Two more Greek food blogs

Thought some of you might be interested in either/both of these blogs:

SOUVLAKI FOR THE SOUL
Thanks to Cousin Dorothy for pointing out this one
http://souvlakiforthesoul.com/

MEDITERRANEAN COOKING IN ALASKA
On this one, check out the recipe for pastichio with greens (photo above). I'm dying to try it...
http://medcookingalaska.blogspot.com/2008/05/recipe-pastitsio-with-greens.html

I've added both of these to the "Other Greek Food Blogs" list on the right nav.

Yiayia's Bread - As documented by Rae

Thankfully Rae had the idea to write down Yiayia's bread recipe. And while none of us will ever be able to recreate her bread without an outdoor wood-burning oven, it is still an amazingly delicious bread. Mom re-ran this recipe in the last newsletter and we decided to make it for Easter. Cathy even had a packet of yeast she'd purchased in Greece last year, so it was extra authentic! Soooooo good warm with butter.

Ingredients

• 1 quart milk
• Approx. 5-1/2 lbs flour
  
• 4 eggs - slightly beaten
• 5-6 heaping tablespoons sugar
• 2 cubes butter
• 2 pkgs dry yeast
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup warm water
• Flavorings: Whole corriander, anise & cumin seeds, "crushed" lightly to bring out the flavor
  

Directions
Heat the milk. Add butter and let melt.

Start yeast in the warm water with 1/2 teaspoon sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix milk, sugar, salt and flavorings. Add half the flour and work with your hads until partly mixed and then add the eggs. Continue to work a little more, then add the yeast mixture. Keep adding flour until the dough is smooth and easy to handle.

Rub olive oil over the top, and make the sign of the cross (a MUST!). Cover and let rise until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350-375 degrees.

Knead for 5 minutes or so. Set aside and prepare pans. Grease bottoms of the pans only.

Knead dough again and shape loaves to fill the pans about 1/3 full. Set aside until bread in pans doubles in size, or pans look full.

Brush with beaten egg. Bake at least 45 minutes.

Onion Skin Dyed Red Easter Eggs

Mom, Cathy, the kids and I tested the Nancy Gaifyllia's "recipe" for dying truly red Easter eggs using onion skins (you can link to her postings on About.com via the title above) and, amazingly, it works! The "dye" looks a little yellow-ish/orangey when but the eggs come out red with no chemicals. Very cool!

Here are some photos of the process, and one of Ruby who was the winner of the egg cracking contest with her winning egg. A year of good luck to her!

Glactobouriko

This is mom's recipe. It makes one very large pan, bigger than a 8x13.

1/2 gallon whole milk
2 C sugar
1/2 C cream of wheat
1/2 C cream of rice
6 eggs
1 T vanilla
1 pound filo, thawed and at room temperature (easier to handle)
1/2 pound butter melted (mom always used sweet butter on filo)
2 C water
1 C sugar
1 cinnamon stick

In a stock pot combine the milk and sugar and bring to scalding. Once milk has scalded stir the cream of rice and cream of wheat into the hot milk in a thin steady stream stirring the whole time. Once all the cereals have been added continue to cook untilt he milk comes to a boil. Remove from the heat. Whisk the eggs together in another bowl and temper the eggs with some of the hot milk mixture, then stirring all the while add the tempered eggs in a thin steady stream into the custard. Stir in the vanilla and set aside while you are lining the pan with filo.

Brush the pan with melted butter, lay a sheet of filo in the pan and brush it with butter, continue to layer the filo with butter until you have about 8-10 sheets of filo layered. Carefully pour the custard over the filo (make sure to leave some in the pot and on the spoon for snacking), top with a layer of filo and continue to butter and layer the filo until you've used up the whole pound. Make three verticle cuts in the galactobouriko, cutting down until you almost hit the filling. Be careful how you do this since it'll end up being how you cut the galactobouriko to serve it, if you want to serve smaller pieces of galactorbouriko you may want to score it in four places rather than three. The reason why you do this is so that the filo doesn't puff up and crack while baking, by scoring it you give the air a place to escape while baking. Bake in a preheated 375 oven for about 45 minutes. While the galactobouriko is baking prepare the soaking syrup.

In a medium saucepan combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Cook over high heat until the sugar melts, once the sugar has melted you can boil it without stirring for about 15 minutes or so (or as long as it takes you to clean up the kitchen!). Once the galalctobouriko is golden brown remove it from the oven and pour the hot syrup over the pastry (stand back a bit, the steam can come up to your face). Allow to cool to room temperature before you put it in the fridge. It's best to eat it the day after you've made it, but eat it within a couple of days because it's flavors are so delicate that they fade quickly.

