Anastasia

Monday's Greek Recipe - Psarosoupa me Trahana - Fish Soup with Trahana

 

4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup extra virgin Greek olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped

1 kilo (2 pounds) grouper or other gelatinous Aegean or Mediterranean fish, bones in, cut into serving pieces
1 medium carrot, pared and cut into diagonal slices

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup Cretan or Cyprus  sour trahana, dampened until soft
Extra virgin Greek olive oil and fresh parsley sprigs for garnish

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook the onion until soft.
Add the fish and saute lightly.
Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a platter. Add the carrot
and celery to the onions.

2. Pour in l litter (1 quart) of water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Add the fish back in the pot. Put the lemon juice and cook until the fish is fork tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon, set aside, and keep warm. Add the trahana to the pot.

Simmer until tender.

3. Place fish back into pot and serve in soup plates, garnished with raw
olive oil and parsley.

Recipe by Demitris and Michalis Mavrikos

An Eventful Week in January

Monday, January 23, 2012

I woke to the sound of roaring thunder and torrential rain and refused to get up at 7:00 am. My gym class was at 8:00 but I knew I'd miss it!  I didn't want to know what was happening outside and subsequently covered my head with the pillow...hoping that I could go back to sleep for yet another hour. So I did. Alkis had already gone to work when I finally got up at 9:30. It was still raining heavily. I got to work just in time for my first lesson at 11:00 am. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I couldn't believe it was still raining today! On the plus side, we do need rain in Cyprus after such a long period of drought. Despite the weather, I was at work at 8:30 am  It was a long day which ended at 9:20 pm. The rain was going on and on when I got into the car at the end of day....but the car wouldn't start! I tried again and again....I toyed with the idea of calling Alkis , explain the problem and ask him to pick me up.... but I knew he'd laugh at me and say "You've choked the car...again!" I've only choked the car twice in 25 years - that was the second time.  I lit a cigarette and let the car cool down.... 9:35 pm - I gave it another try. Thank Goodness!  I managed to start the car and go back home.  I mentioned the problem to Alkis over dinner. "When was the last time you had it serviced?" he asked. Ohhh! I couldn't remember... ages ago? Before going to bed, I made a mental note to have the oil changed by the end of the week and schedule service some time in February. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I got up this morning feeling terrible. I had fever (38.5), a splitting headache and a lousy tummy.  I made an effort to get up and go to work...yes, I am stubborn. On Wednesdays, I have my French lessons - three double periods. All of a sudden, I got dizzy and almost passed out. That's when I decided to cancel my lessons and visit the doctor.  Alkis had already flown to Zurich on a business trip so I spent the rest of the day in bed.  I did take my medication and I remember having eaten some chicken soup.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

I think the medication PLUS the chicken soup did wonders. I felt much better today albeit a bit under the weather...

Friday, January 27, 2012

I felt much better today and even  went to the hairdresser's. The work day went off nicely and my car did not act up again. I was back home  by 9:30 pm. But ... I couldn't find my keys! Where on earth were they?  Luckily, the main door of the building was open - I'd really hate to disturb my neighbours -  and then I tried hard to remember where I had hidden my second pair of keys! Meanwhile, Alkis called me from Zurich. I said I was ...just fine! It took me 21 minutes to remember where I had hidden my second pair of keys! When I stepped into my flat at  10:10 pm, I was exhausted and ...frozen!

Right now , I'm looking forward to a long, cosy weekend ahead. Monday is a school holiday.

The Disappearance of Advertising

A dramatic commercial could be made showing how much we would all miss advertising. The first few incidents would be easy. Posters and billboards would disappear. Most of the world's websites and television stations would vanish. Many newspapers and magazines would cease to exist and those that remained would be much smaller and more expensive.

Yet such deprivation would be nothing compared with the effect the disappearance of advertising would have on the process of mass production and mass consumption, on the price and range of goods in the shops, on the economy and on employment. Without advertising, many products, companies and jobs would simply cease to exist.

 We receive a pile of flyers in our mail box, every single day of the week despite the fact that Alkis and I put up a notice saying we wouldn't like to receive advertising flyers! This is what I call...aggressive marketing, yet I always have a look at the various special offers advertised.

Do you receive flyers in your area? To what extent does advertising, in general, influence your behaviour as a consumer?

