Xmas Eve menu

 

Wandering what to prepare for the Christmas eve when you have still invited friends coming over the next day? Here's an easy menu for your very close dears that I propose together with my best wishes:

 - Salmon rolls filled with scallop shells - asparagus - mushrooms (oven fan 180 for 40min)  

- Melomakarona, the greek xmas biscuits with honey and cinnamon (2024 photo)

Merry Xmas!

Schnitzel, the unforgettable :) [2024 UPDATED]

A classic recipe today but again with a personal touch, this time my mother's in law. We are talking for the bread crumbed fried escalopes. These ones have some extra taste as I use cheese also. But not any cheese, my personal touch again here is the reggiano parmiggiano that I just looove :) So, here it goes...

[Original recipe 13/05/2013 10:40PM]

[2024 UPDATE] Hubby invented a faster version  where you mix the cheese with the eggs and save one dish and 1/3 of the time of the preparation!

Haloween Fingers

Ok, Halloween has passed, but here it is a funny idea for your next year's Halloween aperitif.
I tried it for the first time a week ago at a great Halloween party of some dear friends of ours (thank you btw!!!) and everyone was excited with it!
So easy, so scary, so tasty... can you do better? ;)
With terror from me to you... BoooOOOOO

Greek filo or fyllo dough for pies

Have you ever tasted spanakopita or spanakotyropita ? Oh my... I have given the recipe long time ago in this blog but using ready made filo. I have never given the recipe for a homemade "filo", the basic ingredient and this is outrageous for someone who comes from Thessaly, the region for traditional greek pies!
I will try to remediate today by dedicating this recipe to my mum, the best ever cooker who abandoned school very early to cook for her family that worked to the fields and who knows how to "open" the thinner ever possible filo. Sorry mum, I cannot compete with you, at least I try :)
Prepare though for quite some work, my moto "simple but delicious" is true only at half !
Attention: You will need a special wooden rounded stick or anything equivalent.
P.S : I have added some heavy cream in the filling of the original recipe today. 

"Papoutsakia" or stuffed eggplants for the novice :) [Updated, original 13/08/14]

[Updated 21/05/19 lighter version no frying]
Popular Greek recipe, perfect for the summer menu and very similar to moussaka : "papoutsakia"! The word literally translated means "little shoes" and opposite to shoes, it tastes and smells great :)

If you like moussaka, then you will love it also as it a bit easier and as it serves individually, it is great looking for a nice summer dinner among friends.

Zucchini and feta tarte

Here's a simple, light and tasty tarte for summer dinners...

Tyropita, the greek feta cheese pie!

Family was asking for tyropita, the Greek feta cheese pie, last week and searching to find the recipe in my blog I realized that it was missing! I had only the spanakotyropita recipe that is even better but more complicated. So, you can imagine the rest... had to take photos on top of cooking :)
I was extremely busy & tired and so was my daughter that I asked to take fast some photos, which explains the low quality of the result. But it's better than nothing,  no?
So, if you like feta cheese, try this recipe and you won't regret it :)
My only regret is that I had to leave immediately after so I tasted it much later at night when I came back... at least family was nice and had left me a few pieces !

Truffade auvergnate (sort of :)

Sometime ago, I was honored to accompany my son's class to a field trip in Auvergne (a french region), more precisely in Cantal a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac.
We spent a dreaming week in a farm surrounded by animals, warm-hearted people and a beautiful, green scenery thanks to the volcanoes that the region is known for.
One of the last dinners, we had the chance to try one of their typical dishes, the delicious "Truffade Auvergnate" which is a sort of a thick pancake made with sliced potatoes, garlic and cheese (more precisely the variety called "fresh tomme" or Cantal jeune). For more information, search the web, for example wikipedia. After some scooping on the web, I've found that there exists also a similar recipe, "The Aligot", but I have never tried it yet. Maybe the next time that I will visit the region :)
Cheese is one of the typical products there, with Cantal cheese (one of the oldest in France, from the time of Gauls) but also Saint- Nectaire and Salers.
Cantal cheese is a firm (semi-hard) cheese, made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk from the Salers breed. According to the time of aging, it can be found in three varieties:

• Cantal jeune (1-2 months aged)
• Cantal entre deux (2-6 months)
• Cantal vieux ( more than 6 months)

In the recipe that I will provide you today (easy but so tasty!), I have used Cantal entre deux, that was the only one that I could find easily (sorry Celian for not being too concentrated the day that you proposed me to buy some when we were there, but I can now admit that I have some intolerance and that kind of cheese it always scares me :) 
Here it goes ....

