We're Back! (and Grilled Swordfish with Tomato-Braised Cauliflower)

Aaaaand we're back after a month-long hiatus! For most of the last month, my life has looked a little something like this:

The hubs and I moved across a state-line, into the 'burbs. And while I miss my old, walkable neighborhood dearly (Seriously, why are the suburbs so anti-walking? We tried to walk to a nearby strip mall the other day and were nearly killed by oncoming traffic), I get to live in this big beautiful house with a big beautiful kitchen and laundry room.

The interior is still a work in progress (wallpaper is dead to me), but it's mostly cosmetic issues, and the kitchen is an absolute delight. I adore my dishwasher and garbage disposal and miles of counter space. And my new stainless-steel, french-door, bottom freezer refrigerator makes me smile every time I walk into the kitchen. It's refreshing to have an appliance that doesn't have 20+ years of someone else's dirt and grime in it.

So, I unearthed my cookbooks and have been cooking up a storm these past couple of weeks. Fresh Michigan asparagus has been abundant in the local groceries (which leave something to be desired, but more on that later), so we've been eating loads of it. If you're looking for a kick-ass recipe with asparagus, look no further than this gem from Smitten Kitchen. We had it for brunch last Sunday and it was amazing.

You know how when you move, you find things you forgot you had and make resolutions to actually use them? Well, I have made a resolution to cook from more of my cookbooks and not just my usual standbys (ahem, ATK and Smitten Kitchen). When we were in Greece, I bought this lovely book called "How to Roast a Lamb" by Michael Psilakis. Some of the recipes are quite advanced, but this Grilled Swordfish with Tomato-Braised Cauliflower is so simple and full of delicious flavors. If you're near a body of water or in a big city, you can probably get amazing swordfish, and if you're in the sticks like me (and you google "Fish Markets" in your zip code and come up with Long John Silvers) you may have to go with a flash frozen variety, which was actually quite delicious. This cauliflower is so good, I ate it the next day for lunch, just by itself. Don't be alarmed by the cinnamon in a savory dish - just trust me, it is fabulous.

Grilled Swordfish with Tomato-Braised Cauliflower
from "How to Roast a Lamb" by Michael Psilakis

Ingredients
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
Large pinch ground cinnamon
1/2 large Spanish or sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 fresh bay leaf or 2 dried
2 cinnamon sticks
1 TBSP tomato paste
2 TBSPs red wine vinegar
1 and a half cups of water
2 whole sprigs thyme
2 tsps Dijon mustard
4 swordfish steaks, about 5 oz each

Directions:
In a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, warm the oil until it is very hot. Add the cauliflower florets. Season with kosher salt and pepper, and dust with the cinnamon. Shake the pan for 2 to 3 minutes, until nicely golden. Add the onion, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar. (This means pour it in and stir, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom). Add the water, thyme sprigs, and mustard. Partially cover the pan and braise over low heat until the cauliflower is tender. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.

Preheat a charcoal or gas grill (or cast-iron grill pan or skillet) until very hot. Season both sides of the swordfish steaks with salt and pepper and grill for 1 and a half to 2 minutes on each side (Psilakis says that swordfish should be cooked to the same temp as you would enjoy a tuna steak, so somewhat raw on the inside - you can cook it slightly longer if you prefer it more done on the inside). Rest steaks for a few minutes before serving.

This all comes together VERY quickly, which makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner, but it's also fancy enough for company. And you probably already have most of the ingredients for it in your pantry and fridge. I'd serve it with some crusty bread and maybe a Greek salad. Enjoy!

By Popular Request: Pastitsio

Pastitsio is essentially "Greek lasagna". It is undoubtedly on the menu at every Greek restaurant in America - along with moussaka, it's one of the most popular Greek-American dishes. Unfortunately, restaurant pastitsio often disappoints. Sometimes they drench it in a red sauce, often times you can't taste the nutmeg in the sauce, or the sauce is bland, or the bechamel is like glue. The good news is: you can easily create delicious pastitsio in your own kitchen! I've adapted (slightly) this recipe from the Greektown Chicago cookbook. We've made it for friends and received rave reviews.

Pastitsio
adapted from Greektown Chicago cookbook

Note: for this recipe, it is best to use Greek pasta that is made for pastitsio. If you live near an ethnic grocery, they likely stock it. Greek Misko No. 2 is what you want. If you can't find it, substitute penne or macaroni pasta. Your ethnic grocery will likely have Myzithra cheese as well. If not, substitute grated Parmesan - but I really urge you to get the Myzithra, as the flavor will be much more authentic!

