Peinirli/Peynirli/Boat Shaped Greek Pizza

Greece, this European country is my recent favourite. Did i told you that we went to Greece for our summer vacation?. Trust me, its was a wonderful vacation and we had a fabulous time in Longos, a small village which is 2h30 minutes from Athens, the Greek capital. Greece is well known for their olives and you cant finish a meal without having olives. You can see olive trees everywhere, next to olives you can see oranges and lemons trees everywhere in Greece. You wont fail to cross an olive tree or an orange tree while going through the Greek streets. Greek cuisine is a well known Mediterranean cuisine. This cuisine is strongly influenced  by Ottoman cuisine hence this cuisine shared foods like Baklava, Tzatziki, gyro, moussakka, dolmades with other neighbouring countries. Most of their desserts includes nuts, honey and filo pastry sheets.However Greek cuisine is well known for their flavors, herbs like oregano, mint, dill, bay laurel are used often with loaded of garlic. Obviously Greek cuisine is more flavorful than the other Mediterranean cuisine. I have totally fell in love with this country and we are even looking for an opportunity to visit again as Greece is just 2h45 minutes from Paris by air.

Revithosoutzoukakia/Greek Chickpea Patties in Tomato Sauce

My today's post is completely vegan, yes as much as like Indian cuisine, Greek cuisine provides an abundance of Vegan recipes and today's recipe is one among those. Greek cuisine is very well known for their vegetable patties, obviously one of them is this chickpeas patties which is similar to the famous falafel. Chickpeas is very much used in Greek cuisine and this beans is my favourite, obviously i looked for an easy breezy dish to cook with this incredible beans to serve along with rice. And this Revithosoutzoukakia caught my eyes as this dish calls for a lip smacking tomato sauce. Trust me, we thoroughly enjoyed this dish and the sauce served along with rice makes a complete meal. The chickpeas patties is prepared with cooked chickpeas along with fresh tomatoes, yes you heard it rite. Tomato is used in making this patties which is later drenched in a red sauce prepared with tomato paste and olive oil.

Vegan Lagana Bread / Greek Shrove Monday Bread

Shrove Monday or Clean Monday (Kathari Deftera) is a Greek public Holiday, usually celebrated by going out for a picnic and also by the custom of kite flying. As with most holidays in Greece, this one also revolves around food. As it is the first day of the Orthodox Lent, no meat, fish  or dairy products are consumed. This means that it’s the day of  the year to make all these traditional Greek recipes, like taramasalata, dolmades, semolina halva and of course the one thing that holds everything together is the traditional Lagana bread. Lagana bread is a Greek flat bread which is quite similar to Focaccia and this bread is traditionally baked only on Shrove Monday, the first day of Great lent before Easter. Since the fasting calls for no dairy products, this bread is completely vegan. An authentic touch is given to this bread by pressing the dough with fingertips all along the surface of the Lagana, with sesame seeds which is most common topping of this bread.

Revithosoupa/Vegan Greek Chickpeas Soup

Last month was Mega marathon and from today onwards we,  blogging marathoners are kick starting the usual three days of blogging marathon. You might have noticed that i have been blogging for a whole month with many interesting and traditional dishes from various parts of the world. If you have missed them, dont worry, just check my recap of those delicious 26 baked treats here. And this week's blogging marathon is going to be all about Greek recipes. Yes this week's theme is 'Flavorsof Greece' and am gonna share three different delicious dishes from this incredible cuisine. For the first day, am posting this Vegan, gluten free,nutritious and kid's friendly Greek chickpeas soup which calls for basic ingredients with handful of colourful vegetables and obviously cooked protein rich chickpeas.

Ladenia Milou/Greek Olive Oil Flatbread/Ladenia Greek Pizza

Ladenia is a local food of Kimolos, a small Greek island in Aegean sea. Traditional Greek foods are served in Kimolos island and this island is quite popular for its Ladenia, a kind of pizza. Ladenia is Greek word of Olive oil, this flatbread is almost like pizza but without cheese. A bread dough when flattened and topped with onions, tomatoes with olive oil,once baked is called Ladenia. Since this pizza like flatbread is prepared very much with olive oil, this dish is also known as olive oil flat bread. This is a great snack or a light meal or else a simple starter depending upon how you serve this fantastic bread. This Ladenia is also famous in Milos, an another Greek island. Not to forget that this pizza is completely vegan.Obviously if you love pizza and if you are a vegan lover, then this Greek pizza will definitely please your tastebuds.

