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Greek Meatballs in Tomato Sauce/Soutzoukakia

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Greek Meatballs in Tomato Sauce/Soutzoukakia
Greek Meatballs in Tomato Sauce/Soutzoukakia

500g minced pork
500g minced beef
100g panko breadcrumbs
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
15ml ground cinnamon
5ml ground cumin
10ml salt
1 egg, beaten
150ml olive oil

Tomato Sauce:
45ml olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 x 400g tin tomato purée
500ml water
4 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped
1 bay leaf
20ml sugar
1,2ml ground cumin
1,2ml smoked paprika
5ml salt

Add all the ingredients for the meatballs to a mixing bowl and mix it through with your hands.
Now shape the mixture into 30-40 fat sausages and place on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

For the Tomato Sauce:
Add the olive oil to a saucepan set over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and garlic and fry until soft and translucent.
Add the tomato purée and stir-fry for 1 minute.
Add the water, thyme leaves, bay leaf, sugar, cumin and paprika and simmer until the sauce has thickened.
Remove the bay leaf and blitz the sauce with a hand blender until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 220℃ and cover the bottom of an oven tray with a thin layer of oil.
Transfer the meatballs to this tray and bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes.
Now put the tomato sauce back on the heat and add the meatballs to it. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Serve with basmati rice as a main or in the sauce as a Meze.

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Greek Shortbread with Lemon Curd

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Greek Shortbread with Lemon Curd
Greek Shortbread with Lemon Curd

250g butter, room temperature and cubed
115g cornflour
340g flour
115g icing sugar, sifted
1 x batch Lemon Curd from this blog

Add the butter, cornflour, flour and icing sugar to the bowl of a food processor and process until the ingredients almost come together in a ball. The mixture is very dry and needs to be scraped down every now and then between processing. Keep going until you can squeeze clumps together between your fingers.
Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180℃ and spray a miniature muffin tin with cooking spray.
Break pieces of the dough off and press it very tightly into the muffin holes so that it fills it almost to the top.
Bake the shortbread for 15 minutes.
Remove the baking tin from the oven and immediately make indents on the surface of each shortbread by pushing down firmly on it with the back of a 15ml measuring spoon.
Return the tin to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.
Remove and cool the shortbread in the muffin tins.
Spoon a teaspoonful of lemon curd into each hollow to serve.

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Stuffed Tomatoes/Tomatakia Gemista

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Stuffed Tomatoes/Tomatakia Gemista
Stuffed Tomatoes/Tomatakia Gemista

12 large tomatoes
2,5ml sugar
200ml olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 onions, finely chopped
200g rice/orzo pasta
400ml chicken stock
50g pine nuts, toasted
half a batch of Greek Pesto (Search this blog for the recipe)
50g black olives, pitted and chopped

Preheat your oven to 180℃.
Cut a 2cm slice off the top of each tomato and scoop out the pulp – keep the pulp.
Sprinkle the inside of the tomato with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
Pack the tomatoes close together into a shallow ovenproof dish.
Heat 100ml olive oil, add the onion and garlic and stir-fry until the onion is soft – about 10 minutes.
Add the tomato pulp and simmer until reduced and concentrated in flavour.
Add the rice/pasta, stock and 10ml salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Simmer for another 15 minutes.
Add the pine nuts, greek pesto, feta and olives and stir through.
Spoon the rice mixture into the tomatoes and pour over the remaining olive oil.
Bake for one hour.
Serve the stuffed tomatoes at room temperature with an extra dollop of the Greek Pesto.

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Garlic Prawns/ Gambas

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Garlic Prawns/ Gambas
Garlic Prawns/ Gambas

This is a Meze classic, easy to put together and bursting with mediterranean flavours. Best served with crusty bread to mop up all the delicious leftover juices!

500g prawns, shelled and deveined
30ml olive oil
2,5ml crushed chilli flakes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
zest and juice of 1 lemon
a handful of parsley, chopped
20g butter
5ml Worcestershire sauce
5 drops tabasco

Add the olive oil to a frying pan and set it over medium-high heat.
Add the chilli flakes and 2 cloves of garlic and fry for a minute.
Add the prawn and stir-fry until cooked.
Add the lemon zest, juice and parsley and stir through.
Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the prawns into a serving dish.
Melt the butter in the same pan and mix in the Worcestershire sauce, tabasco and one clove of garlic.
Spoon the mixture over the prawns and serve with a crusty loaf of bread and a glass of wine.

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Tsatziki

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Tsatziki
Tsatziki

Tsatziki is an entire Greek summer on a plate and goes with anything: bread, roasted vegetables, meat and pita.

