Greek cuisine, food specialties, national dishes

In the article "Greek cuisine, features of eating national dishes" we will tell you about Greek cuisine, about national dishes and features of food. Greek cuisine is tradition, a lot of vegetables, meat, seafood, wine, olives and Feta cheese. All this is seasoned with olive oil, spices, lemon juice and warmed by the hot sun. In the life of the Greeks, the meal takes an important place. For them, this is communication, life and rest. Lunch when the whole family gathers if possible. It discusses business and politics.

A real paradise for lovers of good food are Cyprus and Greece. Numerous cafes, restaurants, taverns, a snack bar can open the world of Greek cuisine for you. You need to determine for yourself what you want. If you want Greek food, then you need to choose the places that the Greeks visit.

If you are a fan of coffee, then you need to visit the cafeteria. Here you will be offered coffee, fresh juices, ice cream, cocktails, confectionery. Greek coffee called Hellinicos cafe is served with a glass of cold water and in small cups. Frapé is an instant coffee with milk and ice, it invigorates. It is impossible to resist the Greek sweets.

If you want a tasty and inexpensive meal, you need to choose a tavern. In it you will be offered a large selection of fish and meat vegetables. You will try Feta's sheep cheese. It is served with a rustic salad, which is cut into large slices - green pepper, onions, tomatoes, olives.

Greek yogurt is made from goat, sheep or cow's milk, without preservatives. This is a very useful and nutritious drink, they are seasoned with salads and drunk with nuts and honey.

In fish taverns you will try fish fried on charcoal. Gourmets will try other seafood - octopus, mussels, oysters. Greek products are distinguished by the quality of preparation, here the products are not put on the production lines, but are made for the Greeks themselves.

No dish in Greece can do without olive oil. In the places of growth of olive trees, the oil differs to taste. One of the best squeezes in the Kalamata area, there also grow famous olives.

Every holiday can not do without specialties. On Easter, a magician is given - soup with herbs of sheep's giblets, for Christmas - a turkey stuffed with cedar nuts and a liver, a suckling pig that is baked in the oven. Every corner of Greece has its own drinking tradition.

Meat in pots with vegetables
Ingredients: 600 grams of beef, 3 or 4 onions, 2 medium eggplants, 3 or 4 celery roots, 3 carrots, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons butter, 120 grams bacon, 6 potatoes, salt.

Preparation. We peel the potatoes, cook them and make mashed potatoes. Vegetables (except eggplant) and meat let's go through the meat grinder, salt and pepper. Eggplants are scalded with boiling water and peeled. We put a ceramic pot on oil, put potato puree on the bottom of the pot, then meat and vegetables, on top of the bacon and diced eggplant. We will sprinkle all the breadcrumbs and put the pieces of meat on top. We put pots in the oven and simmer at medium temperature.

Risotto in Greek
Ingredients: 400 grams of rice, 2 onions, 1 tablespoon of butter, 40 grams of lettuce, 80 grams of green peas, 3 pods of red capsicum, 120 grams of ground meat, salt.

Preparation. We'll boil the crumbly rice, add to the rice minced meat, chopped lettuce, boiled peas, chopped onions and peppers, minced meat in the form of small balls. All the ingredients are mixed and seasoned with butter.

Omelette in Greek
Ingredients: 1 liter of milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 or 2 tablespoons of almonds, 2 or 3 pieces of figs, 8 eggs, 240 grams of flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Preparation. Eggs, flour, milk mix, add salt, nutmeg and knead dough. We hold the dough for 30 minutes. Almonds and figs are crushed, mixed with cinnamon and carefully put into the dough. Put the omelet into a well-heated oven on a greased baking sheet. Top with an omelet sprinkled with sugar.

Bean soup
Ingredients: 500 grams of beans, 1 incomplete glass of vegetable oil (preferably take olive), ¼ cup tomato juice, 2 onion bulbs, 1 bunch of celery greens, 4 medium carrots, pepper, salt to taste.

Preparation. Beans are soaked for 5 or 6 hours, then we fill it with water, put it on a big fire and bring it to a boil. Decoction of salt. Add to the beans, finely chopped celery and onions. And also cut carrots. We'll fill it with water to cover the food. We add vegetable oil, tomato juice, pepper, salt, cook until the beans are cooked.

Chicken soup
Ingredients: chicken, 2 pieces of lemon, 2 lemons, 2 eggs, an incomplete glass of rice, salt to taste.

Preparation. We wash chicken, pour cold water and cook until done. We remove the foam from time to time so that the broth becomes transparent. Let's add it, add the washed rice. Cook the soup until the rice is ready, then with a thin stream of lime lemon-egg sauce, stir constantly so that the protein does not curdle. For the sauce we'll take eggs into the foam, add lemon juice and 2 or 3 tablespoons of broth.

Patties with cheese
Ingredients: 300 grams of puff pastry, 2 eggs, nutmeg, half a cup of béchamel sauce, 100 grams of margarine or butter, 150 grams of hard cheese.

Preparation. Prepare the Béchamel sauce, take a deep bowl, add the egg, stir constantly. Then add the nutmeg, grated cheese and mix well. Puff dough we will cut into wide strips, we shall grease with their soft butter and we will put on 1 strip of a spoon of a stuffing, then we will curtail a strip a tube. Put the patties on a greased baking sheet, top with the remaining oil and bake at a moderate temperature in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes.