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 TBSP water
2 medium size onions, chopped fine
1 lb macaroni
1 cinnamon stick
2 TBSP tomato paste, mixed with 1 cup water
2 cups grated Myzithra cheese
10 TBSP butter
5 eggs, separated
1 qt milk (best to use whole)
3/4 cup cake flour
cinnamon and nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Bechamel sauce: Make this first so it has ample time to cool. In a 2 quart sauce pan, bring milk to a boil. In a separate saucepan, melt butter and slowly stir in cake flour, until it forms a smooth paste. Add hot milk. Stir continuously over a low flame until it thickens. Set aside to cool.
Pasta: Boil macaroni in salted water according to package instructions (you want it quite al dente since it will bake in the oven later). Drain and let stand while you prepare the meat sauce.
Meat sauce: In a large skillet, cook onions in the 2 TBSP water until transparent. Add ground meat and cinnamon stick. Cook until meat is lightly browned. Add diluted tomato paste, and stir well. Add cinnamon, nutmeg (a healthy amount - you want to be able to taste a good amount of these!), then salt and pepper to taste. Cook slowly until the meat is cooked and most of the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat.
Combine: Place macaroni back into large pot, then add meat mixture. Blend well. In a seperate bowl, beat 5 egg whites with 1 egg yolk and add this to the mixture. Slowly mix well (use your hands for best results). Add 1/2 cup of the grated cheese, and continue to mix.
Bake: Spread the meat/macaroni mixture into a 9x13 or square baking dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese and some cinnamon over the top. Beat the remaining 4 egg yolks in a large bowl. Slowly add the cooled Bechamel sauce to the beaten yolks. If it's too thick, add a little milk while beating. Spread evenly over the meat/macaroni mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

Whew! Seems like a lot of steps, but it actually doesn't take too long to get it into the oven. The meat sauce is easily prepared ahead of time - and actually we have even prepared it up to the baking point one day in advance of a dinner party and baked it right before guests arrived.

If you're tired of the same-old lasagna, give this a try to mix things up a little. It has a much different flavor profile than Italian lasagna. The cinnamon and nutmeg in the savory sauce gives it a wonderful depth of flavor, and the creamy Bechamel on top gives it a rich, stick-to-your-ribs kind of goodness. Enjoy!

Vegan Week - It's Easy When You're Greek!

Many apologies for my lack of posting last week - I came down with a heinous sinus infection the day after returning from Greece, so it was a bit of a rough week. I pretty much ate scrambled eggs all week, which doesn't make for exciting food blogging. I also made a rather disappointing One Pot Chicken and Rice. I get very mad and pouty when my food doesn't turn out well, despite compliments from the hubs. But anyways, I digress.

Onto the title of this post - eating vegan is truly easy when you're Greek! The Greeks have vegan eating down pat, as they do it several days a week for most of Lent. So I knew I'd have plenty of yummy recipes to draw upon for this week. Fasolakia, a vegetable dish of string beans and potatoes is one of our favorites. It's rich and hearty and you won't miss your meat or dairy with this one!

Ingredients:

1.5 lb string beans, cleaned and ends snipped (I like to use kitchen scissors!)
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes (Muir Glen Organic brand was on sale this week, yippee!)
2 TBSP tomato paste
1/2 to 1 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, diced

Directions:

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large pot or Dutch Oven. Add the onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the string beans and toss to combine with the onions and oil. Saute for another 5 minutes.

Mix your tomato paste with 1/2 cup of water (use a fork - beat like you're doing scrambled eggs). Add the tomato paste/water mixture and your diced tomatoes to the pot. Stir to combine. Add additional water if it looks to dry (you will want there to be a good amount of liquid in the pot, as it will reduce considerably). Add the potatoes and salt and pepper. Cover the pot and let it cook for about 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Check for done-ness of potatoes and beans (a fork should slide easily into a potato, the beans should be quite tender). If need be, recover and cook a bit longer. Let it cook for a few additional minutes uncovered to reduced the sauce (5 minutes or so).





It's seriously so good. And good for you! Post-Vegan Week, I'd serve it with some Feta, and perhaps even as a side-dish to some yummy meat. But it's just as good on its own, I swear! Try it - you won't be disappointed.

Cooking in Greece Part 2

Things continue to be lovely over on this side of the Atlantic. The hubs and I took a little day trip today to Epidavros, a very cool ancient ruins site with an amazingly preserved, 14,000 seat theater with perfect acoustics. It was quite awesome.



Just thought you might like a little culture with your food. Anyways, I was jonesing for some healthy eats tonight so I decided to make my go-to healthy dish, which just happens to be Greek. Honestly, I can't believe I haven't posted it here yet - I seriously cook this every week or so. It's one of the few things I can make without consulting the recipe, it's ridiculously cheap to make, and I've given out the recipe to many friends who now love it too. So here, it is: Greek Lentil Soup (called Fakes - "fah-kess" in Greek).

Fakes
(taught to me by my husband, whose mother taught him)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 or 2 carrots (I like 2, but 1 will suffice)
8 oz brown lentils
1 quart water
dried oregano
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 to 2 TBSP tomato paste (to taste)

Directions:
Put lentils in a large, heavy bottom pot and cover with about an inch of water. Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes, then strain into colander and set aside.

Dry out the pot and pour in the olive oil. Heat to medium high heat and saute the onions and carrot until soft, about 10 minutes. During the last minute of sauteing, throw in the garlic until fragrant. Add the lentils back to the pot, along with one quart of water, the oregano, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then cover and boil for 10 minutes.

