RECIPES COOKING SWEET TASTE TRADITIONAL GREEK FOOD

RECIPES COOKING, SWEET TASTE Simple Trahana Soup with Lemon and Olive Oil Traditional Greek Green Beans recipe (Fasolakia Giaxni) Melomakarona (A Greek Christmas Cookie)

Simple Trahana Soup with Lemon and Olive Oil Instructions Ingredients 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 1/2 cups sour bulgur trahana 8 cups water, vegetable stock, or chicken stock Salt and freshly ground pepper 3 tablespoons lemon juice, strained 6 tablespoons crumbled feta Plain Greek yogurt for garnish (optional) Chopped fresh herbs for garnish In a medium soup pot heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and add trahana. Stir until coated with oil, about 1 minute. Add water or stock and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring often, until trahana is tender and nutty tasting and the broth slightly thickened, 15 to 20 minutes if using home-made bulgur trahana (if you use semolina or flour trahana the time will only be 8 to 12 minutes and the mixture will be more like a porridge). Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Spoon into bowls and top with a drizzle of olive oil and a tablespoon of crumbled feta. Garnish with plain yogurt if desired and chopped fresh herbs such as mint, parsley or dill.

Traditional Greek Green Beans recipe (Fasolakia Giaxni) Instructions To prepare this traditional Greek green beans recipe, start by washing thoroughly the green beans. Drain them in a colander and set aside. Heat half the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and sauté until transculent and tender. Stir in the garlic, the grated tomatoes, and the rest of the olive oil and a pinch of sugar and bring to the boil. The traditional recipe for Greek green beans calls for fresh ripe tomatoes, but if you like you can substitute with canned chopped tomatoes, or Passata tomato juice. Add the green beans and blend well, so that the green beans are coated with the olive oil and the tomatoes. Turn the heat down, cover with the lid and simmer for 40- 45 minutes, until the beans are soft and most the juices have evaporated. During cooking, check out if the pan appears to be getting dry and add a little bit hot water if needed. Towards the end of cooking time season with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped parsley. Serve the Greek green beans (fasolakia giaxni) warm or at room temperature with salty crumbled feta cheese and lots of Kalamata olives Ingredients 1250g green beans, trimmed (45 oz.) 3/4 of a cup olive oil 1 1/2 onions, chopped 1 clove of garlic, chopped 750g ripe tomatoes, grated (27 oz.) a pinch of sugar 2 tbsps chopped parsley salt and freshly ground pepper

Melomakarona (A Greek Christmas Cookie) Ingredients 1 1⁄2 cups light olive oil or 1 1⁄2 cups corn oil 1⁄2 cup butter, at room temperature 1 cup beer (or more) or 1 cup orange juice (or more) 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cloves 2 oranges, zest of, grated 1 cup sugar 2 cups fine ground semolina (cream of wheat or farina) 6 cups Flour 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Syrup 1 1⁄2 cups sugar 1 1⁄2 cups Greek thyme honey 1 cup water 3⁄4 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into this mixture. Instructions Put the corn oil, butter, beer (or orange juice), cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until they are thoroughly blended. Sift about one cup of flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt and blend into the oil mixture. Add the semolina, a cup at a time, into this mixture. Add enough of the remaining flour, a cup at a time, until you get a rather firm dough (you may need a bit more or less than the amount of flour mentioned in the ingredients list). Use your hands to do the mixing, as an electric mixer will be useless after the first two or three cups of flour have been added. Roll the dough into cylinders, about two inches long and one inch in diameter, flatten them with your hands, and place them on cookie sheets that have been greased with a little olive oil.

Bake at 350 degree Fahrenheit for half an hour. Remove the cookies from the oven and pour hot syrup over them. Lay the cookies out in a rimmed baking pan large enough to contain them and pour the hot syrup over the cookies, sprinkle them with the chopped walnuts and let them soak overnight. (Alternatively, if you do not have enough rimmed baking sheets to accommodate all the cookies, you can dip them in batches directly into the hot syrup - keeping the syrup at the lowest possible simmer - and allow to soak in the syrup for 8- 10 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon). For the syrup: mix the sugar, honey and water, and bring to a boil. Cook on low heat for four minutes and skim off the foam that forms on top. The next day put them on your prettiest platter, sprinkle each layer evenly with the finely chopped walnuts and wrap with plastic wrap (or put in an airtight container) and serve.

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