It really depends on how you cut it, but I got around 30 pieces out of this recipe. Mom always cut on the diagonal. She'd trim all the edges ("because who wants a mouth full of filo!"), and then she'd cut down her score lines until she cut all the way to the bottom of the filo and then she'd cut on a diagonal so they were kind of diamond shaped. This gives you lots of ends and the non diamond shaped end pieces which fortunately were Dad's favorite thing to snack on.

Cousin Maria's Skordalia (Garlic spread)

5 medium potatoes
1 whole head garlic, thru the press
18 oz. canola oil
1/2 cup white vinegar
salt to taste
1 egg
Peel potatoes and cut into bite size chunks and cook in boiling water (like mashed potatoes). When cooked, drain water and mash and salt potatoes. Remove half then add garlic. Then add back potatoes alternating with oil and vinegar til all back in pot mixing with mixer after each addition. Add egg and beat at high til fluffy. Add more salt if necessary. Serve with sliced French bread. Or anything else...great with vegetables, seafood, meat, whatever. I actually got this recipe from Mary Mandalou.

Cousin Dorothy's Rizogalo

Maria Bagakis asked to have this posted. She said she got this from Dorothy about fifteen years ago and that it's great.

1 c. rice
1 qt. half and half
1 qt. milk
1 c. sugar
1 vanilla bean
1/3 c. cream of rice
4 eggs beaten
1/3 c. cornstarch
1 T. vanilla

Cook rice in 2 c. water and 1T. butter til done.

Heat half and half , milk, sugar and vanilla bean til just beginning to boil.

In thin steady stream, add cream of rice, stirring constantly.

Add cooked rice and cook , stirring, for a couple of minutes.

Beat some of the hot milk mixture into eggs and pour eggs into pudding...cook, stirring constantly 2 more minutes.

Turn off heat.

Dissolve cornstarch in just enough water to make it syrupy. Pour into pudding and stir til mixed.

Add vanilla. Stir.

Chill.

Makes 3 quarts.

How To Dye Red Eggs with Onion Skins for Greek Easter

I found this posting on another blog called "Cretan Diet & Recipes," which doesn't appear to be active as this posting was from March 2008 and it's the last posting (you can go to the blog to see the rest of their content by clicking on the link of this posting). I thought it was really cool, so wanted to share the info.

Red eggs (in Greek: kokkina avga, κόκκινα αυγά, pronounced KOH-kee-nah ahv-GHAH) are perhaps the brightest symbol of Greek Easter, representing the blood of Christ and rebirth. We also dye eggs other colors, but rarely will a Greek Easter be celebrated without lots of red eggs. Commercial dyes are available, but this old-fashioned natural method creates red eggs with a deep rich color. Tt may sound counterintuitive, but the skins of yellow onions work wonderfully! The following is for one dozen red eggs.

Time Required: 50 minutes + 2 hours cooling

What You Need:

• Fresh uncooked eggs at room temperature
• Skins from yellow (Spanish) onions
• White vinegar
• Saucepan
• Strainer
• Bowl
• Slotted spoon
• Paper towels
• Cooling racks
• Olive (or other edible) oil for polishing

Here's How:

1. Start with 12 medium-to-small eggs.
2. Carefully remove any material clinging to the surface of the eggs.
3. Make the dye with the onion skins: In a stainless saucepan, place skins of 15 yellow (Spanish) onions and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar in 4 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. Strain dye into a glass bowl, and let cool to room temperature. (Don't be fooled by the orange color.)
5. In a stainless saucepan (around 8 1/4 inches in diameter), add the cooled strained dye and eggs at room temperature (up to 1 dozen). The eggs should be in one layer and covered by the dye.
6. Bring to a boil over medium heat. When boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer.
7. Dyeing time will be affected by the color of the eggs. Start checking for color at 12-15 minutes. Do not simmer longer than 20 minutes (see step 9 if they aren't red enough).
8. When eggs are the right color, proceed to step 10.
9. If eggs are not a red enough color after 20 minutes, leave in the pot and remove from heat. When the pot as cooled enough, place in refrigerator and let sit until desired color is reached.
10. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and cool on racks.
11. When they can be handled, coat lightly with olive (or other edible) oil and polish with paper toweling.
12. Refrigerate until time to use.

Tips:

• Save onion skins in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until ready to use.
• Do not use any porous (wood, ceramic, plastic, etc.) materials as they can be colored by the dye.
• If stainless cookware and utensils get colored by the dye, wash with regular detergent and a small amount of chlorine. Rinse very well.

Test

Testing to see if I can post to the blog...

