Going Greek

As two people who enjoy cooking a multitude of world wide cuisine's we always seem to leave out the culinary pleasures of Greece. This is not done intentionally, we don't have any kind of bad history or vendetta with the country, on the contrary we would love to visit the dreamy white sands of santorini. The only thing that i can put this down to is the lack of Greek cookery programmes and the rareness of Grecian recipes in all of the popular cooking magazines. Greek food like all Mediterranean fare is extremely good for you and has fantastic health benefit's, with the use of olive oil, fish, courgettes, aubergines, herbs, feta cheese, Greek yogurt, nuts and honey the people of Greece are definitely on to a winner.

Ill admit, I've not exactly delved into the depths of Greek cookery but I've made a start which has wet my foodie appetite into trying some more.

Stuffed vine leaves and baklava's here we come!

Roast chicken with honey, lemon, garlic rosemary and thyme.

Usually R is quite uncompromising when it comes to roast chicken. He believes that the only and the very best was to have roast chicken is to have it with considerably large crispy roast potatoes and sweet redcurrant jelly that melts into copious amounts of rich and tasty gravy. Fortunately for me R was  keenly interested into what i had to offer him as a substitute to his favourite meal that held a special place in his heart ( perhaps it was the red wine from the night before).

I knew it was going to take some serious hard work not to make him  wished he'd had his beloved dish, so to make it a more substantial dish i made spinach spanakopitas, creamy cucumber tzatziki and for a burst of freshness an abundant Greek salad.

Spinach Spanakopitas

Tzatziki

Greek Salad





Roast chicken with honey, lemon,garlic , rosemary and thyme.

1 large free range chicken

2 tbls honey

Few sprigs of rosemary

Few sprigs of thyme

Half a bulb of garlic

rapeseed oil/ olive oil

1 lemon

Pre heat the oven to 190 oc

Pat the chicken dry with a couple of paper towels and place in a roasting tin

Grate the lemon zest over the chicken then cut in half and squeeze the juice out from one half over the chicken then place both halves inside the cavity

Add the half a bulb of garlic to the cavity along with a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme reserving some for later

Gently place your hand in between the breast and the skin and carefully separate.

In the pocket you have just made rub some of the honey, oil and the remaining herbs

Rub the chicken all over with oil and the remainder of the honey

Season well with salt and pepper

Add around half an inch of water to pan to ensure that the chicken stays juicy and moist.

Roast for 20 mins per lb (450g) plus 10 - 20 mins extra

Baste around 3 times during cooking

For the final 15 mins of cooking turn the heat up to 220oc to give that golden crispness

Leave to rest for around 20 minutes

Spanakopitas

I used Ina Gartens recipe here -http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/dinner-spanakopitas-recipe/index.html

Next time i  will cut the filo in half length ways then in half length ways again to make more bite size mouth fulls - just personal preference

Tzatziki

Around half a chopped cucumber- seeds removed

4 tbls of Greek yogurt

2 tbls of sour cream

Half lemon juice

2 Tsp of white wine vinegar

Small hand full of fresh dill/ mint or both

1 small clove of grated garlic

Salt and pepper

Add all of the ingredients together checking the seasoning as you go along

Place in the fridge until ready to use.

Greek Salad

Dressing -

3 tbls Olive oil

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1 tsp of dijon mustard

A sprinkle of fresh or dried oregano - bear in  mind that fresh is much stronger than the dried

Add all of the ingredients together and whisk - taste to make sure the seasoning is correct.

Salad

Cucumber

Red and yellow pepper

Tomatoes

Red onion cut into thin slices

kalamata olives

Feta cheese

Cut the cucumber ,peppers ,tomatoes, olives and feta all into small bite sized pieces, when ready to serve drizzle over the dressing and gently toss together.