 

The Transition to Work

After a great holiday season and a memorable trip to Paris with my significant other, I went back to work on January 9 with recharched batteries! I did miss "my kids"! Ah well, on the first day, the younger ones were lively but very talkative in class. I'm glad to see that my 10- year-old   kids are gradually gaining more confidence in speaking.Nothing much is happening right now except preparing a new school term, planning lessons and marking tests and homework, often at weekends as well. But I do make time to go to the gym three times a week even if I have to get up very early in the morning! I'm also trying to put up with an unusually cold weather. Not for long, I hope. Summer will come again!!!

Pet Dogs - Man's Best Friend?

The average dog causes three family rows a week - as owners argue over where it can sleep and who should take it for walks, a survey has found.

Arguments over who should walk the dog are among the dilemmas that cause friction Photo: AP

10:01AM GMT 10 Jan 2012

A study shows 'man's best friend' can also be his worst enemy, triggering nearly 2,000 family arguments during its lifetime

Spats range from disagreeing about who should take the dog for a walk, feeding them too many treats and what to do with them when holidays loom.

Nikki Sellers, Head of Pet Insurance at esure, said: ''Owning a dog is not dissimilar to having a baby.

''Round the clock care and responsibility throughout a dog's life can become tiresome for any pet owner but should never be overlooked.

''Maintaining a dog's physical health through exercise plus regular stimulation to avoid them running riot around the house should at least help avoid some arguments.

''A healthier dog may also lead to fewer costly trips to the vet too but for advice on how to look after a dog properly, owners should seek professional help.''

The study also revealed one quarter of owners regularly argue about where the dog should be allowed to go in the house with beds, upstairs or sofas causing most rows.

One fifth of families frequently argue whose turn it is to clean up the mess in the garden, while one in ten disagree who should clear up the carpets should they be soiled.

Disciplining the dog is one of the biggest causes of arguments - as 18 per cent of couples often fall out because one is accused of being too harsh on the dog.

A further 15 per cent of families often row about who should be training the dog, while one in ten people get annoyed if the dog is 'humanised'.

Other arguments about the dog include who chose to buy it in the first place and how much has been spent on the dog.

They're also likely to cause unrest if they damage the children's toys or chew the family's shoe collection.

The study also revealed while the majority of family arguments are more likely to be about the children than the family pet, 14 per cent of owners reckon they row about the dog more than their children.

Incredibly, in 17 per cent of households the dog disputes have got so bad one member of the family has slept in the spare room, while a quarter of those polled have been known to storm off after things got too heated.

In fact, 26 per cent of dog owners have at some point considered getting rid of their beloved dog after a bust-up.

via www.telegraph.co.uk

Happy New Year !

New Year Countdown

Wishing you all the blessings of the New Year...the warmth of home, the love of family and the company of good friends.  Happy New Year to all.

Vasilopita - the Greek New Year's Cake

My Vasilopita 2011

 

Some of you may remember my Vasilopita recipe posted on December 29, 2009. In this reblog, I have added  recent photos and  measurements in grams and ounces.

Vasilopita is the Greek New Year's cake. Vasilopita is associated with Saint Basil's Day on January 1^st  in Greece. On New Year's Day families cut the Vasilopita to bless the house and bring good luck for the new year.It is traditional to bake a coin into the Vasilopita (St. Basil's cake). The one who receives the coin is considered to be especially blessed  for the year. A piece of cake is sliced for each member of the family and any visitors present at the time. Slices are also cut for various other people or groups, depending on local and family tradition. They may include St. Basil and other saints, the Virgin Mary, the Church and the poor. In my family, slices are cut for Jesus Christ, for the poor and one slice for each member of the family.  Vasilopita is made in honour of a beautiful act of charity by St. Basil to the poor and needy of his flock. In order to insure that the needy would have money for life's necessities, and knowing that the needy were also proud people, St. Basil had the ladies of his church bake sweet bread with coins baked into them. In this way, he could give them money without demeaning them at all.  To this day, many wealthy families would place a gold coin in Vasilopita. It is meant as a gift to the lucky one since in Greece and Cyprus we exchange gifts on New Year’s Day as well! Saint Basil is our Santa Claus like Saint Nicholas in other countries.

