Kopiaste to my new site

I have now moved to Wordpress.

My new site can be found at http://kopiaste.org

Hope to see you there as well.

Ivy

Spicy Baked Eggplants

I suppose that those of you who are still visiting me here do not know that I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org

*****

When we went to Sparta I brought along a few things such as pasto and loukaniko, which I hope to be posting about soon, fresh eggs and honey.

My sisters-in-law who live in villages just a few miles away from Sparta, have houses with big gardens with lots of flowers and grow their own vegetables and have some chicken, just as a hobby. They do not sell anything. When leaving they had a bag full of vegetables from their garden which they gave us.

Among other things they gave us some eggplants. I never saw such huge eggplants in my life and I know that my brother in law never uses chemical fertilizers. Believe me they were half a kilo each but although they were huge they were seedless and very tasty. I cooked some yiahni and the last two I used in this dish.

I decided to bake them as a side dish with the Grilled Middle Eastern Chicken.

Although when I began cooking I planned to make them with yoghurt and garlic by the time I started grilling the chicken I changed my mind and decided to use the marinade of the chicken instead.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Servings: 5

Ingredients

• Eggplants, I used 2 but as I said they were huge.
• The marinade from the previous recipe
  
• 3 - 5 spoonfuls of strained Greek yoghurt
• 1 spoonful of olive oil

Directions

After washing them, I cut them into 1 cm round slices and placed them in water with salt for ½ an hour. I put a plate on top to keep them in the water and then I drained them.


I brushed the baking tin with olive oil and placed the eggplants and brushed them with olive oil on top.

I preheated the oven at 180 degrees C and baked them for about an hour. I checked them regularly and brushed them with olive oil a couple of times, so that they would not dry.

Meantime, I discarded the bay leaves and some of the allspice berries (I left only two) from the marinade and placed the remaining in a food processor, I added a spoonful of olive oil and processed the mixture very well so that the allspice would dissolve completely. I added the strained Greek yoghurt and processed again, trying it until it tasted good. When I tried it using 3 spoonfuls of yoghurt, the taste was too strong, so I added two more spoonfuls.

Back to the eggplants. I pierced them with the fork and when they were soft I covered each slice of eggplant with a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt mixture and baked them for another fifteen minutes until the cream had solidified.

I think the next time I shall make them I shall add the marinade-yoghurt mixture on top and bake them only for five minutes so that it is still creamy. I tested one eggplant the way I wanted to make it originally and that was good as well so I might make them this way again soon.

I am submitting this recipe to The Crispy Cook hosting the event Go Ahead Honey, it's Gluten free.

Since I used eggplants, which were grown by my niece in Sparta, I am also submitting this recipe as an entry to Grow Your Own, which is celebrating the one year anniversary this month! Grow Your Own is sponsored by Andrea's Recipes, and also hosted by Andrea for the Anniversary edition. Your still have time to send your recipes and celebrate with Andrea. Here is what you have to do to enter.

If you would like to leave a comment, just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.


© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Grilled Middle Eastern style Chicken

I suppose that those of you who are still visiting me here do not know that I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org

I shall be posting in both blogs for a couple of more weeks.

*****

I found about sumac reading various recipes but this is not a spice you can get in your neighbourhood supermarket here in Greece. Perhaps you can find it in large supermarkets or in small shops selling middle eastern products but those are not easy to find.

A few weeks ago, when my son went to Dubai he asked me what I would like from there and the first thing that came to my mind was sumac.

When he visited the town, he went to Carrefour and was amazed with the variety of spices they sold. As he didn't know exactly what I wanted he bought two kinds of sumac.

There was a cheap sumac, of which I do not know its origin as it is not stated on the package, as well as a Lebanese sumac, which is three times more expensive than the other one. He didn’t know that I already had turmeric, which I bought a few months back together with garam masssala, from a little shop selling Asian products, so he bought me some turmeric as well.

I didn't know how sumac tasted and whether it was a hot spice or not but it was not hot. I can't say that we were thrilled about it but it wasn't bad either. If you have any recipes using sumac, please let me know as I would like to try it again.

I was eager to try it so I google searched writing chicken and sumac and read a few recipes, some Moroccan, some Lebanese but mainly I wanted to see how much of each spice I should use. I did not follow any specific recipe but I made this recipe using what I liked from those I read.

