historic, controversial and mystical? Well these are the things we will try to address. This, while making some nice tea.
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This is a very simple dish… Well simple in the flavor and tones that it has, but not so much in the process. The star is again the gallus domesticus aka chicken. It is a hear warming dish that combines three basic cooking skills and techniques to make a unique dish. A dish that can be easily moded changed and reinvented. Chicken with mashed potatoes and cream sauce. Three items that are independent from each other and the real trick is how to bond them. You want them from a trio they are, to make them sing like a chorus. So this post is an attempt to show you how three items can be brought together under the same flavor roof.
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Exposure to various cuisine is the portal to understanding and embracing cultures around the world. The flavors represent not only the people’s lifestyle and philosophy but their attitude towards life. And I don ‘t speak of the food you eat when you go out, or the food you make when you have guests. I talk about the food you eat when you are wearing your pajamas and your hair is all messed up. I am talking about real down to home food that is family, nationality and you… Thee real you. The food you eat from a house in India, Bolivia, Ecuador, Greece, Russia, Pakistan and you think you are back home. For a split second that house becomes your home. – Read More…
A few weeks ago, I was watching the modern god of cookery, Alton Brown and he gave me the idea of making a savory muffin. I tried his recipe and although it was great, I was thinking I could twist it around to make it a bit more to my taste. So this is a recipe that does not have much of an intro, just the ingredients and the execution.
The cheesecake is indeed an american classic. I never considered myself american or even close to the culture it represents till the moment my oven rolled out one of these beauties! It is a desert that sums up the american spirit. Many reasons for that. First of all it has a bunch of american ingredients, cream cheese, Graham cookies and butter. The all american cooking fat. Also the idea of a cake that has a base that can be tailored to anything sweet and savory it is an all american classic. An all american classic. But most of all it is the basic custard filling that is the heart and soul of the american country desert cooking.
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Dulce de Leche is one more fine contribution to my culinary education from the south of the border school. It is fine sauce and since the previous post was about cheesecake, the finest dairy concoction, I thought of staying in the same mood. Diary stuff. Dulce de leche was a way of preserving milk in a similar way that jams and preserves are to preserve fruit. I assume that this is the way dulce was envisioned and started. It probably originated rom the la lecheda, a warm sugar and milk beverage, drunk in Argentina. As a sauce dulce de leche resembles caramel but since the major sweetness comes from lactose, the milk sugar, it is not as overwhelming and the – Read More…
This is most certainly a post that is not catching anyone in surprise. This dish featured in the previous post as a companion to the awesome tenderloin. Here I used a vegetable that was the anti-hero of my childhood. My mom and grandma used to prepare cauliflower by boiling it for long period of time till it became a mushy white disgusting thing. Needless to mention the unbearable smell of the boiled cauliflower. Yaicks! Later they made it with tomato. The typical greek tomato sauce dressed dishes. Green beans, eggplant, okra, zucchini, etc. Although much better it was just a different vegetable in the sauce.
This post, long due but finally here never the less, it is not so much about the tenderloin, which is a great piece of meat but mostly for the propper use of spices and marinates/brines. I have spoken about it before but there still some miss conceptions and hazy teritory. And what a better way of talking than a nice juice piece of meat. And soon enough we will see that the selection of the meat was even more suitable.
This is a short post, following the great one of the blueberries. Pick your own berries type of farm are very popular especially here in Florida with the only drawback the quantity, that unless you have a family of 10 you cannot finish alone in a reasonable amount of time. They go bad within a few days, by shedding moisture, wrinkle and shrink. The modern solution to the problem is the freezer. The freezer that, is being extensively used to freeze from water to meats. – Read More…
Blueberry season around the corner and here in Florida the local farms have started the pick-your-own extravaganza. And as an adopted floridian I could help but jump in the train and do some picking on my own. Interesting fruit the blueberry. We call it blueberry where it is actually purple. It is one of the fine contributions to the new world to the americas.
