Meat with kritharaki* (special pasta)

This dish is also a super traditional one and a classic Sunday lunch! It's easy to prepare but it does require some time. It's delicious and I always get excited when the house smells of it.

Meat with kritharaki

So here we go taking 1kg of nicely cut pieces of veal (neck or shoulder) and frying it with chopped onion in a deep casserole with 2 table spoons of olive oil until it gets brown all around. When the veal is well secured from all sides, we add 2 grated tomatoes, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar. Add water enough to cover the meat and let it boil. It requires 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces.

In an oven pan or a pyrex, spread the kritharaki, season it with salt and pepper and then add the meat with its sauce. Bake it for 30-40 minutes at 190-200o C.

NOTE
The water that is left in the casserole with the meat has to be 3 1/2 times the amount of kritharaki before you pour it into the oven pan or pyrex. So the proportion is 1 part of kritharaki - 3 1/2 parts water (the sauce of the meat in this case).

*Kritharaki is a special kind of pasta made from barley and it is very very popural is Greek cuisine. We love it!!

Enjoy!!!

Pork steak with honey

Last minute call food..

Put a pork steak in an oven pan; cut an onion and a tomato into round pieces. Add some potatoes around. Season with salt and pepper. Pour on the top a mixture of 2 parts of olive oil, 1 part of honey and 1 part of mustard.
Add 2 glasses of water and bake it for 30 minutes in 220o C.

Pork steak with honey

Enjoy!!!

Pastitsio (Pasta with meat and bechamel)

Well, well.. I guess you're all familiar with mousaka.. the famous Greek Mousaka! This recipe below is for the second most known and super Greek mom's food.. Pastitsio! It's a classic Sunday's lunch.. it requires some time to be completed but it's rather easy for its looks and preparation! So here we go:

Pastitsio

Ingredients
1 pack of macaroni No 2*
1kg minced meat (pork and veal or just veal)
1 big onion
500gr chopped tomatoes with their juice
2 handfulls of parsley
Salt, Pepper, Sugar, 3 Carnation sticks, 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
300gr feta cheese

For the bechamel
1 1/2 cup of butter
8 tbl spoons of flour
1lt full fat milk (ok ok... you can do it with light as well)
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg

Pastitsio and its layers

Procedure
Boil your macaroni and set it aside as soon as it's done.

In a deep frying pan, add 2 tbl spoons of olive oil and fry the chopped onion. Add the meat and stir it thoroughly until it gets the nice brown colour all over it. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, a bit of sugar, the cinnamon and the carnation sticks and cook the meat until it's done in low fire(about 20-25minutes). Add the fine chopped parsley at the very end.

In a pot, melt the butter and add the flour stirring quickly until the flour is nicely adjusted with the butter and there are no little flour balls hanging around. Pour the milk and again use your strong muscles to whisk everything together until you have a nice creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

In the big over pan, lay down your macaroni and spread around the crumbled feta cheese. Pour on the top the meat, spread it evernly over the macaroni. Lastly, pour the bechamel over the minced meat and again make it look nice. Season on the top of the bechamel some nutmeg and bake it for about 1 hour at 220o C. Untill it gets this famous brown colour on the top!

Tip: You can mix your bechamel with 200gr of yellow soft cheese for extra flavour.


Enjoy!!!


*It may be difficult to find it in other countries, unless you visit a market with greek products. Otherwise, penne type will be as good. All we need is the chumby macaroni with the big hole end to end (sexy!)

Filled Zucchini Avgolemono

Zucchini!!! You gotta love it!

Filled Zucchini Avgolemono

Ingredients
11 zucchini
1kg minced meat (pork and veal, or only veal)
2 fresh green onions
1 handfull of dill
1 espresso cup of rice
1 tomato
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Avgolemono
1 egg
Juice of 1 lemon

Procedure
Wash the zucchini and remove the flesh, either with the special gadget or with a little spoon. Keep the flesh aside.
Mixe the minced meat with the onions, the dill, the rice and the tomato. Season with salt and pepper.
Fill the zucchini with the mixture of meat. In a deep casserole, lay the flesh of the zucchini at the bottom (this will prevent the food of getting burnt). Then lay on the top the stuffed zucchini. Season with salt and pepper and pour the juice of the half lemon. Add water till a bit over the half of the zucchini and let it be cooked for around 45 minutes. It's better if you have the cover of your casserole on but not sealed closed.

As soon as they are done, bit the egg with the lemon juice adding 2 table spoons of the juice of the food. Mix together nicely and pour in the casserole. Again, make sure that your zucchini have been away from the fire for at least 10 minutes before you pour the avgolemono in it.

Enjoy!!!

Soutzoukakia*(Smyrna meat balls with red sauce)

BE CAREFULL! THIS FOOD MAY KILL YOU!

And that's not because it has something that can kill you, but because you cannot eat only one normal portion... you have to finish the casserole. You leave the kitchen and you're afraid that someone else is going to eat the last piece and you're gonna miss it out. You dream about it... You even take the last piece out of your sister's mouth (...never happened!)

Soutzoukakia (meat balls with red sauce)

For the soutzoukakia
1/2kg minced meat from veal
2 slices of bread (2 days old)
1 clove of garlic
salt, pepper, cumin (a bit less than a teaspoon)

Moisture the bread and crumble it on the meat. Mix all the ingredients together.
Mold the mixture like meat balls but give them a more cylindrical shape.
Fry them in butter mixed with olive oil.
Leave them aside.

For the red sauce
Clean the remaining butter-oil mixture from the meat that may have been left over and transfer it in a deeper pot. Add 1/2kg tomatoes (passed from the multi chopper or ultimate chopper or that pot with the really sharp blades anyway). Season with salt, pepper, sugar and cumin. Cook for 5minutes and then add a cup of dry wine (red, white, it doesn't matter). Cook it for another 15minutes until the sauce is not watery anymore. Add the soutzoukakia and cook for 10 minutes.
Accompany it with rice or french fries!


Enjoy!!!!

*Soutzoukaki, pl. soutzoukakia

Meat with Zucchini Avgolemono (egg-lemon sauce)

Sundays are known for their impressive and most of the times complicated lunches, mainly I guess because we have more disposable time to spend in the kitchen... Though today was a quite busy Sunday I should say, but in order not to miss out in impressiveness we cooked this:

Meat with Zucchini avgolemono

What you're going to need is:
1kg veal cut in pieces (you can buy a piece from the  neck or better the shoulder)
10 small zucchini
2 green onions
1 handful of dill
Juice of 2 lemons
1 egg
Salt-Pepper

Boil the meat until it gets soft (depending on the size of the pieces, you will need approximately 40-60 minutes. It doesn't have to melt, just try it with a fork and see if it has gotten soft)
In a pot add some olive oil and fry the zucchini (if some zucchini are big, you can cut them in the middle). Fry them until they take a nice colour all around. Add the chopped onions, the meat and the dill and season with salt and pepper. Cover the food with hot water and let it boil until there is only very little water (juice) left.
When it's done, remove from fire and let cool for 5-10 minutes.

Now, in a bowl bit the egg and add the lemon juice. Add 2 tablespoons of the juice of the meat (from the pot) and bit all three hard and quickly. Then pour the mixture into the pot with the meat and the zucchini. Your food has to be quite cool (or not very hot) before you pour the avgolemono,because otherwise your egg will become like omelette!

*Feta cheese is a must with this dish!

PS: Avgolemono is a very basic sauce in greek cuisine, so do your practice cause you're gonna need it for other recipes as well! It smells grandma actually! :)

Enjoy!!!