This is my favourite way to BBQ chicken, the marinade of yogurt performs a small culinary miracle. It tenderises the meat beautifully and helps retain its moisture. The sumac gives it a summer lemon flavour with a nice heat from the pepper flakes. I made my own flat breads based on the way my grandmother use […]
Sweet custard tart
This recipe follows on from my Greek style greens pie. I used George Colombaris (Australian Masterchef judge) sweet pie recipe with some minor adaptations to make it simpler. Making filo pastry was hugely satisfying and well worth the effort, the difference in taste is significant. Fresh Filo Pastry: 400g plain flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 […]
Greek style greens pie
School dinners. I never had them, but my husband did and they sounded pretty revolting. It also goes some way to explain his odd, in my view, desire to smother a perfectly good ingredient with baked beans and cheese. I don’t care for baked beans and they are a banned item in my our kitchen. […]
Anatolian style kid goat loin with aubergine mash
In 1897 a woman called Maria Iordanidou was born in Constantinople, a city so grand the Greeks referred to as The City which is how it later got its name Istanbul which means ‘to the City’. She wrote a book called Loxandra a book about life, customs, the human spirit and food in Asia Minor. […]
East Med potato salad
The obligatory presence of boiled potatoes slathered with mayonnaise or salad cream at BBQs is something I never understood. Mushy, processed and sickly tasting: my association with potato salads. I actually do love potato salads, I grew up with them and had them once a week but just not in an amorphous slop. This is […]
Kid goat meat ravioli
Most weekends my grandmother cooked for her family. Lunch consisted of meat, potatoes, in big long iron trays cooked in an outdoor clay oven that had been heated with dry olive and carob branches. She also made a lot of pasta arranged in two large platters, one with pasta cooked al dente and another with […]
Veal with black eyed peas
My husband found an old cookery book in a second hand shop called Jewish Cooking In America. He gave it to me with a little trepidation as I don’t like receiving cooking books as gifts. It’s a gem of a book tracing Jewish cooking from Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey and Syria. There are so many […]
Greens, wild garlic, feta cheese and eggs
Finally, it’s here the promise of good weather and a new season of food. After a long period of absence (a new-born baby will do that to anyone) I returned to Borough market early enough to be able to browse and stare at all the new season’s vegetables. This recipe is a salute to spring, […]
Wheat salad with lamb
The Oxford Dictionary tells me that a salad is “A cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil, vinegar, or other dressing and sometimes accompanied by meat, fish, or other ingredient” so on that basis my title is incorrect. I say the definition needs to be reviewed because it […]
Turkish Dolma
A few months ago my then 5 month old daughter was dependent on perpetual motion to help her sleep and so I found myself walking a lot. I would walk down Green Lanes in London (Turkish and Cypriot part) and I always discovered something new. One day I came across a Turkish supermarket off the […]
