PG's Greek and other recipes

[Paulie'sGirl]

Hi all,

There was a request on the "what's for tea?" thread for recipes for my Greek stuff, so I thought I'd start a recipe thread. I'll use this post as an index, and post individual recipes separately.


PGxx

 

[Paulie'sGirl]

Chicken souvlaki (Greek chicken kebabs)

Free on EE
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 skinless chicken breasts
1 lemon
4-8 cloves of garlic
1tbsp dried oregano

Method:
Cut the chicken into 2 inch cubes and place in a shallow bowl. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon (you can grate in the zest too, this is nice). Crush the garlic under the flat of a knife and add to the bowl. Sprinkle over the oregano and stir well to combine. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, I often leave mine overnight.

Thread the chicken on to skewers and grill on med-high until cooked through, turning as needed

Serve with salad, tzadziki and either a HEB wholemeal pitta or patates sto fourno

Tips:
Decide how much garlic you want based on your taste and the age/size of your cloves.
You can throw the marinade ingredients in a zip-lock freezer bag, makes it easy to massage the marinade and is good for camping
I often beat out the chicken breast with a rolling pin and leave it whole
The marinade works just as well on pork loin steaks and cubes of lean pork shoulder too.
I don't eat lamb, fish or seafood, but could see the marinade working well with these. Keep acid marination of fish and seafood short though, otherwise you have ceviche!

PGxx

 

[Paulie'sGirl]

Patates sto fourno (Greek lemony potatoes)

Free on EE
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 large potatoes
1 lemon
1 chicken stock pot / cube
4-8 garlic cloves
1tbsp oregano

Method:

Peel the potatoes and cut them lengthways into 4/6 long wedges. Place in an oven proof dish / pyrex. Squeeze over the juice of the lemon, sprinkle over the oregano. Crush the garlic under the flat of the knife and add to the potatoes. Make up the stock pot in 200mls or so of water and add to the dish. Bake at 180oC until tender, stirring once or twice during cooking. The liquid should become a bit syrupy, that's nothing to worry about.

Tips:

This and the souvlaki are good applications for those small cloves which are just annoying and fiddly and pointless to peel and chop for anything else
This is just as nice served warm as hot, and is very forgiving of being ignored or cooked at a different temperature if you have something else in the oven.
Traditionally these potatoes would sit around / under the joint of lamb being cooked in lemon and garlic for Sunday dinner
Goes down a storm at a BBQ

PGxx

 

[Paulie'sGirl]

Tzadziki (Greek garlic and cucumber yoghurt)

Free on EE
Serves 4

Ingredients:
500g 0% Greek yoghurt
1/2 cucumber
2 juicy young garlic cloves
2 springs fresh mint
salt

Method:

Cut the cucumber in half and scoop / cut out the seeds. Coarsely grate into a sieve over a bowl, sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt then stir to distribute the salt. Leave to drain for 20 mins

Pick the leaves off the stalks of mint and finely chop. Peel then grate / crush the garlic (use a very fine grater!) and add to a bowl with the yoghurt and mint.

Pick up the grated cucumber in your hands and squeeze out any remaining moisture, add to the yoghurt mix and stir well to combine. Cover really well and refrigerate for 20 mins if you have time, for the flavour to develop. Will keep in the fridge for a day or two

Tips:
Lovely with HEB wholemeal pitta toasted in the toaster and then cut into 3/4 inch strips or with crudites for a snack
The garlic really does need to be fresh, anything which is sprouting green gives a bitter note which is not nice
Try as a sort of dressing on salad - no nasty additives here!

PGxx

 

[Paulie'sGirl]

Gigantes plaki (Greek style butter beans)

Free on EE
Serves 2 as a side

Ingredients:
1 tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1 tsp dried oregano
1 clove garlic, grated / crushed
1 small onion, finely chopped

Method:

Fry the onion in frylight in a medium saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15-30 mins, until the sauce is thick and reduced and the butter beans are thoroughly reheated

Tips:
This is an excellent jacket potato topping
Can be served warm as part of a meze

PGxx

 

[lizs84]

Brilliant idea! With this gorgeous weather I have been craving Greek food. Do you have a stuffed vine recipe?
Liz
X

 

[Shellbell46]

Thank you for this thread x I adore Greek food x

 

[Gpuk]

All sounds delicious

 

[glingle]

Thank you for these posts. I love greek food