Month: May 2012
Savoring the flavours of Greece
Travelogue and thoughts of Athen
If you were to picnic in the foothills of Mount Olympus, and look not up to the peaks (where silver clouds keep the gods hidden) but down of the coastal plains to the glittering blue Gulf of Thérmai, you’d see the bounty of the Greek table laid out before you.
On the slopes, juniper and pine perfume the air, the Greeks cut the pine bark and use it to flavour retsina, their unique, mouth-puckering wine. Here, men hunt for rabbit and quail, they herd goats and sheep, raised for their meat and milk, which is made into wonderful cheeses and tangy yogurt, prizes of the Greek kitchen. The olive trees you would see are the earth’s contribution to the very heart of the cuisine: Greeks adore olive oil, and the country uses more per capita than any other nation (Kalamatas are treasured wordlwide, small ones koroneiki, yield exquisite oil).
Shimmering in the heat of the southern lowlands, the scrub, with its scent of bay laurel, oleander, mingles with orchards-quince, perhaps, or bergamot or cherry-where bees drawn to the flowers create some of the world’s most intensely flavoured honey. Then your gaze would fall upon the seashore, for Greece is an archipelago, thousands of islands strewn across the azure Mediterranean. The bleached stone and sand are dotted with whitewashed houses. On the docks, fisherman hawk an array of fish and seafood. From the shallows come shrimps, mussels and lobster, with the deeper waters offering up bulging panniers of octopus, sea bream, mackerel, and sardines.
For millenea, the Greeks have lived close to the earth. Their food is simple and quick, light and flavorful. The emphasis is on freshness, because Greek cooks recognize that food taste best when they taste of themselves, rather than of complex sauces or of time-consuming preparation. The Greek kitchen is traditionally largely vegetarian, because meat and fish were once too expensive for many. Then there are the breads which are a supplement-the Greeks have a special one for everything from the saints’ day to wedding days. Indeed, the Greek Orthodox calendar is significant in what appears on the table, calling for fasting during as much as half the year. Each fast is broken with an extravagant meal, washed down with glass after glass of anise-flavored ouzo- a custom almost as grueling as the fast that preceded it.
The Greeks understand the perfection of simplicity. Few things compare to a fresh meal on the sunny patio of a seaside taverna, consider grilled fish sprinkled with salt and lemon juice, alongside an olive-oil-dressed green salad. For dessert, there is creamy sheep’s milk yogurt, topped with stewed sweet cherries or apples. Unquestionably, the food fit for the Gods.
Two Greek favorites: Stifado and moussaka
Stifado
The word Stifado (also stifatho) comes from the word “stufado,” brought to Greece by the Venetians in the 13th century, after the fall of Constantinople (1204) and before the Ottoman invasion. The older versions of stifado do not include tomato, which didn’t appear in Greece until after the discovery of America. They may have also incorporated fruits, nuts, and a wider variety of vegetables than we include today. Nowadays stifado is an onion-laden stew made with red wine or red wine vinegar, tomato and a selection of spices (often including cinnamon) creating a flavorful base.
Ingredients: 1 ½ kg of stewing beef, 100 gr flour, ½ bottle red wine, 2 cloves of garlic, 800 gr baby shallots, olive oil for frying, 3 bay leaves, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 200 ml stock, salt and freshly ground pepper, 5-6 cloves
1. Cut the beef into large chunks, the bigger the better. 2. Season with flour and plenty of pepper plus a little salt. 3. Heat oil and fry chunks of beef until sealed on all sides and slightly brown. Put the lid on the casserole and simmer for a while. Put aside. 4. Add some more oil to the same pan and fry the onions over a medium heat until they start to brown. Place back the beef and add garlic cloves. 5. Pour in the wine and add cinnamon, all spices and heat until it just begins to boil. After one hour add beef stock and bay leaves to it. 6. Stir in the tomato puree. Simmer for at least 2 hours (occasonally stir stifado). Traditionally it is served with fresh bread and melted Feta cheese on top but you can offer with tomato puree flavored rice as well.