Grilled Middle Eastern Chicken

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Grilling time: 20 minutes

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts cut in eight pieces
• 1 teaspoon of Lebanese sumac
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• Sea salt
• Ground coriander seeds
• Ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• Whole all spice (5 – 6 berries)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar
• 4 spoonfuls of white dry wine
• 3 spoonfuls of strained Greek yoghurt

Directions

Wash chicken, remove skin, cut into pieces and marinate for at least 1 hour with all the ingredients.

Grill chicken for about 10 minutes on each side. I served this dish with baked eggplants, which I shall post tomorrow.

I have closed the comments at the site but if you would like to leave a comment, just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Victoria Sandwich Cake and Awards

I hope this will not be confusing for you.

As of yesterday 17 -08-2008 I have moved to Wordpress. My new URL is: http://kopiaste.org
I hope that you will correct the link on your blogroll (that is if I am included in your blogroll).

As a lot of friends are away on holidays I shall be posting on both blogs for a few more weeks and this announcement shall appear on all the posts from now on until I stop posting here.

I shall start with the Awards first.

Vani, of Illatharasi has passed on to me the Brilliante Weblog Award. Thank you so much Vani :-)

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

Here are the rules to follow :-
When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.

Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.

Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.

Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

I am passing this award to:

1. Peter, of Souvlaki for the Soul

2. Swati, of Swati's Sugarcraft

3. Ben, of What's Cooking

4. Val, of More than Burnt Toast

5. Mike, of Mike's Table

6. Corinne, of A Gourmet Love Affair

7. Jenn, of The Leftover Queen

Swati, of Swati's Sugarcraft, has awarded me with the Magic Lamp of Luck Award. Thank you Swati for the Award. It seems that it worked because I was not expecting to publish the new site so soon.

There were no rules to follow so I am passing this award to some friends so that I may wish them good luck in what they are doing.

1.To Farida, of Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook, who is moving from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org.

2.To Sam, of Greek Food, Recipes and Reflections, who is also in the process of preparing his new site

3. To Giz and Psychgrad, of Equal Opportunity Kitchen, Giz is moving to her new condo and both mother and daughter are preparing catering for a Bar Mitzavh party, for fifty people

4. To Pixie, of You say Tomahto, I say Tomayto, who is away from blogging for a long time now and I want to wish her good luck and that she can take her time and come back when she is ready

5. To Vani, of Illatharasi, who has awarded me with the previous award and wish her good luck to whatever she is doing

6. To any other friend who needs luck. Well we all need some good luck in our life, so feel free to grab this award.

Now to our recipe.

Rosie, of Rosie bakes a peace of cake and Maria, of The Goddess's Kitchen, have created Sweet and Simple Bakes, and each month they host a different event giving a recipe which we have to recreate and blog about it, sharing our experiences.

This month's challenge is Victoria Sandwich Cake and here is the recipe.

As you may have understood by now, I hate following instructions but this time I read the instructions several times to be sure that I understood everything.

I did not have 2 x 20 cm tins but I did have some tins in which I do not usually bake in, but I use them to roast nuts in and as they were the right size I decided to use them, so I had them both lined and ready to use.

I followed the instructions but when I finished the procedure the mixture didn't seem enough for me. I emptied the mixture into one of the baking tins but as I thought that it would be just a small cake, I decided to make another one. I had already packed the scale and put all the ingredients away, I was frustrated as I had to start from the beginning, the oven was already hot and the temperature outside was about 40 degrees making baking intolerable, although I had the air condition on, so I decided to get done with it the soonest possible, just adding the ingredients by heart, without the use of the scale I don't know why but I also decided to add some cocoa in it but I did not have any, so I added two spoonfuls of drinking chocolate.

When I emptied the second one in the tin, I thought it was too much for each tin, so I decided to remove a little bit from each tin and made a little one as well.

While they were baking, I prepared the buttercream.

When they cooled down I cut the first sponge cake, spread some buttercream on, some jam, added the chocolate cake in the middle and again buttercream and jam and the second sponge cake on top. I sprinkled some icing sugar on top, et voila.

I still had the third sponge cake and some buttermilk left but it was not enough. I had some cream cheese and a whipping cream in the refrigerator, so I added the cheese into the buttercream and combined them and whipped them together and I whipped the whipping cream separately but instead of adding sugar I added two spoonfuls of jam.

The third smaller sponge cake broke into pieces when I tried to remove it from the tin, so I decided to bind it together adding layers of broken sponge, cream cheese and whipping cream and here is the result.