Stuffed mackerel
Ingredients: 1 kilogram of mackerel, 1 cup of olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 medium onions, 3 tomatoes, oregano, pepper ground, salt to taste.

Preparation. We'll clean the mackerel, we'll rinse it and salt it. With a tomato we will peel the skin, first we scald them with boiling water, finely cut and mix with other products, except vegetable oil. The resulting stuffing will fill the mackerel, lay the fish on a baking tray, use olive oil, bake in a moderately-heated oven for about 40 minutes.

Salamis (Fish fillet in Greek)
Ingredients: 500 grams of fish fillet, 1 clove of garlic, 1 onion, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Two fresh tomatoes, 2 fresh cucumbers, 2 sweet peppers, 2 tablespoons of white wine, black pepper, greens, salt to taste.

Preparation. Fish fillets without skin and bones sprinkle with lemon juice and salt. Pour a tablespoon into a frying pan, warm it up, fry in it finely chopped onion, garlic, then put the fillet, drink wine, sprinkle with herbs and stew under the lid for 15 minutes. Cut the sweet peppers into thin rings and fry it in the remaining oil for 10 minutes. Then add peeled and sliced ​​cucumber, after 5 minutes, add the halves of tomatoes. Vegetables season with salt and pepper. Ready to put the stewed vegetables on the fish and simmer on a small fire for about 5 minutes. We serve the table in hot form with potatoes or with white bread.

Marinated cheese
Ingredients: 350 grams of brynza, hot toast, sliced ​​into squares, olive oil, oregano or thyme, 1 bay leaf, 8 coriander seeds and half teaspoon pepper seed mixture.

Preparation. Let's cut the cheese into cubes, cut the garlic into large slices. Slightly pestle the seeds of coriander and pepper in a mortar, you can use coriander and ground pepper. Put the bay leaf and cheese in the jar, alternate layers of cheese with layers of thyme or oregano, coriander, pepper, garlic. Fill it with olive oil so that it completely covers the cheese. Tightly close the jar and leave for 2 weeks. We put the prepared cheese on toast, each layer is seasoned with a few drops of olive oil, which was used for marinating.

Meatballs
Ingredients: 500 minced beef, 1 onion, 1 egg, 125 grams of rice, 250 grams of butter, pepper, salt, parsley greens to taste. For sauce: 2 lemons, 2 eggs.

Preparation. From minced meat, greens, finely chopped onions, eggs, rice, we will knead a homogeneous mass, from which the globules are 2.5 centimeters in diameter. Melt in a deep frying pan butter and fry in it meatballs.

Melomakarona - Christmas cookies with nuts and honey
Ingredients: half a glass of vegetable oil, half a glass of milk, 4 glasses of flour, half a dessert spoon of ground cloves. Half a dessert spoon of nutmeg, 1 dessert spoon of ground cinnamon, orange peel, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 150 grams of butter.
Ingredients for syrup: a glass of water, 1.5 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of honey.

Preparation. Butter and vegetable oil, spices, orange peel, sugar, vzobem in a mixer. Add 3.5 cups of flour and knead the dough. Sprinkle the dough with milk. Slightly knead with the rest of the flour and make cookies, or small round cakes. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees. For syrup: sugar and honey cook with water for 3 minutes. Remove the syrup from the foam. Ready cooked syrup will cook when it cools. Sprinkle cinnamon and nuts.

Christmas pork in Lémnosques
Ingredients: 1 kilogram of pork pulp, 1 kilogram of leaves and celery roots, 2 onions, 100 ml of olive oil, pepper, salt to taste.

Ingredients for lemon-egg sauce: 2 yolks, 1 tablespoon corn flour, 200 ml lemon juice, 1 protein.

Preparation. Pork cut into small portions. We will heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the onion until golden, add meat, fry until crust. Add a glass of hot water and simmer on low heat.

Clean, rinse and cut the celery into pieces. Boil the water in a saucepan and drop it into boiling water for 5 or 10 minutes of celery, then take it out and drain it with a napkin. To the meat we will add pepper, salt, celery and put out a little.

For the sauce, we'll fry eggs, add corn flour, lemon juice and continue whipping. If in a frying pan, after extinguishing meat is liquid, and if not, then add some hot water. Remove the frying pan from the fire, spoon the liquid from the frying pan and add it to the eggs with lemon juice, continuously beat the sauce. Pour the resulting sauce into meat and mix. Add the corn flour, warm the dish a bit, and serve it on the table.

Halva in Greek
Ingredients: 4 cups of sugar, half a glass of peeled almonds, 2 cups of coarse semolina, 1 glass of vegetable or butter, 4 cups of water, cinnamon to taste.

Preparation. In sugar let's water and boil for 10 minutes until the syrup becomes thick. Let's bring the oil to a boil, add the semolina and stir it until it is browned. Then, with a trickle of beans into the mango syrup, stir until this mixture thickens. Almonds shall be divided in half, add to the manna mixture, stir and remove the pan from the fire. Let's shift the halva into shape, and let it cool down. When the halva has cooled, we will remove it from the mold, put it on the dish, and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Now we know what the Greek cuisine is about eating national dishes. We hope you will like dishes from the national Greek cuisine, and you will be able to appreciate their taste and quality.