Vasilopita/Greek's New Year's Cake/Vaselopita

Happy New Year 2017!!!!

Vasilopita/Vassilopita, is a New Year's Bread or Cake in Greece which is also popularly known as Basil-pie or King Pie.  This cake is also very much known in Eastern Europs and the Balkans which contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver as much as like West European King Cake. Since this cake is also known as Basil Pie its associated with Saint Basil's day which is celebrated every January. Vasilopita/Vaselopita is made with variety of doughs depending upon the region and family tradition. Since am trying my hands for the first time, i went with the traditional way of making this cake batter. On every New Year's day families cut Vasilopita to bless the house and bring good luck for the New year. This is usually done at midnight of New Year's Eve.

Traditional Greek Moussaka

Moussaka is an eggplant (aubergine) and / or potato-based dish in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, with many local and regional variations. It has three layers that are separately cooked before being combined for the final baking: a bottom layer of sliced eggplant sautéed in olive oil,a middle layer of ground lamb lightly cooked with chopped or puréed tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices and a top layer of Béchamel sauce. The dish is then layered into a pan and baked until the top layer is browned. This Famous greek dish was in my to do list since a long, finally i baked them at home. Actually i was supposed to post this recipe few days back as a part of  this month's  Shhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge an interesting event started by me and my partner of this month is Priya Satheesh, she gave me eggplant and zucchini and i used both veggies in this Moussaka, thanks Priya for giving me this fabulous veggies.

Eggless Flaounes/Cypriot Savoury Easter Cheese Pies

April is a month of Easter and its time to celebrate by baking many Easter special bakes. Most of the European countries have a tradition of baking rich,buttery,eggy sweet bread for Easter and this Easter bread is quite different from the other breads. Yes these Cypriot breads are savouries. Flaounes are savoury cheese pies baked for Greek Orthodox Easter, traditionally made on Good Friday,these cheesy pies are part of fast breaking meal as meat and cheese arent eaten during this time. The cheese traditionally used in these pies is called Flaounes cheese which is produced locally by Cypriot shephers, but this cheese is very difficult to find outside of the country.Flaounes cheese can be substituted with a combination of both hard and softer cheeses, the cheese filling will be very salty, so its better to chose a cheese which is less in salt.

Flaounes cheese can be replaced by Greek cheeses or other cheeses like Halloumi, Cheddar, Italian cheese like Parmesan, Pecorino or either with French cantal cheese. I prepared my eggless Flaounes with a mixture of both cantal and emmental cheese which is easily available here.Couple of ingredients used in Flaounes are Mahleb and Mastic, mahleb is made by powdering the dried pits of wild mediterranean cherry and mastic is the dried resin of a shrub. Both these spices are quite common in Greek and Middle Eastern Cuisine, since there is no substitute for these both ingredients you can skip them in this Flaounes, they doesnt change the taste of this yeasty cheesy pies. These Flaounes are going to be this month's bread for a monthly event called We Knead To Bake by Aparna.

Vegan Greek Simiti/Koulouri

The Greek Simit are the popular sesame crusted bread rings sold on the street corners and bakeries everywhere in Athens. This is one of famous bread which suits prefectly for a busy Athenian's breakfast. Just a cup of coffee and this sesame bread rings is quite enough to fill anyone's tummy.When i was searching something different and interesting for this month's Baking Eggless,a monthly event owned by Gayathri, i got hooked to these cute looking sesame bread rings, as the host of this month Eggless baking, i suggested this bread rings to Gayathri and she accepted immediately.