Happy Easter 2017

Dear family, friends, acquaintances and just passengers from this blog,

I wish you all Happy Easter whatever that means for each one of you, if it means something.
Actually, I am so busy this period that I have realized just 2 days ago that Easter is this weekend :)
This blog proposes several traditional Greek recipes to prepare these days that each one reminds me of the Easter time that I have spent in Greece with my family at good and bad times.
I continue to prepare most of them for my subsequent family and I will be glad if my effort will help others to bring up memories from their youth in the same way or even better :) Cheers!
Recipes:

• Easter eggs
• Roast lamb leg (traditionally we roast the whole lamp in a huge barbecue, though)
• Easter cookies
• Vivian's pudding
• Ribbon cake as Easter cake
• Tsourekia (recipe missing but you can see the next one)
• French brioche bread or Tsourekia

Hummus

Ok, I won't pretend that I managed to have a nice hummus on my first attempt neither on my second, I do not know why actually, as it is one of the easiest dip recipes to make.
I want to thank Katia (my ex zumba teacher that makes the most delicious hummus :) for her recipe and Aneta for being the intermediate (and for iniating me to zumba btw :)
So, what is hummus ? It's a Lebanese food dip made of chickpeas that I just loooove and that it takes a few minutes to make at home (much better than store-bought).

I've got a Kenwood Kmix!

Amazing cooking news!

I've got a brand new stand mixer the KENWOOD Kmix98, the latest model in a fancy color (lemon yellow :) that is

• powerful, 
• solid, 
• of big capacity 
• and practical.

What more to ask from such a tool?

It replaced my old Moulinex Ovatio maxipress duo that had lots of tools but was not very solid, as most tools were in plastic in comparison with the Kmix that have them in metal.
(I've got the majority of the tools btw brand new, so please if they might be in need to someone just let me know to pass them for free... they might fit to the latest model, as they look similar btw)

What do you have?

Butternut squash soup

Comforting food today, one of my favorite soups, the butternut squash soup.
I did not have big pumpkin seeds to decorate at the end, as a friend does and it's so yummy, so enjoy our homemade funny faces using sour cream :)

Recipe reminder (curry)

What am I cooking today? Not Greek for once :)
I would like to remind you a curry recipe that I like and my kids too btw.
As kids make hard criticism in general (ok, they are a bit softer with mum still, but not always), I think that it worths to consider it for one of your next meals.
Are you ready for my chicken curry recipe, then?
Go for it!

Recipe reminder (Gemista)

Time to remember a nice vegetarian Greek recipe "Stuffed tomatoes, the greek way" or "Gemista" as we call it in Greek.
It deserves all your attention... Light, healthy, tasty, good-looking, what more to ask from a recipe?
Simply, enjoy!

Recipe reminder (spetzofai)

What have I cooked for yesterday? Spetzofai...
I had almost forgotten the impact that this dish has to my non-Greek friends, they become addicted! Reminder then for this heart-warm dish and special tribute today that is a pretty cold one and there is still snow around.
Find all the details here: http://vivianiscooking.blogspot.fr/2014/03/spetzofai-weird-name-greeek-taste.html

"Tigania" or fried pork

"Tigania" is a fast and tasty way to prepare a starter for a nice dinner. Actually these starters in Greece we call them "mezes" and we can eat several starters like this instead of following the classic procedure of a dinner.
Once again, a Greek recipe that in old times, people were cooking in villages with meat coming from their own pigs and instead of olive oil, they were using the pork fat. Not so healthy, but soooo delicious! Even the modern version is very tasty, so do not hesitate to try it :)

Dolmadakia "yalantzi"

"Dolmadakia" are stuffed grape leaves and it is a very popular dish as it is very tasty and once you try it, you get addicted :)
You can find it in several countries and even at the supermarket in small cans.
I will share with you today one of the greek versions that is called "yalantzi" and it is the vegetarian version using rice.
I could not miss from this blog a traditional greek recipe like this one...

Chicken curry

I will share with you my favorite chicken curry recipe that a dear friend of mine has given me years ago. It had been quite some time that I did not do it, as my kids where pretty young and such recipes were too exotic for them.
Thanks to an indian friend that brought me recently some of the ingredients, I decided that it was time to indulge myself. Not a bad idea, as kids really liked it, and it was a nice change.
I serve the chicken with some basmati rice and the trip to India starts... (ok with some chinese touch :)

Roast leg of lamb

I didn't like to eat lamb. I didn't like the smell of lamb... until... I invented my way to cook it and it became my favorite and the dish that my kids like and my friends are asking me to cook for them :)
It's a simple, very simple recipe that just needs a covered dish for the oven and one orange and one lemon!
The orange juice covers the smell of lamb and perfumes it in a delicate way. If you add also potatoes around the meat, they will be caramelized in a surprising way. And if you cannot resist and want to add some herb, just add oregano, the ultimate seasoning herb for the oven in my opinion.
Another tip, is to buy one week before cooking the meat, to put it in the freezer and unfreeze it the day before cooking. That way, the meat will be tender. Enough with secrets, let's pass to action!

Liver with Spätzle

Easy recipe, this one, for a fast and tasty dinner. The oregano and the lemon juice will make the liver sooo tasty that you will start dribbling from the smell...
In addition, for the ones that have open issues with their body iron like me, it will increase your iron intake.