Greek Christmas Filled Cookies

Cookies/Finikia/Melomakarona, a recipe from the East full of aromas and memories of lost homelands! Stuffed, traditional, Lenten and syrupy cookies.
The syruping is done in a saucepan and while the syrup is kept warm on a very low heat.
We prepare Finikia, which are consumed during the Lenten days before Christmas but also as a sweet delicacy for Christmas and New Year's Day along with the other Christmas desserts of the Twelve Days, such as Melomakarona, Kourabiedes, hills of fried honeyed Diples fragrant and fluffy Vasilopites! And even Isli, Christmas Bread, Kouloures, New Year's Loukoumades, Pancakes and other local sweets, festive, symbolic and ritual, that are prepared in every corner of Greece.
Yours!

Merry Christmas 2024! 🎄
Happy Holidays!

work: 1h:00′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Osso Buco Veal Stew

Το Osso Buco is the ideal piece of Veal Shank for a well-cooked Stew but also for the perfect Beef Soup. In fact, I recommend sautéing the Osso Buco in olive oil, so that it takes on color and flavor from each side, before it is cooked and accompanied along the way by selected vegetables and aromatic spices. Thus, an innocent Greek Stew can be deliciously hellish with its multi-layered, hidden deliciousness!
Some prefer to accompany this dish with Pappardelle, others with Oven-Fried Potatoes, Barley, Risotto, Polenta. This time we enjoyed it with a super extra Mashed Potatoes!
Yours!

work: 00:45′

time: 2h:15′

medeum:

Orange «Necklace»

If you have a cotton string, a thick needle, some sugar and 2-3 oranges you are ready to create something beautiful and sweet: An Orange «Necklace»!
An idea, which will delight both you and those you give it to. Make this recipe and eat it all winter long.
Yours

work: 15′

time: 45′

very 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 an incomparable taste! Minced meat seasoned with cinnamon & simmer to soften and mash nicely to include the spaghetti and flavor them. The grated mizithra or kefalotyri or grated parmesan, 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:

Greek Halva

This here, Semolina Halva is young, handsome and scandalous, without question or hesitation, he also has a caramelized taste like an extra bonus in the suitcase with his dowry. There is a little secret about him and it is about the technique of his preparation. It will be revealed to you later, reading the article or enjoying it, if you make it!
Forget the well-known 1 2 3 4 etc. of the ingredients here arithmetic changes, it's not like when we were kids and they taught us our first sweets… Confectionery is an evolving art, it's very special and strict, I would say, even if it concerns the simplest of sweets. Sometimes the simple does not mean simplistic, the depthless approach to the real.
Its ingredients, thanks to which it becomes very light and aromatic, apart from the well-known semolina, are nuts, cinnamon, juice and orange zest as well as orange spoon sweet chopped!
Yours

work: 45′

time: 2h:45′

easy:

Custard Filled Pastry Torte

Custard Filled Pastry Torte-Galaktoboureko, festive and favorite!
AND YES we celebrated a Birthday with this syrupy dessert and it eaten to be lukewarm, consumed with great appetite and some (everyone?!?) loved it!
Simplifying the procedures in the dilemma of the term «Birthday Cake» the decision was made and the balance was set in this suggestion here as time and conditions were very limited… It Just very easy with ingredients like fine semolina to make air-foam pastry cream, fresh butter, crunchy pastry sheets, fresh eggs and a light aroma syrup orange. Classic, that is, without the risk of failure and with the phyllo making small crisp nests to embrace the cream. Decorated with a little orange jam and grated pistachio.

Happy Birthday my Baby!

work: 40′

time: 1h:30′

easy:

Starbucks Coffee Cake

A nice coffee like these delicious fragrances, which we drink at the unique Starbucks, to accompany the excellent in concept and simplicity Starbucks Cake! If you haven't tried it in its place, make it and enjoy it at your home, alone or with friends, matters little. This is where Coffee and Cake count.
And for you students, I have prepared this cake for you, so you can make it at the beginning of the week and have a little slice every day -if you are in the mood- without feeling guilty, along with your morning coffee. I promise you, you'll go out on your way to school with the most happy and satisfied smile on your lips.
This recipe is a small recipe for almost a lot. For single or small families.
What I love about this cake, besides being extremely fast to prepare, is that it's a clever idea of what a wonderful cake/snack means, exactly! Fairly rich, with crumbly crumbs, soft, fluffy and soft in texture. I could eat this cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner…
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 1h:00′

very easy:

No Knead Walnut Raisin Bread

Bread without kneading: we know it, we have made it and we like it. But this particular is very tasty and has to do not only with the ingredients it contains but with the time in which it is being prepared. The time matures the leaven and the result is excellent.
We follow the program and dedicate a morning of Saturday & Sunday to complete it -with the second bread rise & baking- to enjoy it with a companion and combined in a brunch, with salty and sweet tastes on a plate of cheese, sausages, butter, jam and honey or whatever else we like. The Bread will, however, be the king of the brunch. Oh, eaten and plain, especially plain!
The organization of the long wait for the preparation of this bread is made on the basis of the following timetable and which we must follow. In the standby time we do not discount. Since you do not knead let the time do the work for us.
Yours!
⌚