Moussaka -baked aubergines, potatoes, minced meat with feta cheese
Ingredients: half a kilo of minced meat (beef and veal mixture), 750 gr potatos sliced, 750 gr aubergines, 3 eggs, half liter of fresh milk, 200 gr grated cheese and one bar of feta, 1 onion, 1 stick cinnamon, 500 gr tomatoes, (peeled or tomato can)half glass of olive oil, 100 gr butter, 4 tbs semolina, salt and peper
Fry the aubergines and the potatoes slighlty. Sauté finely chopped onion in one tablespoon of oil in a saucepan then and add the mashed tomatoes without the seeds and the cinnamon. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.
Heat butter in an other saucepan, add the semolina and sauté. Put aside. Beat the eggs with the milk and pour over semolina. When everything is set, turn the heat off. Add half of the cheese. Arrange layer of potatoes in an oiled baking pan. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with a layer of aubergines, sprinkle with cheese, then layer with all the minced meat, sprinkle with cheese etc..
Finally pour the cream over the layers and top with feta cheese. Bake moussaka in the oven for 40 minutes over 180 grades.
Very sweet Greek desserts are a Greek passion. Lighter style is a baklava-a sugary pastry with apricots and pistachios or the olive oil biscuits which are set out with cups of strong coffee. Other option is a thick yogurt which is served with spoon sweets, such as cherries apple or orange peels. The Greeks make these stewed desserts out of anything tasty and in season, figs, quince, even walnuts.
Peach with honey syrup
4 ripe medium peaches, 1/2 cup honey
Using a sharp knife, lightly score bottom of each peach with hatch marks. Prepare an ice bath, and set aside. Fill a large saucepan with enough cold water to cover peaches, then remove peaches. Over high heat, bring water to boil, and blanch peaches about one minute. Using a slotted spoon, immediately transfer peaches to ice bath. Remove from ice water and peel. Set aside peaches and skins.
Reserve 4 cups of poaching liquid in pan, add skins and honey. Bring to boil, and cook until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Pour liquid through a sieve, set over a bowl, and discard skins. Immediately spoon syrup over peaches, and serve.
French toast or Drunken virgin? It depends on where you are!
There are many interesting food items named after people or nations, this is like the case of the French toast.
When I lived in San Francisco I ate many times French toast, (for breakfast) and I served for my family as a sweet dish, battered in milk, sugar, or cinnamon were also added before frying it, and then everyone topped with wherewith they desired such as sugar, fruit, syrup, or other items. In the New York metropolitan area, within the Jewish-American communities, I ate with my friend Rachel the French toast another way, she prepared from a special bread the challah, (in the United States, distinctive regional or ethnic breads have sometimes been preferred, in many Jewish-American households, it is traditional to use the leftover challah from Friday night Sabbath dinner to make French toast on Sunday morning).
I am from Hungary so when I was a child my favorite savory, salty dish was the Fluffy bread, which was prepared on the following way: Slices of bread were soaked or dipped in mixture of beaten eggs and milk or cream. Then the breads were fried on both sides until they were brown and cooked through and then my mother served with grated cheese on top and we flavored with sauces such as ketchup or mayonnaise. I also liked to eat with pickles, sometimes with onions.
Short history
The earliest known reference to French toast was found in the book of Apicius, among a collection of Latin recipes, dating back to the 4th or 5th century; the recipe mentions bread soaking in milk but not eggs (though the editor adds eggs) and give it no special name, just calls Aliter Dulcia “another sweet dish”. Then there is a 14th-century German recipe under the name of Arme Ritter (poor knights) are made from bread leftovers as a fast and simple meal. There are several local alternatives in serving: with a mix of sugar and cinnamon, filled with plum-jam or with vanilla sauce. Sometimes it is made with wine instead of milk, and in that case it is called Betrunkene Jungfrau, “Drunken virgin”.
Then there are 15th-century English recipes for “pain perdu” (French for “lost or wasted bread”, suggesting that the dish is a use for bread which has gone stale). However according to a 1660s recipe for “French Toast” was different: the toasted bread was soaked in wine, sugar, and orange juice. A similar dish, suppe dorate, was also popular in England during the Middle-Ages, although the English might have learned it from the Normans, who had a dish called tostees dorees.
Where I have eaten French toast so far and in what way?