 

Like Saint Nicholas at Christmas, Saint Basil puts the presents under the tree on January 1st

 

INGREDIENTS

 

• 1 cup butter  / 226 g / 8 ounces
  
• 1 cup sugar / 200 g / 7 ounces
  
• 3  ½  cups flour / 448 g / 15,75 ounces
  
• 2-3 tablespoons brandy or Grand Marnier liqueur
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup fresh orange juice / 250 mls
  
• the zest of 1 orange
• 1 cup yoghurt / 245  g / 8,64 ounces
  
• 1 cup almonds finely ground / 160 g / 5,64 ounces
• 6 eggs
  
• 1 coin wrapped in foil
  

 

DIRECTIONS

 

• Beat the butter and the sugar in the mixer until fluffy and then add the eggs one by one beating constantly.
• Mix in the yoghurt and sift the flour and baking powder.
• Continue to beat until the batter is fluid.
• Add the brandy or liqueur, the orange juice and the orange zest and continue to beat.
• Mix the almonds and don’t forget to place the coin in the mixture!
• Place the mixture in a flat, buttered pan and bake in a medium oven for about an hour.
• When cold decorate the Vasilopita with some icing sugar and almonds.

Christmas 2011 at the Golden Bay Beach Hotel, Larnaca

Naturally, Santa was there too!

Christmas at the Golden Bay Beach Hotel has always been a unique experience but it seems to me that this Christmas it's been the best ever in more ways than one.  Everything was just perfect: the decor, the music, the joyful festive atmosphere and the food! My mother and I joined Alkis early in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, had a light snack and then went up to our rooms to take a nap and get ready for the Christmas Eve Gala Dinner while Alkis went back to work. After a hectic week at the school which ended merrily with the Christmas party on Friday afternoon,  it was the best way for me to start my Christmas break.

The Christmas Eve menu was an amazing, gastronomic experience as the Executive Chef went out of his way to create .... works of art. Here's what the 6-course festive menu consisted of:

Smoked salmon pancake roulade with prawns and caviar cream for starters.

Chicken Cream Soup with Almond Crumble

Duck Rillettes with Red Onions and Mandarin Refish followed by an Orange Sherbet with Cointreau to refresh the palate.

Roast Turkey Rolls with Liver and Pine Nuts Stuffing and Foie Gras Sauce married with Wild Pork Loin with Pheasant Cream Mousse , Vegetables and Potato Amanti.

Baked Cheese and Chestnut Tart Light Chocolate Parfait with Cinnamon Cream and Rasberry Coulis.

...followed by coffee and sweet bites

Apart from the food, I was particularly impressed by the Home Band who played Christmas melodies throughout this exquisite dinner and later  helped us....burn some of the calories on the dance floor! 

We even got Christmas weather and white Christmas for all those who celebrated high up in the mountains of Troodos. On Larnaca Bay, we got strong winds and  downpours on Christmas Eve, overcast skies and some sunny intervals on Christmas Day.

How was your Christmas? 

On Christmas Eve

Me and My Brother in 1962

Christmas Eve invariably brings back happy memories of my childhood and adolescence.  As a child, I remember Dad getting us a tall pine tree - there were hardly any artificial Christmas trees in those days - and all the family together would help to put it up and decorate it. In the evening, mum prepared a special dinner of various snacks which we all enjoyed by the fireplace while listening to Christmas carols, often singing along. At 10 o'clock, both my brother and I had to go to bed or else Santa wouldn't visit. Terrified at the thought, we both went to bed on time after making sure there was some milk and Mum's delicious Christmas cookies by the tree for Santa.  

Then one rainy Christmas Eve, my five-year-old brother had a great idea: " How about waiting for Santa to come? It's raining and he might get wet.  We can dry his boots and clothes by the ashes of the fireplace while he's enjoying the milk and cookies! " I was only eight  but still believed in Santa... yet I had my doubts. " What if Santa doesn't visit? Mum and Dad said he'd never visit if we are awake!"  "Yes, but Mum and Dad would be very proud of us when we explain that we just wanted Santa to leave us in dry clothes!" , my brother replied. That was the end of a dream. We hid behind the curtains only to find out that Santa was ...Mum and Dad! They didn't even drink the milk or eat the cookies!

As a teenager, I was weird! I sometimes loved Christmas and sometimes hated it! Yet on Christmas Eve, I'd always look forward to the pine tree, mum's cooking and the presents, of course. I was 14 years old when ....Santa brought me a typewriter!!! I used to type all my school work as well as my Diary entries.  A few months later, on my birthday, my parents offered me a typing course. I never missed a lesson! To this day, I can type my posts without looking at the keyboard.

My most embarrassing Christmas Eve was in 1981.  I was still a student in Geneva, Switzerland when I decided to invite a few friends over. I promised them all that I'd cook .... le canard  à l'orange  - a  traditional French dish in which the duck is roasted and served with an orange sauce as well as with glazed chestnuts . Needless to say, I had no idea how to cook this and there was no Internet at the time.  Alkis was just a student at the hotel school , then, but he saved my bacon ! He glazed the chestnuts and the carrots beautifully, roasted the duck in my mini oven stove and made me feel I was the queen of Swiss- French   gastronomy! He also MADE  a Christmas log for dessert! This  Holiday Season , Alkis works on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but I'm glad to spend these days with him at the hotel . Soon after the Holiday Season, we are going away on a short Winter holiday.

