Kourkouto With Zucchini (κουρκούτo με κολοκυθάκια)

Despite being a ten hour plane ride away from Greece, technology and media has brought the world (and myself) closer to our respective homelands.

I measure the pulse of Greek food through the internet, Greek magazines, word of mouth, frequent visits to Greece and through the miracle of satellite TV.

Today, I caught a morning Greek show and I was fortunate enough to catch the cooking segment, hosted by Chef Dina Nikolaou.

Today she featured a dish that I suppose one could call a "cheater's pita" as there's no phyllo involved yet the ingredients and flavour would mimic one.

In reality, this is somewhere between a quiche and a frittata, utilizing Greek ingredients to offer up a flavourful, light main course for lunch. Serve this with a side salad and consider lunch served.

The dish's title contains the word Kourkouto (from Kourkouti), which means a "batter" and a major component of the dish is flour. This dish is easy, it's Greek, you won't freak out about how to handle phyllo and it's wonderful hot or cold.

In the ingredient's list, the two cheeses used are Feta and Kasseri.
The name Kasseri is also a protected designation name (PDO) and it's a mild, sheep's or goat's milk cheddar. Many Greek markets and delis carry Kasseri. If you can't find it, a mild cheddar would do just fine here.

Kourkouto With Zucchini (κουρκούτo με κολοκυθάκια)

5 large eggs
1 cup of strained Greek yogurt
1 cup of self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup olive oil
3 bunches of scallions, finely chopped 3 zucchinis, diced
1 cup Feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup Kasseri, grated
1 cup of chopped fresh dill
ground pepper to taste
sweet paprika to taste (and for garnish) slices of zucchini rounds (for finishing)
a 15" X 10" baking tray, greased with vegetable oil

Pre-heated 350F oven

1. Into a large skillet, add your olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add your chopped onions and diced zucchini (with some salt) and saute over medium heat for about 20 minutes to soften and have most of the water content evaporate (should reduce to about half). Take off the heat and reserve.
2. In a large bowl, whisk your eggs for a couple of minutes until mixed well and then add your flour and baking powder and mix in. Add your yogurt and stir in to mix.
   
3. Now add your grated cheeses and sauteed vegetables and mix to incorporate. Add some ground black pepper and sweet paprika. Have a taste and adjust seasoning (probably will not need any salt).
4. Stir in the the chopped fresh dill and pour the mixture into your greased baking dish.
5. Top with round slices of zucchini and sprinkle some sweet paprika over the entire mixture.
6. Place on the middle rack of your pre-heated oven and baked for approx. 1 hour.
   
7. Allow to rest for about 15 minutes and then cut up into slices.
8. Serve warm or room temperature with a side salad.
   

Rocket (Arugula) Pesto

At the pub where I imbibe my many alcoholic beverages of choice, sits a CD jukebox with an eclectic array of tunes.

One of the CD's in there is by William Shatner...yes, Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame. The dude also dabbled in some "music". I'm not sure if his musical tangent was sarcastic or serious - you decide.

Here, he sings or rather...narrates the lyrics to Elton John's Rocket Man. This version is bad that it's good! Little bored with the same song mix in your CD changer? Need to shake up the tunes at your next party? Throw in some Bill Shatner tunes. You might not fill the dance floor but the you'll stir up some good conversation and a gaffaw or five.

So, it's here that I tie Rocket Man, Bill Shatner and my dish du jour...Spaghetti with a Rocket Pesto.

Elly of Elly Says OPA! is the hostess of Eat to the Beat where food bloggers post a food or beverage related to a song.

If you're interested in contributing, you still have until June 30th to create a dish and submit a tune.

Arugula is pesto and pesto is arugula. I planted some rocket this year in my garden and it was looking full, lush and green but it's starting to grow long, look a little weedy and I figure, save (eat) what I can of the rocket before it goes into the composter.

So, without further ado, here's the Rocket Pesto recipe.

Rocket (Arugula) Pesto
(for 4)

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 cups of fresh rocket
1 cup of fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp. of chopped walnuts
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. black pepper
splash of good balsamic vinegar
500gr. package of dry spaghetti
salt

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil and then add a good amount of salt. Add your pasta and cook according to package's instructions.
2. Wash and pat-dry your rocket and basil leaves. Add the greens into your food processor along with the garlic, balsamic vinegar, grated cheese and half of your walnuts.
3. Pulse until the mixture is blended and then run your processor at a high speed. Now gradually add your stream of olive oil into the pesto mixture.
4. Adjust seasoning and consistency of pesto (more oil, cheese or any other ingredient lacking). Add the remaining walnuts, pulse a few more times.
5. Empty the pesto into a tub and reserve for upto 1 week in your fridge.
6. When your spaghetti is cooked, drain and add your your pesto while tossing to coat. Add some grated cheese and fresh ground pepper and serve immediately.

A Salad That Makes You Go...WHOA!!!!!!

A common theme that seems to repeat itself over the past few days is the demise of Tastespotting and many of you have already lamented of the void it left when it shut down.

In a healthy, free-enterprise and spirited punch of creativity, many of you have offered up to replace, emulate or substitute a site like Tastespotting, where we will be able to lick the screens of our computer screens again.

