GrEek BeeTs!!…..Pickled beets / παντζάρια τουρσί (padzaria toursi)

I’m a huGE fan of food preservation!

My ultimate goal in life is to have a garage, 5 pantries and all the under house storage stacked with preserved food!……a little excessive, I AM aware!…but I get all warm & fuzzy inside knowing that there is always a stash of garden harvest, pickling, preserving, fermenting in every corner of my house. Labelled methodically, stored like a library (maybe even catalogued!), documenting when, where, what, how- oh the joy!….(insert ‘food looney’ here.)

Anyhooo!!….pickled beets are one of my faves!!….

Greeks eat beets!!…The whole beet!!…..steamed or boiled as a warm salad, with lashings of olive oil, garlic & vinegar or lemon…or lovingly pickled, known as τουρσί/toursi.

Beets are not the only ones famous in toursi – cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, celery, banana chilli, green tomatoes can also make an appearance, preserved using the same method.

And so, my life long preservation journey continues……….

Need:

5 small or 2 large beetroot, with leaves & stalks
6 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tblspn thyme honey or sugar
1 Tblspn salt
1 tspn coriander seeds
a handful of fresh parsley or dried oregano (rigani) stalks
4 cups of good white wine vinegar

Make:

Sterilize a 1L wide mouth glass jar.

Place a full pot of water to boil on the stove.
Cut beetroot away from stalks.
Peel beets and clean off any bruising.
Chop into cubes.
Thoroughly wash beet leaves and stalks, and chop into 1 inch pieces.
When water is boiling, plunge cubed root, chopped stalks & leaves into it and simmer for 15mins – don’t overcook beets, mushy ones are no good here!

In the meantime, prep the pickling solution -
In a separate saucepan, heat vinegar, honey, salt, coriander seeds, garlic and parsley together until simmering, 5 mins. Remove from heat.

When beets are ready, drain and place into sterile jar.
Pour hot vinegar solution over them, filling all the way to the brim.
Screw lid on.
Allow to cool.
Store in fridge.
Will keep forever, pretty much!

…..Eat with a hunk of feta or as a side to bakaliaro me skorthalia /salt cod with garlic mash

Αμυγδαλοτά

Amigthalotá

Τυροκαφτερή (Ti-ro-ka-fte-ri)

Hot chilli feta

Ingredients:

200g feta

dried chilli flakes (as hot as you like it)

pinch of rigani (Greek oregano)

Extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Place feta into a food processor and whizz until loose.

Add the dried chilli flakes.

Spoon into a heatproof serving bowl or ramekin

Place under the grill and cook untl a golden crust forms and is all steamy and bubbly.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle oregano.

Serve hot with a pile of warm pita bread to scoop!

Don’t forget the cold beer….

Book here…

Gather around Aphrodite’s table

and join Vicki Peppos on a Spring food odyssey….

Marry gorgeous Spring lamb from LambDirect and beautiful Spring produce with ancient Greek flavours. Learn dolmathes, mussels ‘Macedonian’, white taramosalata, saganaki, sticky bougatsa and loads more!

Hellenic ‘gefsi’ with a feast, facts and affection (and a second helping!)

More class info…

Drag a friend, partner, mum or dad along & come cook together!

Book one class in August & get a 2nd spot in the same class
at ½ price!
(offer valid for bookings made in August 2010 only)

Limited spots!…Book Now!

It’s never too cold for cake…..especially a greedy sticky wedge of this!!

Cake ingredients::

250g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
4 free range eggs
zest of 2 lemons
250g fine semolina
150g almond meal
100g organic plain unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g plain Greek yoghurt
3 tbsp lemon juice

For the syrup::
150g sugar
2 tbsp honey
250ml water
1 cinnamon stick

For the topping::
300ml thickened cream
3 heaped Tblsp Greek yoghurt
A handful of roasted flaked almonds

Method::

For the cake::
Pre-heat oven to 170C.
Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
Gradually add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one, then add the zest and beat until combined.
In a separate bowl, mix together the semolina, flour and baking powder.
Add the almond meal.
Gently fold the mix through the egg mixture.
Add the yoghurt and lemon juice and continue to gently fold until combined.
Pour into a well greased 20cm baking tin and bake in the oven for about 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

For the syrup::
Meanwhile, make the syrup.
Bring the sugar, honey, water and cinnamon to the boil.
Bring to simmer for a few minutes then remove from the heat.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly before ladling over the hot syrup, a little at a time.

To serve::
Beat the cream until soft peaks form.
Fold in the yoghurt.
Spoon generous dollops of the yoghurt cream on top of cake, scatter roasted flaked almonds and serve.

……Ohtapódi stifátho

There’s a whole bunch of you recently who have packed your bags & jumped onto a plane, destined for warm Aegean waters & sun….

I instead have dived into my cookbooks, pouring over pictures of long lunches devoured under bougainvilleas, dreaming of endless walks through olive groves, gorging on sun worshipping stone fruit…mosquitoes & sunburn….peak season airport queues & luggage delays,……

Well I figured, it’s not so bad down under…..especially if you can get your hands on a few nice, big fat juicy legs of an octopus and pour some mediterranean sunshine into your kitchen with this heavenly & soul warming braise (minus the sunburn)…..

1 octopus (about 1 to 1.5kg)
1 kg small onions or shallots, peeled and left whole
1 whole head of garlic, cloves roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 Tblspn red wine vinegar
1 glass dry red wine
3 Tblspn tomato paste
5-6 whole allspice berries
a few bay leaves
1 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper
2 Tblspn sugar

Find a man called Spiros Mitsopoulos with a speargun and take him to a Halkithiki beach with clear blue waters and rocky ledges where ohtapothi like to hide.