In Paris at my Godmother’s house I ate stuffed French toast. It was very interesting experience because it was like a sweet sandwich of two pieces of French toast and was filled with bananas, strawberries, and other fruits. In France it is usually topped with butter, maple syrup, and powdered sugar but at Sylvie’s it was served with slightly salty caramel jam. I liked it very much!
In the Netherlands and Belgium, (in the latter I lived 15 years), the French toast is called Wentelteefjes and is made from bread leftovers with eggs, milk and a mix of sugar and cinnamon, baked in butter. They are usually eaten as breakfast or served with ice cream as dessert. In Belgium, sometimes people call it “lost bread” (“verloren brood”), because of the use of stale bread.
In England, it is also known as “eggy bread”, “egg dip” or “gypsy toast”: another version with jam which was once popularly known as “Poor Knights of Windsor”. Savory variations are more common than sweet (e.g. ketchup or Marmite spread on the bread or used for dipping). Eggy bread is rarely found in cafes, being more of a household favorite made for breakfast and flavored and/or augmented with whatever ingredients are to hand.
In Scotland in St Andrew and Edinburgh (at friends) it is popular as a breakfast item, either as accompanies to the traditional fried breakfast or served with a generous spread of warm porridge. It is not uncommon, now, to see a breakfast cereal sandwich made with French toast. By far the most popular filling is Sugar Puffs and this has become known as the Livingston Sanny. These are popular with children and there are even some cafés, near the university, in Edinburgh selling this as a morning snack.
One friend of mine Dana is from Czech Republic, (from Prague) and on the other day she invited me for a so- called smaženka, she told me that in some parts of the country (especially on the east), smaženka denotes a slice of bread with omelette, mustard, gherkin and sometimes onions and peppers on it. There are some regional names for the dish too.
I was just recently visited an other friend Gayane from Georgia for an afternoon snack and she prepared for me the so-called Cock-A-Doodle-Dok! and meanwhile she was busy with making this funny stuff she told me that in Georgia, it is made with white bread, soaked in beaten eggs and then added to an oiled pan until it is fried. “Cock-A-Doodle-Do” is considered a breakfast food or in our case just a snack.
In Greece, in Athen I accompanied my husband in a congress and we got for breakfast the egg slices, I figured out later that it was the Greek name of the French toast and it is typically made from slices of stale bread soaked in milk or water to soften it, dipped in egg, fried in olive oil and served with honey, sugar and cinnamon, and with feta cheese or sometimes just by itself. It is usually eaten as a breakfast food or cold snack.
Last year in March when I was in Rome I discovered a variation bread which was served as mozzarella in carrozza (“mozzarella in carriage”). In this version, a slice of fresh mozzarella is sandwiched between two slices of bread and the whole stuff is dipped in egg and fried. It can be seasoned with salt, but it is not sweet dish like French toast and is not eaten for breakfast. It is often topped with a tomato sauce, which is then sometimes garnished with some chopped parsley and grated cheese to make three broad stripes of green, white and red, the colors of the Italian flag. It is the patriot French toast!
In Russia, the (Bednye rytsari) “poor knights”, apparently after the German name are made of white bread, soaked in milk and egg and fried in a pan with oil afterward. This name is almost unheard of since the Russian Revolution, as the recipe since has known as (grenki). They are eaten both sweet (with a liberal amount of sugar added to the omelette mix before soaking the bread) and savory, but the latter variant is less popular nowadays. Egg is also sometimes omitted, with only the sweetened milk used.
End of the story
Nowadays the French toast is prepared from slices of stale breads dipped in eggs and milk/cream mixture and fried in butter or oil (depends on which case, sugary or salty). Then they are often topped with jam, butter, peanut butter, honey, Marmite, Vegemite, maple syrup, golden syrup, fruit syrup, molasses, apple sauce, beans, beef, lard, whipped cream, fruit, tomato ketchup (when sugar is not used), chocolate, sugar, yogurt, powdered sugar, marmalade, bacon, treacle, cheese (often with ham), ice cream, gravy, or various nuts such as pecans……
French toast recipe after/from Julianna Margulies
Makes 12 slices
6 eggs, 1 cup heavy cream, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp of salt, 1 loaf sourdough bread, sliced ½ thick, 3 tbsp butter, maple syrup, confectioners’s sugar, fresh strawberries
In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Pour half of the mixture into a 8x 13 baking dish. Place 6 slices of bread in bottom of dish. Let sit for 30 minutes or until bread is soggy, turning once. Melt 2 tbsp butter in large skillet. Add bread and cook over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until golden, turning once. Repeat with remaining slices, adding more butter if needed. Serve with maple syrup. Sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on top and garnish with fresh strawberries.