Mashed potatoes has been a staple food around holidays table almost since its utilization. For the first people that cultivated potato boiling was the only way to go since open fire roasting was not as easy as is today. Mashing the potato is the second most common way to consume them after frying. And although it is easy and delicious we most rely on the boxy stuff. Flakes that come out of a box and are revived in microwaved water. No. Today we will reclaim the potato in its purest form. We will make the potatoes again the comfort food that is. – Read More…
This is an alternative salsa, something you do not see very often. It is a sweet and hot spicy salsa, that is very good compliment to white meat like fish (tilapia, mahi-mahi etc) and chicken or pork. A quick method to turn this to a marinate is to pass it through a blender. This will pulverize the salsa to a thick marinate. An additional effect of this is the papain. It is an enzyme primarily found in papaya and it has the ability to break down proteins like collagen. This will tenderize the meat making it juicer. Its primary utility actually is the breaking down the tough meat fibers and has been utilized for thousands of years in its native South America. – Read More…
The summer is here and nothing reminds of summer better that the fresh veggies, the cold refreshing food and the porch snacking. Among probably the most common foods that can compete as the most summery food snacks is salsa. The mexican traditional food that took over the world. It is refreshing, easy to make, and a good way to polish your knife skills. – Read More…
Recently I was trying to find a alternative to the tomato sauce I use for the pasta. The tomato sauce is fine, but it is used for the last years of my life and it is boring. Tomato is quite acidic and not as creamy as would like to be. So I thought about it and I found a few recipes for what I was looking for, and suddenly I found it. It is a combination of recipes I found on line, and recipe cooked for me long time ago from a dearest friend. So I did some changes and I made it. As you probably guessed by the title it is a sauce based on the roasted red bell peppers.
here are only few things that can initiate reactions that smell home. There smells, sounds and tastes that when combined properly they can take you all the way back to your childhood. One of the is the dished featured here today. All the way from the island of Crete, the island whose velvety soil, I felt for first time under my feet.The island were I had my first steps in life (and secretly wish to have my last steps). It is a simple dish with simple and humble ingredients as everything in life. Some bread some olive oil tomatoes and cheese, all bind together by the universal greek herb of oregano.
Chocolate one way or the other, is the one thing I love – I LOVE – that has not yet made it in the blog. This is quite astonishing. I don ‘t even know why. But this is all history now. Last Valentine s after watching a million shows on the history of chocolate the temptation was too much not to give in and make something chocolaty. The only think available was the bitter chocolate that I used when I was making the mudslide cookies. Well then after all I had talked about chocolate… but it is never enough for chocolate.
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Cream cheese is the top choice spread for bagels. It is a great way to add, energy and nutritional value to the bagel. And I am not joking; bagels contain a substantial number of carbohydrates, fiber and some vitamins, but they lack in fat and protein. Cream cheese can full-fill both aspects and on top add the calcium. So it is in deed highly nutritious. The cream cheese is not really a cheese as it has more common with the yogurt, than the cheese we all know. According to the USA FDA it should have 33% at least milk fat, up to 55% water and acidic pH 4.4 to 4.9. It is not naturally maturing (aging) similarly to yogurt. It is different than yogurt though since – Read More…
So it is christmas again. and then New Years, and since Thanksgiving I had no posts. Things at work got bussy and cooking wise I was overdosed. I will be back soon with a few great recipes for cookies and a series I am preparing on the basics of fastfood. But, one thing I need share with you is the food of the thanksgiving. And some of the recipes. Most of them have been featured on the blog. Some of them are secrets and will not be shared.
Thanksgiving is here. But what is thanksgiving? Food is one thing, Black Friday and sales is another, but these are just some of the ways to celebrate the oh-so-important holiday. One of the things that makes this one important is the absolute no relation to any religion. Catholic, Protestants, Jews, Evangelists, Orthodox, hindu and every other religion can celebrate this holiday with no reservations or regrets. There are of course other similar holidays like the 4th of July, the Veterans day but those are revolving around the American nation and not around the family. What was missing was a universal family oriented celebration. A day that we will bring the – Read More…
Manestra is on of the childhood memories dishes. One of those dishes, that were made on special occasions, and you could eat as much as you could handle. It is one of the dishes that can be made in the middle of winter and brings a cozy feelings to the heart. None of my cooking books do not discuss the origin or the history of the book. However my personal feeling guides me to the so called “yuvetsi”. It is the big cousin of manestra, made similarly, with the same ingredients but different procedures. The name yuvetsi accounts for the earthenware used to make it, a pot with the clay-coloured interior and curved handles. It is Bulgarian in origin (Gyuvech), and – Read More…
This is an old recipe I had to my first blog, long time ago… About 2 years or more. It was my first ever coffee recipe, and It was an inspiration of the moment that was a success. I will repost the recipe as it was with only a few additions and modifications, when needed. So although there is a great deal of reference to coffee as the first time, be aware that that there are a few recipes on coffee already. Also be the picture is not my own, it was a picture from the web, and I just added it temporarily here. Over the weekend I will make it again (I missed that nice flavor) and I will post complete step by step instructions. So before we start here is again – Read More…
Among my best cooking dishes (?) is grilling. I use the question mark in the dishes part, because it is not really a dish, or at least when friends come over, things get much out of control and the food is massive, the plates are useless and manners are gone! We very mage look like a group of savage eating and having fun. Grilling as a mentioned before, it is the ultimate expression of primitivity, since it combines meat, the fire and the man.