 About the baking eggless group,every month a host will challenge the group members with a baked goodies with eggs, the member of this group should convert this baked goodies with eggs to an eggless bakes with available egg substitutes,obviously this bread rings are eggless, dairy free and completely vegan. The Original recipe used an egg and whole milk which i completely skipped and went for silken tofu.The addition of tofu turned this bread extremely spongy, if you serve them with jam or any spread for your breakfast am sure everyone at home will enjoy thoroughly this incredible sesame crusted bread rings.Also the original recipe went for grape-must syrup for coating this simiti which i completely skipped and used water for it.We loved having this fantastic nutty koulouri aka Simiti with our usual breakfast beverages, beware these simitis are quite filling and addictive too.Today is the last thursday of the month and its time to post for Vegan Thursdays, an vegan event running twice a month and this rasam goes to this event too.

Xoritiki Salata - Greek Village Salad

I know the name of the today's post will be definitely a tongue twister, even i took enough time to spell it. Actually when i chosed International cuisine for this week's theme of long marathon am running during this whole month, i want to make a chinese dish which starts with 'X' as i need to post today's recipe starts with this letter coz we are running different themes during four weeks in alphabetic order.But most of the dishes i crossed while googling goes either for large quantity of eggs or either beef or pork. Since i dont eat either beef or pork and dont want to make a cake which goes for almost  6egg yolks, i took enough time to search to get a super simple dish and finally i got this incredible Greek salad which goes for simple vegetables and simple dressing.

This quick,colourful and very refreshing Greek salad just need easy ingredients to make, and this is a prefect summer time salad.Some lettuce,tomatoes,cucumber,kalamatta olives,feta cheese and red onions makes this colourful salad which is served with an easy breezy garlic flavoured olive oil-vinegar dressing.I carried this salad for our summer time weekend picnic happened before a month and enjoyed thoroughly with some grilled meats. Doesnt matter whether the weather is hot or not, you can still make this healthy,quick and colourful salad whenever we feel lazy to cook or if you want to have a quick salad.

Loukoumades - Greek Honey Puffs

Loukomades or Loukoumathes, its a kind of deepfried dough pastry made with a dough prepared with all purpose flour, egg and generous amount of baking powder, later this fried puffs are soaked in a sugar syrup or drizzled with honey and cinnamon which sometimes served, sprinkled with sesame seeds or almond flakes...In Greece, this loukoumades are commonly spiced with clove and cinnamon in a honey syrp and then sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar, this honey puffs are usually made during the New year's eve to celebrate the name day of St Barbara also the Greek Jewish community prepare this small deep fried honeyed puffs at Hanukkah..Easy puffs to enjoy for evening snacks and the honey syrup served along with the puffs turn out this puffs more tastier than the sugar syrup..Needless to say we really enjoyed exploring this Greek cuisine,we loved it...Sending this honey puffs to AWED-Greek guest hosted by CL,event by DK...

2cups All purpose flour
3tsps Baking powder
4tbsp Sugar
4tbsps Oil
3/4cup Milk
1no Egg
Oil
Honey for drizzling
Few pinches of Cinnamon powder
Almond flakes

Stiff the flour with baking powder in a bowl, add the sugar,oil, milk, egg and mix everything as smooth batter with a wooden spoon..Heat the oil for deep frying ,when the oil is hot, drop the batter by a small teaspoon and fry until golden...keep a small bowl of water aside to dip ur finger before pushing the batter into the oil,its avoids the batter from sticking.. Drain the fried puffs in paper towel...

While serving drizzle the puffs with honey, springle few almond flakes and pinch of cinnamon..serve immediately..Enjoy warm...

Revani - Greek Semolina Cake With Syrup

Revani, the Greek semolina cake with syrup is quite a popular cake in Greece which is always available in Greek pastry shops, this cake is prepared almost with a combination of flour and semolina and soaked in sugar syrup prepared with lemon juice...In some areas of Greece,this cake is prepared with walnuts ,almonds or rice also instead of butter some may go for oil..This cake tastes really very light and its a delightful dessert to enjoy after a fantastic lunch, a perfect snack with a cup of coffee...I really enjoyed making this quick,easy and delicious cake and each and everyone at home relished each spoon of this syrupy semolina cake...I have prepared a simple version of revani, but u can definitely decrease the quantity of semolina by adding almond powder or vice versa...