After three swigs of tsipouro and by the time you say “Opa”, he’ll appear with an ohtapothi on his spear…

Ask him to pull out the stomach, ink sack and the beak.

He must then throw the ohtapothi against the rocks 40 times and then rub it against them to tenderize it.

He’ll know how to do this with his eyes closed or his name isn’t Spiros Mitsopoulos!

If you can’t find Spiro, get your spunky fishermonger to clean the head, stomach, ink sac and beak for you.

Place the whole octopus in a pot with enough boiling water to cover and bring to simmer.

Cook for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and drain.

When cool enough to handle, rub the octopus with your hands under running water to remove the dark outer membrane. This can also be done ‘Japanese style’ with a clean stainless scourer.This membrane comes off fairly easily, but don’t stress too much if it doesn’t all come off.

Cut octopus into approx 1 inch chunks.

In a large pot, heat up olive oil and saute onions with sugar until golden.

Add octopus chunks, and cook for a further 5 mins, stirring frequently.

Add tomato paste and stir.

Cut tomato into chunks over pot and stir.

Add garlic, allspice berries, bay, salt & pepper and stir.

Add wine and vinegar.

Cover and cook for 35-45 mins or until octopus is really tender and sauce has reduced.

Serve to Spiro with lots of bread to mop up juices and more tsipouro!

nb. Octopus shrinks during cooking, so be prepared to see less of what you started with by dinner time.

Want more Greek soul food?……braises and slow food cooking all throughout July & August…

Check out our Winter Comfort cooking classes here!

Zorba the meat

Vicki Peppos will share the art of cooking a Greek roast in her upcoming cooking classes.

15 Jun 2010 | Neos Kosmos English Edition

CATHERINE KLADAKIS

A slow-cooked lamb roast is the perfect antidote to a cold Winter’s Day, according to cooking school owner Vicki Peppos. Peppos should know as she is preparing to run a cooking class about the art of roasting meat.

“I knew that I had to add Greek lambs to it,” chuckles cooking teacher Vicki Peppos as she speaks of her upcoming cooking event, Zorba the Lamb.

Eager to share the Greek love affair of roasting, The Sweet Greek cooking kitchen founder will be running two roasting classes as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival’s The Roast Collection.

Peppos’ interactive cooking demonstrations will include three lamb roasts, a traditional Greek chicken roast and three wintry vegetable dishes: carrots with cumin and marjoram, roasted beetroot with feta cheese, and roasted leeks with apples, honey and aniseed.

“If you look historically, a lot of spices that we associate with Middle Eastern foods such as cumin were used in Ancient Greek recipes,” she points out.

Ethically conscious in her approach to food, Peppos has sourced her meat from Echuca based farm Lamb Direct, a company that not only takes care towards its livestock and the environment but delivers fresh, tender meat direct to her door.

“I am using a few cuts of lamb that people might not necessarily feel confident about roasting such as the neck of the lamb and the shoulder boned and de-boned,” she said.

Peppos will also focus in on region specific recipes such as Lamb Kleftiko from Santorini.

Otherwise known as Stolen Lamb, Peppos’ slightly tweaked Lamb Kleftiko recipe is a tummy warming roast of lamb neck, feta, hunks of bread, and fresh tomatoes.

In another dish, Peppos will stuff the top portion of a lamb leg with creamy and salty kefalograviera cheese, spinach, garlic, lemon zest, and wrap the leg in vine leaves.

“The vine leaves just give the dish a lemony tanginess and seals in the moisture while it cooks, and so in the end you’ve got this beautiful succulent lamb on the inside and this almost translucent vine leaf on the outside that’s crispy like a chip,” she says.

Whilst there is no right or wrong way of cooking a Greek inspired roast, Peppos acknowledges that roasting is an art that requires more than just throwing it in the oven, crossing your fingers, and looking at it 45 minutes later.

“Part of the challenge of roasting is trying to keep the meat moist and I find that a lot of Greeks overcook their lamb,” she says.

“You want to give the cut you’re using respect and overcooking and charring it to carbon is not doing that animal that died for your meal justice.

You’ve got to keep an eye on it, and cover it first so that it retains its juices, whether it’s with baking paper, or vine leaves.

“You have to know when to take off the parchment paper to its colour. Roasting time depends on the oven you’re using, whether it’s conventional or wood fire, which will take longer to cook.”

Peppos adds that a common mistake that people make when cooking a traditional kotopoulo and patates lemonades (Greek lemon roast chicken and potatoes) is placing it in the oven without any covering whatsoever.

“I believe it is important to cover it and then towards the end take off the cover to give it colour. Otherwise it might crisp and burn on the outside whilst the inside remains semi raw.”

She reveals that her must-have ingredient for a winning lamb roast is good quality extra virgin olive oil.

Peppos also highlights the importance of liberally salting the dish before cooking so that it penetrates through the meat, rather than sitting on the top.

The cut of meat is a personal choice, says Peppos.

“For me when the meat has been cooked on the bone it’s always a lot more enjoyable because you’ve got that bone element adding that flavour while you’re eating. However if you’re creating a stuffed meat dish, it’s easier to use de-boned meat as it will contain the stuffing more easily.”

Peppos will share more of her roasting secrets during the Zorba the Roast cooking classes on June 12 and 26. For more information visit www.thesweetgreek.com.au