As promised long time ago when I had the post about the slice of heaven, I will visit Sophie and brink you the recipe. Sophie is such a lovely person, that is no wonder why she so much-loved in the office by everyone. She gave me this awesome pie a few weeks ago, as a thank you to my small contribution to her cause. Please read the details here. I asked her to let me know when she is making it, so I can visit and take pictures of recipe. She did two weeks ago, – Read More…
The coffee shop right next to my work has a very tasty treat. It is called the mudslide cookie, and it is the fusion of chocolate with chocolate in a chocolate envelope. What I am saying is that particular cookie, has so much chocolate that really gives you the idea of the mud. The bad thing is that it is a very popular treat, and it is gone probably by 10:00, the time I usually show up for coffee. So I was wondering how can I make them.
I looked on the internet and I found a few recipes, but from the feel of it, not very satisfying. Some where calling for to many eggs some where calling for nuts, some other for too much – Read More…
It is the fall, and even here in warm florida (well at least at the north part) it feels cold. It is the fall, and in the fall a heart and gut warming drink can do more good than any food. I am not suggesting to drink only, and don ‘t eat but I hope you get the point. So any way. To get cozy and warm let ‘s get a clue from from our friends in the north, far north that it is. New York (the state not the city) where apples are the most important crop of the year. – Read More…
This is Sophie. Sophie was, and still is, at the registration front desk at my work. I met her almost 6 years ago when I first went to that building as a graduate student to use some of the equipment there. She is an amazing person, and being Polish and therefore a foreigner in this country she bonds very well with other foreigners just like me. I was very happy Sophie was there when – Read More…
When most greeks when they hear Santorini, think of the historic island of Greece, that one of the biggest volcanic eruptions recorded in human history. The one that destroyed the Minoan civilization. On the other hand, foreigners that hear Santorini, think of the island of the sun, the fun, the girls, the weather the sunset. Especially the last one was voted, as the best sunset on the world. One of the characteristics of the island, however, is the very dry and hot climate during the summer time. – Read More…
Grilling is one of the most primitive forms of cooking. Well it was not always called grilling, but although we have evolved, and along side our cooking techniques, this particularly has changed very little. It still involves the three key ingredients: Fire, Meat, Time. We changed the raw wood fire to charcoal and gas, but the idea is still the same. We added new meats to the party, but the we still seek the same satisfaction. And we might, have less time to cook, but when the grill fires up, we have the time just stops.
Today I came across an interesting question on a reat blog I very often read (as often as they publish). It belongs to the pioneer woman, Ree, and it is the blog that gave me the idea for step by step photo shooting of the recipes I post. I talked in the past about that. She mentioned that where she lives it is hard to find milk some cold winter days, and she was wondering if you can freeze milk. I had tried to do that in the past with no success. I tried and I froze it, but upon thawing the result was miserable at least texture wise, with a lot of fat separation.
Well before I talk about the food in Greece, I would like to explain my absence from the blogging world. First of All on August 13th I went to Greece Where a friend of mine was getting married and I was the best man. He was getting married in Lesbos, the so famous island of the north Aegean sea, famous for the first ever Lesbian: Sappho. And I have said many time among circle of friends, that Sappho, was the first woman to talk about desire for other women. She was from Lesbos so she was known as Sappho the Lesbian, and that ‘s how the name got started. I just mention that to get the laughter stop.
The butternut squash has been featured before on this blog, in the very famous, but elaborate recipe about the butternut squash ravioli. I just quote from that blog the few words about the humble star of the dish. Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata), also known in Australia as Butternut pumpkin, is a type of winter squash. It has a sweet, nutty taste that is similar to pumpkin or sweet potato. It has yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp. When ripe, it turns increasingly deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. It grows on a vine.
