The Greek Food

Category: Sauces

  • How do you make barbecue sauce?

    How do you make barbecue sauce?

    Ok, i know that is not the classic Greek recipe article you expect in a greek food blog but it is something we were discussing recently with my mother. So it does deserve its place in the blog.

    But before we go to the sauce, a little bit of history.

    The idea of putting sauces on food goes back pretty far. Barbecue sauce is a sauce used as a marinade, basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs and chicken. It is a ubiquitous condiment in the Southern United States and is used on many other foods as well.

    Lately also in our kitchen!

    During the covid pandemic, my mother sat down and explained to me how she tried and made her own Barbecue sauce in a time when…well she couldn’t much!

    INGREDIENTS FOR GREEK STYLE BARBECUE SAUCE

    • 200 g tomato paste
    • 50 white vinegar
    • 100g jam
    • 20 g sugar
    • 1 cube of vegetables
    • 1 medium onion
    •  1 can of garlic powder
    •  1 teaspoon onion flakes
    • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
    • 1 tsp Sumac
    • 1 tablespoon lemon syrup.
    • 1 teaspoon grated ginger
    • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
    • 2 tablespoons soya sauce.
    • 200g ready ketchup

    The most difficult thing apparently is to gather all the ingredients in the table. Cause as soon as you do that then it is pretty straight forward

    how to make barbecue sauce
    All your ingredients to make barbecue sauce

    Add, the tomato paste, the vinigar, the jam, thesugar, the vegetable cube, medium onion,garlic powder, onion flakes, smoked paprika, Sumac and the lemon syrup on deep saucepan and bring it to a boil. Stir in between a lot as you dont want the ingredients to stick to the pan. When it starts boiling and becomes a unified mixture remove it from the heat.

    Throw in the remaining ingredients and you are done. , Store in glass jar or in an empty ketchup package!.

  • Tarama Salad Recipe – Straight from the Sea

    Tarama Salad Recipe – Straight from the Sea

    The following sauce is again a classic one that you can find in the menu’s of almost all the Greek taverns in the capital and all of the islands. Taramasalad is ideal for  a starter and  ..basically as a quick meal for you.

    Taramasalad comes from taramas (ταραμάς) which is basically fish roe.

    (more…)

  • Skordalia recipe: the greek garlic sauce

    Skordalia recipe: the greek garlic sauce

    The problem with the following recipe is that it can be a recipe for disaster if it gets to the wrong hands. Its like building a delicate piece of equipment with some really dangerous pieces that if you connect them in a wrong way, it can have a destructive effect.

    Allow me to explain….

    Skordalia is translated in English to…garlic sauce! However, it is nothing like the garlic sauces that you can usually try here in the UK. When we say garlic, we really mean garlic! There are different interpretations of that recipe and it has to do with each ones preferences and likeness of garlic.

    The problems come when you are in a house (like ours) where they prefer to eat their garlic sauce with …a lot of garlic. You have no idea what i mean …. You, will try a single dip and you will have a dragon breath for ages.

    Despite that, garlic sauce -or skordalia- is a really common sauce in most restaurants and an integral part of the “starters” in a greek meal.

    Lets see how to make it!

    INGREDIENTS FOR SKORDALIA

    • 3 medium size potatoes
    • 4 big cloves of garlic
    • 3 slices of bread wet and dried, without the hard outside part ( you know what i mean :p)
    • 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
    • 4 teaspoons of olive oil
    • Salt and pepper

    Get the children out of the house…aaand….Lets begin!

    Method to make Skordalia

    1. In a small pot add water and throw inside the potatoes in small pieces. Let them boil and when they are ready ( they can be pinched with a fork) get them out and leave them in a plate.
    2. In a blender, add the potatoes and the 4 cloves of garlic and start mixing them until they become mashed and mixed Stop, open the blender, add the watered and dried bread, the vinegar, olive oil and salt/pepper as much as you want. Close and continue mixing them with the blender until they are properly mixed.
    3. Taste, and add garlic if you believe it too soft. Add more oil if you think it is too thick, or bead if you feel it is too watery. Ideally it should be in the middle.

