Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

U ntil now, people unfamiliar with Tahini may not know that it can also be used as a sweet.  In one of my posts I have written about how to made a Tahini dip, or having plain Tahini and honey or jam on toast in the morning for breakfast, well this time I am using Tahini as an ingredient to make a sweet....

A pples are very versatile. They can be cooked in as many ways as your imagination can wander...one of these ways is to easily glaze them with a mixture of butter, brown sugar, and enough water to cover them. 

Tahini Photo Courtesy Of Wikipedia On Google T ahini is a paste made from Sesame seed. The oil you see floating on the top is the sesame oil which is an integral part of the tahini.  This is exactly like peanut butter where sometimes the oil floats on the top (if it is not made in U.S.A.). Tahini is very much used in the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin from Greece Eastwards, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, and Iraq. Tahini is used as a complement to shish kebabs,  meat, chicken, fish, and salads and even alone as a dip in western countries by people who lived in the middle east. Tahini is extremely good for the health and contains a number of vitamins, fiber, and other.

A ll I am doing in my blog is to give you ideas on how you can make certain dishes in different ways or just give you ideas you can elaborate on with your culinary skills and imagination. All what cooking is about is " Inovation  -  Inovation -  Inovation "....

T his is not a pizza. It has no tomato on the bottom, and definitely no cheese. Yes...it could have been a 3 million calorie pizza if I put a doctored tomato sauce on the bottom and covered it with nice, melting Cheddar, Mozzarella, Gouda or a mixture of all three!....

T oday I will have the pleasure to share with you a normal white rice made with dried porcini mushrooms.   Please do not mistake this for a risotto with porcini.  I don't like risotto for the only reason that it looks like  porridge which puts me off.

A lthough broccoli and cauliflower are basically from the same family, only cauliflower can be eaten raw. Unfortunately it is not as healthy as broccoli.  As I was washing our cauliflower today for lunch, I suddenly felt very hungry so I had one or two flowers of the cauliflower which was crunchy and delicious....

A s we have already mentioned in the passed posts that Camembert is a cheese from the Normandy in France. It is usually round and you can cut it in eighths, coat them with flour, beaten egg, and fine bread crumbs then fry it in very hot oil. The secret here is that the camembert should be very cold, and oil very hot so they get nice and crispy. Stick a toothpick in each, and you have a nice appetizer. Note: You can do this with any cheese you like as long as it is hard on the outside and soft in the inside. Enjoy! Stelio

O f course you know that there is no such thing as gluten free unless it is made in a 100% gluten free environment. This means that the whole kitchen, work surface, knives and utensils used must be spotlessly clean from any product with gluten in it. Do you know how I came about getting to know this info?? The other day I was watching a TV commercial about Gluten Free Ham!! Gees I said how can you have Gluten free ham?? So I searched and asked and here is what I came up with. Gluten is very transmissible. It will contaminate anything coming in touch with it. Therefore people who have serious problems with Celiac disease must be careful......

I Admit To Over Roasting The Sesame R oasted s esame covered turkey nuggets are perfect for finger food during a cocktail party where there isn't an actual meal. Furthermore I love roasted sesame. I love the taste it gives to freshly baked bread, bread rings (koulouria) 5-10 inch thin bread rings being sold in the streets of Athens and Manhattan in New York by Greeks.  Sesame is also very much used in Chinese and Indian cuisine...

Found two beautifully huge zucchoni in the market and bought them not knowing what exactly to do with them. I knew though that I would cut them in half lengthwise, take out the inside, fill them with something, cover them with something else, and bake them.....

The Purple Color Is Obtained By Adding Beetroot Juice. On Thursday, July 7th 2011 I shared with you my recipe for Homos, the dip. These lasagna fritters will help you dip into it. You will need:  If you use the whole box as you buy it from the supermarket you will have enough for a large party. -  500 gr of ready uncooked lasagna in a box from the supermarket. -  5 liters of water to boil. -  ¼ cup olive oil. -  1 wet clean white* kitchen towel spread on your kitchen table. -  Salt for the boiling water....

I haven't made snails bourguignon in years...why? because I could not find canned, imported or local ready to use snails. You cannot believe the work that has to be done to treat snails from scratch, in fact I don't even want to start telling you the required steps. To say the truth I have never done it.

