Traditional Greek Orange Cake with Syrup

Juicy, easy, fluffy and full of aromas Traditional Greek Orange Cake with Syrup, which is made with crust leaves, finely chopped & hidden inside and with strained yogurt. It is syruped with a thick orange syrup to make the flavors even more orange. The taste of orange floods the palate so pleasantly and so intensely, uniquely!
Of all the syrupy sweets of Greek Cuisine, this orange pie is by far our favorite. It's because oranges are our favorite fruit! It combines beautifully with a ball of our favorite ice cream and the flavors take off.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Traditional Kalitsounia of Chania, Crete

In the traditional agricultural and urban Cuisine of Crete, the products that the rural populations, for centuries now, produce and consume on their own until the communications changed, so that they can find them elsewhere inside or outside of Greece, played a leading role.
Some of these products had their place of honor on the big, important festive days of Christmas, Easter, August 15.… Then the housewives made the famous Kalitsounia in large quantities for family but also to friends, neighbors and visitors.
Today's Kalitsounia have their roots of Chania, whose inhabitants, due to the soil morphology of the place, had the main occupation of grazing sheep. As a result, dairy farming was a parallel profession, so that they could make use of the milk they had in the mountainous area of Psiloritis.
Try them!

※※※※※We wish you a Happy Easter 2021!※※※※※

work: 3h:00′

time: 3h:00′

easy:

Easter Brioche Buns

Easter Brioche or Tsoureki Oriental in Greece is a traditional sweet bread, which is prepared throughout the year and especially during the Easter holidays. It needs yeast and good kneading to inflate and create beautiful fibers inside that will keep it fresh and fluffy for days. Also aromatic spices and citrus zest, such as lemon and orange, flavor it wonderfully. It is often decorated with red eggs and has different shapes and sizes.
This year we made small brioche buns to accompany our coffee for days.
Try them!
※※※※※We wish you Happy Easter 2021!※※※※※

work: 1h:00′

time: 4h:00′

medium:

Greek Easter Cookies

Easter Cookies - and not only Easter - with a different approach but with all the aromas of Greek Easter, such as Chios Mastic, Mahlepi, Kakoule (Cardamom) and the aroma of orange.
Light, tasty, soft, digestible and special. They are made very easily with their wonderfully velvety dough, which is given by the addition of pure yogurt and the light corn oil. They are relatively sweet with a little sugar added because our opinion is that this is how a cookie should be in order for a savory platter of cheeses and cold cuts to accompany our drink.

Happy Easter!

work: 1h:20′

time: 2h:30′

easy:

Pasta Soufflé

A timeless souffle with basic pasta the striped penne (penne rigate) to wrap beautifully around the ingredients and their taste. This soufflé has a very "sinful" content, so sinful that we make it, eat it and do not approach the scales again for a couple of weeks… However I give the ingredients and their proportions and if you are "brave" you make it and enjoy it.
It remains a very tasty pasta dish that few will resist trying. Ideally eaten hot, like all soufflés. We have said that Souffle is not waiting, we are sitting at the table and we are waiting for it.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Yogurt Hazelnut Cake

Velvety and fragrant this cake, with traditional yogurt and hazelnut flour, is a thin, without much sugar but very soft dessert, ideal for breakfast and snacks. It has a beautiful dark color from the hazelnuts and the intensity of their taste. Greek traditional yogurt makes it particularly fresh and tastes good. If you then sprinkle it with icing sugar, it will also be perfect at the end of a meal combined with a wonderful aromatic coffee. Children will love it and it is ideal to consume dairy products without even realizing it.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Classic Spaghetti Carbonara

Never has a dish given us so much flavor with just a handful of ingredients as this one! Italian Carbonara, if done properly, becomes a fantastic dish full of flavor and it’s a thing of beauty.
Of course the Italian Carbonari (Furnace Charcoals and Miners) who were the original inspirers of this dish but also all their descendants, did not use sour cream to make the pasta of this most famous pasta dish, juicy and creamy.
There is a hypothesis on the origin of the name, which connects the existence of black grated pepper on the pasta, so that it "blackens" their surface as if it were coal dust, a fact that can reasonably be considered to have happened to the miners who used to this dish, due to the easy finding of its ingredients for that time. A dish that we know historically was very popular in the popular neighborhoods of the time.
Yours!

work: 10′

time: 15′

very easy:

Ham Cheese Pie with Cream

Everyone likes this pie, I always make it with a puff pastry sheet to keep all the delicious, soft and fluffy filling inside. A sheet at the bottom, a sheet at the top and in between a filling based on a light béchamel cream, made with corn flour and which makes it look like a millefeuille.
We choose plenty of favorite cheeses & hams. I chose to put smoked turkey fillet but also any other ham, that you like, does to make it delicious. Make holes in the puff pastry to remove the moisture inside the pie and not to wipe the sheet, so that it becomes crispy.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

easy:

Greek Style Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Back to basics: Greek Style Spaghetti with Meat Sauce!
In our Kitchens it was for years the dominant and almost the only dish of pasta with minced, made in another era by the grandmothers and mothers cooks of the house on demand young children & adults alike. It has nothing to do with the well-known sauce bolognese , with its many ingredients and long preparation, which arrived much later in our Kitchen along with some other famous Italian spaghetti or pasta. Another peculiarity of Greek Spaghetti is that it is served with pasta well cooked in contrast to al-dente but also with its few ingredients, which were in our poor homes.
The Spaghetti with Minced Meat of mom, with minimal ingredients and the incomparable taste! Minced meat seasoned with cinnamon & simmer for a while to soften and mash nicely to include the spaghetti and flavor them. The grated mizithra or kefalotyri or grated parmesan, which will be added on top, will take off its taste! This Greek dish has become a staple and a favorite in our home.
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Brioche Burger Buns

Brioche dough tends to be heavy, as it is an enriched dough. This means that, in addition to the usual suspects to make bread, such as flour, water, salt and yeast, brioche dough includes egg, butter & full-fat milk. These buns, however, are light, airy, soft. So we have an enriched dough with a great taste, and not a heavy dough, with which brioche is usually made.
Making these homemade buns, with a neutral taste, so that they can be made sweet or savory choices and to enjoy them in many different ways:
☛ Plain to accompany a meal or make sandwiches & hamburger. Since they are not sweet at all by choice.
☛ Plain to accompany a meal or make sandwiches & hamburger. Since Cut in half and spread with butter and jam for a pleasant, hearty breakfast, they are not sweet at all by choice.
☛ Filled with chocolate, praline, jam of our choice or chestnut cream spread, like the ones here, to make them more festive… and which are our preference for Christmas Day.
You decide, choose and make the most delicious fluffy brioche buns for incredible combinations.

Yours!

Merry Christmas!

work: 1h:00′

time: 4h:00′

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