Advice: Day-old bread is often recommended by chefs because stale bread will soak up more egg mixture without falling apart!
Walpurgis night, May day and fancy fair all together in Germany
Walpurgis night is a traditional spring festival from 30 of April to 1st of May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows’ Eve.
The origin of Walpurgis
The current festival is, in most countries that celebrate it, named after the English missionary Saint Walpurga (ca. 710–777/9). As Walburga was canonized on 1st of May (ca. 870), she became associated with May Day, especially in the Finnish and Swedish calendars. Nowadays the eve of May day, traditionally celebrated with dancing, and with bonfire came to be known as Walpurgisnacht (“Walpurga’s night”).
In Germany
In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night on 30 of April, is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the top of the Brocken mountain and await the arrival of spring…
According to Jacob Grimm, the great storyteller, the witches gathered at the top of the Brockenberg which is the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It was a perfect place for spells and miracles because the mountain is/was noted for the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre (ghost) and therefore for witches’ revels which reputedly took place there on Walpurgis’s night. Scientificaly the Brocken Spectre is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken.
In some parts of northern coastal regions of Germany, the custom of lighting huge fires is still kept alive to celebrate the coming of May, while most parts of Germany have a derived Christianized custom around Easter called “Easter fires”.
In rural parts of southern Germany, it is part of popular youth culture to play pranks (trick or treat) such as tampering with neighbor’s gardens, hiding possessions, or spraying graffiti on private property.
In Berlin, traditional leftist May Day riots usually start at Walpurgis Night in the Mauerpark and in Prenzlauer Berg. There is a similar tradition in the Schanzenviertel district of Hamburg, though in both cases, the situation has significantly calmed down in the past few years.
Maypole erection and dancing under the May tree
Maypole which is a decorated tree or tree trunk that is usually erected either on 1st of May – in Baden and Swabia – or on the evening before, for example, in East Frisia. In most areas, especially in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Austria, it is usual to have a ceremony to erect the maypole on the village green. The custom of combining it with a village or town festival, that usually takes place on 1st of May or at Pentecost (Whitsun), is widespread. This tradition is especially strong in the villages of the Bavarian Alps where the raising of the traditional maypole on 1st of May in the village square is a cause for much celebration. The custom is going back to the 16th century. The pole is usually painted in the Bavarian colours of white and blue and decorated with emblems depicting local crafts and industry. Just before the Maibaum is erected, depending on the region, there is a procession through the village, usually ending up at a central place and/or restaurant and usually watched by crowds of spectators and accompanied by a brass band. The actual installation of the tree then takes place in the afternoon or evening. While the crowds usually while away the time drinking beer and eating sausages, the young men busy themselves with decorating the maypole to get the symbols of various trades representing the region into the right position. Whilst the maypole is traditionally set up with the help of long poles, today it may sometime also be done using tractors, forklifts or even cranes. If the tree is erected on the eve of 1st of May, then the event is usually followed by a May dance (Tanz unten den Maibaum).
Depending on local custom, the Maibaum may remain in place until the end of the month and then it is taken down, decorations removed and the trunk stored until the following year. In many parts of Bavaria it remains in place all year round.
On the night of the last day of April, many young men erect small decorated “Maibäume” in front of the houses of their sweethearts. Some attach a red heart with the name of the girl written on it to the tree.
Auer Dult from 30 of April to 6 of May
After Walpurgis night we hit the town and participated at the Auer Dult. It is organized three times a year when Münich city invites everyone to the “Dult”, to a traditional fair and market. Then the Mariahilf Square buzzes nine days long with people strolling and looking for special collectible items, eating and drinking, laughing and shopping. The Auer Dult offers traditional merry-go-round just like handmade pottery or herbs for your good pot of tea – a market like a children´s fairy tale…
spajzgirl 
