Chicken soup

 

6 chicken thighs or 10 chicken legs

1 cup italian rice

1 tablespoon chicken base

salt

4 stalks celery

2 eggs

1 lemon

1. In a large pot, boil chicken with chopped celery. Add salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon).
2. After 30 minutes of boiling chicken, remove pot from heat. Remove chicken pieces, debone and skin. Add the shredded chicken back into the pot. 
3. Five minutes after the chicken starts to boil again, add the rice. Let the rice expand (about 10 minutes). Remove form heat.
4. Add 1/2 the lemon to the soup and stir.
5. After about 10 minutes off the heat, stir in the 2 eggs, juice of the other half lemon and cold water mixture (1 cup). Stir quickly so as not to cook the egg. 

Fasolada (bean soup)

3 cans of kidney/white beans
3-4 onions, chopped
6 carrots, peeled and chopped
6 celery stocks, chopped
Handful of fresh parsley
1 tablespoon oregano

1. Sauté onions in a large pot with some oil.
2. Add the cans of beans with liquid it comes with and a can of water for each can used.
3. Add carrots, celery, parsley and oregano.
4. Although this is a vegetarian meal, I add a tablespoon of chicken base for extra flavour and instead of salt. You can also add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste for more flavour.
5. Boil and then simmer for 1 hour. Serve with crusty bread.

Chicken and rice in the oven

10-20 chicken legs or thighs

3 cups italian rice

1. Put chicken in a pot and add water until chicken is covered. Add salt. Boil chicken for half an hour.
2. Put rice in the pan, and add the chicken and 3 cups of the chicken broth created from boiling the chicken for every cup of rice used. Add some butter and chicken base to the rice as well.
3. Bake at 380 degrees for 45 minutes or until all the water is gone and chicken has some colour.

Roasted chicken

whole chicken

1 lemon

black pepper - garlic salt - steak spice - olive oil

carrots

1. In a roasting pan, put in the fresh chicken legs up.
2. Rub the lemon over chicken.
3. Sprinkle on pepper, garlic salt and steak spice.
4. Finally sprinkle on the olive oil.
5. In the pan put 1/2 cup of water and under the chicken add the peeled carrots and lemon peels.
6. Bake in roasting pan covered at 380F for 2 hours. Baste throughout.
7. Bake for final 15 minutes uncovered to brown the skin. Baste again.

Mushroom and bell pepper sauce

2 cups sliced, clean mushrooms (white or button)

1 grated onion

salt - pepper - oregano - olive oil

1 can whole tomatoes, pureed

3 green bell peppers, 1 cm square pieces

1. Saute onion with oil and add the salt, pepper and oregano.
2. In a separate pan saute mushrooms and add to onion pan.
3. Add the green bell peppers and the tomatoes.
4. Let simmer.
5. Prepare any kind of pasta as per package instructions. Serve with cheese.

Makaronia me kima

1 pkg (450g) elbow pasta
2 lbs ground beef
3 onions, chopped
1 can whole tomatoes, chopped
1 can tomato paste
Salt - pepper - oregano

1. Boil pasta as per package instructions. Drain and return pasta to pot. Top with some oil to prevent sticking.
2. Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes and add the beef. Brown the meat until fully cooked. Drain and return to cooking pot.
3. Start to reheat the beef and add the can of whole tomatoes, chopped. Using a food processor is great for both the onions and tomatoes.
4. Add the tomato paste. You can add 2-3 tablespoons, but I usually add the whole can, since I don't use it that often and the ground beef soaks up the tomatoes pretty quickly. Just a little extra tomato-y tasting.
5. Add salt - pepper - oregano to taste. I don't usually do this step, but it has been suggested so it's worth the mention.
6. Mix meat sauce into pot of cooked pasta and stir.
7. Serve with feta!

Spanakorizo (spinach rice)

1 kilo packaged, fresh spinach (4 cello bags)

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon powder chicken base

1 cup Italian rice

3.5 cups water

1. Rinse spinach, boil for about 5 minutes until wilted. Let strain.
2. In a pot, melt butter and add chicken base, rice, some salt. Let simmer.
3. Add spinach and water. Boil until smooth looking.
4. Serve with Feta cheese and lemon.

Pastitsio

1 package pastitsio pasta noodles (or mararoni elbows)

1.5 lbs lean ground beef

1 onion

parsley

1 can tomatoes

water

olive oil

salt-pepper-oregano

4 eggs

milk

Noodles

1. Add salt and olive oil to water and boil noodles for 7 minutes until al dente.
2. Rinse with cold water. Put pasta in a bowl and add 1/2 cup of milk and 1 egg and mix.
3. Set aside.

Beef

1. Grate an onion and sautee in a pot/pan with some oil until soft.
2. Add beef, salt, pepper, oregano and continue until browned.
3. Add tomatoes and 1 cup of water.
4. Simmer until water is gone (about 15 minutes).

In a rectangular pan put half of the pasta as flat as you can get it, then add the beef mixture and the rest of the pasta on top. Finally add the Bechamel sauce and bake at 500F until top is well browned (about 1/2 hour).

Bechamel sauce

1L milk

8 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 tablespoons butter

3 eggs

1. Melt butter in a non-stick pot/pan and add flour.
2. With a metal whisk, stir non-stop until sauce is smooth and beige in colour.

Gemista (stuffed peppers)

Without a doubt, my favourite Greek food as a child and today! Photo is before baking.

10 bell peppers / larger-sized tomatoes

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 rounded tablespoon of Italian rice for every pepper to stuff

parsley

1 can tomatoes

olive oil - salt - pepper - oregano

1 grated onion

5 potatoes

1. Sautee onion with some oil and add the beef, salt, pepper, parsely.
2. When beef has browned add the tomatoes, 1 cup of water and rice. Let simmer for a few minutes until most of the water is gone.
3. Peppers should be opened at the top, keep the "lids". Clean peppers of seeds and fill.
4. Cut up potatoes and spread throughout the pan. (This step was added on to my Thea Mary's suggestion. It's the way they make it in Greece, but my mom never added potatoes to gemista.)
5. Peppers should be open-side down, unless you want to turn them, mid-baking.
6. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan, sprinkle salt and olive oil over everything just before you bake at 380F until the peppers are burned on top and the outer layer is wilted.
7. Serve with... Feta!

Roasted Peppers

bell peppers

olive oil

salt

Feta cheese

1. Wash peppers.
2. BBQ peppers until burned, rotating until burned on all sides.
3. Leave in a colander to strain.
4. Remove burned skin, seeds and and stems.
5. Put in a dish with olive oil and salt to taste.
6. Serve cold with Feta cheese and crusty bread.

Greek-style oven roasted potatoes

 

5 lbs potatoes of any kind

2 tablespoons chicken base

3 tablespoons oregano

½ teaspoon pepper

½ cup olive oil

1½ lemons

1. Cut potatoes into 8ths and wash thoroughly.
2. Sprinkle on all ingredients and mix together until potatoes are well coated.
3. Bake at 380F for 1.5 hours, flipping at the half hour marks. At the one hour mark, sprinkle water on the potatoes.

Happy and Healthy New Year! -- pictures coming soon