2cups Semolina (fine grind)
1+1/2cup All purpose flour
2tsp Baking powder
1tsp Baking soda
1cup Sugar
1cup Butter (softened)
6nos Eggs (separated)
1cup Whole milk
1tbsp Orange peel (grated)
2tbsp Water

For Syrup:
2cups Sugar
3cups Water
2tbsp Lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350F..Mix the flour along with semolina, baking powder, baking soda...Beat together the egg yolks, sugar and grated orange peel until its turns light and creamy..add the flour mixture and milk and beat everything until they get completely blended...Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peak stage and with a wooden spooon stir carefully the batter until they get thoroughly well mixed..Meanwhile combine the sugar and water given for making syrup in a saucepan and stir until the sugar get dissolves, boil for few minutes and finally add the lemon juice and put off the stove..

Pour the cake butter in a greased and floured baking rectangular pan and bake the cake for 30minutes in middle rack, once the cake get baked, allow the cake to cool a bit...Pour the luke warm syrup over the cake,evenly and carefully starting at the outside edges..Allow to cool completely before cutting into small squares or diamond shaped pieces...

Enjoy!!

Galaktoboureko/Greek Custard Filled Phyllo Pastry

Galaktoboureka, delicious Greek dessert prepared by making a custard with fine semolina, eggs and sugar flavoured either with lemon or orange in phyllo...Its may be made in pan or with phyllo layered on top or else rolled into individual for long servings...This phyllo pastry looks similar like French dessert called Mille-feuille,phyllo sheets baked with custard and finally this pastry is soaked with lemon flavoured or orange flavored clear syrup with sugar..The name galaktoboureko comes from the word milk in greek and bourek is the Turkish origin word burek for pies which means the milk pie or custard pie...Its a real treat to enjoy while snack time with coffee or tea time or else as dessert after lunch...I enjoyed making and everyone at home relished each and every spoon of this custard filled phyllo pastry..

6nos Eggs
1cup Sugar
1cup Semolina (finely grind)
1/2tsp Lemon peel (grated)
1tsp Lemon juice
6cups Milk
1/4cup Melted butter
10sheet Phyllo sheets

For Syrup:
1cup Sugar
1cup Water
2tbsp Lemon juice
1tbsp Lemon peel(grated)

Make the syrup:
Bring the sugar, water to boil in medium heat, add the lemon peel and cook everything simmer for 10 minutes, remove from the heat and add the lemon juice,set aside and let them cool..

For Filling:
Beat the eggs with sugar until it turns creamy and smooth, add the semolina, lemon juice and grated lemon peel and beat for few minutes...Continue beating and add the milk and 2tbsp melted butter...beat for another few minutes until the mixture turns light and fluffy..

Preheat the oven to 350F and pour the filling into a pot and heat the pot over the stove top in medium flame..stir until the filling mixture turns thick..remove from the heat and keep aside..

Brush a rectangular baking pan with melted butter, take the 5sheets from the phyllo dough...Lay one sheet of phyllo on the bottom of the pan, brush the phyllo on the bottom of the pan with butter. Lay another sheet over the first, brush with butter, and continue until half the phyllo sheets have been used.Give the custard a quick whisk and spoon over the bottom layer of phyllo sheets, spreading evenly so it covers the bottom out to the sides with no gaps and no air bubbles.

Using the remaining phyllo sheets, place them one at a time on top of the filling, extending out the side opposite the bottom sheets. Brush each with butter, then one at a time, fold in the extending pieces butter the tops. When all the phyllo has been folded in and corners folded in, brush the top with butter.

Cut the galaktoboureko into serving-sized pieces using a very sharp knife to cut all the way through to the bottom. The phyllo and custard filling are delicate so cut with care.Bake for 30minutes in the middle rack of the oven.Remove from the oven and pour the cooled syrup evenly over the hot pastry. Set aside and allow to cool and absorb the syrup..

Enjoy!!