I am going to start of this month by paying tribute to the one thing that I love the most. As you probably picked up already, it is the kitchen, the place where I cook most of those recipes I post here. It has served my as experimental space for the whole time I ‘ve been here. The people who know me have heard me complaining many times about the size, and the discomfort it causes every time I tried to cook something that involves more than one pot or more than a pot and a cutting board. But you know… It is functional and I love to hate it. It is small but I don ‘t have to travel a lot around. I just sit in the middle and I can each everything pretty easy. – Read More…
Tzatziki is one of the most widely known greek dishes, served in every greek restaurant and dinner. It is a dish that is served, with, grilled meat, stew meet, fried vegetables, stuffed vegetables, seafood, on its own as an appetizer with ouzo, or even with bread just like a spread. Although a very popular dish, there is no particular story associated with the tzatziki. Its origin is lost somewhere in the area of the middle east & balkans. In turkey there is a similar concoction that is called “cacik” (pronounced “tzatzik”) and is a soup with cucumber, garlic and yogurt. All around the Balkans there is a similar dish that calls for yogurt and – Read More…
Again here staying in the same tunes as the last entry we will be dealing both with tomatoes and with summer food. Fresh tomatoes and summer food are made to go together. This recipe brings the element of the seafood, something that we have not dealt that much in this blog. Well there is not much more to say about the tomato itself since all is reported on the previous post. However it is worth taking sometime to talk about the king of misunderstood food the krab meat.
Krab meat, imitation crab or surimi, on the contrary to the popular believe is not a bad food. It is perfectly decent and nutrition food. It is heavily – Read More…
Tomatoes is one of the most stable, vegetables around the world and especially around the Mediterranean, and more pronounced in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. What a proud title for a vegetable that was not even known 500 years ago in that region. The Spanish brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, though it was certainly being used as food by the early 1600s in Spain. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources. – Read More…
I have noticed that the recipes I add are usually post, or almost all of them are usually, related to a famous dish. I never present a dish that is on my own an inspiration of the moment. Well I have but it always has to relate to something. So with out further delays I am presenting a dish that is completely my creation of the moment. It is the fusion of different recipes and methodologies, I learned overt the years.Starting with the star of the dish, the salmon.
Staying tuned to the same frequency as the previous post, I will have a second summer dish, that I love. It is a simple humble summer dish that can be eaten warm, but I prefere it room temperature. It is a cauliflower casserole… Just that. Cauliflower and a simple sauce, one of the four mother sauces, baked in the oven. I got this idea from Ece a friend of mine that she made a similar version a few years back. The homeyness of that food will never be forgotten. But since we are having the first entry ever for the cauliflower as it is custom to this blog, we will start with a small history of the cauliflower, a distant cousin of the broccoli and cabbage.
I will start today a series of post that will be randomly posted through the summer, highlighting foods that are perfect fro the summer, either because the ingredients are available through the summer very cheap and at the pick of their ripeness, or because they are refreshing and summery. The first one is probably one of the simplest salads I ever conceived and it can be made in matter of minutes. As is true with those dishes, quality of the ingredients maters. Buy fresh, preferably locally and don ‘t fear to shed some extra bucks for organic products. As, typical in this blog, it is really important to take some time and talk about the star of the dish, – Read More…
Summer and spring is the time of my favorite fruits. Some of them although they are available year around are pretty much taste like cucumber, with fruit flavor. Take for example the case of the peaches, the blueberries and the apricots. All of them can be available year around it the major markets, but during the winter they never tasted good. That ‘s why it is essential to capture the essence of those fruits, the aromas and the flavors. And there is a major method to do so. Making jam, preserves and jellies.
