Koulouri / Greek Politiko Simiti

Koulouri is a sesame crusted bread ring from Greece. It is a street food sold by the vendors in Athens. Apparently it is a common snack for both Greeks and Turks and is believed to have been brought to Greece by Greek refugees from Asia Minor and Constantinople(Istanbul). In Turkey they go by the name of Simit or Susam kebabi meaning Sesame kebab. Though a derivative of the Turk Simit, the Politiko Simiti is quite distict from it. It is braided and given a generous coating of petimezi(Greek grape must syrup or grape molasses) before being rolled in sesame seeds and baked. The braiding lends a bagel-type texture to the Koulouri and the grape molasses gives it a mild sweetness, thereby making it a popular breakfast bread or teatime snack for the Greeks. 

Last month Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes challenged the members of Gayathri's Baking Eggless Group to bake an eggless version of these braided bread rings. The original recipe uses only one large egg, which wasn't much of a challenge to deal with. I simply replaced it with ¼ cup Greek yogurt. The real challenge however was to make the grape must syrup. Most recipes called for petimezi called for grape juice and wood ash. Now we do not have a fireplace or barbeque grill and I did not know where to get the wood ash from.. so after some considerations I decided to simply simmer the grape juice and make a syrup. I am not sure if the thickened grape syrup tasted anything like petimezi, but it was really good... Having said that I must add that though the grape syrup was great by itself, one could barely taste it in the bun. So unless you are in the mood for it, do not sweat it out. Simply substitute the syrup with an equal measure of honey and you are good to go.... 

But... in case you want to make the grape syrup my way here is how you can do it. For 2 cups of grape syrup, blend  5 cups of red grapes, strain the juice into a large saucepan. Over medium heat, bring the juice to a boil, skim off the foam that rises on top and simmer over medium low heat for the next 1½ to 2 hours, until the juice thickens and acquires the consistency of honey. This syrup can be used as a dipping syrup for the bread or served as a sauce with savory snacks. It also tastes good when served over Greek Yogurt or Frozen yogurt. 

Chicken kebabs baked in Yogurt Sauce

Chicken kebabs baked in Yogurt Sauce is a dish inspired by the Greek dish Keftedes Me Yiourti aka Meatballs baked in Yogurt Sauce.  I found the recipe in Diane Kochilas's cookbook  The Glorious Foods of Greece. In the original recipe  ground veal is used and I guess that makes everything different. The first time I tried the recipe using chicken in place of veal and the end product was not as delicious as I had expected it to be. so over my subsequent trials I tweaked the recipe here and there

until Mr MN and I were wowed by the present version.

I must mention here that I cut the ground chicken into square pieces rather than shaping them into discs or balls like conventional kebabs. That is just because it was the easier and a less messy thing to do. if you like, you can sweat a little more and shape the chicken mixture the way you like before baking them. But my guess is that the shape will not alter the taste. So why waste your time and energy ;-)

Zucchini Shoes and a casserole with left overs

The Zucchini Shoes recipe has been lying in my drafts for a very long time. I had baked it soon after Easter. the funny thing about this dish it that though we were not very excited about the zucchini shoes themselves, we loved the casserole that i made with the left over  chickpea filling and sauce. and since I had not taken any pictures of the casserole i deferred posting the recipe all together. anyway, last week there was some boiled chickpeas left over from another dish so i decided to bake "the casserole" again. and this time i clicked a few images before we gorged in.

you might wonder why the urgency of posting the recipe of the zucchini shoes if we did not love it. thats because i didn't know what to call my casserole and its easier to tell you the story this way. 

now the recipe of the zucchini shoes as adapted from Aphrodite Polemis's cookbook From a Traditional Greek Kitchen....

Orange Yogurt Cake with Syrup (Yaourtopitta me Syropi)

Yesterday I baked Orange Yogurt Cake and then poured tons of honey syrup over it. The recipe was Greek and i found it in Aphrodite Polemis's cookbook From a Traditional Greek Kitchen. 

besides wanting to bake something new and different, the thing that drove me to try this particular recipe was farina, one of the 'star' ingredients in the cake. i had never used farina before. in fact i had no idea as to what it was until yesterday. so you may say it was curiosity that made me try this cake. in case you too are ignorant about it, farina is a cereal food similar in texture to suji or semolina. once i saw how its texture was i thought, may be this cake was going to taste a bit like halwa. so i wasn't very surprised when the final product resembled a 'mithai' more than a cake. i mean cake in the sense of "birthday cake." however it is a nice sweet which i'll like plating out for Holi or Diwali or for Bijaya Dashomi, with an additional garnish of raisins and/or silvered almonds. though the recipe itself is pretty straight forward, soaking the cake in the syrup might take a while(at least it took my cake quite some time to absorb the syrup). so if you plan to bake it for any occasion, you'll probably want to get it done a day before.

Greek for Meatless Monday : Moussaka with Radish Salad

Last Monday I cooked Moussaka and Radish Salad for dinner.  Though we love Mediterranean food, we haven't ventured much into the vegetarian terrain. Usually whenever we eat out we order dishes loaded with chicken or lamb and enjoy it to bits. however cooking Greek for Meatless Mondays has been quite a revelation.  Mediterranean Veg dishes can be as delicious as the others.  (if not better). and the Greeks really know to play with their sauces and spices. I  think I am falling in love with Mediterranean food all over again....

Ok. Sorry. I got a little carried away. So, as popularly known and described by Lynn Livanos Athan, "Moussaka is a casserole made by layering eggplant with spiced meat filling then topping it off with a creamy bechamel sauce that is baked to golden perfection." I however spotted a vegetarian version of Moussaka in the book From a Traditional  Greek Kitchen : Vegetarian Cuisine and tried that out with some minor adaptations inspired by the Andy Harris's Zucchini Moussaka from Modern Greek. For the Radish Salad, I was faithful to the Aphrodite Polemis's recipe of Repanakia me Yaourti Salata .