RECIPES FOR GREEK DISHES

                                     FENNEL BULB AND ARTICHOKE BAKE

   

1 kg (2 lb) 4 pieces fennel bulbs

3 medium-sized artichokes

2 carrot, scraped and cut into batons

1 lemon, halved

2 tbsp olive oil

3 soring onion, trimmed and finely chopped

2 fennel sprigs

2 dill sprigs

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable stock

A knob of butter to grease the dish

3 tbsp kasseri or Cheddar, thickly grated

3 tbsp San Mihalis or Parmesan, thinly grated

375 ml (1 ½ cup) cream

Chopped chives

 

Discard the hard leaves of the fennel bulbs and quarter them from stem to root, discarding the core.

 

Cut the stalks off the artichokes, strip off the hard outer leaves, trim the hearts, remove the choke, and quickly rub them with half a lemon and plunge them into the water with lemon juice to prevent them from discoloring.

 

Sauté the spring onions in olive oil for 2 minutes, in a large, flat saucepan, and sprinkle with a little salt.  Then, add the carrots, fennel bulbs and artichokes, sprinkle with a little salt, and sauté very gently for about 10 minutes on all sides.  Pour in enough hot stock to just cover the vegetables, add the herbs, cover the saucepan and simmer until the vegetables are tender but not falling apart.

 

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).  Transfer the vegetables with a slotted spoon and arrange them on a well-buttered baking dish. 

 

Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and the two kinds of grated cheese, drizzle with cream and bake for 20 minutes.   Serve piping hot sprinkled with chopped chives, and crispy, brown bread.

 

 

                             CHICKEN WITH RICE AND MILANESE SAUCE

1 ½ kg (3 lb) chicken, skinned and cut into serving pieces

1 onion, peeled and studded with a clove

2 tender celery stalks with leaves

1 carrot, peeled and thickly sliced

1 bay leaf

Salt

6 peppercorns

 

Rice:

2 tbsp butter

1 small onion, peeled and grated

2 cups rice

80 ml (1/3 cup) dry white wine

800 ml (3 2/3 cups) hot, tasty chicken stock or more

 

Sauce:

3 tbsp butter

1 bay leaf

3 tbsp cornflour

500 ml (2 cups) warm, tasty chicken stock

2 egg yolks, beaten

3-4 tbsp low fat cream or stock

A pinch of nutmeg

1 tbsp lemon juice or according to taste

 

Thinly grated San Mihalis

 

Cover the chicken with salted water, bring to the boil and skim well.  Add the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook for 1 – 1 ½ hours until the chicken is tender.  Remove from the heat and cool.  Remove the bones from the chicken, strain and degrease the stock, and set aside.

 

Prepare the rice.  Sauté the onion, with 1 tbsp butter until almost soft.  Add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes until well covered with butter.  Pour in the wine, stir and let it evaporate.  Then add the hot chicken stock, cover and simmer gently until the liquid has evaporated and the rice is cooked but not mushy, add the remaining butter and toss carefully with a fork.

 

For the sauce, melt the butter add the bay leaf, sift in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.  Add the hot stock, gradually, and whisk each time until the sauce bubbles and thickens.  Add the nutmeg, correct the seasoning, if necessary.  Remove the saucepan from the heat. Mix the egg yolks with the cream.  Stir a ladleful of sauce into the egg mixture and very slowly pour it back into the saucepan, whisking constantly.  Sprinkle with lemon juice and simmer very, very gently, stirring constantly until, well combined.

 

Arrange the chicken pieces in a heated serving dish, over a bed of rice.  Cover with some sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.  Serve accompanied with the remaining, extra grated cheese and sauteed vegetables.          

 

 

                    PHYLLO POUCHES FILLED WITH VEGETABLES AND CHEESE

 

You can use any vegetables that combine well for this vegetarian dish.  Children just love it!

