all the recipes
Spring is finally here and we've spent most of the winter eating apples and oranges. Here's an idea for a simple apple snack before the spring and summer seasons provide us with other fruits that we've missed. My mother used to make these for us as a healthier version of a dessert or snack. Just peel, core, slice and coat your apples...
One regular chicken egg is equal to five little quail eggs ! This year for Orthodox Easter, I wanted to dye eggs red again, but not just any eggs but little speckled quail eggs. Why ? Two reasons ! To use them as garnish on my mini-tsoureki breads and second reason, to eat less eggs than I usually do around this time of year. The envelope of red...
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...
This is the easier & quicker way to make an almost traditional tzatziki recipe, relatively white like the common version, made with cucumber and yogurt. A simple recipe that (almost) everyone knows and, a modified version of the tzatziki recipe with avocado and green pepper based version with a few changes. The question was how to create...
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...
The first time I tasted matcha (green tea) ice-cream, probably around 20 years ago, it was heavenly. It felt as if I was tasting the cream made from the cow's milk as well as the grasses it fed on in order to create this milk. This is the idea behind my hay and twig roasted leg of lamb. A lamb prepared in a traditionally Greek manner but...
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...