all the recipes
The traditional Easter bread served in Greece is traditionally braided, with a red-dyed hard-boiled egg inserted in the middle and then baked. Like many yeast breads, these easter breads require two risings, so plan your timing when making them. My reinterpretation results in smaller individual portions like muffins or cinnamon-buns. The ball of...
"The robot-kids are coming over and bringing along their non-robotic parental units. They're good kids, they don't say much or even look up much. They're watching their mobile phone screens and staying connected and texting and/or updating their statuses". . . I could just send them a text message to get their attention...
Feeling weak ? Feeling hungry ? Feeling carnivorous ? Raw meat… mixed in with more raw stuff, this is the original "steak tartare" in France. Raw, fresh quality ground beef (sometimes hand-cut) served with a selection of condiments and an egg yolk that you mix in yourself (or sometimes pre-mixed) alongside a simple green salad and...
I really thought I could stay away from my traditional Greek recipes but the spinach and leeks and green onions and dill caught my eye at the outdoor market today… I was helpless. The pack of rolled filo dough waiting for me in the fridge didn't help much either. The filling is simple enough to prepare and can easily be varied. I...
I keep forgetting how much I appreciate salty-fishy flavours. Fish eggs, tarama dip, anchovies, sardines and now "bacalhau". A portuguese staple (or so it seems), I was fortunate enough to discover this dish having dinner 2 summers ago with my gorgeous cousin Angie and her portuguese husband Gil and my niece Kayla. In their version, they had...
The outdoor market had pretty lovely seafood so I obviously bought some. The tartlets were prepared with a more exotic and Asian flavour, because of the wonton wrapper shells, holding it all together. Mixed in with some julienned vegetables, some coconut milk and coriander and ginger root too ! An explosive flavour that is addictive…...
These salty potato balls are more a method or just a fancy trick so stop giggling ! Anyways, these potato balls are round, salty, airy, crispy, resembling a small hummingbird's nest or a miniature ball of string. Everyone has a tea strainer (or two) lying around so here's a new way to use it. I used regular potatoes, you can perhaps try it...
"Baklava" is right up there with moussaka and spanakopita for things we love to eat and rarely make (or at least not often enough). The preparation of the baklava filling, the layering of the fragile filo dough, the buttering and the assembly could hinder anyone's good intentions as well as their wavering appetites. A big thanks...
The wintery months are all about potatoes, cabbages and apples. I'm always amazed (having spent half of my life in North America and the other half here in Europe) how people here in France are acutely aware of the different varieties of fruits and vegetables and herbs and of "what's in season" and acquire their fruits and...
Chips are good… chips are very very good ! When I used to buy chips, I’d buy 7-10 bags at a time, they were large bags, one per day. I stopped buying chips, not the healthiest of snacks, but anyways I’m not a nutritionist, i just cook/bake/fry stuff. I do miss them. But once in a while, when they’re homemade, they become...
Easter & chocolate . . . For kids, it's all about the chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, chocolate everything, the more the better ! We're all familiar with cheesecake, whether baked or non-baked, with or without a cookie crust, with or without a topping. But "kadaifi filo" pastry dough (unfamiliar to some) is like...
SALAD for COCKTAIL HOUR - no forks required PLEASE ! Smarten'up and stop grinning… I know it's not really a recipe ! But it's fresh it's crisp, it's wholesome. Not a whole serving of salad, no salad bowl needed nor a fork to eat it with. Just salad spears, lightly coated with some slightly sweet, slightly tart, light...
Time is not always on our side. One more day until the next outdoor market in my neighborhood here in Paris (which is, by the way, chilly this week) and I still have loads of greens and vegetable leftovers and yes they are taking up a lot of space in the refrigerator… half a cabbage, lots of celery, green onions, parsley, dill, a few...
There’s a legend about roquefort (that bluish-green specked cheese from southern France) and its accidental invention. I have a thing for legends, folktales, fairytales and myths (and a collection of hundreds of books about these from around the world) so I want to believe it. A young shepherd, whose eye was caught by a fair damsel, left...
"Keftedes" is the mediterranean version of a meatball and quite often (when larger) the meaty part of a juicy home-made hamburger . . . A comfort-food as well as a simple and easy dish whether prepared as a bite-sized appetizer or as part of a main dish, served up with fries and a tzatziki sauce (yogourt, cucumber and garlic...