FAMOUS SAUCES

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                                            CAFÉ DE PARIS SAUCE

A delicious French sauce:

180 g (4 oz) butter, cubed

1 shallot, peeled and minced

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp curry powder

A pinch of Cayenne pepper

1 tsp mustard powder

Salt to taste

2 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped

1 tbsp capers rinsed and soaked in water to remove salt

2 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped

2 tbsp chives, finely chopped

2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1 cup whipping cream

2 tsp lemon juice

 

Place butter, shallot, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder, and salt in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 6 minutes, until the shallots soften and butter becomes golden in colour.

 

Add the capers, chopped herbs and sprinkle with a little black pepper and cook for 1 minute more. Add the cream and lemon juice and heat until warmed through, for 2 minutes.  Do not overmix!  The sauce should not be uniform or emulsified.  You should see some separation between the butter and the cream component. 

 

Serve with grilled steak, roast beef, or grilled vegetables.

 

                

                                             MUSHROOM SAUCE

This sauce can be served on buttered toast or over pasta or rice.

 

500 g (1 lb) trimmed Portobello mushrooms

6 dried Porcini, soaked and chopped, soaking water reserved

1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

A few peppercorns

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp butter

1 bay leaf

500 ml (2 cups) water or more

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tbsp grated cheese, San Mihalis or Parmesan

120 ml ( ½ cup) cream

 

Boil onion and garlic with 2 cups of water until tender.  Then strain and mash, reserve both puree and stock.

 

Quarter the mushrooms and cook in the onion stock, with a little salt and the peppercorns, until tender.  Strain and reserve stock and mushrooms, discard the peppercorns.

 

Heat the butter with the bay leaf stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes,  Whisk in the warm mushroom stock and the Porcini water and simmer gently until the sauce bubbles and thickens.  Add the Porcini and discard the bay leaf.

 

Remove from the heat, add the onion/garlic puree and the grated cheese and mix well.   Taste for seasoning and adjust, if necessary.  Finally, add the mushrooms and simmer for a few minutes more, stirring from time to time. Stir in the cream and serve.

                                                  STUFFED CRAB SAUCE 

An old friend from Egypt, Mary Xenakis, gave me this recipe.

4 boiled crabs

1 clove garlic, peeled

Salt and pepper to taste

The eggs of 4 boiled crabs

2 hard-boiled egg yolks

1 1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 scant tsp of Dijon mustard

Olive oil

Tender lettuce leaves for decoration

Blend the garlic, a little salt, the crab eggs, and the hard-boiled eggs into a smooth paste.  Then mix the mayonnaise with the mustard, taste for seasoning, and adjust with salt, pepper, and lemon juice according to taste. 

Mix the sauce with the crab meat and arrange attractively in the prepared crab shells, sprinkle with olive oil and garnish with the crisp lettuce leaves.

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THE GREEK RENAISSANCE

                   

 

When people think of Ancient Greece, images of philosophers such as Plato and Socrates often come to mind, as do great warriors like Pericles and Alexander the Great.  But hundreds of years before Athens became a city, Greek cultured and spread its tentacles throughout the western Mediterranean region via traders and warfare.  Scholars have called this pre-Classical Greek culture the Mycenaean culture which existed from 2000-1200 BC. 

 

When Greece, along with much of the eastern Mediterranean was thrust into centuries-long Dark Ages.  Before the Mycenaean civilization collapsed, it was a vital part of the Bronze age,   Mediterranean system, and stood on equal footing with some of the great powers of the region, such as the Egyptians and the Hittites.

 

The Greek Dark Ages, sometimes referred to as the Homeric Age or Geometrical Period, span the era of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean civilization around 1100 BC, and the emergence of the Greek poleis, in the 9^th century BC, it is a period that has provided little archaeological evidence which explains the term “Dark Ages”. But this lack of evidence has let archaeologists and historians to make the very great assumption that little of significance has been done these last 200 years.  Instead, they saw it as a hiatus between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization and the emergence of Archaic Greece.   But during these Dark Ages, they were many changes such as the use of iron and bronze and some religious practices continued to be observed.

