Month: October 2016

olive harvest

Olive oil and the Salt of the Earth

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A family member is an olive oil zealot. She keeps an olive grove and produces small quantities of olive oil to perfection. She has a mastery over the process from beginning to end and makes no consents to comfort. She spares no cost and redeems all favours during harvest in November. For these few days she turns from the easy-going and agreeable person she is to a warden of iron feast – and that we can attest. This year even our toddler picked his first olives, to his great delight and everybody else’s. But the result is proportional to the determination. After same day harvest and pressing the zealot turns modest, but with the content of the old master who knows that her work cannot be bettered. For those of you who (like me in the past) have not tasted fresh cold pressed olive oil of the best quality, let it be known that the distance from the stuff you get even in the good delis is similar to that of an ok wine to a French …

brioche buns, fish burgers, wasabi mayo

Fish and Shrimp Burgers, a Wasabi Mayonnaise and Brioche Buns

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Part of the burgers’ charm is that you can assemble them yourself in a glorious tower. During the assembly you anticipate eating the ingredients – the stronger they taste the better. We also ‘bricolaged’ the recipe from  different sources. The mayonnaise is adapted from Blumenthal, the buns from an Ottolenghi recipe and the burgers we developed ourselves after several attempts. The combination here works very well for us. Serves 4-6 For 4 brioche buns (or 6 smaller) 2 Tbsp lukewarm water 1 tsp active dried yeast 190g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting ½ tsp salt 20g caster sugar 2  eggs 75g cold unsalted butter, cut into 2cm dice, plus extra melted butter for brushing the buns sesame seeds or/and nigella seeds (optional) Place the lukewarm water and the yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, stir until dissolved and leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. Then add the remaining ingredients, except the butter and mix together with the aid of a spatula. Using the hook attachment mix on low speed for about …

Small Shoes, an Eggplant Recipe

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Small shoes (papoutsakia) is a somehow weird name for a food. There are many variations of aubergines-topped-with-something. The greek standard is with traditional béchamel, but we prefer this topping, according to the recipe of Aglaia Kremezi’s greek yogurt béchamel.  The rest is our family’s interpretation. Serves 8-10 The eggplants 5 eggplants (about 1,5kg) olive oil, for brushing sea salt freshly ground black pepper The meat sauce 1/2 cup olive oil 500g minced beef 200g onion, very finely chopped 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped 1/2 cup dry red wine 1 cup freshly grated tomatoes (or chopped canned tomatoes) 1/2 tsp sugar (optional, depending on the acidity of the tomatoes) 1 pinch ground allspice berries 2 Tbsp black raisins (optional) sea salt freshly ground black pepper The greek yogurt “béchamel” 4 Tbsp olive oil 4 Tbsp cornflour 2 cups full fat cold milk 1 cup full fat greek yogurt 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste 1 cup grated gruyère cheese sea salt, to taste Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan)  and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Cut the eggplants …