1 cucumber (English cucumber is perfectly fine) – 125ml grated and 83ml cut into small cubes
250ml yoghurt
1 clove of garlic, minced
juice of 1 lemon
2,5ml salt
olive oil

Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.
Grate the cucumber on the coarse side of a box grater – you need about 125ml when measured.
Now finely dice enough cucumber so that you have about 83ml.
Add the cucumber, yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice and salt to a mixing bowl and stir together.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes or stand at room temperature so that the flavours can develop.
Spoon the tsatziki into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil before serving.
Keep any leftover tsatziki covered in the refrigerator.

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Fresh Bloody Mary

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Fresh Bloody Mary
Fresh Bloody Mary

Tomato Juice:
1,5kg ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
10ml tomato paste
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
15ml lemon juice
salt and white pepper

Add the tomato and onion to a blender and process until smooth.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Pour the strained juice into a small saucepan and add the tomato paste and chilli to it.
Bring the mixture to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Skim the surface of the juice while simmering.
Take the saucepan from the heat, add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Cool the tomato juice and refrigerate.

For the Bloody Mary:
vodka
1 egg white, lightly beaten
coarse sea salt
olives
rosemary twigs

Dip the rim of a serving glass into the egg white and immediately dip it into the sea salt. Allow to dry.
Fill the glass with ice.
Mix together 150ml tomato juice and 30ml vodka and stir together.
Pour the juice and vodka over the ice and garnish with an olive studded rosemary twig.

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Baklava Cheesecake

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Baklava Cheesecake
Baklava Cheesecake

This Greek cheesecake takes the ever popular cheesecake to a whole new level. If you try one new recipe, it should be this one!!! Yields 16 slices.

12 sheets phyllo pastry
83ml butter, melted
250ml + 250ml pistachio nuts, finely chopped
62ml sugar
2,5ml ground cinnamon
1,2ml ground allspice
250g cream cheese, room temperature
250g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
83ml honey
62ml milk
45ml flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 220℃ and lightly spray a 22cm loose-bottom cake tin with cooking spray. Place the cake tin on a baking sheet.
Place one sheet of phyllo in the cake tin and very lightly press it onto the bottom and sides of the pan, leaving the extra pastry as an overhang at this stage. Brush the pastry with the melted butter.
Do the same with the 11 other phyllo sheets, brushing each and rotating the sheets slightly so that the corners are staggered. Set aside.
Add 250ml chopped pistachio, sugar, ground cinnamon and allspice to a mixing bowl and stir to mix.
Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the phyllo in the cake tin.
Place in the oven and bake for about 7 minutes or until the edges of the pastry are golden.
Remove and cool on a wire rack.
Turn your oven temperature down to 170℃.
Add the cream cheese and mascarpone to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Turn the mixer on to a low speed and mix until the mixture is smooth.
Add the honey, milk and flour with the machine running.
Finally add the eggs and, still on low speed, beat until just blended.
Pour the batter into the phyllo crust and bake for 1 hour or until the centre of the cheesecake is barely set.
Cool the cake on a wire rack for at least an hour and then cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate the cake overnight.
Take the cake from the baking tin and sprinkle with the 250ml chopped pistachio to serve.

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Elvis Sandwich

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Elvis Sandwich
Elvis Sandwich

This is MY version of the famous Elvis Presley sandwich!!

250g smoke, streaky bacon
4 slices soft white bread
peanut butter
golden syrup
2 ripe bananas, sliced
3 eggs
60ml milk

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Lay the bacon strips on the paper and cook in the oven until done. Set aside.
Spread the 4 slices of bread with peanut butter and drizzle with syrup.
Lay the cooked bacon on 2 slices of bread and top with the sliced banana.
Fold the sandwiches over.
Add the eggs, milk and 1,2ml salt to a shallow bowl and whisk together.
Lay one sandwich in the egg mixture for 20 seconds, press it down and then flip it over to soak the other side.
Set a frying pan over medium-high heat and add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Place the egg-soaked sandwich in the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes before flipping it over to fry for another 2-3 minutes.
Serve the sandwich immediately with background music by Elvis.

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Chocolate Seed Bars

by Karen ClaassenLeave a Comment on Chocolate Seed Bars
Chocolate Seed Bars

375ml oats
60ml desiccated coconut
80g chocolate, finely chopped
60ml linseeds
60ml chia seeds
1,2ml salt
30ml coconut oil
30ml maple syrup

Line a 20cm x 20cm baking tin with paper so that you have an overhang.
Add the oats, coconut, chia seeds and salt to a mixing bowl.
Add the chocolate, coconut oil and syrup to a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan with simmering water and stir to melt.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix through.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin and press it down into the pan with the back of a spoon.
Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Lift the bars out of the tin and cut into bars.
Store the chocolate seed bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.