Sfougato*... (it's easy to learn it, just try to pronounce it slowly and loudly)

Sfougkato (eggs in the oven)

Ingredients
1 kg zucchini cut into thick pieces 

1 bunch  of green onions  

1 handful of dill 

5 eggs

1/2 kg feta cheese

1 tbl spoon toasted bread (crumbs) or semolina 

Salt, Pepper

Procedure

Wither the zucchini with the onions in a pan with a bit of water.

As soon as they have "drunk" all the water, add the dill and let it cool.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, add the feta, season with pepper and salt (be careful with the salt, as feta is already salty enough for your food) and then add the bread or the semolina. Mix everything with the zucchini, onions and dill and pour the mixture into a round oven pan (diametre of 30 or 32) and bake in 250o C until there is a golden yummy colour crust on the top.

Enjoy!!!

*Literally meaning "like a sponge" and it's mainly a recipe coming for the islands of Northern Aegean.

Spaghetti Bolognese a la greque(light and deli)

Spaghetti bolognese (light version)

Well, everyone knows how to boil spaghetti, and prepare some minced meat in a pan, with tomato sauce, olive oil, onion, garlic, salt-pepper-sugar and parsley... Add a bit of cinnamon and you're ready to go. Just make sure that you have cooked the meat enough and that you added a bit of olive oil in the boiling water for  the pasta so as not to stick.

Enjoy!!!

PS: If the above sounds actually complicated, just put everything in a pan, all together, add a glass (or 2 depending on how much meat you have) water and let it get done!!

Mushroom delice

Whatever consists of mushrooms (small, big, poisonous or not), is on my list of plates that I can never have enough!
For now I will appose an easy, breazy recipe that we eat a lot as a starter.
Visiting the L.A. (Laiki Agora= open market with fresh vegetables, fruits... plants whatever) you can find mushrooms of all kinds (especially beginning of Spring and end of October). For this plate, I used the delicious pleurotus with their full and juicy flesh.

Pleurotus Mushroom Delice

Take 4-5 nice pleurotus mushrooms, clean them from the dirt with a soggy towel and cut them into small pieces of 4-5cm.
In a pan, warm 2 tbl spoons of olive oil, add 1 (or even 2) gloves of garlic, chopped nicely. After 2 minutes, add the mushrooms, season them with salt and pepper and stir them around the pan. In 5 minutes the mushrooms are ready (try them with a fork to be sure). Turn off the fire, add slowly 2 tbl spoons of balsamic vinegar and a good portion of chopped fresh parsley. Stir everything together and it's ready!

For an extra tip of flavour, you can add pine cones or unsalted peanuts.

Enjoy!!! 

4 ways to combine fruit and spicy!

Stawberry, Tutti fruiti, Cherry and Peach marmalade

After April, when the first strawberries start to come out, it's not Spring anymore.. It's marmalade season!

This year, I made four kinds; strawberry with cinnamon, peach with nutmeg, cherry with vanilla and tutti fruiti with mint. 

All marmalades are made following the same procedure; 

For the stawberry and cinnamon:

1kg strawberries

500gr sugar

juice of 1 lemon

Cinnamon (a tip of a teaspoon) - try it and see if you need a more intense flavour

Cut the green cap and wash the strawberries very well, dry them and put them into a pot adding the sugar. Make sure that the sugar has covered all the fruits. Leave it like that for about 30 minutes, until the sugar helps the strawberries get their juice out. 

Put the pot on medium fire, and after 7-10 minutes, remove carefully the foam that will be produced. 

After finishing with that, pour the lemon juice and stir slowly and if you want, melt with a fork the fruits that haven't melt yet (personally I don't mind tasting the whole fruit in my marmalade, it's up to you).

In a total of 25 minutes your marmalade should be ready. After you take it off the fire, season with the cinnamon, stir the mixture and let it cool. 

In order to make sure that your marmalade is jello-done, take a small portion and pour on a cold plate. Let it cool and then pass your finger so as to create a corridor; if the marmalade reconnects immediately and easily then it's not quite done and you will need to bring it to boil a second time. It's ok... it happens often and sometimes it's preferable than to burn the marmalade!!!

Note:

1) Normally the propotion between fruit and sugar is 1kg of fruits to 1kg of sugar. Though for my taste this becomes super sweet. Again personal taste! You try it and you see it!

2) Strawberry goes amazingly well with Mastiha (the natural gum from Chios island). In 1kg of strawberries, add 2 smashed tears, or a bit more than the tip of a tea spoon. It will turn your marmalade bitter, if you overdo it.

Breakfast with your homemade marmalade

Enjoy!!!

Sardine & European Anchovy (Sardela & Gavros)

Summer without fish is like Christmas without pork (or turkey, whatever you prefer!)
You can find these small beautiful fish throughout Greece startng from Spring and going all the way till end of September.

I love them in particular cause you can eat the whole fish (bones, skin, meat and anything that comes with that)... all in one bite!

Baked Sardines and Anchovies with Olive oil and Lemon served with boiled greens

Ask your fisherman to prepare the fish for you (cut the heads, if you don't want them, and remove the intestine).

Marinate the fish with a good portion of olive oil, a bit of salt, a pinch of pepper and a generous amount of oregano. After 10 minutes spent wisely into the marinade, pour the fish with lemon juice (that's the magic of cooking..if you want it super sour you can add 10lt of lemon juice, otherwise the juice of 2 lemons should be enough).

Lay a piece of baking paper in an oven pan and spread the fish around comfortably and bake for approximately 20 minutes using the grill mode.

Fish is amazingly accompanied with fresh greens (swiss chard or other green-leaf vegetables - vlita, ampelofasoula ki alles prasinades). 

boiled in plenty of water with a pinch of salt.

Enjoy! 

The beginning is half the battle... foodwise of course!

Ah, this blog has its own story that adds actually almost 4 years!
I went, I came, and now I'm going back so I guess after seeing what people around the world are eating, it felt like an inner obligation to share some of the delicious homemade food pictures and recipes that my culture, mom, grandma and some books have inherited to me!
So the concept is: I cook and photograph the food that we eat at home every day during the summer.
I chose summer, because that's when I spend my time in Greece, but also because you can find the freshest veggies and fruits and fish and.. oh you can find that in winter here as well, but anyway I probably love summer more :P
This collection of recipes is highly recommended (by me!) as a healthy guide to keep your weight balanced and maintain your Greek goddess' silhouette! You cook wisely, you eat everything and you make sex sounds while eating - this latest is the one that burns the calories while you actually consuming them!

Freshly cut and refreshing watermelon 

Enjoy!!!

PS: I have an internal charisma of inventing words.. so if something doesn't sound like proper English, try to find out the meaning out of the concept of the text!