Elegant Plus Magazine

Greek Cooking

July 1st, 2006 — elegantplusmagazine

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Greek Recipe Web-Sites

Greek cooking is one of my favorites. Lots of fresh ingredients, olive oil and a hint of the East. Sweets are usually very sweet with honey a main ingredient But also they tend to be eaten earlier in the day than after dinner. Delightful meals can also be made up of selection of delicious appetizers (mezedes) rather than the usual main course. A typical summer evening out would be spent feasting on such wonderful samplings washed down with some wine or ouzo in an outdoor setting of taverna tables and chairs spilling out onto the sidewalk. Not all Greek wines have resins in them (retsina), and they do produce some quite good, inexpensive non-resinated table wines. A personal favorite comes from the island of Santorini and is available occasionally in US wine shops.As would be expected seafood, olives and feta and other cheeses play a starring role and water loving vegetables such as lettuce are, at best, seasonal additions to the traditional diet. Unusual spicing like the addition of cinnamon to tomato sauces creates some unexpected but delicious twists. Spiced meats, fish and poultry are simply prepared — grilled or turned on a spit — in a healthy, low fat and tasty way. Rice or lemon roasted potatoes are a frequent accompaniment. Greek fast food is much healthier and consists of individual spinach and feta pies (spanikopita), cheese pies (tyropita) or kebabs or gyros pita sandwiches (spiced meats wrapped in pita with cucumber-yogurt sauces (tzatziki), onions and sometimes Greek french fries stuffed inside). American style fast food has made an appearance in recent years, but more traditional street food is still readily available - and in my opinion much better! So if you are looking for some new recipes and flavors here are some places to start!

FOR FUN!

The Classical Cookbook

Find out what the Ancient Greek & Romans ate! Try a few recipes for yourself. Great resource for your school Latin or Greek Club. Or throw an ancient banquet for your friends!

The Complete Greek Cookbook

The Complete Greek Cookbook contains the most comprehensive collection of Greek recipes ever published in this country with over one thousand variations of three hundred authentic recipes. They reflect a simplified modern approach to Greek cooking, step by step instructions, modified proportions of sugars, fats and oil, the use of instant foods and spices, tested short-cut methods and the use of appliances. Anecdotes and myths about the origins of these recipes makes this book fun to read and a treasure to have in the kitchen.

Theresa Karas Yianilos is of Greek parentage. She is reknowned for her expertise in cooking authentic Greek foods and has appeared in television and been written about in national magazines. She taught Greek cooking at the University of California at San Diego. She married Spero J. Yianilos. The family clan owned restaurants, commissaries and a confectionary factory in Buffalo and Tonawanda, New York and its environs. From all that experience, Mrs. Yianilos was able to blend old family Greek recipes with modern restaurant techniques that made her Greek cookbook a best seller.

The Greek Vegetarian:
More Than 100 Recipes Inspired by the Traditional Dishes and Flavors of Greece

There are 100 recipes herein, and they come from the traditions of Greek cuisine. No one is stretching just to make a dish vegetarian (oh, OK: there’s one recipe for vegetarian souvlaki). Only recently have Greeks gained the dubious title of biggest meat eaters in Europe, and even then all they did, according to the author, was make their plates bigger for the added meat. They still eat a diet rich in vegetables. Always have; always will.

But some specifics. Kochilas divides her book into Meze, the little dishes of Greece, and Main Meals, the pastas, soups, stews, casseroles, savory pies and breads, the egg dishes. There’s Beet and Apple Salad with a Yogurt Dressing, for starters. How about Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Salad? Or Arugula Salad with Wrinkled Olives and Orange Slices? The Classic Greek Bean Soup is included. So too is a dish of Potatoes Stewed with Kalamata Olives. The possibilities build, one upon the other. This book bursts with flavor the same way a vine-ripened, sun-warmed tomato bursts at the first bite. It will dribble down your chin if you’re not careful

More Greek Cookbooks We Recommend:

Greek Pastries and Desserts

The Ottoman Kitchen: Modern Recipes from Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, Lebanon, and Syria

The Foods of the Greek Islands