Category: Greek

Greek Lemon Chicken and Potatoes

Chicken Greek Baroness Tapuzina

I haven’t really talked about my life before Mr BT, meaning my single girl days, because it is not really a subject that is relevant to this food blog. However, when I decided to make a dish from my single girl past, it brought back memories of living in the quaint German town of Schwaebisch Hall. It is a time where I expanded my cooking repertoire: I learned how to make Kaesespaetzle from a local friend, and Zimtsterne from my landlady.

I also learned about Turkish cuisine thanks to my Turkish boyfriend at the time. He took me to his aunt and uncle’s house for an authentic meal. I remember every dish his aunt made was delicious. I used to hang out at a lovely Turkish restaurant that made the most delicious Turkish Pide. The Turkish family that owned the little restaurant were from Eastern Turkey and they would stuff the flat, long oval-shaped dough to order. They filled it with feta and aubergine or my personal favorite, ground lamb. I think they had a couple of other varieties, but I don’t remember. They made them on a long wooden paddle and then put them directly on the oven floor to bake. I am going to have to try and make them sometime.

I shared a flat over a bar with two Greek guys  from Thessaloniki, an Italian guy from Genoa, and an Italian girl from Friuli. The two Greek guys ran the bar. We had a lot of fun at the bar, especially when we would sweet talk our two Greek roommates into having a “Greek Night” in the bar with dancing and plate throwing. On the rare occasion when the bar was closed and we were all home together, we would take turns making dinner. One time the Italian guy made pasta with his mother’s homemade pesto. You haven’t had pesto until you have had Genovese pesto. One night the female Italian roommate and I made pasta with my marinara sauce. And one night, the Greek guys made Kotopoulo me Lemoni sto fourno me Patates or roasted lemon chicken with potatoes. It is a very simple dish, but bursting with lemony goodness. It is better if you make this with fresh oregano, but you can use dried. I used fresh zaatar, which is a distant cousin, because I did not have any oregano on hand.

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Kotopoulo me Lemoni sto fourno me Patates - (Roasted Lemon Chicken and Potatoes)
Ingredients
  • 1 chicken cut into eight pieces
  • 3-4 medium-size red potatoes cut into quarters
  • Juice of 3 large lemons
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 2-3 teaspoons of dried oregano
  • 1 head of garlic separated into cloves, with skins left on
  • 1 large onion sliced thinly
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Place the onion, garlic cloves and potatoes in a roasting pan, sprinkle half of the oregano, salt (omit if using kosher chicken) and pepper. Drizzle olive oil over everything in the pan and then gently toss until the potatoes are coated with the oil and oregano. Place the chicken on top of the potato-onion-garlic mixture and the rest of the oregano on the chicken. Pour the lemon juice over everything in the pan, and bake at 180C (350F) for 1 hour or until the chicken and potatoes are a nice golden brown.

Dinner Under the Stars

Biscuits or Cookies Greek Ice Creams/Sorbets Baroness Tapuzina

The beginning of last week we were invited to a friend’s house for dinner. We had delicious dinner in their lovely Sukkah. I forgot to bring my camera, but will update this post when my friend sends me the pictures we took using her camera.

Our friend Miriam makes delicious wines using grapes, other fruits and herbs. We had the honor of having her cabernet sauvignon, strawberry and summer wines, which is made from pea pods. Yes folks, you read it correctly, pea pods. It was delicious and tasted quite fruity; very difficult to describe without sounding a bit pretentious. The strawberry wine was a little fizzy and tasted as if you were biting into a giant, luscious and ripe strawberry. Yum.

We closed the meal with delicious lemon cakes that her daughter made and the Kritika Patouthia biscuits and mango-nectarine sorbet that my husband and I made.

Kritika Patouthia are Greek biscuits from the island of Crete. They are filled with ground almonds, ground walnuts, sesame seeds and honey and are typically rolled in icing (powdered) sugar. I decided that they were sweet enough and omitted the icing sugar. These cookies are delicious and went well with the last of the summer mango-nectarine sorbet. I came up with this recipe when I didn’t have enough mangoes to make sorbet. The nectarines work quite well with the mango and do not get lost with the strong mango flavour.

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Kritika Patouthia
Servings: 5 to 6 dozen
Ingredients
  • Dough:
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons water
  • 4 tablespoons orange juice
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 6 tablespoons white sugar
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Filling:
  • 1 cup ground walnuts
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1 cup sesame seeds
  • 1 cup honey
  • Confectioners' sugar
  • Orange flower water or orange juice for sprinkling
Instructions
  1. Mix together olive oil, water, orange juice, lemon juice and sugar. Set aside. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add olive oil mixture to flour mixture.
  2. On a floured surface, work and knead to a smooth dough. Cover dough (you can place the empty bowl over it) and let dough rest for an hour.
  3. While dough is resting, make filling.
  4. To Make Filling:
  5. Combine ground walnuts, ground almonds, sesame seeds and honey together in a bowl. Mix until well coated.
  6. Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
  7. Sesame Almond Walnut Filling
  8. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch squares. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in center of each square.
  9. fold up
  10. Moisten edges with orange flower water or orange juice and cover the filling by folding in the four corners and pressing them firmly together in the center.
  11. Bake for about 25 minutes. While cookies are still warm, sprinkle lightly with orange flower water or orange juice and dip in a bowl of confectioners' sugar.

Mango and Nectarine

Print
Kritika Patouthia
Servings: 5 to 6 dozen
Ingredients
  • Dough:
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons water
  • 4 tablespoons orange juice
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 6 tablespoons white sugar
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Filling:
  • 1 cup ground walnuts
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1 cup sesame seeds
  • 1 cup honey
  • Confectioners' sugar
  • Orange flower water or orange juice for sprinkling
Instructions
  1. Mix together olive oil, water, orange juice, lemon juice and sugar. Set aside. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add olive oil mixture to flour mixture.
  2. On a floured surface, work and knead to a smooth dough. Cover dough (you can place the empty bowl over it) and let dough rest for an hour.
  3. While dough is resting, make filling.
  4. To Make Filling:
  5. Combine ground walnuts, ground almonds, sesame seeds and honey together in a bowl. Mix until well coated.
  6. Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
  7. Sesame Almond Walnut Filling
  8. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 3 inch squares. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in center of each square.
  9. fold up
  10. Moisten edges with orange flower water or orange juice and cover the filling by folding in the four corners and pressing them firmly together in the center.
  11. Bake for about 25 minutes. While cookies are still warm, sprinkle lightly with orange flower water or orange juice and dip in a bowl of confectioners' sugar.