Category: Greek

Eggplant dip (baba ghanouj)

.Reading time 1 minute.

Eggplant dip (baba ghanouj)

Serves: 10

Fresh Baba Ganoush is the bomb.

Served with some oiled and grilled Turkish bread, you have heaven.

This straightforward recipe is about as traditional as I can find and we served it across a few days including a family dinner where it was a hit.

The effort is worth the reward.

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants
1 ½ tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 – 2 garlic clove
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sweet paprika
Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Finely diced tomato
Oiled, grilled Turkish bread slices to serve

Method

  1. Grill the eggplants whole over a gas flame, turning with tongs until the skin is evenly blistered and the flesh is soft. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to cool.
  2. Peel the eggplants and leave to drain for 15–20 minutes.
  3. Place the eggplant in a food processor with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and process until well combined and creamy. Add extra tahini, lemon juice or salt to taste.
  4. Scoop into a serving bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the oil into the well and sprinkle paprika, parsley and tomato on top.

Simple Open Moussaka with Yoghurt Dressing

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Simple Open Moussaka with Yoghurt Dressing

Serves: 4

We’ve been using a food service – Marley Spoon – for the past few months.

It came recommended and at its best, it is really pretty good; I certainly referred it onto a few friends.

You select your meals for the week and a few days later, a box is delivered containing individual paper bags for each meal and very clear recipe cards. The ingredients – especially the meat, poultry and seafood – are fresh, very high-quality and in their own chill-bags for the period they sit on your doorstep.

Each dish is relatively easy to prepare and except for one outlier where we were still hungry, a week where we seemed to eat Soba noodles every night, and one or two other meals that just didn’t quite make the taste grade, Marley Spoon has been great.

I say ‘has’ been great because this week, we stopped.

The convenience factor and the quality of packaging and instructions factor no longer trumped the value factor… and the meals just stopped feeling unique and the formula behind Marley Spoon seemed exposed to us.

When baby #3 arrives in June, I’d imagine we’ll start again, though for now, we just want to start cooking our own recipes again.

And having enough for lunches the next day.

And being rich again.

After tonight’s second last Marley Spoon dinner however, it turns out that Marley Spoon gifted us one better than just another week of their high-gloss recipe cards and crisp paper bags.

They gifted us this healthy Moussaka and it was really, very good.

Especially considering how easy it was to prepare.

Nothing beats a 3-hour Moussaka production on a Sunday afternoon, though equally, nothing beats a 30-minute Mousakka on a Thursday evening.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

Olive oil
2 eggplants
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500gm lamb mince (we had lean beef mince and it was just fine)
2 cups, chicken stock (hot)
2 cans, 400gm chopped tomatoes
1 lemon
200gm low-fat Greek-style yoghurt
60gm tahini
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
100gm baby rocket to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 220c. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Trim the ends from the eggplants and slice lengthways; you’ll need 12 – 16 slices about 5mm thick: 3 – 4 per person.
  2. Place the slices on the prepared tray and lightly brush with oil. Season and roast until softened and golden: around 15 – 20 minutes.
  3. Heat 1tbsp oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes until softened. Increase the heat to high, add the mince and cook, stirring over a high-heat for 5 minutes or until the mince is browned.
  4. Add the chicken stock and tomatoes to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered over a medium heat for 15 minutes or until thickened.
  5. Squeeze 2 tbsp lemon juice into a bowl. Stir in the yoghurt, tahini, combine well and season.
  6. Arrange an eggplant slice on each plate and spoon over some of the lamb mixture. Top with another slice of eggplant and repeat until all used. Top with a few dollops of the yoghurt dressing and serve with rocket leaves and a cold vino.

(Simple) Greek Chicken Gyros

.Reading time 1 minute.

(Simple) Greek Chicken Gyros

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a great lunch, so simple, fresh and healthy.

Marinate the chicken overnight and heat up the grill; a glass of cold white and a bowl of the salad on the side. By the pool, the boys loved it; everyone loved it.

A totally no-complaints lunch.

In fact, whatever the opposite of no-complaints is.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken breast fillets cut into strips
(Toasted) pita bread

Marinade

3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp low fat Greek yoghurt
1 ½ tbsp dried oregano

Tzatziki

2 Lebanese cucumbers
2 cups low fat Greek yoghurt
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salad

3 tomatoes diced
3 Lebanese cucumbers, diced
½ red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley leaves roughly chopped

Method

  1. Mix the marinade in a bowl, combine with the chicken in a ziplock bag and marinate for 2 – 24 hours.
  2. Heat your grill/BBQ over a high heat, thread the chicken on skewers, drizzle with a little oil and grill-until cooked.
    Toast the pita bread on the grill, basted with some oil.
  3. Meanwhile, mix the tzatziki ingredients in a bowl and the salad ingredients in another bowl.
  4. To serve, place chicken and salad in the center of the pita bread, top with the tzatziki and roll up tightly.

Spiced Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki

.Reading time 2 minutes.
FullSizeRender (14).jpg
Hello Tuesday! The week just got a whole lot better!

