Sarmades of Siatista – stuffed cabbage leaves with minced meat

my mum’s recipe This dish is a surprise of its own! The complexity of its preparation, the personal contact with the ingredients, the ongoing care and dedication to the process plus the explosive taste, create one incredible offer of love.  Of course, it is a dish made strictly for adults!   Instructions Wash the cabbage. Cut its heart in the middle, where the hard part is  and put the rest of the cabbage leaves to boil in a pot, nearly covered with water. Boil for about 20 minutes or when you check with a fork that they became soft. You...

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Cake with cherries and cranberries

This cake recipe was published in the Sainsbury’s magazine, on December 2010 issue and I adapted it, altering a few things! Instructions Preheat the oven to 160 ⁰C, butter and sprinkle with flour an oblong shape of cake tin, 23 × 9 cm and then shake the excess flour. Put the cherries under warm water, rinse them and pat dry them with a towel. Cut them in half and together with the cranberries toss them with flour and leave them aside. Cut the marzipan in small cubes and mix them with the dried fruits. Shift together the flour and baking...

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Fasoulotavas

For 6 persons This food needs a small preparation. We soak the beans overnight in a bowl with lots of lukewarm water to cover them. Put the soaked beans in fresh water and boil for 10 min. Throw away the water of the boiled beans. Add the beans in fresh but  hot water and simmer for about 1 hour. Now prepare the tomato sauce, the syvrasi: In a deep pan add the onion finely chopped, the crashed garlic, the fresh tomato juice, the tomato paste and boil for 3 min. Then add 1 cup of water, salt and pepper and...

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Boxing Day Brunch

Ideally, the Boxing day’s breakfast in England includes a variety of  yummy and festive ingredients: cooked ham, (ham that tastes almost like our syglino of Mani or kavourmas of Rethymno, Crete) which you buy as a whole piece and slice it yourself, pickled onions,  pickled red cabbage, buttered slices of fresh bread and large cups of earl grey with milk. I see it in my husband’s face that not only it is a traditional breakfast but a unique combination of taste every Christmas!

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Pickled Onions

This is Steve’s creation! First time he tried it, he put all his art and the knowledge that can be found in the Internet. The pot with the small white onions, the shallots, became his object of worship for three days, since he placed all of his hopes for authentic pickled onions that finally he could enjoy as in his home country, England. But on the third day of waiting, he showed me in distress, that the onions had started simmering as they were misplaced from the beginning on the stove to rest instead of another place! And he, alas,...

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