It is summer vacation for my kids. For me that means a couple extra hours to cook at home since I am not dealing with the commute to take my son to school. Since we are not going away this summer we have deciding to take a culinary trip to Europe at home. Every few days we will be discovering the cuisine of the different countries in Europe. The kids will be helping out in the kitchen and also learning a little bit about the cuisines bite by bite.
The last four days we have been in Greece. I researched recipes on the great Greek culinary site Kalofagas (everything I have ever made from this site has been wonderful) and a couple Greek cookbooks. Everyone thought each meal was wonderful.
The first night we had Roasted Leg of Lamb with Rosemary potatoes. I also made a Tzatziki sauce and a great salad with tomatoes and capers.
The marinade for the lamb was easy. 2 cups red wine, 6 cloves garlic chopped, 2 tablespoons rosemary, 1 tablespoon oregano, 1/2 cup olive oil, juice on 1 lemon, salt and pepper.
The next night we made the classic greek comfort food Pastitsio.
It is like a lasagna made with Bucatini. This was a big hit and was requested to be made again.
The next night we made to savory pies, dill and chicken and spinach both were encased in filo. The were very good especially the chicken pie that had lots of green onion, dill and garlic. I did not get a picture of them.
For our last Greek meal we enjoyed some wodrful souvlaki made of pork and a greek eggplant and pepper recipe that I got from Kalofagas.
The pork was marinated in grated onion, garlic, dill, oregano and lemon juice. The great thing about the souvlaki is that it is cooked over slowly cooked over low heat and basted. The slow grilling makes it a very enjoyable grilling experience especially with a glass of Rose'.
The souvlaki was served with minted rice pilaf.
This dish was incredible. I got the recipe from at Kalofagas it is called Mantza. It is a spicy side dish of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and feta.
Our next stop is Italy!