 

Furthermore, enough remained to form the basis of a recovery in economic, cultural, and artistic aspects of life in the later stage of the era.  Changes necessitated in the collapse of the economic system, certainly paved the way for the rise of the poleis, which would prove so fundamental in Greece in the centuries that followed.   The relative success of the Aegean settlements was so crucial to recovery, as well as all major developments in politics, economics, international relations, warfare, and culture, that created the structure and framework that developed the later Classical period (480-323 BC).

This led to the groundwork of the Greek Renaissance of the 8^th century.  During that time the Greek alphabet was developed and the earliest surviving Greek literature was composed, while in terms of art, architecture, sculpture, and red-figured pottery began to appear to be changed significantly for the best.  Also in warfare new weapons were discovered for the infantry.  But none of these developments could have occurred during what came to be known as the Greek Renaissance.

 

The Greek Renaissance:  The History and heroes of the period leading to Greece’s Archaic Age, examines this crucial time, what life was like during this time, and how it facilitated the rise of the poleis.  Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Greek Renaissance as never before.    

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CHIRON

                                                       

 

In Greek mythology, Chiron was held to be the superlative centaur among his brethren.  Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature.  His personal skills tend to match those of Apollo, his foster father, sometimes along with Artemis, medicine, music, archery, hunting, and prophesy.  His parents were Cronus and Phylira.

 

Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinking, and carouses given to violence when intoxicated and generally uncultured delinquents.  Chiron by contrast was intelligent, civilized, and kind. He was related to the other centaurs.  He was famous for his knowledge and skills in medicine.

 

According to an archaic myth, Chiron’s lineage was different from the other centaurs who were born of sun and raincloud rendered by Greeks of the classical period as from the union of King Ixion, consigner to the fiery wheel and Nephele (cloud) which in the Olympian telling Zeus invented to look like Hera.  Myths attribute Chiron’s peaceful character and intelligence to the teaching of Apollo and Artemis in his younger days.

 

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later submerged to the great pantheon as a centaur.

 

Chiron lived on Mount Pelion, where he married the nymph Charicho, who bore him three daughters and one son.

 

A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly respected as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many heroes: Asclepius, Ajax, Aeneas, Caeneus, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Telemon, Perseus and sometimes Hercules, Aelius Phoenix, and in Byzantine tradition, even Dionysos, according to the Ptolemean Chenas of Alexandria.

 

There is also a persistent link with Peleus through Chiron’s myths. Chiron saved the life of Peleus when Acastus tried to kill him by taking his sword and by leaving him out in the woods to be slaughtered by the centaurs.  Chiron retrieved the sword of Peleus.  He then explained to Peleus how to capture the nymph Thetis, leading to their marriage.

 

His nobility is reflected in the story of his friend as Prometheus sacrificed his life, allowing mankind to obtain the use of fire.  Being the son of Cronus he was immortal so it was left to  Hercules to arrange a bargain with Zeus to exchange Chiron’s immortality for the life of Prometheus, who had been chained to a rock and left to die for his transgressions. 

 

Chiron had been poisoned by an arrow belonging to Hercules that had been dipped in the blood of Hydra or other versions, a poison that Chiron had given to the hero when he had been under the centaur’s tutelage.

 

According to a scholium on Theocritus that had taken place during the visits of Hercules to the cure of Pholus on Mount Pelion in Thessaly when he visited his friend during his 4^th labour in defeating the Erymanthean  Boar.  While they were all at supper, Hercules asked for some wine. Pholus who ate his food raw was taken aback.  He was given a vessel of sacred wine by Dionysos earlier, to be kept in trust for the rest of the centaurs until the right time for its opening. At Hercules’ prompting, Pholus was forced to produce the vessel of sacred wine.

 

The hero grasped the wine from him and forced it open.  Thereupon the vapor of the sacred wine wafted out of the cave and intoxicated the wild centaurs let by Nessus, who had gathered outside. They attacked the cave with stones.  Hercules was forced to shoot many arrows, poisoned by the blood of the Hydra to drive them back. 

 

During this assault, Chiron was hit in the thigh by one of the poisoned arrows.  After the centaurs had fled, Pholus emerged from the cave to obscure the destruction.

