Fava is what Greeks call yellow split pea puree. It’s a wonderful vegetarian and vegan dish but also a first-class meze. Fava can be a carte blanche, the way Italian polenta is, for almost any topping, from plain raw onions or scallions and capers, to eggplant caponata, to these aromatic very “un-Greek” shitake mushrooms,...
Arcadian Walnut Skordalia Recipe from the forthcoming book, The Country Cooking of Greece, Chronicle Publishers, San Francisco This hearty, earthy skordalia, made dark with the addition of walnuts and red wine vinegar, is especially pungent. It is delicious with boiled or roasted beets. 6 servings ½ loaf stale rye or wheat bread, crusts removed...
Black-eyed peas, total Greek peasant food!, get an elegant twist served up with sun-dried tomatoes inside an avocado. You can easily prepare this recipe without the salmon, which would make it great for vegans, too! For 4 servings 2 ½ cups cooked black-eyed peas* 2 scallions, trimmed and chopped 8 sun-dried tomatoes in...
Beans are a New World product but bean soup. fasolada in Greek, is Greece’s national dish! Makes 6 servings 1 pound medium-sized white dried beans 2/3 cup extra-virgin Greek olive oil 3 large onions, peeled and chopped 3 medium-sized carrots 3 celery stalks or 1 ½ cups chopped wild celery, with leaves 6 –8...
Tahini (sesame paste) replaces milk and butter in many Greek Lenten desserts, both traditional and contemporary. It goes particularly well with chocolate and with honey. 1 cup almond milk 3 ½ oz. / 100 g dark chocolate (couverture), chopped into small pieces 3 tbsp. honey, preferably Greek blossom or thyme honey 2...
Many traditional Greek sweets, especially during periods of fasting, such as Lent, call for olive oil instead of butter. An apple crisp isn’t exactly traditional Greek food. I’ve “hellenized” a classic American dessert by adding two distinct greek flavors, that of olive oil and the scented geranium, arbaroriza in Greek, which Greek cooks often...
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.