Serves: 4

This recipe by Tobie Puttock had us at ‘spice’ and ‘lamb’.

Spicy lamb is a last meal contender, right?

At 447 calories a serve, they’re not too bad though they make up strongly for this in taste: predictably, as you read through all the ingredients, they taste great.

A really special, warming midweek dish.

Served with tzatziki and a wonderful Pea, Snowpea, Almond and Feta salad and highly recommended.

Ingredients

2 tbsp extra virgin oil
¼ onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried chilli flakes (do 1tsp and don’t hold back!)
1 tbsp dried mint leaves
500gm minced lamb
Small handful, flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Small handful of dill, roughly chopped
1 egg, lightly whisked
100gm reduced fat feta cheese, crumbled
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Tzatziki to serve

Method

  1. Heat the olive oil in a small fry pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often for 2 minutes, until slightly softened though not coloured.
  2. Stir in the allspice, coriander, cumin, chilli flakes and mint and cook for a further minute. Take off the heat and set aside to cool.
  3. Place the lamb in a large bowl. Add the onion mixture, parsley, dill, egg, feta and season with the salt and pepper.
  4. Use your hands to mix everything well; shape the mixture into four patties, place on a tray and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
  5. Preheat a grill plate on high. Add the patties and cook for 3 – 4 minutes on each side until almost cooked through.
  6. Serve with a dollop of tzatziki.

Tzatziki

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

A bit boring I know, though a good, home-made tzatziki is pretty cool.

Low fat – if you do it with low, or zero fat yoghurt – and tasty with pretty much anything you can throw at it. Meat, crackers, vegetables.

No guilt.

Ingredients

1 Lebanese cucumber, coarsely grated
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
200gm low-fat (or fat free) Greek-style yoghurt
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
1 clove garlic, crushed

Method

  1. Put the grated cucumber in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and sprinkled with a pinch of salt. Set aside for 20 minutes or more to drain off the excess moisture.
  2. Place the salted cucumber, yoghurt, mint and garlic in a bowl and mix to combine. Season and enjoy for the next few days.

Prawn Saganaki

.Reading time 2 minutes.
0
The original… as supplied to me.

Serves: 4

This is a signature Ashes family recipe and it is right on the money. It tastes amazing, it’s warm and it’s filling.

Whether you use saganaki cheese or feta comes down to whether your name is Rob Ashes or Debbie Ashes. When I asked Rob about using saganaki, he said ‘nah, shit doesn’t melt’.

Deb feels the opposite and generally sneaks saganaki into the dish mid-oven. So perhaps this is a compromise and you should use a bit of both.

The other point to make is that if you can find packets of uncooked garlic prawns (the John West variety), get these and eliminate the garlic from the dish.

Otherwise, enjoy what is a fabulous dish and one I have thankfully enjoyed many times at the Ashes dinner table.

Ingredients

1kg medium prawns, shelled
3 ripe tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic
250gm feta cheese, sliced
250gm saganaki (or feta), sliced
2 tsp sugar
1 bay leaf
½ c olives
Good handful of coriander, chopped
Slices of sourdough
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. In a saucepan, saute the onions win the olive oil. Add the diced tomato, garlic (if using), bay leaf, sugar, olives and salt and pepper and enough water to keep moist and cook on a medium-low heat for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Heat the oven to 180c.
  3. Add the prawns and cook for a few minutes.
  4. Remote the saucepan from the heat and transfer the mixture to a casserole. Sprinkle the coriander over and then spread thin slices of the feta cheese on top. Top with sourdough bread and top with saganaki slices (or feta).
  5. Cook in the oven until the saganaki cheese has melted (or should have melted). 10 to 15 minutes.

Arni Psito (Greek Roast Lamb)

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6

This dish a classic recipe from my incredibly capable mother.

She cooked this countless times for us as teenagers and we had it again last night and my two boys loved it. Talk about a generational recipe!

The original recipe is from the New York Times Cookbook, though she adapted it so that the onions, parsley and mushrooms cook on top, caramelise and blacken. This is where the genius of this dish comes from and I just cannot recommend it enough.

We had it with Greek potatoes, green beans and a wonderful Greek salad and the memories came rushing back.

Thank you Ellen for introducing me to food. What a life skill and fantastic way to spend a weekend!

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb
Salt and pepper
Dried oregano
Chopped garlic or garlic powder
¼ c butter, melted
Juice of 1 lemon
Diced onion
Chopped parsley
Sliced or chopped dried mushrooms

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 250 C and place the lamb on a rack.
  2. Season the lamb with salt, pepper, oregano and garlic.
  3. Arrange the onion, parsley and mushrooms over the lamb and carefully pour over the butter and lemon juice.
  4. Add ½ cup of water to the pan and roast for 20 minutes.
  5. Add another ½ cup water, lower the temperature to 180 C and roast for 22 minutes per 450gm, basting occasionally.
  6. Serve the lamb with the juices and vegetables spooned over.