 

Being in a philosophical mood, he pulled one of the arrows found on the body of the dead centaur.   At that instant, he let slip the arrow and it dropped on his hoof killing him instantly.

 

Ironically, Chiron the master of healing could not heal himself.  So, he willingly gave up his immortality. He was honored in a place in the sky identified by Greeks, as the constellation of the Centaurus. 

 

Chiron made a promise to Zeus, that when he was needed as a trainer of demi-gods, he may exist in this world.  He is among us today not only as a constellation but also as an inspiration. 

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MODERN GREEK DISHES

                                      

 

                                 MEDITERRANEAN STUFFED SWORDFISH

One 250 g (8 oz) swordfish steak

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, dried, and cut into bite-sized pieces

 

1 tsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

¼ cup feta, crumbled

 

Preheat an outdoor grill to high heat and oil the grate. 

 

Cut a slit in the steak to create a pocket that is opened on one side only.  Mix together 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice and brush over both sides of the fish and set aside.

 

In a small saucepan, sauté garlic over medium heat, add spinach in olive oil and cook until wilted.  Remove from the heat and stuff the pocket.  Place feta over spinach.  Arrange fish on the grill and cook for 5-7 minutes, turn over and continue cooking until cooked through.              

 

 

                                         BAKED CHICKEN WITH YOGURT

50 ml (1.9 fl oz) olive oil

One 1 kg (2 lb) chicken thighs

500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock

400 gm (1 lb 3 oz) Greek yogurt

8 shallots, peeled and diced

4 thyme sprigs

1 tbsp Greek honey

 

Burghul Salad:

1 ¼ cup fine burghul

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced

2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and minced

1 cup each, parsley and mint finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

Seeds of ¼ pomegranate

 

 

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) and sauté chicken in olive oil for 5-10 minutes, until browned all over.  Then add the remaining ingredients, cover with baking parchment and a lid and braise in the oven for 2-3 hours until very tender.

 

Meanwhile, for the burghul salad place the burghul into a bowl and cover completely with water and let stand for 10 minutes until tender.  Drain well and scatter over a tray and let stand for ½ an hour until dry.  Season to taste and transfer to a bowl with the remaining ingredients, toss to combine and serve with the chicken.

 

 

                            GRILLED GREEK TROUT WITH VILLAGE SALAD

100 g (3.3 oz) sugar

100 g (3.3 oz) salt

100 ml (3.3 fl oz) ouzo

1 kg (2 lb) trout

Coriander baby sprigs for garnish

 

Combine sugar, salt, and ouzo in a bowl.  Place the trout in a large Ziploc bag and pour in the curing mixture.  Seal the bag after removing as much air as possible, turning occasionally for 5 days until cured.

 

For the village salad, combine all ingredients in a bowl, toss gently to combine, transfer to a serving bowl, and set aside.

 

Wipe curing mixture from trout with a kitchen paper towel.  Thinly slice the trout and arrange on a dish., scatter with baby coriander sprigs and serve with the village salad.   

 

 

                                                    BEEF RAGOUT

1 ½ kg (3 lb) beef cut into bite-sized chunks

Salt and pepper to taste

5 tbsp olive oil

½ cup Metaxa brandy

4 large carrots, peeled

1 onion, peeled and cut into chunks

4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1500 ml (2 bottles) red wine

250 ml (1 cup) beef stock

180 gm (6 oz) tomato paste

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

300 g (10 oz) pearl onions, peeled

250 g (½ lb) mushrooms trimmed and quartered

1 tbsp brown sugar

 

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).  Wash and pat meat dry and season with salt and pepper.  Sauté the meat in 2 tbsp olive oil until brown on all sides and transfer to a bowl. Add the brandy to pan and deglaze, over medium heat, scraping up the bits.  Allow the alcohol to reduce by half and pour over the meat.

 

Coarsely chop 2 carrots and sauté in olive oil in the same pan add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat.  Add beef with brandy, wine, stock, tomato paste and thyme.  Beef should be completely covered by the liquid, if not add more wine, cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and cook for 2 minutes, cover and place in the oven and bake until the meat is very tender, 2 ½ -3 hours. 