 

3 medium-sized courgettes, trimmed and sliced into thin rounds

2 large potatoes, peeled, cubed and parboiled in slightly salted vegetable stock

3 medium-sized carrots, cubed and parboiled in slightly salted vegetable stock

2 tender celery stalks, trimmed and chopped

2 spring onion, trimmed and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised

125 g (1 cup) feta cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp grated San Mihalis

1/8 tsp Cayenne pepper

125 ml (½ cup) olive oil

6 sheets of phyllo pastry

2 tbsp fine dried breadcrumbs

6 chive leaves or

6 spring onion leaves, blanched

Melted butter

 

Sauté the courgettes, spring onions, celery and garlic in 2 tbsp of olive oil.  Add the potatoes and carrots and cook gently, until the vegetables are tender, using some of the stock in which the carrots and potatoes were cooked, if needed.

 

Sprinkle the vegetables with cheese, and stir until the feta melts, then sprinkle with Cayenne and stir again.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Discard the garlic.

 

Line an ovenproof dish with buttered baking parchment.  Fold each phyllo sheet in two breadthwise and cut it into two equal pieces.  Brush each piece with olive oil or melted butter.  Place one piece of phyllo on top of the other and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Spoon 1/6 of the filling in the center of each crossed phyllo piece, bring the ends together and tie with a chive leaf or blanched spring onion leaves to form a pouch.

 

Brush the pouches with olive oil or melted butter and bake in an oven preheated to 190 C (375 F) until the pastry turns crisp and golden.  Serve with a salad of your choice.            

 

 

                                        COURGETTES AND CHEESE TART

                                 

Pastry:

100 g butter, at room temperature

60 g (2 oz) feta crumbled

60 g (2 oz) San Mihalis or Parmesan grated

180 g (4 oz) self-rising flour

 

A knob of butter for the dish

 

100 g bland kasseri or Emmenthal grated

100 g Graviera from Crete, grated

2 sliced of Greek ham, chopped

2 medium-sized courgettes, thickly grated

2 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 tbsp dill, chopped

 

4 eggs, separated

250 ml (1 cup) cream

Freshly ground black pepper

 

Place all the ingredients for the pastry in a blender and pulse until the dough forms a ball around the hook.  Cover and refrigerate fir ½ hour.  Roll out the dough and line a buttered tart dish.  Prick the pastry sheet with a fork, cover with baking parchment and beans, and bake blind in an oven preheated to 180 C (350 F) for 12 minutes.  Discard the parchment and beans and set them aside to cool.  

 

Meanwhile, mix the 2 kinds of grated cheese with the chopped ham and place them in the pastry shell.  Sprinkle the courgettes, spring onions, and chopped dill evenly over.   Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.  Mix the egg yolks with the cream until well combined and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Then fold the whipped egg whites gently into the yolk mixture and pour evenly over the vegetables and cheese, not the pastry!

 

Bake for 35-40 minutes in an oven [reheated to 180 C (350 F) until puffed and golden brown.    

 

 

  

 

 

A superb ancient Greek earring, now shown at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston still fascinates its admirers, 2.300 years after it was expertly sculpted out of pure gold.  The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has opened new galleries devoted to Greek art, this year. 

 

The ancient Greek earring depicts Nike, the goddess of victory, marvelous in gold wings, driving her two-horse-chariot and has wheels that actually turn more than 2 millennia after it was created. 

 

The expression of the horses’ are still clearly visible and the beautiful golden reins that Nike uses to control them are still evident.  More than 100 individual pieces of gold were used to make the one surviving earring, which was created around 350-325 BC   

WORLD WAR II IN CEPHALONIA

 

                           

In 1864, the Ionian Islands joined Greece.  After centuries of occupation by Venice, France and England the residents of the islands were considered Greek citizens.

As I have written before, my parents and I, being on home leave. In 1940. sailed from India to Portside, Egypt on the “Cilicia” a P & O vessel, and then on a Greek ship “Agamemnon” to Piraeus. 