This is going to be a short entry and I will have it here, just because is the perfect compliment to the dish I described right before, the butternut squash raviolis. First however lets see what is a salad. Usually a salad is a dish that mostly, or exclusively, contains vegetables, usually in a cold state, hold together by a liquid that again usually contains a form of fat, and an acid. You see that the salad is very well, but also very loosely defined. That ‘s the meaning of the world usually. But I have develop some gold guidelines on how a salad should be made, or what it should contain. I think of it as the yin-yang of the food world. So let ‘s see the – Read More…
It ‘s been months since my last post, and even longer since I posted a recipe. I feel I should be back to posting what I like the most. I recently found a new inspiration that pushes me to discover new frontiers in food and in taste and flavor. The following dish, is one of my favorites. Simple but elaborate, elegant but humble, sweet sour and salty. It is the food that reminds me of fall, somewhere around October, when the trees are shedding their leafs, the sky becomes gloomy and the breeze is a little colder. I would not have much to say about the history of the dish or the ingredients. Just a few words about the butternut squash. Butternut squash – Read More…
Since I was a kid, I remember a strange commercial. A man looking at the sunset with a glass of brandy next to him looking at the sun, without doing really anything. His eyes where just traveling like he was expecting something. And when the sun finally set, he grabs the brandy and enjoys it while the narrator was saying, “Metaxa, the only spirit that waits for you to mature.” Back then my taste buds where not as trained to very strong and earthy flavors, and I didn ‘t really liked the taste of it. And while the time was going by, I grew up and the taste of that Brandy became, from bitter, interesting, good, and finally complex and exceptional. – Read More…
So I haven ‘t written anything a two months. So what is the deal about it? I know you wonder… Well you don ‘t but I just thing you should know prior to the wondering. I took the time that I went to Greece to take a break, but more important, to study the food of Greece.Not study in depth of course, but learn about it. See food is the one thing that unites people. Knowing your food heritage, is knowing yourself. Many times when I meet someone new and food conversations are ideal to break the ice.
I left for last the sauce that is the one closest to my heart. The sauce of the sauces. Well at least for me it is. I love this sauce as nothing in the world. It is a sauce that has only one way of making it and can accommodate everything, from veggies to cardboard.
his sauce under different conditions could have been called just a condiment and not a real sauce. Well it is a sauce, but it is one of those sauces that does not share anything with the actual food, and as we will see further on, it is a sauce that requires a lot of preparation and usually is made in huge quantities.
If you know french, or if you can guess Espagnole means spanish. But the actual sauce has little connection with Spanish cuisine. According to Louis Diat, the creator of vichyssoise and the author of the classic Gourmet’s Basic French Cookbook: “There is a story that explains why the most important basic brown – Read More…
Velouté is the next in line sauce of the five mother sauces of the french cousin. It is however in a slightly different category than the other two. While the other two were prepared separate and were blending with the food on the plate, velouté is one of the sauces that can be prepared with parts of the actual dish you are preparing. It has a very creamy texture and very smooth feel, like velvet, which I think véloute stand for in French.
This is probably the more common, and recognizable sauce. Every culture around the Mediterranean sea and in general the countries that have the tomato as a farm product. It is probably the one sauce that can be made in 1000 different ways; with meat, with veggies, with cheese, with sea food…. And can top everything from pasta to meat. It is the only sauce that can be used as cooking media to give flavor to roasts. It is actually the only sauce that is eaten cold as well. Yeah… cold like ketchup.
The first mama of all is Béchamel. A cream sauce that is the base for half of the white sauces. It is the base not only of sauces but of a wide range of food, where it is acting as binder, and can be a desert sauce as well. When it was invented, sauce Béchamel was a slow simmering of milk, veal stock and seasonings, strained, with an enrichment of cream. The sauce under its familiar name first appeared in Le Cuisinier François, (published in 1651), by François Pierre La Varenne (1615 – 1678), chef de cuisine to Nicolas Chalon du Blé, marquis d’Uxelles. The foundation of French cuisine, the Cuisinier François ran through some thirty editions in – Read More…
The word “sauce” is a French word that means a relish to make our food more appetizing. Sauces are liquid or semi-liquid foods devised to make other foods look, smell, and taste better, and hence be more easily digested and more beneficial. Because of the lack of refrigeration in the early days of cooking, meat, poultry, fish, and seafood didn’t last long. Sauces and gravies were used to mask the flavor of tainted foods.
So I have a friend… A very good friend that she prefers for her birthday a meat loaf shaped as a cake instead of a real birthday cake. Well she prefers both a meat loaf cake and a real cake, but in the case she had to pick one, she will pick the meatloaf. It is a neat idea that her mom started and carried on till this last weekend when her birthday arrived and her mom was not here to make it. Oh what a disaster. Who you gonna call? The rescue semi professional chef Webby (that would be me). So I made one and it looked just like the one in the picture above. Actually it is the one in the picture.