I think I've learned a lesson and I shall try next time to be patient with baking. Nevertheless, tastewise, it was great and the combination of both of them was even better and the children loved it.

If you would like to leave a comment just follow the link to the new site. Thank you.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

I've moved to Wordpress

Hi my friends,

I don't believe I did it!!!! I wanted to move to Wordpress a long time now but was really scared how to do it.

I bought a new domain name and host before leaving on holidays. Farida, of Farida's Azerbaijani Cookbook, gave me some useful tips, so did Mike, of Mike's Table.

Yesterday, another friend Sam, of Greek Food, Recipes and Reflections, gave me some very useful tips that encouraged me to go ahead. A few minutes ago, all my content has moved to Kopiaste.org, so I won't be posting again here in blogger. I still need to do some minor adjustments, so hopefully shall do this while continuing posting from there.

Thank you for all your support and hope to see you there as well.

Ivy

Eclipse over the Acropolis with a Greek Fish in parchment paper

The earth's shadow swept past the moon late last night turning a shining full moon of August into a dim red one and finally blackening it out of view.

The partial lunar eclipse occurred late in the night in Athens around 10 p.m. At about 9 p.m. my husband asked me if I wanted to go to the Acropolis to see the eclipse and without hesitation we got into the car and were there around 9.30 p.m. We had to park the car in the narrow streets of Plaka somewhere opposite Zappeio and walked our way up to the Acropolis.

The new museum of the Acropolis

The worse part began after the entrance to the ancient theatre of Herodou tou Attikou.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. I thought that Athens was empty due to summer holidays but the streets were packed with both locals and tourists. I distinguished British American and Australian accents, I heard people speaking Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Cypriot, German and some other I could not recognize.

The queue was about 100 metres x 5 metres and it took about half an hour to pass inside the Acropolis.

When we arrived the moon was still full and when descending it was half moon but although I took some pictures I did not manage to capture it.

I am sorry about the bad quality of my photos by it was the first time I took photos during night. Although I turned it to night scene I didn’t know much about it and most of my pictures are dim and shaking.

The ancient Odeon of Herodou tou Attikou.

The Propylaea (main gateway)

Photo of Propylaea, courtesy Wikipedia

Photo of the Parthenon (Wikipedia)

The Parthenon

The eclipse has already began.

If you have not visited the Acropolis it’s not easy to capture what an accomplishment this building was to build 400 years b.C. during the rule of Pericles by Iktinos and Kallicratis. The ancient Greek temple known as the Parthenon (Greek for "the virgin's place" i.e. Athena) was constructed between 447 and 432 b.C. Considered a masterpiece of Greek architecture, it was built atop the Acropolis, a hill overlooking the city of Athens. To give you a small example, each pillar is 1.9 m in diameter and 10.4 m high. If you are near the pilar you realize that three grown ups are needed to embrace it pillar.

Here are some clear pictures and some more.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and now to our recipe.

Perka me marathoriza sti ladokolla

I hope the name did not scare you away. Perka is a fish of the grouper family and marathoriza is fennel bulb aka finocchio.

I chose this recipe as ancient Greeks ate a lot of fish. I prepared the fish with herbs and spices used in Greek cuisine and although it is wrapped in parchment paper, with all due respect to our ancestors, I wouldn't call it kleftiko, as I have seen it in another blog.

A few weeks ago I went to the farmers' market and bought this lovely fillet of painted comber aka grouper. When I bought the fish I did not have a recipe in mind but I combined some of the Greek herbs and vegetables I bought and wrapped the fish in parchment paper. When I finished wrapping it I saw that there was still some space left at the four corners, so I quickly unwrapped it and filled in the gaps with mushrooms.

Well there are not enough words to describe the result of this dish. I kept hearing my family saying wow, mmmm, yummy, delicious, fantastic.

I strongly recommend this dish and I am sure that even the most eclectic taste buds will be satisfied.

Grouper with fennel bulb, wrapped in parchment paper

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Yields: 5 servings

Ingredients

• 1 ½ kilo filleted grouper (2 fillets) or any other fillet you like
• 1 fennel bulb, cut into slices (next time I shall add at least 2)
• 2 onions cut into slices
• 3 cloves of garlic, cut into slices
• ¼ cup of parsley, finely cut
• ¼ cup of dill, finely cut
• 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of Greek oregano
  
• 4 slices of lemon on each fillet
• 6 mushrooms, cut into slices (agaricus bisporus)
• 3 spoonfuls of olive oil
• 1 shot of ouzo

Directions

Wash the fish and add salt, pepper, oregano and coriander.