Dhanngit of Dhanngit's Kitchen contacted me this morning and invited me to join her new site called Recipe Muncher. I've joined the collective and I must say that enrolling was easy and painless.

I know there will be some other entitities that will pop-up in wake of the Tastespotting demise but for now, I've chosen Recipe Muncher, why don't you?

Isn't it also fitting that a salad like this would even make Granny wet and make Gramps dump all his Viagra?

Look at this beauty! In the Pantheon of foodporn, this salad dilates the eyes and if that weren't enough, it's mighty F-ing fantastic.

This salad is the work of Jose Andres and I recently caught one of his episodes in Made in Spain.

Unfortunately for most of us, Jose's site is stingy with dishing out recipes but after Googling the recipe, I smirked, smiled and then grinned as I found the recipe, as created by Amy and Jonny of We Are Never Full.

I made a few departures from the original salad but relax...I stayed true to the salad's approach: I left the apple peel on, added a squirt of Dijon to emulsify my dressing and garnished with some Chive flowers.

Once again, the star of this dish is the Spanish blue cheese called Cabrales. If you can't find it where you live, any other quality bleu should do.

Here, I've presented the salad in a one plate serving for two. Got a date coming up? Wanna WOW your S.O? Feeling a little frisky?

Break out a bottle of crisp Moscato wine, share this salad and see if you can finish the evening without licking each other in the process.

Salad of Green Apple and Cabrales
(for 2)

1 large Green apple
Approx. 2 oz. of Cabrales (or other) blue cheese
3 hazelnuts
3 Tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
a dash of Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. of good cider or red wine vinegar
chopped fresh chives
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Rinse and then core your apple. Now using a mandoline, thinly slice your apple (from top to bottom) and if making ahead of time, squirt some lemon juice to slow down the browning of the apple.
2. Arrange your apple slices on a plate, overlapping each other and crumble your Cabrales cheese over the apples.
3. In a small jar, add your vinegar, olive oil and Dijon with a pinch of salt and pepper. Shake well to emulsify and spoon over your salad.
4. Now using your microplane, grate the 3 hazlenuts over the entire salad. This is your "hazlel nut" salt and in my opinion...this simple little attention to detail is brilliant.
5. Finish the salad with a topping of fresh snipped chives.
6. Uncork a crisp, chilled bottle of Moscato and share the plate of salad.
   

Preserving Grape Vine Leaves

First off, allow me to wish all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day and may you never EVER again receive the gift of an ugly neck tie!

Next, a little follow up. Some people have been wondering about Petimezi, which I used in a glaze for my grilled quail.

Petimezi is made from the Must of grapes, during the harvest period. It can be found in a jar in better Greek markets, it's known as Saba with the Italians and one can often find or ask for "grape syrup" at a middle eastern market. All are one and the same.

Many of you read my blog as you love and enjoy Greek food. You also know that Greeks cook alot using grape vine leaves.

Many of us will go to a market and easily purchase a jar of these tender leaves which are packed in a brined solution. Some are fortunate enough to be able to have a local source of fresh grape vine leaves, which are used to make a Greek fave, Dolmades

There are two paths one can take to preserving fresh grape vine leaves: one is to freeze them and the other is to jar your own. For those that prefer to freeze them, Lulu at Mama's Taverna has a wonderful, easy method to which you can follow.

My "mama" likes to jar her own. It's been years since we've jarred our own grape vine leaves, due in large part to fear of harvesting grape vine leaves that might have been sprayed with pesticides.

One of the few positive initiatives of Mayor David Miller has been to ban the use of pesticides in the city. Rejoice...fresh grape vine leaves are back!

I've featured Dolmades on my blog and you can have a peek here or if that won't convince you, take a look at my friends' who loved my mom's recipe...it's a keeper.

Pixie's Dolmades

White On Rice Couple's Dolmades

Closest Cooking Kevin's Dolmades

Jenn, the Leftover Queen's Dolmades

Now let's jar our own fresh grape vine leaves.

The best time to pick these leaves are in the Spring. You want to pick large leaves (easier to roll dolmades) and the leaves will still be tender.

If you're having a peek at the recipe, you'll see what appears to be a large amount of grape leaves but no worries. For anyone that's bought jarred grape leaves from the store, you'll know that there's always some ripped and torn leaves in the jar. The home made ones are no different, there's some wastage.

Jarring Fresh Grape Vine Leaves

6 medium Sterilized Mason jars
approx 360 fresh grape vine leaves, stems snipped
1 cup pickling salt
12 cups of water
1 egg

1. Wash and pat dry your grape vine leaves and then divide them into piles of 20. Roll each pile like a cigar or multi-leaved dolma and place three rolls into each jar.
2. In a large pot, add your water and pickling salt and bring to a boil. In order to test if your brine solution is salty enough, carefully drop an egg into the brine. If the egg floats, then your brine ratio is suffice.
3. Take your brine off the heat and carefully pour the solution into each jar, enough to cover your grape vine leaves. When you're done filling up all the jars, pour more brine into any jars that have absorbed the liquid.
4. By this time, you will have noticed that the brine has changed the colour of your leaves from a vibrant green to olive hue. It's perfectly normal.
5. Using a tea towel, place the lids on each of the jars and tighten. A seal should form for each jar.
6. Store in your cellar for up to one year.