We need the traditional ingredient for a meat-loaf cake – Read More…
Rice has been the food of choice for million of people all over the world. The nutritional value of rice is unmatchable since it is a great source of crabs (energy) and fiber (that accounts for the brown rice). It is the principal food crop for about half of the world’s population. It is native to many regions of Asia, but it is cultivated in many regions of the world after Alexander the Great introduced it to Europe and from there it immigrated to America. Currently there are so many different kinds of rice cultivated in the world. The major difference is those types is the shape. A long and thin grain will yield rice where the grains are separated. It is – Read More…
So after all the coffee entries have not finished yet, have they? This is however special. It is posted the day I got my first espresso machine. And espresso is a different and unique type of coffee in many aspects. The type of beans that are used, the grind, and the method of brewing. We will talk about those later but as usual let ‘s just focus our attention on the actual machine and its development through time.
Espresso itself has its origins in France. At least the idea of Espresso. Espresso or caffè espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot, but not boiling, water under high pressure – Read More…
Zucchini (Courgettes) is a small, thin-skinned, summer squash. Its Scientific name is Cucurbita pepo (a species which also includes other squash). It can either be yellow or green or light green, and generally has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit. Unlike the cucumber it is usually served cooked, often steamed, boiled, grilled, stuffed and baked, barbecued, fried, or incorporated in other recipes such as shuffles.
Courgettes, like all summer squash, has its ancestry in the Americas. But while most summer – Read More…
Peppers sweet, spice, small, big all are part of the Capsicum family, which is a genus of plants from the nightshade family (Solanaceae), native to Mexico, and now cultivated worldwide. Some of the members of Capsicum are used as spices, vegetables, and medicines. The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. They are commonly called chili pepper, red or green pepper, or just pepper in Britain and the US; the large mild form is called bell pepper in the US, capsicum in Australian English and Indian English, and paprika in some other countries (although paprika can also refer to the powdered spice made from various capsicum – Read More…
One of the most recognizable greek deserts is baklava. It is a layered desert with lot’s of nuts and a thick sweet delicious syrup. It a staple to almost every greek restaurant and pastry shop. The history of the desert is long and it is lost in past centuries, somewhere in the middle east. The first record of a desert like such was in ancient Syria where the Assyrians at around 8th century B.C. were the first people who put together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers, added some honey and baked it in their primitive wood burning ovens.
This earliest known version of baklava was – Read More…
Most likely if you see 8-Methyl-N-vanillyl-trans-6-nonenamide written on a product you will assume it is not good for you… Oh chemicals… not good. Well no this is one of the substances that give to the chili peppers the heat. It is a molecule that is very closely related to the molecule of vanillin. It is an amide (the blue atom shown in the structure is nitrogen) and is the basic element of the Capsaicinoids the ingredients found on most of the hot chili peppers.
Capsaicinoids are irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact. A very – Read More…
Masticha is also known as the greek vanilla since it used to flavor the deserts in Greece before the fabulous vanilla appear in the picture. Personally although I don ‘t want to get into the game of supporting one versus the other, but I just think that mastic is more versatile and can substitute vanilla in 90% of the deserts. A different taste, but equally tasty. It was used since the ancient times, for various applications mainly for the hygiene of the mouth. Currently the market is flooded with pills, mouth wash, gum and palms that carry as basic ingredient the masticha resin. So much that is actually easier to find the masticha products than the masticha – Read More…
A spinach pie with a real twist I gave it. Just to make more fun the process of eating. And increase the mystery that surrounds the pie. The concept is actually not original. It is inspired by a pie called saricopita and it is very common at the mountains of Crete. It resembles the way the sarici (a Cretan traditional head-wear) is wrapped around the head. Spinach pie (spanakopita), in every form, is a great summer food. Light, tasty and goes great with Ouzo.
Spinach pie is one of the most staple and recognizable greek dishes served in almost every greek restaurant. The philosophy is to contrast the sweetest of the spinach – Read More…
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three stigmas, which are the distal ends of the plant’s carpels. Together with its style, the stalk connecting the stigmas to the rest of the plant, these components are often dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and coloring agent. Saffron, which has for decades been the world’s most expensive spice by weight, is native to Southwest Asia. It was first cultivated in the vicinity of Greece. The tedious and elaborate process to produce and grow saffron makes it the most expensive spice on earth right now, and one of – Read More…
Halva is on of my favorite deserts. Not only because it is simple to make, but mainly because in my eyes it is just a canvas where you can play with the spices and the flavorings you want. Traditionally this is known to be a Greek desert, however, I now that a similar variation is encountered in Turkey and in India. I will highlight the differences later on the post, but for now let me tell you more about the desert. It was originated somewhere in the middle east, most likely to the region close to India. The basic ingredients are, fat, starch and sugar. We start with the fat that will be the carrier of the flavors and intensify the sweet taste. The starch – Read More…
Summer is here… And all that comes with summer. Warm weather, heat waves, ice creams… and eggplants. Yeah I said eggplants. You know it is a vegetable that you can find year around, but the price, the quality and the taste are so much better during the hot summer weather. It is a vegetable, or to be precise a fruit, that is very popular around the Mediterranean, specially in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Egypt. Yes I said a fruit. Technically a fruit, in botany, is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. And that is exactly what eggplant is.
