Its Nearly Christmas

I have been so busy coming up to Christmas , that my blog has been neglected.Of course there has been a great deal of eating and drinking goiong on it is the "Feative Season " after all.
Some friends asked us to dinner last week and we ate the best sea bass that I have had for a long time. It was not farmed so the fish was very large. Our hostess had cut it into thick meaty steaks ans griddled it with herbs and lemons.On the side we had a salad of chopped tomatoes parsley and capers dressed in olive oil and vinegar. A real treat!!!
I took along the wine , which was a Viognier made by Skouras, very lightly oaked , so that you still got loads of tropical fruit on the palate.
Very few winemakers grow Viognier in Greecce, but both Skouras and Gerovassiliou make excellent wines from this fashionable grape variety.
On to Christmas day. The usual Turkey with all the trimmings and of course an English Christmas pudd. The dessert will be accompanied by Samos "Anthemis" made from the muscat petit grain indigenous grape , fortified and aged in oak for 5 years.This is liquid Christmas pudding, raisony and figgy.
With the turkey we will crack open a few bottles of Hatzidakis "Cuvee 15", his organic Assyrtiko, a real foody wine with great acidity and structure.
Just off to make a healthy veggie supper before the real festivities begin, probably a soup from the abundance of vegetables in the fridge, or maybe lentils.

Market Day Already

This week has flown by , and its market day already and the sun is shining. I have just returned  and will unpack my purchases in a minute . I bought a sweet white cabbage and some carrots in order to make the classic Greek winter salad of grated cabbage and carrot dressed in lemon juice and olive oil. The leftovers will
be used for a veggy soup over the weekend as the forecast is that the weather is going to turn much colder.
I also purchased a few baby white turnips shaded with purple that will probably be roasted around tonights chicken.
I visited my favourite herb man , who likes to practise his english with me and bought parsley , coriander , watercress, fennel, rucola and beautiful organic Kos lettuces.
I feel a watercress , fennel and orange salad coming on for this evening with a little coriander added.

Moraitis Malagousia 2010

As I mentioned on my last post we were going to taste the new vintage of Moraitis Malagousia 2010. We did, and it was delicious!!!. Citrus slightly mango on the nose and beautifully soft, round and fruity on the palate.
Malagousia is one of Greece's indigenous grape varieties that has made a come back in recent years .
The Moraitis winery is on the beautiful cycladic island of Paros, well worth a visit as it is situated on the outskirts of one of the prettiest and most picturesque fishing villages in Greece, Nouassa. It quite honestly could be a film set , its so perfect.
The weather the last few days have been lovely, about 25 c whilst northern europe is freezing.
Warm enough for lunch outside , which is just what we did today . I had a meeting in central Athens , so we had lunch , greek salad, in a restaurant in the park that is adjacent to the houses of parliament.

Gazi Athens

It seems that I have spent a lot of time talking about food at home.
Last night we paid a visit to the area in Athens called Gazi. so called as the dominating building is the old gas works, which has been restored and now is a very edgy exibition space. At night is flood lit  and the old chimneys are bathed in a  beautiful warm red glow.
The whole area around the suare has become a foody paradise, masses of different restaurants , wine and coffeee bars, most of which have great views of the Acropolis.
We chose a small retaurant called "Sardelas" to eat. As the name suggests this is a fish restaurant. It only serves small plates of mezze so you have a chance to taste lots of things. We had sardines cooked in the oven, a salad of black eye beans and tuna, fried baby squid, cod with garlic dip and a greek salad, all helped along with lovely crusty bread.
For wine, we chose Hazidakis Santorini 2009 made from 90% Assyrtiko, 5% Aidani and 5% Athiri  delicious. the natural acidity of the assyrtiko cut through the oily sardines perfectly.

Yesterday Theo Moraitis ( Moraitis Winery , Paros) sent me samples of his 2010 whites. We plan to taste some of them later today so will post results.