 

About 30 minutes before the beef is ready, cut the remaining carrots into slices, cook until tender, and place on a plate Sauté the pearls onions, and mushrooms and season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

Remove the beef from the oven. Stain liquid from stew separate from the cooked vegetables and discard them.  Boil liquid until reduced by half and thickened to a sauce, skimming for time to time from the surface. Add sugar and season to taste, add beef, sliced carrots, pearl onions, and mushrooms to stock and simmer for 15 until heated through.  Serve in bowls with mashed potatoes or steamed rice.

 

This dish can be prepared 2 days in advance, covered, and refrigerated.  Before reheating, discard any solidified fat from the surface. Reheat over medium heat on a stovetop.              

  

 

                                              MUMMY’S TARTLETS

My mother was a wonderful, imaginative cook.  Here is a recipe for delicious sable biscuits that she offered for tea so many years ago.  

 

330 g plain flour, sifted with

1 tbsp baking powder and

1 pinch of salt

“a fistful of sugar”

165 g softened butter

1 egg

6 tbsp milk

 

1 cup apricot jam

Icing sugar,

 

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the other ingredients except for the jam.  Knead gently to form a soft pliable dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.

 

Roll out the dough and cut rounds with a liqueur glass.  On half of the rounds cut small holes in the center with a thimble!  Bake in a moderate oven 180 C (350 F) for 10-12 minutes.  When the biscuits are cold, spread a little jam on the whole biscuits, sprinkle the biscuits with the hole with icing sugar, and join the two carefully together.    

  

 

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ICARUS AND DAEDALUS (Continued)

Unfortunately for Daedalus, the king had imprisoned him and his young son Icarus in a high tower so that they couldn’t reveal the secret of the labyrinth to anyone.  Daedalus realized that their only escape route was by air. 

 

For a large period of time he was gathering all the feathers he could find and joined them together with wax and fashioned a pair of wings one for himself and the one for his son Icarus.

 

The day arrived when they would execute their escape but Daedalus had given a grave warning to his son and forbade him to fly too near the sun because the wax would melt or fly too near the sea for that would dampen the feathers.

 

Father and son perched of a parapet and leaped off, flapping their wings furiously and in no time they were flying over the sea, putting a great distance between them and Crete.

 

Unfortunately, Icarus soon forgot his father’s warning and he flew too close to the sun.  The intense heat melted the wax and the feathers of the wings came loose.  Moments later poor Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.  Daedalus was struck with horror but there was nothing he could do to save his son.

 

Aggrieved by his loss he named the sea spot where his son had drowned after his name, so the sea was called the Icarian sea and the island was called Ikaria.

 

Berating himself for his tragic loss, he continued to fly towards Sicily, where he sought refuge at the palace of King Cocculus of Camicus.  With the king’s help he constructed a temple dedicated to Apollo as an offering to the god and hung up his wings for good.

 

At Crete, King Minos fumed over the escape of Daedalus The only thought on  his mind, was to recapture the skilled artificer and bring him back to Knossos.

 

Minos set out from Crete in search of Daedalus snd whereover he went he offered a handsome reward to anyone who run  a thread through a spiral seashell.   He knew that this was a very complex puzzle and Daedalus would be challenged to solve it. Minos reached Camicus and  announced the same reward and task and many people tried to solve it but to no avail.

 

The news reached King Cocalus and he immediately asked for Daedalus because if anyone could solve the puzzle it would be him.   His old age hadn’t affected the brilliant mind  of Daedalus and when he saw the puzzle he knew exactly what to do.   At the end on the seashell, he placed a drop of honey,  and tying string to an ant, let the insect in from the other end to wander through the myriads of spirals of the shell. 

 

Drawn by the honey, the ant emerged at the other end stringing the shell through and through.

 

Minos knew that  he had found his man.  Immediately he demanded that Daedalus should be handed over but Cocalus had other plans.  He coxed King Minos to stay for a while in Camicus to rest from his long trip.  Seeing no harm in it, Minos consented and waited while the chambermaids were getting his bath ready.

