Several years ago, I spent the night before «Clean Monday», as Greeks call the first day of Lent, baking the traditional Lenten flatbread lagana with a local Athenian baker. Even though he went about his business methodically and professionally, turning out more than a thousand or so loaves, he didn’t fail to observe all...
A Meatless Monday recommendation should probably be a lot more accessible than a traditional dish from the mountains of Western Crete could ever hope to be. But when I cam across this dish from my friend Diana Farr Louis’ wonderful book Feasting and Fasting in Crete, I suddenly craved a warming bowl of this...
January. I am devoting this month to greens, glorious greens, which are available in great variety in Greece and are prepared in countless ways in Greek cooking. To these eyes the brightest thing around right now in Greece are the mountains of greens that glisten and flutter at the farmers’ markets or in the...
Yemista is the generic term in Greek for stuffed vegetables, and there are myriad recipes in this category of foods. Generally, stuffed vegetables are a summer preparation, and the classics include stuffed peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplants. Often these are all prepared in the same pan, with the same stuffing, and baked all together....
All over the Mediterranean, small, savory plates of food enjoyed in a convivial atmosphere make for one of the region’s basic dining experiences. Known widely now as tapas, antipasto, merende, even hors d’oeuvres, these tidbits comprise a whole pan-Mediterranean culture: that of sharing food and drink with friends in an unrushed, unharried environment. In...
From luscious stews to delicately flavored stuffed vegetables to soups and salads and pilafs, Greek cookery is rife with meatless meals. It’s hard to think of a cuisine so closely associated with dishes like spit-roasted goat and lamb and skewered kebabs as having a strong vegetarian tradition. Yet the penchant for pulses, vegetables, and...
Visit us on the Blue Zone island Ikaria, where people have the longest life spans in the world, for a week of glorious Greek cooking classes in an ancient Greek-island village.