    THE TEST!

    How do you know that the garlic sauce is right? Well, it is difficult as a cook as you are trying so many times that you loose sometimes the flavor. So, as a smart scientist/cook that i am i conducted an experiment so i can be sure, that i will be telling to you free of charge.

    I asked my Italian flatmate to come and try a bit of the garlic sauce and then i told her to go and kiss her boyfriend that was in her room and come back to report to me what he said.

    After some minutes of agony, she came back and told me that after kissing the victim he pushed her back and asked her: “What are you eating????” Success!!! The victim realized initially the flavor of garlic in his mouth!

    Our skordalia is ready! Enjoy!

  • How to make Avgolemono

    How to make Avgolemono

    From time to time you will see in various greek recipes to talk about a sauce that is being casually called avgolemono (egg-lemon) which we add in several recipes.  As simple as it seems in its creation you need to have done it quite a few times in order to manage and master it. Well, at least for me it took me some time.

    I have to say however the combination of avgolemono with some of the greek recipes takes the taste a level higher like for example the magiritisa soup recipe or giouvarlakia.

    So I decided to make the following post in order to try and explain it a little bit better but also use this article as a point of reference in future.

    In general you will see many variations in the way that is made depending on the chef I guess and how many people are eating. Typically if you are cooking for 4+ people then you will need to increase the number of eggs.

    Anyway off with the recipe.

    Ingredients for Egg lemon sauce (avgolemono)

    • 2 Eggs
    • 1/2 glass of lemon
    • 1 teaspoon of olive oil

    How to cook egg lemon sauce (avgolemono)

    1. Crack eggs in a bowl and whisk until frothy
    2. Continue beating and  add lemon juice
    3. Take 2 ladles worth of hot broth from whatever dish you’re cooking and slowly pour into egg froth, mixing. This is important. Don’t forget this or the eggs will curdle.
    4. Add back into your main dish and stir!
    5. You’ve now added Avgolemono to your meal 🙂

    Ideally when you are adding the avgolemono to your food, then it’s the last step you are making in creating your food, at least in all the recipes that I know of.  After that you should remove the food from the heat and let it cool down keeping in the same time that foamy sauce on top of the food.

  • Greek traditional Tzatziki recipe

    Greek traditional Tzatziki recipe

    Every time when they are talking about Greece there are some things that stand out. Of course it’s the fact about the economy and the Parthenon…bla bla bla…but one thing that really makes the difference is Ouzo and Tzatziki.

    Well, even if Tzatziki is not my specialty (my brothers is) , this is a classic recipe about making a traditional Greek tzatziki as a side dish , salad.

    Additionally, it is one of the main ingredients of the Greek Souvlaki  that you can find on practically any corner in Greece. Now the problem you might face with that is that it has a lot of garlic..

    So essentially, if you are going to a nice dinner party or you going out with your girlfriend/boyfriend maybe that is not the best sauce to go. On the other hand tzatziki is ideal when you are with friends and refreshing as any other time you eat yogurt.

    You dont need any equipment to do it or cooking, you just need to devote 15 minutes of your time for tzatziki.

    Here we go.

    INGREDIENTS FOR TZATZIKI SAUCE

    • 3 cups Greek yogurt (around 350gr)
    • 2-3 garlic clove, minced
    • 1 large English cucumber, diced (the long, skinny ones)
    • 1 tablespoon salt (for salting cucumbers)
    • 1 tablespoon fresh dill (or both, depending on preference) or 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped (or both, depending on preference)

     

    HOW TO MAKE TZATZIKI

    In food processor or blender, add cucumbers, garlic, dill and/or mint, and a few grinds of black pepper. Process until well blended, then stir into yogurt.

    Taste before adding any extra salt, then add salt if needed. Place in refrigerator for at least two hours before serving so flavors can blend.

    Serve your tzatziki together with warm bread to make your grilled meat lunch even better!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2cc_4apFSo