Prepare all vegetables and cut them.

On the parchment paper layer the fennel bulb, the onions, garlic, dill and parsley. Place the fish on top and add the olive oil and ouzo. Cover with the lemon slices and between the gaps add the mushrooms, sprinkling some salt, ground pepper, oregano and coriander on top.

Fold the parchment paper and seal the baking tin with aluminum foil making sure that it is covered well so as to prevent the steam from escaping.

Bake at 150 degrees centigrade for 1 hour 30 minutes.



I am submitting this recipe to Jeena at Jeena's Kitchen who is hosting a Fishing Trip Event. To participate, you have to post about a fish or seafood dish - no other meats are allowed to be included.


© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Shrimp Risotto

We're back from our short get away. I want to thank you for leaving your lovely comments and have read all of them but need some time to reply and to visit you all. Hope to do this during the weekend.


This year we decided not to visit any island but went by car to a lovely place not far from Athens. It's a small, picturesque village which you can see in the bay with a lovely beach, a few restaurants and cafeterias, no tourists, ideal to rest.




We stayed in a small hotel, on the beach which is on the other side of the road.





Today I had so many things to do, as tomorrow is a public holiday and all the shops will be closed, so we went to the farmers' market, and then to the supermarket, so I decided to prepare something easy and quick.

This is one of our favourite dishes which the kids love and always fight about who is going to get more shrimps. I have tried it in the past with a certain arborio rice which I bought from a big supermarket but to be frank I did not like it.



I am not saying that arborio is not good but maybe that specific brand I found was not the best, so next time I shall try another brand and see how it works. Until then, I prefer to use a brand we get in Greece called carolina, which is a white, short grain rice, very flavorful and it yields a stickier, softer result. It is especially good when a creamy texture is desired and this is the rice we use in Greece for dolmades, rice puddings, soups and risotto.



This time I made a few changes to my old recipe, and to begin with,I increased the amount of garlic, which stayed in the dish, as I am becoming a garlic lover. This time I did not add saffron and as I bought some fresh mushrooms and bell peppers, I wanted to use both. However, as two of my children do not eat mushrooms and peppers, I sauteed them separately with a few spoonfuls of olive oil. When mixing in the shrimps I added some of this in the non stick frying pan and mixed them with the vegetables. This was definitely much better than the previous one as I love both mushrooms and peppers.

Servings: 5

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 finely chopped onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 500 grams carolina rice
• 1 kilo pack of frozen shrimps, preferable a big size, without the shells (needless to say that you can use fresh shrimps if you like)l
  
• 4 ripe tomatoes (or 1 can of whole tomatoes with juice, during winter), blended
  
• 2 - 3 spoonfuls of tomato ketchup
  
• 3 spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar
• ¼ glass white dry wine
• 0,25 gr., of saffron preferably from Kozani (best quality) (optional)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of thyme
• broth we have boiled the shrimps
• parsley
• 4 mushrooms (optional), chopped
  
• 1 cup of chopped bell peppers (yellow, green and red)

Directions

After having all our ingredients ready, we boil the shrimps for only 5 minutes.

In a big skillet bring oil to heat, just to wet the bottom of the pan, and saute the onion and garlic and stir on medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add the rice and stir constantly until it is flavoured.

Then dissolve the saffron in the wine (or skip as I did) and pour in the saucepan until the alcohol evaporates, add the balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, tomato ketchup, salt, pepper and thyme and start pouring the broth, a ladle at a time until it is absorbed and continue until the rice is ready but still al dente, five minutes before it is ready add the mushrooms and bell peppers and the shrimps and stir.

Serve the rice sprinkling some finely chopped parsley and grate some parmesan on top, if you like but personally I don’t.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

BULGUR WHEAT PILAF WITH LEFTOVERS

As I promised in my previous post, when there is leftover meat, it can be roasted chicken, lamb or pork, instead of eating the same thing the next day, this dish can be prepared in twenty minutes and it is really very tasty and healthy.