Reading through Tex-Mex and Mexican recipes I feel it is my duty to inform my readers in the Eastern Hemisphere and Europe about three basic ingredients used.  Africa is excluded because it has its own ingredients typical to their spicy food.....

Corn bread is easy to make and quick. Some of you may well know it but maybe some do not...

Engraulis Enrasicolus is commonly known as the European Anchovy and is excellent for ceviche. This is how...

We've had leek pie before in my previous posts. This time we shall add pumpkin and see how it goes. Bear with me...

N ever had smoked pumpkin before. Got the idea from ol' Derrick Riches " About Barbecues and Grilling" in About.com, gave me the idea in his latest post. You can also go ahead and use smoked pumpkin to make smoked pumpkin pie if you wish. l tell ya it was good!!

G iving instructions to an English speaking person  how to make a pumpkin pie, is like telling  an American how to make hamburgers, or an Englishman about steak and kidney pie. But there may be other people out there who may profit from my experience so hold on guys!!...

As you notice the plate has two steaks. One person failed to come so I had the pitmaster's privelage!! This is the first time ever I eat American Black Angus Beef! Charcoal burning at 375 degrees F, it only took three minutes on each side to be a perfect rare+  as everybody wanted it...

 L et's face it, we do not know pumpkin in Greece. I know North America has many recipes but I do not seem to find any that excite me personally. Since we are in pumpkin season, we have been looking everywhere for pumpkin recipes and all came out to be for sweets. We wanted a savory recipe. So I put my mind to work for a change and came up with the following...

I have recently thought of another way of preparing ground beef sauce for pasta, moussaka, or any other dish which needs this sauce. Bottom line is...

A bouquet garni is tying together with cooking twine fresh sprigs or leaves of each of the aromatic herbs you want to use during your cooking to form a bouquet just like a bouquet of flowers.Usually it should consist of thyme, bay leaf/leaves, sage and or rosemary or any other herb as shown above. I have used a sprig of rosemary (far left) three bay leaves (above center), sage (center) three sprigs of thyme. A bouquet garni is usually used for sauces, casseroles and such foods that contain solids and liquids. Of course in order to use fresh herbs you should be growing them in your veranda, or garden. Cooking meat sauce. I am dedicating a whole post to the bouquet garni because it is a very common way to add aromatic herbs to your cooking without having the actual leaves in the food. All you have to do is just to take it off and throw it away. Do not reuse it. Enjoy! Stelio

Good morning to all 37000 Americans who are nice enough to read me. I guess the only way to get your attention is to post a message so all of you can read it. Why Americans?? Because you are the majority of my readers. I am very eager to receive  comments, good or bad, from you guys to give me some feedback on the quality of my posts. I need to have your opinion so I can do better, or write recipes you would like. In other words I would like some interaction. Thanks for reading this. have a fantastic day, Stelio   

Pumpkin time - hooray!! How nice... October is here, the rains have began, the farmers are happy, we are happy because we are having our building painted from the outside although it was planned for July...but what can you say. Pumpkin is a very healthy vegetable.  I began eating pumpkin at the beginning of my journey down from 155 kg, and now two years later I'm stuck at 130 kg. After being called in a couple of days ago by my physician friend for a 24 hours (blood pressure Holter)check up on my blood pressure, I decided that it is now the time to start losing the rest down to 100 kg. No special diet, nobody supervising me, just I, me and myself have taken the decision to lose the rest by eating white meat such as boiled skinless chicken (I use the stock to cook  Millet, Quinoa, Buckwheat), fish and lots of different colored veggies, raw, cooked on steam, or just roasted. No salt added just some extra virgin olive oil. No I have not decided to become a Vegetarian or a ...