 

After staying a few days in Athens to visit dear relatives we sailed to Argostoli, Cephalonia, our island, where my parents bought a large house, where they installed central heating. It also had a beautiful garden. 

 

On the 28^th of October 1940, Italy declared war on Greece and my parents decided to remain in Argostoli, because many ships were being sunk, daily, in the Mediterranean Sea. So, we stayed in Argostoli, where our house was requisitioned by the Italian Marine Commander, two days before Christmas. Fortunately, one of my father’s friends, Dr. Marketos, let us stay in one of his apartments in the center of the city.  We had a difficult time during the occupation, desperately trying to make ends meet but what was worse, we, also, lost our liberty, our pride our self-determination.                  

 

POTATO RECIPES

 

                                   

 

 The potato is a root vegetable, native to the Americas, a starchy vegetable of the plant Solanum Tublerosum.  Wild potatoes originated in  Peru and could be found throughout the Americas from  Canada to Chili. 

Potatoes we domesticated approximately 7.000 to 10,000 years ago.  They were introduced to Europe during the 2nd half of the 16th century by the Spanish.  Today they are a staple food in many parts of the world and are a large part of the world's food supply.  In 2014, potatoes we the 4th largest crop after corn, wheat and rice.  There are now 5,000 different kinds of potatoes.  

It is an essential crop in Europe where the per capita production is the largest in the world.          

 

 

 

                                                      POTATO SOUP

 

1 kg (2 lb) of potatoes, boiled in salted water, 4 cups of water reserved

1 onion, peeled and grated

1 garlic clove, peeled and mashed

2 rashers of bacon, extra fat discarded and finely chopped

 2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper and grated nutmeg to taste

500 ml (2 cups) cream

2 tbsp chopped chives

 

Sauté the onion, garlic, and bacon in olive oil until the onion is tender. Mash t0he potatoes and sieve them back into the saucepan with the cooked onion, garlic, and bacon, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.  Pour in the reserved water and bring to a gentle simmer. Serve with hot cream and sprinkled with chopped chives.

 

 

                                             POTATOES AU GRATIN

 

 1 kg (2 b) potatoes, peeled and sliced

250 ml (1 cup) melted butter

500 ml (2 cups) heavy cream

1 cup finely grated Parmesan

1 cup thickly grated Emmenthal

Salt, if necessary, freshly ground white pepper and grate nutmeg to taste

 

Place the potatoes into a large Pyrex dish, season with a little salt, and pepper and grated nutmeg. Drizzle with melted butter, sprinkle with the two kinds of cheese and bake in an oven preheated to 180 C (350 F) for ½ an hour or more until the potatoes are tender and the Parmesan and Emmental have melted to perfection.

 

 

                                            POTATOES WITH CREAM

1 kg (2 lb) potatoes, peeled and sliced

Enough tasty chicken or vegetable stock to cover the potatoes

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 sprig of rosemary

Salt , if necessary, freshly ground white  pepper and grated nutmeg to taste

 

250 ml (1 cup) thick cream

Freshly ground white pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped chives

 

Boil the potatoes in the stock with the garlic cloves and sprig of rosemary for 15 minutes or until tender.  Strain the potatoes and discard the rosemary sprig and heat the potatoes to dry any possible humidity. 

 

Before serving, pour the hot cream over, taste and add some salt, of necessary and sprinkle with freshly ground white pepper and chopped chives.      

                

 

                                             CRISPY SMASHED POTATOES

1 kg (2 lb) baby potatoes, peeled and boiled  in salted water until tender and drained

Olive oil

Garlic paste

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

 

Arrange the potatoes on a tin, lined with oiled baking parchment. Smash each potato with the bottom of a jar, season accordingly, brush lavishly with garlic paste and olive oil and bake in an oven preheated to 180 C (350 F) for ½ an hour until succulent but crisp. 