 

At the same time, Coculus’s daughters who for years had been charmed by Daedalus’ inventions could not bear to see him taken away, conspired to kill Minos.  When it was time to take his bath, they poured scalding water over him. In his soul this could have been the revenge of Daedalus, he saw the death of a man who led at some point, to the death of his son.

 

Knowing well that his disguise had been seen through Daedalus decided to leave Comicus, much to the disappointment of the King and his daughters. He was seen in Sardinia in the company of Iolaus who was the nephew of Hercules.  Since then, no one knows what happened to this great engineer, what places he lived in, and what miracles bore his mind.

 

Today Daedalus represents for us a brilliant person, who has been cursed to suffer because of his special talents. The peak of his misfortune was the remembrance of the tragic death of his son.

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ICARUS AND DAEDALUS

    

                      

Man has forever pushed himself to the limits trying to achieve the impossible.  Inventions are perhaps man’s way to escape from the mundane and alter his life.

 

Such an effort is the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, a brilliant story of how necessity facilitated the invention of something that was never meant for man and how it led to his downfall.  Myth though it may be, the story of Daedalus and Icarus shows that the power of man has no limits, but also that we should be very careful how to use this power.

 

The intelligence of Daedalus was known far and wide. He was accredited the finest artificer ever with a sharp and clever mind.  Daedalus was living in Athens and he had a young apprentice, his nephew Talus.  Talus was an extraordinarily talented boy and had begun showing traces of being a craftsman far surpassing his uncle’s skills.  Daedalus was very envious of his nephew’s proficiency.  One day, while on a visit to the Acropolis, Daedalus ho pushed him off the edge.  Some say that the boy that Daedalus had pushed was not Talus, but his sister’s son Perdix, who was an apprentice to him. 

 

To stop Perdix from being killed goddess Athena transformed him into a bird that flew away to safety.  Legend has it that the bird has since been known as partridge and because of its tragic past avoids high places and nestles in hedges.  Whoever was the victim the artificer was brought to trial by Areios Pagos and charged with murder. His punishment was to get banished from Athens to the island of Crete.

 

Crete was then ruled by King Minos and in his palace of Knossos, Daedalus found work as an architect. Years passed and he fell in love with Nauseate, the mistress slave of the King, and married her.  They were blessed with a child called Icarus. 

Life went on without incidents until one day Minos asked Daedalus to design and construct an enclosure for Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull.  This monster was the son of Pasiphae, Minos’s wife but not the king.  Years had passed since his ascension to the throne of Crete, there had been much squabbling between king Minos and his brothers.  Minos had prayed for a sign from Poseidon to assist his claim to the throne.  Poseidon impressed with Minos’s devotion had sent him a white bull as an omen that he should be the supreme ruler.  Overjoyed Minos vowed that he would sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but consumed by avarice, he kept the bull for himself.

For this reason, he asked Daedalus to build a labyrinth for the beast, a structure with many twists and turns that even Daedalus found it difficult to find his way out.  The Minotaur was kept at the center of the labyrinth and was fed with young people much to the horror of Minos’s enemies and subjects.

 

(To be continued....)

 

        

 

      

     

JANNIS KOUNELIS

           

 

Jannis Kounelis is a   universally acclaimed Greek artist.   Below is a brief glance at his life and artistic career.

 

Jiannis was born in 1936 in Castella and he moved in his twenties to Rome, newly married to his first wife Effie.  He still lives in the Italian capital and there is where he chose to begin his long journey in art.

 

A pioneer in the “arte povera” artistic movement that emerged strongly in Italy in the turbulent 1960s.  Kounelis now ranks among the greatest artists in Europe and his work has been shown in major galleries and in some of the world's greatest museums.

 

Jannis Kounelis was born the year Ioannis Metaxas came to power. He was 10-years- old at the end of the 2^nd World War and it was not long before he felt the weight of the Greek civil war.  “ The most brutal war one can experience”, he said.  “Civil war is the end of civilization,” he added.  He spent his childhood and adolescence in the shadow of this war.  With an unformed sense of the destruction going on around him in a legacy of his birthplace that influenced the way he saw the world and later shaped his art.     

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