Ennas u-lembas tinnusen...
There is no lembas tonight...
I cooked my dinner and there was my father and my grandmother forced by me to eat it. -- * -- It's a Greek dinner. Unfortunately, there was no Greek batons but Thai-style French baguette.
I hate bakeries selling baguettes saying they were French... Their baguettes are not at all French. In fact, the essentialqualities of a French baguette is hardness which would be distasteful to anyone but the French. -- * -- I may be an exception.
Let's see what I've done. I didn't burn the kitchen if that's what you're thinking about.^ ^
Tzatziki
Yoghurt Dip
Tzatziki is a very easy plate: simply peel the cucumbers, take their seed out, chop them, squeeze them and then mix them with crushed garlic -- you may use a mortar (ครก) -- and then mix with yoghurt.
2 pots of plain yoghurt
2 market-size cucumbers
Half a handful of garlic
Tzatziki is eaten as a bread dip or you may use it as a spread instead of butter... It has less fat anyway: good for a diet.
Lahanorizo
Cabbage Rice
It looks nice but it's not to my taste. Well, I may have done something wrong: I forgot to prepare the tomato sauce and I think that's why today's is a little tasteless... It's an almost easy recipe:
1 medium cabbage, sliced
1 teacup rice
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, mashed -- I recommend tinned tomatoes (1 tin)
Salt, pepper and lemon juice for seasoning
Saute the onion in oil. Add the cabbage and stir, then add 2 cups of water and the mashed tomatoes, stir and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the rice and cook until the water is absorbed. Season it. Serve either hot or cold.
It makes me think of SpanishPailla. It looks almost the same to me only that Pailla is very yellow.
Domatokeftedes
Tomato something -- * --
I love this plate. It may look disgusting during the process but it tastes real good. It's a little hard to do though, as it is... you'll know when you try to do one...
Half a kilo of fresh tomatoes -- DO NOT PEEL
2 medium-size onions, chopped
1/4 teasp ofPaprika -- you may add more as I didn't feel any spice taste...
25g ofmint, chopped
2 teasp ofparsley, chopped
1 tbsp of olive oil
150g flour -- you may need more
Salt and black pepper for seasoning
Vegetable oil for shallow frying
Firstly, place the tomatoes in a large bowl -- a tall one so you won't get splashed -- and SQUEEZE the red things until they become liquid except for the skin. Add the remaining ingredients save flour and mix well.
Secondly, add flour little by little untilthe mixture become a moist paste... you'll probably need about 250g of flour if you're using Kite All Purpose Flour.
Lastly, fry them in hot oil.
I did give you this recipe last time, didn't I? It's great. You all should try it!
Kounoupidi Kokkinisto
Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce
The wrong I've done was that I was a little hurried with the plate as it was the first to be done apart from the tzatziki-- it's served cool. Therefore, the sauce didn't get into the cauliflower as it should have done. The sauce wasn't thick enough anyway.
1 kg of cauliflower, sliced
1/2 cup of oil -- olive oil is recommended
3 onions, chopped
10 tomatoes, mashed-- again, it would be much easier to use tinned ones
sugar, cinnamon, salt and pepper for seasoning
What I did was reduce the recipe 3 times as I had butvery few cauliflowers.
Ina saucepan, add oil, onions, tomatoes, cinnamon, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir and taste the sauce, adjust to taste -- note that the sauce will thicken through the cooking process -- and let boil. As the sauce begins to boil, add the cauliflowers and let simmer until the vegetables are tender, really tender -- it should be tender like boiled one not saute. Take from heat, let cool and serve.
Melitzanes fournou
Baked eggplants
I forgot to take pictures. It tastes better than how it looks anyway. You mustexcuse me as I have no oven and soI usedsteam pot to compensate -- it's small and I can't put all the eggplants in one layer... The top was burnt but I can't help it, the rest just won't get ready...
1/4 kg of onions, chopped, saute
1/2 kg of fresh tomatoes, mashed -- use tinned ones.
2 garlic cloves, mashed
1 kg of round eggplant(s) -- I recommend the Doikam's as it'd worth the price
salt and pepper for seasoning
olive oil
Mix the tomato paste with garlic. Wash the eggplants and slice them horizontally -- each should be 1 1/2 cm thick.Put the tomatomixture on fire and add onions. Buttera pan and put the eggplants injust onelayer. Pour the boiling tomato mixture onthe eggplants that it covers all. Preheat the oven to 200C and bake for 45 minutes.
It's a two at a time recipe. Note that! Do not get confused thinking that the eggplants are boiled. THEY ARE NOT... It's a little confusing when I did this so I simplify the recipe putting them in chronical order. Hope you're not confused.
May the light of Earendil guide me through this terrible storm.