Quince Jam

               

Quince Jam

Photos are the before and after
I love the way quinces metamorphosize from golden yellow to deep red, when cooked

Method
5-6 quinces
1 lemon
water
just under 2 kilos of preserving sugar
A few toasted skinned almonds , optional

Wash the quinces and place in a large pan and cover with water and juice of one lemon.
Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool over night.
Next morning  take the fruit from the liquid  and remove core and pips, peel and then cut into smallish pieces . Save the liquid and measures 2&1/2 litres and save, if need be top up with a little water to have enough liquid.
Place liquid , fruit and sugar into a heavy based pan, bring to the boil and let it simmer away until setting point is reached , approx 2 hours. The mixture will now be a beautiful deep colour. I then added a few toasted almonds.
Cool a little and place in sterilized jars.
This recipe is in essence a recipe I discovered in Tessa Kiros's wonderful book "Apples for Jam"

Recipe for Chocolate Mousse

No the photo is not a choc mousse but rather a Greek coffee which of course rounded up lunch
This recipe for chocolate mousse comes from
The Cookery Year published by Readers Digest in 1973
the recipes in this book never dissapoint
Again this is for my brother in law Paniotis.

400 grms dark chocolate 50-55% coco solids
(if you use 70% this recipe does not work!!)
50 grms unsalted butter
A slug of booze (tablespoon) cointreau are Greek brandy
4 large eggs
Break chocolate into a largish bowl an place over a bowl of simmering water to melt , stiring every now and then.
Seperate the eggs , whites must go into a very clean large bowl, yolks into a small bowl and mix with a fork. When the chocolate has melted , remove from heat and stir , adding the butter and booze , keep stirring until the mixture has cooled a bit (max 5 mins) then stir in the egg yolks .
Then whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff, then fold into the chocolate mixture with a spatula or large metal spoon until the whites are combined, make sure that all the intense chocolate at the bottom of the bowl is thoroughly mixed in.
Then either put the mousse into one large bowl , or glasses if you prefer. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours , or overnight,
Decorate with whipped cream and grated chocolate

Our weekend was not totally foody. On saturday evening we had a quick supper and then went off to Megaron Musiki (Athens Concert hall) to attend a charity concert of Mikis Theodorakis music. Very nostalgic for us as Maria Farandouri was singing and the programme was Canto Generale. We saw the first performance of this in Athens in 1975 when it was performed in the Kareskaki football stadium. Again maria Farandouri was singing of course then Theodorakis was conducting. Still he attended saturdays concert and deservedly received a standing ovation. It was a fantastic evening and very moving as Farandouri gave it 110%.

I made Racomilo  (honey raki) will post method shortly along with my attempt to make quince jam later today
I adore quinces , maybe its because they are Afrodites "food of love"

Sunday Lunch

No photos I'm afraid it was cooked , eaten and enjoyed. We began with a meze of wild boar sausage, quickly cooked in a hot frying pan cut into pieces and served with hot pitta bread ,  and some kalamata and throumba olives ,washed down with some Tsipouro which was made , and given to me by my good friend Haridimos Hatzidakis.  Tsipouro is rather like grappa, strong and delicious.
After that we sat down to roast loin of pork with potatoes and carrots roasted around the meat seasoned with thyme and oregano, accompanied by roasted courgettes , aubergines and red peppers with a sauce on the side made from pureed leeks with a little cream , mustard and grated parmesan added to give it an extra dimension.
The roasted mediterranean vegetables are a great favourite and I will give the method especially for Paniotis .
Heat oven, to 200 degrees celcius
Wipe clean some courgettes , aubergines and red peppers .
Deseed the peppers, and cut into cubes
Cut aubergines and cougettes into cubes
Tip the vegetables onto a baking tray and season with salt and pepper also add some herbs if you like, fresh thyme is good.
Pour over about a table spoon of olive oil and mix together with your hands so that all the veggies have a film of oil.

Put the tray in the hot oven and cook for about 40 mins to an hour turning evry now and then with a spatula until the vegetables are cooked and the courgettes and aubergines are browned.
Cherry tomatoes can be roasted in the mixture, but for some reason my better half does not lik cooked tomatoes so much.
We eat this a lot with just feta cheese for lunch .

Then for dessert I made a chocolate mousse, naughty, not really Greek but very good and extremely easy to make.