Although the name sounds very deceiving it is not. The – Read More…
The final chapter of the cinnamon rolls project was yet to happen. On Saturday night I tried it again. I started as before, but this time I fall asleep so I let the dough rise for over night. But regardless that all the rest were exactly as before. And this time it was successful. Actually I made some critical changes too. For the icing instead of the confectioners sugar, I grind down my own in a regular blender. The simple confectioners sugar comes with some cornstarch that since it remains uncooked gives a slight uncooked starch taste.
Well I will let the picture speak on itself. I loved them. Worth every – Read More…
Yes when I start with a topic I continue until I exhausts it. That s what I am doing with coffee. Not really I just always wanted to know how coffee effects humans. It is different from human to human and I always wanted to know the source of this deviation. Well as you probably most know the major reason is the molecule of 1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6(3H,7H)-dione, or also known as caffeine. The chemical formula is C8H10N4O2 or and the molecular weight is 194.19 g/mol. So what is so important about caffeine? Why consumption can be so drastic on us.
Caffeine can be absorbed by the human digestive system in 45 min to an – Read More…
In the previous (very long post) we talked about coffee history and chemistry. I think now we all deserve a warm soothing cup of coffee. Well some of you probably not, but I sure do. Making coffee might involved some simple steps but they are sure tricky and need helpful plans. I enjoy different kinds of coffee: espresso, greek (turkish), drip and frappe. But the most widely consumed by me and by most coffee drinkers is definitely the drip coffee. So that s what I am going to talk about. Drip coffee that is then…
There are four major steps in enjoying good coffee; buying it, storing it grinding it and brewing it. All of – Read More…
Well I have been puzzling myself all day (and last night for that matter) for what lead to the disaster. But before I start the “assay” of my conclusion I will need to explain why I am so upset. See at the place I went I have the nickname chef. Not that I am a true one, but I am sure a wannabe. There are therefore at least for me certain standards my food has to reach, to be considered successful. However many times I do not succeed and that ‘s fine with me. I just try to trace the reason for the failure and try next time to change the proportions of the ingredients, the baking method and any other minor adjustment to fix the recipe.
Read More…
Yesterday I was invited to a desert party for Valentine’s day. It was desert so I assumed (wrongfully as it was proofed) that the main thing will be chocolate, since there is all this philosophy about chocolate and love and yada, yada. Instead of repeating the same pattern I decided to make something different. I made (as you can tell from the picture) cinnamon rolls. There are a couple of reasons for that: 1) I love cinnamon (I dedicated a whole blog entry on that) and 2) there is something about the aroma of yeast that makes homes really smell like homes, nice and cozy. Good cinnamon rolls, however, although simple to make, for sure require – Read More…
How many have you heard the expressions “I need coffee” or “coffee break”? Coffee Is the driving force for many people to leave their bed and start their day. The past few centuries and especially the last few decades, coffee became one of the most important components of the everyday breakfast. Coffee shops are everywhere and many of the are among the gourmet stores, making coffee one of the most popular beverages on earth. A simple looking beverage, but with science much more complicated than ever imagined.
The coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa, in the area known today as Ethiopia. There is no real – Read More…
One of the most recognizable aromas is cinnamon. If you think of it is the only spice with pepper that has food named out of it, cinnamon rolls, Cinnamon Toast Crunch (cereals by General Mils), cinnamon swirl cake, apple cinnamon cake and so on… It is the only spice that has its aroma extracted and commercialized for room fragrant. It is also a spice that is very closely bonded to holidays. How many can imagine Christmas and Thanksgiving without cinnamon? Not many… I know. Not to mention all this cinnamon flavored gums. But have you ever wondered what makes cinnamon… well cinnamon? Before we get started with hard science stuff let ‘s see where cinnamon – Read More…