Cold Beet & Garlic Salad-Pantzaria Salata

If u really want to make out some quick salad with simple ingredients, else if u have bought some beets and u dunno wat to make out u should definitely try out this easy,simple, quick and refreshing greek salad with beets and minced garlic..This salad can be prepared within few minutes and this salad can be served cold, a prefect salad for hot summer and suits prefect for chilled evening dinner when they are served along with some warm soup....We enjoyed having this salad...Greek Cuisine is completely a new cuisine which am finally learning rite now and thanks to CL for choosing Greek cuisine as this month's AWED theme..Its really a great opportunity to learn and enjoy foods from other cuisine, no doubt my family is really enjoying my recent greek culinary adventure...Obivously this pantzaria salata goes directly to CL's inbox as she is hosting this month's AWED-Greek,started by DK and to Usha's Healthy Inspirations Event - Salads..

2nos Beets (cooked&sliced)
2nos Garlic cloves (minced)
2tbsp Olive oil
2tbsp Red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper powder

Take the sliced beets along with minced garlic cloves, meanwhile make a sauce with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper powder..

Toss the beets and garlic with this olive oil dressing and leave them in fridge covered for few hours before serving...Enjoy this refreshing salad!!

Eggless Indian Custard, Cauliflower Walnut Cream & Rizogalo (Greek Rice Pudding) - T&T from A Life(Time) Cooking

Tried & Tasted event goes to Ganga's A Life (Time) Of Cooking which has been selected by Yasmeen of Health Nut for this month of August..I never went to this wonderful blog before, thanks to Yasmeen for introducing this wonderful blog, which have really  a lovely collections of delicious dishes and fantastic collections of beautiful clicks..While browsing through Ganga's blog i have completely fallen in love to this fabulous blog and i was really confused to try and taste some of her beautiful dishes, but finally i went for 3 of her yummy dishes..These three dishes was completely very easy to prepare and very flavourful, healthy, simple and incredibly delicioussss....U will definitely surprised to see the ingredients in Eggless indian custard which goes for chickpeas flour, making out custard with chickpeas flour is completely possible and i was very curious to try out this custard, needless to say this eggless indian custard was terribly delicious and the cauliflower walnut cream tastes amazing and healthy which need very less time as cauliflower florets gets cooked very easily, while coming to rizogalo, greek rice pudding such a creamy, flavourful and mouthwatering dish suits marvellously for a rich desserts..Tempting dishes rite!!

Eggless Indian Custard: U can find the Original recipe here
1cup Milk
1tbsp Chickpeas flour
2tbsp Grated Jaggery
1tbsp Ghee
Few cashew nuts
Few raisins
1/4tsp Cardamom powder
Few saffron strands

Let the saffron strands stands for few minutes in few tbsp of milk, heat the ghee and fry the cashewnuts and raisins until they turns golden brown..add the chickpeas flour to the same ghee and roast until the aroma comes out..add the saffron strands to the milk to the roasted chickpeas flour along with grated jaggery and cardamom powder, stir continously until the mixture turns as custard, finally add the fried cashewnuts and raisins, serve!!

Cauliflower Walnut Cream: U can find this recipe here
25nos Cauliflower florets
1no Onion (chopped)
1+1/2cup Vegetable stock water
1cup Milk
10nos Walnuts (chopped)
Salt
Pepper powder
Few walnuts for garnishing

Bring boil the vegetable stock water with cauliflower florets, chopped onion in medium simmer flame and cook until the cauliflower turns soft..add the milk and walnut pieces to the cooked cauliflower and blend as smooth soup..Heat again and add enough salt and pepper powder according to ur taste, serve hot with chopped walnuts..

Delicious creamy soup!

Rizogalo (Greek Rice Pudding): U can find this recipe here
1/2cup Short grain rice
3cups Milk
1/4cup Sugar
1no Rosemary sprig(small sprig)
1tbsp Orange rind
1tbsp Custard powder
2tbsp Milk
Few nuts
Pinch of cinnamon powder (optional)

Combine together the milk,sugar, orange rind, rosemary sprigs and heat in medium high flame..stir the milk continously until the sugar gets dissolved..meanwhile wash thoroughly the rice and add the washed rice to the boiling milk and cook in simmer by stirring occasionally until the rice gets well cooked..remove the rosemary sprig, orange rind..make a paste with custard powder and milk, add this paste to the cooking rice..stir until the pudding get thickens..

Serve hot , warm or cold with few nuts and cinnamon powder..