Will post recipe tomorrow

Todays Lunch

Finally I have managed the photo thing with the help of my good friend Eva.
Lunch today was a very traditional affair......beans yakni
for 4 people
 1 kilo green beans
  cleaned and cut into pieces
  2 tins tomatoes
  garlic 1or 2 cloves
  2 potatoes peeeled and cut into cubes
  Chopped dill and parsley
  Teaspoon sugar
                                                                       Salt and pepper
                                                                       Extra virgin olive oil about 2 table
                                                                        spoons
  Method
  put everything in a casserole, bring to the boil and then simmer very slowly for about one and a half hours , until all the vegetables are tender, check seasoning and serve warm with feta cheese and crusty bread to mop up all the juices. Green beans cooked this way are a great match with feta cheese. If you fancy a glass of wine , anything made from the Greek grape varietyAssyrtiko is good as this variety can cope with the acidity of tomatoes really well.
 

Fish at the market

Fresh fish !!!!!!

George the Orange Man

I always buy my oranges from George.

He practices organic cultivation, No fertilizers or pesticides.

Not from any high ideals , simply that they are too expensive

Finally Orange Jam

Yes, I actually made this jam on Sunday morning ,although I prepared the fruit on Saturday afternoon, following an hour on the terrace enjoying the beautiful winter sunshine.
Monday morning at breakfast my husband declared this to be marmalade not jam , as it is a little bitter , but certainly not in the same league asthe marmalade I make from Seville oranges in January
My friend Anna who lives on the island of Paros give me this recipe
5 oranges
1 lemon
2 litres water
1 kilo preserving sugar

Cut the fruit into segments and remove pips and any tough pity bits. place these in a muslin bag (a find a clean pair of tights does the job perfectly)and then place the bag in a small bowl with a cup of water taken from the 2 litres. Leave to soak overnight
Now cut the fruit into small peices(skin and pith included)
and add to the remaining water in a large pan.
Soak overnight
Next day sqeeeze all the juice from the muslin/tights into the pan
Simmer fruit and water for 40 minutes, then add sugar and dissolve slowly.
After sugar is completely dissolved bring to a rapid boil for 30-40 minutes , until setting point is reached.
Cool and then fill sterilised jars.
The jam is the most lovely deep amber -orange in colour and packed with orangy flavour. Great on the Greek version of brioche called tureki.

More about the market

Yesterday was a great day , all the market traders were in good spirits , happy and chatty. As usual I bought far too much.
After the market I had a couple of meetings finishing the day with supper at one of our local Grill  restaurants.
baby hamburgers , grilled with lemon juice squeezed on, home made chips , peas casseroled with spring onions , tomatoe dill and of course olive oil.
all washed down with a glass of crisp, clean, fresh Robola.
 After we then popped into an opening of an art exhibition, interesting !
I bought masses of veg yesterday, so boiled broccoli and cauliflower , greek style .
That is you serve them dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.
The oranges have started to arrive in abundance, so I bought summer to make "Anna's Orange Jam". A job for Sunday , will post recipe.The little seedless clementines are perfect too.
The pears are wonderful , juicy and aromatic, this weeks came from a Peloponnesian producer and are the best I have had this season.

market day

Apologies in yesterdays euphoria , I forgot to thank my friend Eva (blog greek salad) without her there would be no Gastro Greece blog.
I felt guilty yesterday the a foody blog was rather bland, so rushed into the kitchen and searched out the leftover veg. to make a hearty warming soup of
carrot, small white turnip, potatoes white cabbage and of course onions plus parsley and tyme. The greeks generall eat the small white turnips raw , as a mezze with ouzo.
We ate it for lunch with a sprinkling of parmesan.
Fridge emptied for todays market purchases.
I finished the day with a glass of Skouras Nemea 2008 (red) a really easy drinker
Market news will be posted later today
ps sun is shining

At last I have cracked it

It has taken a long time for this computer dinasaur to get to grips with blogging.
Yesterday blissful sunny afternoon in the centre of Athens, popped by the Image Gallery to look at the new exhibition there.
On return met by a hungry husband ,so threw a quick meal together from leftovers.
Baked chick peas, with tomatoes onions slowly cooked with sauted onions , seasoning and a little cumin to add interest . I had made this the previous day so it only required to be warmed up. Flavours had infact improved.
Followed by flash fried salmon steak and mashed potatoes  flavoured with mustard and dill.
A little english , yes you are correct , but easy and tasty.
Tomorrow is market day , so a much more gastro post with photos I hope