This is a dish very popular in Cyprus and it is called Pilafi Pourgouri.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 5

Ingredients

· 1 glass of bulgur wheat (or rice)

· 1 - 2 nests of Greek noodles called fides (vermicelli)

· olive oil (about 1/4 of a cup)

· 1 onion

· 4 medium sized ripe tomatoes or 1 can (500 grams) of whole tomatoes with juice, blended

· salt and pepper

· 1 glass of water

· leftover meat (about 1 - 1 1/2 cups, cut into small bite pieces)

(Note: for each glass of bulgur you will need 2 glasses of fluid, so here you must estimate the amount of juice from the tomatoes)

Directions

Start with the tomatoes, which peel and blend in a food processor. Grate the onion and heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion. Add the the noodles and stir. Before the onion and vermicelli turn brown add the bulgur wheat and mix until the bulgur wheat absorbs the oil. Add tomato and water, salt and pepper and leave it to boil for 2 – 3 minutes. Add the leftover meat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave it for ten more minutes until it absorbs all the remaining fluid.

Note:

Bulgur wheat may be substituted with same quantity of long-grained parboiled rice.

We usually serve this dish with Greek yoghurt.

Without the leftovers this is a nice side dish pilaf to accompany other meat dishes and instead of tomato and water add chicken stock.


© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Chicken with chilopites

I have lots of recipes I have gathered during all these months and for which I did not have the time to write about them. So instead of writing a lot of things I thought that it would be the time to write some of these recipes and have them in autopost for the period I shall be away.

This is a Greek recipe which is easy to make. Chilopites are square egg pasta and if you can't find chilopites you can either make them yourselves or add other pasta of your preference.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 5

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium size chicken (about 1.200 grams) or just thighs and breast
• 500 gr. Chilopites pasta*
• 1/2 glass of olive oil
• 4 ripe tomatoes peeled and blended or 1 can of whole tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• 4 glasses of water

DIRECTIONS

Wash, salt and pepper the chicken; blend the tomatoes in a food processor and place the chicken in an oven pan. If you are cooking a whole chicken place the breast facing down and add the oil, 1 glass of water and tomatoes.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and roast the chicken, turning once. When roasted, remove chicken to a platter and add the remaining water. Bring to a boil and add pasta. Stir a couple of times and the pasta will be ready in about 20 minutes. If the pasta has absorbed liquid and is still ad dente you can add some more hot water.

If you like you can grate some Greek dried Myzithra, kefalograviera, halloumi or any other hard cheese on top.

If you have leftovers, tomorrow you will see what I do with them.

You might also like:

Makarounotes Chilopites

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy

Pork loin or leg stuffed and wrapped in vine leaves

I do not have much to say about this dish except that if you like the ingredients you will be thrilled by the taste and it is a dish you can serve at buffets, on special occasions and your guests will be thrilled.

I shall leave the photos to speak of themselves.













Servings: 8

Preparation time : 30'

Baking time : 3 hours

Ingredients

• 1 ½ - 2 kilos pork loin or leg
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Oregano
• 8 – 10 slices of bacon
• Olive oil (about 1 glass)
• 8 slices of halloumi cheese
• 100 gr. feta cheese crumbles
• 2 tablespoonfuls of mustard
• 1 onion blended
• 2 cloves of garlic blended
• 2- 3 spoonfuls of olive oil
• 2 spoonfuls of fresh (chopped) or dried mint
• 2 spoonfuls finely chopped parsley
• 16 vine leaves boiled
• 1 glass of water
• half a glass of lemon juice
  

For garnishing (optional)

• Various vegetables sautéed, such as mushrooms, onions, carrots, Brussels sprouts etc.

Directions

Ask your butcher to cut the meat and to flatten it so that it may be stuffed and rolled. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano.

On a parchment paper lay the vine leave and place the meat on top of them.

Sauté the bacon in a non stick frying pan, without oil.

In a food processor blend the onion and the garlic with a few spoonfuls of olive oil and add this on top of the meat.

Place the bacon, halloumi cheese, mint, feta cheese, some mustard and the parsley on top of the meat.

Then roll the meat and put a couple of toothpicks to secure, then wrap with the vine leaves and finally with the paper.

In a baking tin place the potatoes. If they are small, pierce them with a knife and if they are bigger cut into big pieces, add salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice, oil and water. Place the meat roll in the centre.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and bake until the potatoes are ready. Half way through turn the potatoes. When done remove paper leaving the juices of the baked meat fall in the pan and remove toothpicks. Place roll in a platter to cool down before slicing.

© All Rights Reserved. All recipes, text and photographs are the original creations of the author. Do not post or publish anything from this site without full credit and a direct link to the original post. Thank you. Ivy