Preheat your oven to 160℃ and spray a 26cm x 11cm loaf tin with cooking spray. Add the 30ml olive oil to a frying pan set over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the 15ml oil and the chopped spinach and cook for another 3 minutes or so, until wilted. Spoon the spinach into a bowl and add the eggs, mint, dill, feta, Kefalotir/parmesan, 2,5ml salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes. Slice the omelette and serve with fresh tomato.
This Greek beetroot salad is refreshing, earthy, creamy and crunchy – all at the same time!!
600g beetroot 45ml olive oil zest and juice of 1 lime 2 cloves of garlic, minced 10ml red wine vinegar 30ml parsley, chopped 320g yoghurt 50g pistachio nuts, chopped
Preheat your oven to 180℃. Wash the beetroot and wrap each individually in aluminium foil. Bake for one hour and then allow to cool. Peel the cooked beetroot and cut into small dice. Set aside. Add the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, garlic and red wine vinegar to a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the diced beetroot and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Add the yoghurt and half of the chopped pistachio and gently mix through. Scatter the rest of the nuts over the salad and serve.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My Whisk and I 