Yellow, Spicy Griddle Crackers

Wednesday March 16th, 2016Wednesday March 16th, 2016 aglaia 2 Comments

Based on my usual bread dough to which I substituted cornmeal for the barley, and added a lot more spices, especially turmeric and cumin, which give it a warm, earthy flavor and a vivid yellow color to make the Yellow Spicy Bread.

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For these irresistible, crispy crackers we shaped part of the dough into thin oval pita-like pieces and baked them on the saç! Our latest love affair with the hot-plate I brought from Istanbul inspired us to make other savory and sweet dishes pies, besides these crispy breads.

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The crackers can be easily baked on any griddle or skillet. Depending on the size of the one you will use, take smaller pieces of dough, and flatten them so that they can easily fit on your griddle or hot-plate.

Makes 16 large crackers

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Yellow, Spicy Bread

Wednesday March 16th, 2016Wednesday March 16th, 2016 aglaia 2 Comments

This is a bread with bold flavor, based on my usual dough to which I substituted cornmeal for the barley, and added a lot more spices, especially turmeric and cumin, which give it a warm, earthy flavor and a vivid yellow color.

Yellow-Bread-&-Taramosalata Yellow-BREAD1-Sw

You can shape it into loaves, or you can use the dough to make olive-and-leek-stuffed rolls, or larger pies.

The irresistible, crispy crackers that we created baking thin oval pita-like pieces of dough on the saç our favorites! Our latest love affair with the hot-plate I brought from Istanbul inspired us to make these yellow crackers, as well as other savory and sweet dishes. The crispy breads can be easily baked on a griddle. Depending on the size of the one you can use take out pieces of dough and flatten then so that they fit on your hot-plate.

Yields 2-3 medium loaves, or laganes –focaccia-like breads

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My Green Taramosalata

Monday March 14th, 2016Monday March 14th, 2016 aglaia 1 Comment

Lately I have moved from rengosalata –smoked herring or kipper spread— our family’s traditional Kathari Deftera spread, back to the common taramostalata –carp or cod roe spread.

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Fortunately, we can now get good quality carp roe, a far cry from the salty and tasteless, red-dyed one, that was the basic ingredient for the iconic meze. I guess my mother had chosen to make the more time-consuming smoked herring spread because she couldn’t stand the pink, salty, yet flavorless taramosalata that the majority of taverns and homes served.

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She prepared rengosalata using the roe of smoked herring (kipper) carefully choosing a herring with swollen belly to make sure it had enough roe for the spread. In the turn of the 20th century wealthy Athenians used Russian caviar, or avgotarraho for the iconic, elegant Kathari Deftera meze. (more…)

Tarama Spread (Taramosalata) or Smoked Herring (Rengosalata)

Monday March 14th, 2016Monday March 14th, 2016 aglaia 1 Comment

Fortunately, now we can get good quality carp roe –a far cry from the salty and tasteless, red-dyed one– so you can choose to make either taramosalata, or the more smoky-pungent rengosalata, using herring eggs, if you find them, or just the smoked fillets for the spread.

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Mine is not pink, but light green, as I use almost the entire, juicy scallions from my garden. The recipe evolved from my mother’s rengosalata –smoked herring or kipper spread– the meze she always served on Kathari Deftera (clean Monday), instead of the more common taramosalata.

An official holiday, Clean Monday marks the end of the Carnival and the beginning of spring. It is probably the continuation of ancient pagan feasts that have been incorporated to the Christian tradition. People eat outdoors —even if the moving feast happens on a cold February day— they fly kites, consume lots of wine and ouzo, and dance until sunset. See MORE here, and also in my previous post about some of the food I had prepared, and if you like, read a more extensive account about the customs and roots of this unusual Greek feast, and also about the lunch I had organized at the Oxford Symposium inspired by Kathari Deftera.

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Chocolate and Nut Skillet Pies

Wednesday March 9th, 2016Wednesday March 9th, 2016 aglaia 1 Comment

Adapted from Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

Skillet pies –tiganokouloures or tiganopsoma in Greek, and gözleme or saç böreği in Turkish— have become our everyday project these days. Read more HERE.

Gozleme-chocolate-Sw My version of a delicious skillet pie inspired by the Turkish gözleme and it is easy to make, provided you can roll phyllo. Unfortunately, the frozen commercial kinds cannot be used. In some parts of the US fresh yufka sheets are available. If you have a pasta machine it is easy to make your own thin phyllo strips and to create rectangular or square gözleme. See the basic recipe for Spinach, Herb and Feta Skillet Pies.

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They may look different from the traditional pies, but they will be equally delicious, as they toast to crispy perfection.

I decided to use the same technique and make sweet, dessert pies: I chopped bitter-sweet chocolate, added half a crumbled cinnamon-flavored, olive oil cookie, a cup of toasted almonds and walnuts, and a good sprinkling of cinnamon; I moistened the mixture with two teaspoons light cream, and with this filling we made the last six pies. The aroma, as they cooked on the hot-plate, was wonderful!

Serves 6-8

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