I apologize to my readers for the spelling mistake of Quinoa. It is spelled Quinoa (pronounced Quinwa) and not Kinoa as I have written in my previous post. Thank for your understanding. Stelio

When tomatoes, and generally vegetable prices are low, basically during summer, it is a good idea to make a large batch of your favourite sauce and jar it in well sterilized jars for quick access. It also helps if you have basil and other herbs growing in your veranda. Ingredients: Fresh tomatoes puréed.  Multi coloured bell peppers thinly sliced Onions cubed. Garlic passed through the press. Couple of handfuls of fresh basil, torn by hand. Salt, pepper, chili powder, smoked paprika, chili. Some sugar to offset the tomato acidity. Extra virgin olive oil. Method: Heat oil, stir fry onion till soft. Add garlic and stir till you smell that delicious aroma . Add pepper and stir fry till soft. Add tomato purée. Add sugar. Add spices. Boil, turn down heat to a very slow simmer stirring frequently for one hour. Add water if required but not too much. You need a thick sauce. Turn off heat when time is up. Fill hot sterilized jars with stil...

Nothing like beginning your week with a nice plate of Lentils and Kinoa. This is a super food with a concentration of vitamins and nutrients which will give your body one heck of a boost.... the fantastic thing about it .....

It is Sunday, as the word says it Sun...Day, a beautiful Autumn day for barbecuing. So since we were well stocked on veggies and protein, we decided to cook everything on the barbecue, BBQ Pit Boys style....

B oy I tell you this recipe is pure heaven. I had to import this type of spaghetti from Italy because Greeks don't eat hot spaghetti and cannot find them in the market. They already contain the chili inside and that is why they are orange!! In fact you can just boil and eat them neat with your favourite grated cheese but...

I have already given a recipe on  shortcrust pastry in my previous posts but this one, due to a mistake of mine, came out faaaaantastic. I put 400 gm of butter instead of 600 I mention in my previous recipe.

Summer is coming to an end. September however is the best time of the year when the sea is still warm, kids are back in school and don't bother you on the beach,and the weather is fantastic. The best food you can eat in a fish tavern by the sea while sipping ouzo would be prawns and sardines. You get all the aphrodisiac advantage of the prawns and  the omega 3 from the sardines to keep your heart pumping good while enjoying the many beautiful moments of life.... To cook the prawns and the sardines at home all you need of course are the shrimp, the sardines and a grill to set on your gas stove top or on your bbq. 24 medium large prawns. 24 large sardines. Finely chopped parsley. A few lemon wedges. Some olive oil. Method: Clean prawns from the sand in their spinal cord by cutting using a pair of scissors the shell from the base of the prawn head till you reach the tail. Clean the black stuff and wash well. Clean the sardines as already mentioned in my how to...

Eggplant season is during summer in Greece and therefore tasty and inexpensive. Yes we can buy eggplant all year long but the quality and taste is not the same. Greeks use eggplant in many recipes... one of the most known is the famous Moussaka, internationally known. When handling eggplant it is important to work quickly to prevent oxidation . This is caused by the iron. Eggplant is very rich in iron and therefore very healthy. A very common salad in Greek restaurants is the Eggplant Salad...

I t is bad enough we are eating salty pork sausage and salty bacon. We are definitely not going use any Mooootsarella! So BBQ Pit Boys I do apologize that I am not sticking to your otherwise beauuuuuuutiful idea. I just hope we were 20 years younger!

B asically Millet does not have a special taste which could improve when made with some kind of stock or greens like Millet with Cilantro. This time I thought of...

The recipe I am about to propose is very well known in the English speaking parts of the world where St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, is celebrated.  It may however, not be so well known in other parts of the universe. Checking my readers' statistics I see that China and the Ukraine come second and third (the U.S. are always the first and I sure thank ya'll!!) Irish Soda Bread is fantastic and a quick way to make bread especially when the supermarket you usually go to, is the only one in the area where you live, does not have any fresh yeast. You would say:" buy dry yeast or ready made bread", well I am against it. I prefer home made bread and I don't know how to use dry yeast! This recipe is definitely not my own. I have read around the Internet and obtained a very good recipe which was a success immediately on St. Pat's day of this year. It may have been beginner's luck, I don't know. But I will bake it today because our supermarket stil...

The Pyromid folding and transportable barbecue can be stashed under the driver's seat going to...

M y respects to the BBQ Pit Boys (bbqpitboys.com). By carefully watching their YouTube recipe I was able to nearly...

G reek Easter is a matter of cooking lamb on the spit by using a motor to slowly rotate a whole lamb of about 10-20 kg well attached to a long skewer...