• 18:00 make the dough
• 10:00 next day start the second rise
• 11:30 turn on the oven with the cast iron pot in
• 12:00 bake the bread
• 13:00 you have ready, hot, baked bread!

work: 20′

time: 18h:00′

easy:

Apple Pie with Caramelized Apples

Two puff pastry sheet and among them many, aromatic, caramelized apples into slices. This is an apple pie, everything simple and easy we can make with these two ingredients, yet the flavors and aromas are super delicious!
The Apple Pie arrived in America with the English settlers and flourished there. There was no household that does not have the most good, the most unique and most traditional pie throughout the world. If you look in google the words «Apple Pie» will go on more entries from both the Chinese and Indians all together!
We suggest simplicity. It is relatively aglycone is thin, is soft in taste and texture and the browned and crisp puff pastry.!
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

very easy:

Sweet & Spicy Apple Chutney

Chutney or Chatni is a sauce/spicy jam from Kitchens of India, which can vary… One offshoot has rooted in Anglo-Indian cuisine to gain even as many variations and adapt to another flavor culture.
It is usually with vegetables and fruits, such as onion, garlic, rhubarb, apples, peaches, orange, plum, etc. with which one can make a milder pickle. Add vinegar or apple cider vinegar in recipes of Chutney English style, aimed traditionally give long life, so as to maintain for use throughout the year. Brown or dark sugar (usually Demerara to replace the jaggery in some Indian sweet chutney) and spices, which are usually used, fenugreek, coriander, cumin, cinnamon.
The whole produces a sweet and spicy pickle, with sweet and fruity flavors, with a strong presence of ginger, but a softer product, which in Western Kitchen is built to accompany savory dishes. Usually eaten with Cheddar cheeses or cured meats and poultry, usually in cold meals a pub.
Yours!

εργασία: 15′

χρόνος: 30′

πολύ εύκολο:

Baked Pears In Spiced Pomegranate Syrup

Whenever preparing large holiday meals we make 2-3 desserts for the occasion (certainly some of them are with chocolate for the black goddess worshipers) are preparing something seasonal and light, like a fruit salad.
Here we propose a great solution for an ideal and light dessert will like. Baked pears in ruby pomegranate syrup are beautiful and festive! It is much more tempting than a typical fruit salad… If you need a companion I would suggest little Greek yogurt, bathed with grenadine and nothing else.
Yours!

work: 15′

time: 1h:00′

very easy:

Nocino Walnut Liqueur

Nocino is an Italian liqueur with very dark color and made from small green walnuts while still unripe.
There are many recipes for this liqueur, with several days of exposure to sun, etc. I preferred a short and simple process with the only difference that in this case you let it for 6-7 months to mature the flavor and bring out the aromas.
Adding lemon peel reduces the astringent taste of the liqueur. If you have easy access to walnut trees, try to make this lovely, traditional, homemade liqueur.
Yours!

work: 30′

time: 24h:00′

easy:

Apple Tart with Vanilla Caramels

Caramel loves apples and vice versa. In this tart combine perfectly to give us a result both tasty and easy.
A puff pastry sheet, a few apples and a bag of Vanilla Caramels, enough to build and enjoy a special apple tart. The bisquit coating, with the presence of walnut boosts enjoyment.
Yours!

work: 20′

time: 1h:00′

very easy:

Apple Tart

Crushed biscuit base, delicious crème pâtissière with cream and browned apple slices is the composition of this tart, with a strong presence of the aroma of cinnamon!
The apples cut into thin slices are stewed and placed round from top to create a visual playfulness of a rose aspect.
Yours!

work: 40′

time: 2h:00′

medium:

Baked Apples in Phyllo Pastry

Apples wrapped in crispy pastry and stuffed with an aromatic blend of cinnamon, sugar, almonds and brandy.
As apples are baked, brandy evaporates and penetrates the flesh of the apples and make them very tasty.
A very light, sweet dessert for ending the old year and welcoming the new one.

Happy New Year

work: 00h:30′

time: 01h:00′

easy: 2/5

Plum Jam with Spices

Plums, apart from being very tasty and sweet fruits, when ripe, also have a beautiful ruby ​​color. By extension, they make a very tasty jam, with a fantastic pink-red, transparent color, the same ruby!
The process is so simple, that in a little time we have a spicy, red, light jam for the first meal of the day. Our breakfast!
Enjoy the almost ethereal flavor and you will feel very proud to make your own jam, so much better than those you buy, which are laden with sweeteners, for my taste.

work: 00h:15′

time: 01h:45′

very easy: 1/5

Grape Must Pudding-Moustalevria

Velvety, aromatic, intoxicating taste of a traditional and beloved Dessert of Greek Cuisine, Moustalevria.
Grape syrup, a little corn flour, roasted sesame seeds, walnuts, and fragrant unique fennel seeds!
For those who already know it, I would recommend that you try this version of the moustalevria. If some people have never tasted moustalevria this an opportunity to enjoy!

The recipe

Grape Must Pudding-Moustalevria

can be found in the book «Γλυκά».

work: 00h:30′

time: 00h:45′

easy: 2/5