 

 

GREEK ACADEMICS AMONG THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC MINDS WORLDWIDE

                                                    Symbol  of Wisdom

In the testament to the quality of scientific research and education, three Greek academics have, recently, been ranked among the world’s most influential scientific minds.

 

A Greek man even topped the list of the most influential academics of the world.  Christodoulos Stefanadis, a professor of cardiology at the Medical School of the University of Athens, ranked first on the list with a total of 3.079 publications

 

The next Greek in the rankings was Dimosthenis Panagiotakos, a professor of Biostatistic Research and Methods of Epidemology at the Harokopio University of Athens with 2.432 publications

 

Professor Meletios Athsnsios Dimopoulos, the Dean of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and Professor of Oncology ranked 16^th on the lost with 2.358 publications.

 

The list also includes, other prominent Greek researchers, such as Nectarios Benekos  at CERN and Aristides Tsastsakos a professor of Toxicology at the University of Crete, with 1.007 and 989 publications respectively.

 

Every year Thomson Reuters releases a list of the world’s  most influential scientific minds, which includes academics, and scientists whose work has had the most significant impact in their fields worldwide.

 

The academics are ranked according to trusted data collected from the world’s leading research platforms

 

This data includes the number of scholarly papers published by each academic, how many times their papers have been cited by others and the influence of their research in their respective fields.

 

It is not the first time that Greek academics have left their mark on such a prestigious list, showing the high academic standards of Greece.

 

In 2020, eleven Greek researchers ranked among the most highly cited scientists in the world, whereas in 2018, five professors from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens were included on a similar list based on their total number of references globally.

 

After a year full of debates about the level of high education in Greece due to the report about the  bad conduct in its universities, such a number of honoured Greek academics c0onfirms the high level of studies in Greece

 

Greek universities have oftent been deemed to be among of the nest worldwide  in the past years,  In 2019, Greece’stwo largest universities ranked among the top ten percent of all the univer0sities of the world.

 

                                           Kapodistrian University of Athens

                                           Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

According to the publication and Performance ranking of Scientific Papers for the world, released this year the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki were ranked among the top ten percent of 4.000 highest education institutions around the world.  .                     .    

THE CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST

According to BBC, Israel conducted dozens of air-stikes on the Gaza Strip after the Palestina militants fired barricades of rockets on southern Israeli cities.

The heavy raids which took part just before dawn were the most serious since the fighting began   Although both sides have heavy losses in lives, infrastructure, and building, they seem adamant in their hatred for each other that fuels this terrible war.   

GREEK GENOCIDE BY THE OTTOMAN TURKS

 Today is the anniversary of the brutal Greek Genocide in 1918.

                      

Greek organizations and Greek Americans join in a demonstration organized by the US Armenian Council for Human Rights to commemorate the Greek genocide, on Wednesday, the 19^th May 2021, in Los Angeles.

 

The event will take place outside the Turkish consulate in Beverly Hills, from 11.00 am o 1.00 pm.

 

Following President Biden’s historical recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Greeks believe that the time is ripe for the recognition of the Greek Genocide by the Ottoman Turks in the early part of the 20^th century.

 

According to the above book and many other sources, the Greek Genocide was the systematic killing of the Christian Greek population in Anatolia, Turkey, by the barbarous Ottoman Turks, during World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922) on the basis of their religion and ethnicity.  

 

The Greek genocide was instigated by the government of Turkey and the Turkish National Movement against the indigenous Greek population of Turkey, which included massacres, death marches, expulsions, and the destruction of Greek Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious sites. Several hundreds of thousands of Greeks were massacred during this period. Most of the survivors fled to Greece adding more than a quarter of the prior population of Greece.  Some took refuge in the neighboring Russian Empire.

 

By late 1922, most of the Greeks of Asia Minor had either fled or had been killed. Those remaining were transferred to Greece under the terms of the later 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, which formalized the exodus and banned the return of the refugees.   

 An image of the Greeks fleeing from  Smyrna and escaping from the terror of the barbarian Ottoman Turks in 1922.