Vasilopita - New Year's Bread/Cake

When we were little, one of my favorite events was when Yia yia made a Vasilopita with a coin baked inside. I always wanted to be the one who got the piece with the coin -- and good luck for the new year! -- and was crushed when I didn't. Although, since Yia yia baked the coin in the loaf rather than adding it after baking, I remember the dough around the coin was always a bit grey in color, so maybe not getting it was luckier!

Here's a bit of info on Greek New Year's traditions I found online:

In Greece, New Year is perhaps even more festive and important then Christmas as it is the main day for gift-giving. It is a time of hope and promise, and it is also St. Basil's Day. St. Basil (Vassilios) was one the forefathers of the Greek Orthodox Church, and he is remembered for his kindness and generosity to the poor. He is thought to have died on this date so this is how they honor him. Stories of his kindness to children are shared at this time, remembering how he would come in the night and leave gifts for the children in their shoes. There is always much visiting, feasting, and music to be enjoyed.

There are many special dishes that are prepared at New Year but the most important dish is Vasilópita (or St. Basil's cake) (read more about it further down on the page). As well as the cake, there is usually an abundance of food on the table including Kourabiedes (Greek shortbread) and Thiples (wafer-thin honeyed phyllo spirals). Also, there is always honey on the table, and olive-branches, nuts, fresh fruit, and other symbols of happiness and wealth.

On New Year’s Eve and New Years Day the children sing carols. The first person across the threshold of the house on New Year's Day is said to bring the family good luck throughout the coming year. The father, son or a lucky child was meant to be the first person across the threshold. A lucky child was someone who has both parents still alive.

And a bit more detail on Vasilopita:

Vasilópita (or St. Basil's cake) is a sweet nut cake with a coin hidden inside, traditionally served on New Year's Eve, when families honor Saint Basil (St. Vasilios, or Santa Claus), who comes down to earth on that day.

The New Year Cake came from the story about Saint Basil who it is said told how he helped the poor people to pay their taxes. According to the story, he took some jewelry from each person and gave it to the Governor. The Governor was sorry for the poor people and so he gave the jewelry back, they only problem was Basil did not know who owned each piece of jewelry. This is when it is told the miracle occurred. He baked each piece inside a loaf and when the loaves were
given out, everyone had their own jewelry in the piece of loaf.

Today, a gold coin (flouri) is hidden inside the cake after baking, and the cake is cut on New Year's Eve with all the family present. The pieces are distributed in a predetermined order: the first is for Christ, the second for Mary, the third is for St. Vasilios, the fourth for the house, the fifth for the head of the family, the sixth for the mother, then one for each of the children. A piece is also cut for each absent member of the family. Whoever finds the coin can look forward to special success in the coming year.

I tried making mini Vasilopitas this year with limited success. I've never been great with yeasted baked goods, and I think I over-proofed the loaves as many fell in the oven. Plus, while I liked the flavor of the dough it was a bit dry.

I'm posting the recipe, but if any of you have a family favorite Vasilopita, I'd love to have it!

VASILOPITA

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg active dry yeast (not fast rising)
• 3/4 C milk, lukewarm
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1-1/2 t grated orange rind
• 3/4 C sugar
• 4-1/2 C plain flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t mastich, ground (I didn't have this and didn't have time for a trip to the Greek store, so I skipped it)
• 1/2 C butter, melted
• 1 egg for glazing
• Powered sugar, milk and vanilla for icing
• Slivered almonds

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 C of the milk

Add remainder of the milk, plus the eggs, orange rind and sugar.

Sift 3 cups flour, salt and spices into a warm bowl and make a well in the centre.

Pour in yeast mixture and stir to blend in flour, gradually adding warm melted butter.

Mix dough with hands until it comes away from sides.

Turn on to a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding remaining flour as required. Knead for 10 minutes.

Place ball of dough in a clean bowl brushed with melted butter.

Turn dough over to coat top with butter and cover bowl with a cloth or plastic wrap.

Leave to proof (rise) in a warm place until doubled in size.

Punch down and turn on to lightly floured surface.

Knead lightly and shape into a round loaf (or your desired shape).

Place on a large greased baking sheet or in a greased 10 inch deep cake tin.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Glaze with well-beaten egg.

Bake in a moderately hot oven for 45 minutes until golden brown and cooked when tested.

If bread browns too quickly place a piece of greased brown paper on top.

Cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, remove from the pan, make a slit at the bottom and insert a clean coin wrapped in foil. Return to pan or place on serving dish. Top with icing and almonds.

NOTE: If you prefer not to use an icing, other options are to top the break prior to baking with just slivered almonds or sesame seeds.