Uncover the pot and stir in the tomato paste. Re-cover, turn down the heat so that it simmers, and continue cooking for 30 to 40 minutes more, until the lentils are tender.

Serve with Feta and a drizzle of red-wine vinegar over the top.

Who would've thought I'd be a Greek lady when I grew up?

It was neat to cook a meal in my husband's family's kitchen. I never got to meet my mother-in-law, sadly she passed away in 2001. Tonight, standing at her stove, cooking a dish I know she cooked a hundred times before, I felt as though I knew her a little bit. It was really special, one of the many moments in my life where I've been grateful for food and the way it has brought me closer to people I love.

Kalinichta (good night) from Greece!

Cooking in Greece

Greetings, friends! I know this post is a long time in coming, but I assure you, it will be a good one. As many of you know, I have been in Greece visiting my husband's family for the past week, and will be here until next Monday. The weather has been a little bit chilly for Greece at this time of year (55 or so during the day) but today we had a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Here I am at a cafe near the sea where my sister-in-law and I spent the afternoon.

This evening I was lucky enough to get to cook a meal with my sister-in-law at her house. We made Spanikorizo, a very traditional dish usually served as a side to meat. During Lent, Greeks fast on Wednesdays and Fridays (meaning they refrain from animal products), so this is also a common Lenten dish. My sis-in-law and her family don't fast (and neither do we), so we weren't making it for that reason. It's a tasty dish for any time of year, in my opinion, especially when you can get good, fresh garden spinach.

first, you must wash and trim the spinach

Spanikorizo
(I wrote this down as my SIL was cooking, and she doesn't use a recipe, so some amounts are estimates)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
about 5 cups fresh spinach, washed and trimmed (do not sub frozen!)
6 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
1 medium size onion, chopped
1/2 cup dill
lemon juice (to taste - we used the juice of one lemon)
1 cup rice (we used arborio - any long grain white will do)
salt and pepper

Directions:

Clean spinach thoroughly (I recommend using a salad spinner if you have one, or dry it on paper towels). Fill a large saucepan with about an inch of water and bring to the boil. Add the spinach and cook until slightly wilted, just a couple of minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Dry out the pan and add about a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Saute the scallions and onion until soft. Add the spinach back to the pan and stir to combine. Add the dill and lemon and salt and pepper to taste.

Add a bit more water (about 1 cup or so) and olive oil to taste (another 1/4 cup or so) and add the rice. Cover and cook over medium low heat until rice is tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with feta and bread!

chopping onions

adding the wilted spinach to the sauted onions

Dinner! Side of delicious Feta is a must here in Greece

And I'll leave you with an adorable pic of my nephew eating his dinner (homemade french fries and beef schnitzel - lucky kid!) to make you forget that I haven't cooked posted anything for a week. :)

Stay tuned for a post on the Athens Central Market that we visited this week (not for the weak of stomach). I also got a new Greek cookbook that I'm really excited about - getting so many ideas for when I return!

Shrimp Tourkolimano

Hooray, I did it! I made a quick week-night meal in approx. 30 minutes! I made this once before but had kind of forgotten about it until I was scouring my cookbooks for something fast and easy.

We received this lovely book Greektown Chicago: Its History and Its Recipes as a gift from my husband's brother and sister-in-law a couple of years ago. I swear by the Pastitsio recipe in it (but more on that later). Its a really fun book, loaded with old pics of Chicago's Greektown and recipes from the Greektown restaurants as well as from local Chicago Greek-Americans. I look forward to sharing this book with my children someday.

So this recipe, called Shrimp Tourkolimano (which according to the book means "Turkish harbor, named for the place where the Greeks arrived upon their exodus from that region, at the port of Piraeus) is full of traditional Greek flavors - olive oil, tomato, feta. My husband and I tasted something sort of like this while we were in Greece last time.

Shrimp Tourkolimano
from Greektown Chicago, serves 4

Ingredients
1 lb shrimp
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Spanish onions, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (I used diced from the can since it's the dead of winter and the tomatoes suck right now!)
1/4 cup tomato puree (I had used about a 1/2 can of tomato paste I had leftover mixed with a a little water)
6 oz crumbled Feta cheese
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil. Meanwhile, saute the garlic, green and Spanish onions in olive oil until lightly brown (about 10 minutes). Add the tomato puree and chopped tomatoes and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Add the water, salt and pepper, and boil for 10 minutes.

Add the shrimp to the pan with the tomato mixture and boil for 3 to 4 minutes (do not fully cook as they will finish cooking in the oven and you don't want them to overcook). Transfer to a small, shallow baking pan and top with the crumbled Feta. Broil for about 10 minutes, or until the Feta begins to melt and brown.





I served this with some plain Greek white rice and a green salad. It is also wonderful with crusty bread to scoop up all the yummy sauce. (However, I had a fallible moment yesterday and a complete bread making FAIL - more on that later, I'm attempting a second try either today or tomorrow).

You, too, can enjoy the flavors of Greece in your kitchen tonight!