 

Monday's Greek Recipe - Christmas Cake, Melomakarona and Kourabiedes

This is a repost - Christmas 2008.  I don't think I'll have the time to make all our traditional Christmas sweets, this year, though.

The Christmas Cake is definitely not a traditional Greek cake but  it was introduced to us when Cyprus was a British Colony in the 1950s. Since my childhood, I've always felt that  Christmas lunch cannot be festive without  Christmas Cake for dessert. I can't imagine Christmas lunch without the Christmas Cake! Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to make one this Christmas, so I bought one from the cake shop - photo above. You can eat the snowman as well!

My mother always prepares the Christmas cake at least one month before Christmas.It is preserved  beause in a few days the frostings are added and keep the cake airtight and can last for a long time before cutting it and at least 3 weeks after you cut it For a few days until the first icing is placed the surface of the cake is wet with a couple of spoonfulls of brandy.

The Christmas Cake ( my mum's recipe)

Ingredients:

250 gr. butter

1 cup of sugar

2 cups of self raising flour

1 cup of raisins, black currant (any combination, I use only sultanas)

1 cup of blanched almonds finely chopped,

2 cups of dried spoon sweets or dried fruit

1 cup of walnuts crumbled

1 spoonful of baking powder

4 -5 eggs

½ spoonful of freshly ground nutmeg

1 spoonful of cinnamon

½ spoonfuls of freshly ground cloves

1 spoonful of mixed spices

a pinch of salt

¼ glass of brandy

2 – 3 spoonfuls treacle or carob syrup

Apricot or wild berry  jam

Directions:

Stage one

A few days before, we prepare the spoon sweets. In Greece and Cyprus we preserve fruit in heavy syrup and we do this with a variety of fruit so we use 3- 4 different kinds such as cherries, oranges, bitter oranges green, bitter orange peel, citrus, bergamot, walnut, etc., any type you prefer.

We wash out the syrup, strain them for 2 – 3 days and then cut them in small pieces. Otherwise use dried fruit.

Stage two

Whisk the butter and sugar together until it’s light, pale and fluffy.

Add brandy and treacle or carob syrup.

 If you don’t have any, just skip it. Sift the flour and add all the other ingredients to flour and mix well. Add to butter.

 
Line base of a buttered cake tin with parchment paper and using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the cake mixture into the prepared 28 cm. diameter tin, spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon. Pre-heat oven at 180o and bake the cake for about 1 hour or until after inserting a knife or a cocktail stick, it comes out dry and clean. Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin, and then remove it to a wire rack to finish cooling.

In a few days

Spread the apricot jam on top of the cake and prepare marzipan - almond paste

 
2 -3 days later

Finish with Royal frosting

We use this frosting not only because it gives a nice snowy look but it also keeps cake airtight and before we cut it we can preserve it for a very long time. Decorate your cake with Christmas ornaments.

THE EASY ALTERNATIVE

 Just bake a fruit cake 2 days before Christmas and add the brandy (preferably Remy Martin) on Christmas Eve.

DO NOT CUT BEFORE CHRISTMAS !

 

 Finally, I made time last night and baked my own Kourambiedes and melomakarona. Les voilà!

I have already given you the recipe for kourambiedes - the Greek Christmas cookies. Mine are stuffed with both almond and dates - the Greek Cypriot version.

As for my melomakarona, I think they're a hit! Not only in looks but also in taste.  Here's the recipe.

Melomakarona

Ingredients

2 cups olive oil
2 cups water
3 cups sugar
Crushed walnuts
3/4 cup orange juice
7 cups flour
1/4 cup brandy
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups honey

  
Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, beat together olive oil, 1 cup sugar, orange juice and brandy
2. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add the second mix to the first and stir well.
4. Grab small pieces of dough with your hands (about the size of a medium sized egg) and make patties of them.
5. Put patties on a baking sheet and bake at medium heat for half an hour.
6. In a medium pot boil 2 cups of water, 2 cups of honey and 2 sups of sugar, for aproximately 5 minutes to create syrup.
7. Once the patties are cooked in the oven take them out and pour the syrup on them.
8. Leave patties with syrup to soak for 20 minutes,
9. Remove patties from syrup and place them on a large dish.
10. Sprinkle some crushed walnuts over the patties.