INTERESTING DISHES

                                               KATAIFI CHEESE PIE

1 packet kataifi pastry, fluffed out#

Butter

 

Filling:

500 g (1 lb) anthotyro, crumbled

250 g (½ lb) feta, crumbled

1 cup of various kinds of cheese, grated

Freshly ground white pepper to taste

 

4 eggs

1 cup milk

 

Butter a large Pyrex dish and place ½ of the kataifi.  Spoon the filling evenly over and cover with the remaining kataifi.  Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F), beat the eggs with the milk and pour evenly over, dot with butter, and bake for 40 minutes.  Wait for 10 minutes before serving with a green salad.

 

 

                                              LENTILS WITH SAUSAGES

½ kg lentils boiled in salted water with a garlic clove and a bay leaf until tender and drained

½ cup olive oil

Balsamic vinegar to taste

1 onion, peeled

1 leek, trimmed

1 carrot, scraped

500 ml (2 cups) tasty stock

2 sausages, sautéed in olive oil and sliced

Salt, pepper, coriander, paprika

Sauté the onion, leek, and carrot in olive oil until the onion becomes translucent.  Pour in the stock and simmer gently until the mixture turns into a thick sauce Pour over the sliced sausages and serve mixed with the lentils.

 

 

                    TOMATO CONSOMME WITH SMOKED RICOTTA TORTELLINI

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled

750 ml (3 cups) tasty stock

3 ½ cups plum tomatoes, peeled, deseeded, and pureed including the juice

1 ½ tsp of sugar or more, according to the acidity of the tomatoes

1 sprig of fresh thyme

3 tbsp basil, thinly sliced

200 g of egg whites

2 tbsp tomato puree

 

For the ravioli:

2 A4 sheets of fresh pasta

6 green asparagus, trimmed

1 cup of applewood chips

1 cup of ricotta

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp mixed herbs (finely chopped rosemary, sage, and thyme)

1 bunch of rocket

½ tsp grated nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

 

Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil until the onion becomes translucid add the thyme and the tomatoes and stir until it releases some juices.  Then add the sugar, thyme, basil and stock and simmer gently for 25 minutes, then cool and refrigerate. 

 

Once it has become cold, take the egg whites and mix them with the tomato paste and salt then place in the tomato soup, the egg whites and some ice cubes in a large saucepan and let it cook very gently. After 45 minutes you will see scum on top of the soup (these are the impurities and the egg whites) so at that precise moment remove from the fire, let it cool down and pass it through a fine strainer.

 

For the ravioli:

Smoke the ricotta with some woodchips and herbs, then sauté the asparagus in butter remove from the heat and cool down.

 

Once the asparagus are chilled mix with the smoked ricotta and add nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste and grated Parmesan then stuff the pasta and give it ravioli shapes.

 

Bring water to the boil in a saucepan add some salt and cook the ravioli for 6 minutes, while in another saucepan bring the tomato consommé to the boil.

 

Serve the soup in plates and the ravioli and some roquet salad for decoration.  

                                                     MIKIS THEODORAKIS

Born in Chios on July 29^th 1925 and died on the 2^nd September2021 in his house in Athens.  He was a famous Greek composer and lyricist with over 1000 works.

 

He composed music for the films : Zorba the Greek in 1969 and Serpico in 1973, the Mauthausen Trilogy also known as the as The Ballad of Mauthausen which was described as the most beautiful music work ever composed about the Holocaust, and possibly his best work. 

 

During the Greek occupation in Greece he fought against the Germans and was considered dangerous and a persona non grata so he was obliged to go into hiding from 1943 - 1950. But he somehow managed to attend the Athens conservatoire under Filoktitis Economidis.

 

After the occupation he finished his musical studies and took his exams with flying colours.  He went to Crete and became the head of the Chania Music School and founded his first Orchesta.

 

In 1953 Theodorakis married Myrto Altinoglou.  The following year they travelled to Paris where he entered the conservatoire and studied musical analysis under Olivier Messiahs and conducting under Eugene Bigot. 

 

His symphonic works a Piano Concert, his first suite, his first symphony and scores of ballets as The Greek Carnival, Le Feu au Poudre, Les Amants de Taruel received international acclaim. In 1957 he won the Gold Medal at the Moscow Music Festival.  In 1959 after the successful performances of Theodorakis Antigone at Convert Country in London the French   composer Darius Mulhouse proposed him for the American Copley Music Prize as the Best European Composer of the Year.  His first international scores for the film Met by Moonlight and Honeymoon were very successful.  The song of the latter became part of the repertoire of the Beatles.

 

In 1960, Theodorakis and his family returned to Greece and to Greek music.  With his song circle Epitaphios he started a new part of his composing and contributing to the culture revolution in Greece.  His most significant and influential works are based on Greek and world poetry.  Epiphania by Giorgos Seferis, Little Cyclades by Odysseas Elytis, Axion Esti by Elytis, Mauthausen by Iakovos Kampanellis, Romiosini by Yiannis Ritsos and Romancers Gaetani by Federico Garcia Lorka.       

       

Politically he had left tendencies and was affiliated with the Greek Communist Party, KKE. Nevertheless in 1969 he was an independent candidate within the right-centre Nea Democratia Party in order for Greece to emerge from the political crisis that had been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas Papandreou and helped establish coalition between conservatives, socialists and leftists.  He became a minister under Constantine Mitsotakis and fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better relations with Turkey.  He spoke out clearly in favour of Greek-Turkish and Cypriot relations and against war in Iraq.  He was a key voice against the 1967-1974 Greek junta, which imprisoned him and banned his songs.

 

He was a famous composer and an intelligent and kind man, and he shall be greatly missed besides his family and friends by all Greeks.  We are all in deep mourning and the flags will fly half-mast for three days.                

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