Murg Makhani aka Butter Chicken
This week, Indian food was demystified for myself. The long list of exotic ingredients had intimidated me and I was all too content to simply go out for Indian food instead. Toronto is very multicultural and one can easily go out and dine any cuisine their heart (and belly) desires. Toronto also has a large […]
Recipe For a Greek Wedding
In less than two weeks, I’ll be back in Greece again for my vacation. This will be my 20th time and I still get excited about going. I still have some experiences to share from last year’s trip. One of the most cherished memories has to be when I attended a traditional Greek wedding on […]
Tonka Bean Creme Caramel
In the summertime, us Greeks try and beat the heat any way possible. Days are spent at the beach, siestas in the middle of the afternoon and cooking when the home has cooled down or minimizing cooking. During the summer in Greece, meals are prepared the evening before or that morning and simply reheated for […]
Simit Kebab (σημίτ-κεμπάπ)
While I’m not in Greece during the summer, I’m still connected and wired to the homeland via internet, Skype, telephone and satellite radio and television. Few television shows can resist including a cooking segment. I recently caught Greek cookbook author and TV personality, Maria Loi on a weekend show where she prepared a dish called […]
Imam Baildi
Imam Baildi are stuffed eggplants. This is a vegetarian dish and it falls into the category of Greek cooking called “ladera” or lathera. Ladera dishes were born out of necessity, peasant families stretching-out food to feed families with what was fresh and what was seasonal. Ladera comes from the Greek word for oil, lathi and […]
Bouyiourdi
This dish (Bouyiourdi) comes from Greece’s second largest city and the capital of the province of Macedonia, Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki gets it’s name from Alexander the Great’s half-sister and much like walking in any other part of Greece, one is aware that they are walking on history. Although the city’s main character has always been Greek, […]
Creme Brulee With Mastic
Cooking, food, menu planning is as much about your culinary upbringing as it is about your instincts. Sometimes I’m wrong about a recipe or new riff on a classic. Thank goodness I’m right most of the time. Case in point was this Creme Brulee with Mastic. Although there are some savory applications for mastic, it […]
Skinos on the Rocks
Most of you are enjoying a leisurely Easter long weekend. I do hope you’re spending time with family and friends, enjoying good food and good cheer. Today I’m going to introduce to you Skinos, a liqueur made from mastic (mastiha) gum. Mastiha is a resinous sap produced from the trunk and branches of the Mastic […]
Kostas Meat Market
Seeing as how it is Holy Week for the Greek-Orthodox, most of us are fasting in some degree and we’re also juggling the duties of preparing for the big feast that awaits us this upcoming Sunday for Easter. Toronto boasts of having about 120,000 Greeks in the Toronto area, over a dozen churches and our […]
Shrimp With Mastiha
Today I will be jumping back in fasting for Greek Lent. This is the home stretch, “Megali Evdomada” or Holy Week, culminating with a feast like no other on Easter Sunday for Orthodox Christians. One I say fast, I mean I will be abstaining from any meat or meat by-products until I go to church […]
