It's Greek to Me!

 

I love Greek food (surprised?). One of the fun things about Utah is the Greek Festival. It happens the first weekend of September every year. I haven't been able to go for about two years now (it's not really a baby friendly venue). The Greek Festival features music, dancing, fun things you can buy, and most of all...food.

I would be hard pressed to find a kind of Greek food that I don't like. Souvlaki, dolmathes, avgolemono soup, gyros, etc. Then, of course, there are the desserts: baklava and galaktoboureko stand out in my mind.

One of the main things that keeps me coming back to the Greek festival (at least food-wise) is the keftedes (also spelled keftethes) a.k.a. meatballs. They are to die for. They are so savory and flavorful and I can't get over the yummy combination of ground beef, garlic, and mint!

I have tried for years to find a recipe that even comes close to the meatballs they serve at the Greek Festival. And finally...I think this recipe comes pretty darn close! I used a recipe I found in a cookbook, but I altered it a little. I am including both versions (the recipe as is and my alterations). I still need to work on the red sauce (it's good, but it's not quite the same as the festival's recipe). You don't need to serve the meatballs with the sauce (they are great on their own), but I wanted it to come as close as possible to the Greek Festival version. I think you'll like it!

The potato side dish is one that my family discovered a couple of years ago when we had our own Greek Theme Night. Don't skimp on the lemon! It is the standout flavor of this dish.

Oh, and I hope I didn't tempt anyone too much, but the picture above features the meatballs, the lemon potatoes, and store-bought spanakopita (which I don't have a recipe for...sorry!). You can find spanakopita in the frozen section (if not at your grocery store, you can find it for sure at Costco or Sam's Club).

Also, though not pictured, I'm throwing in two Greek salad recipes. The first one is a basic Greek salad recipe of my own concoction with a South Beach salad dressing recipe. The second one is one that my dear friend, Krissy, served to me when I visited her on a trip to Florida many, many years ago!

Oh, and one final thing...I'm posting a recipe for Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Soup) that my sister made long before we started our family food blog. That's right...I took it right off of her blog via cut and paste method (so that recipe is in her own words)! Bwa ha ha! Laurie, I hope that's okay with you!

At any rate...Opa!


Grecian Meatballs (recipe as originally printed)

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean, finely ground beef or lamb
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
olive oil, for brushing

Directions:

Put the ground beef or lamb in a bowl. Grate in the onion, then add the garlic, bread crumbs, mint, and parsley. Season well with salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients well, then add the beaten egg and mix to bind the mixture together.

With damp hands, form the mixture into 16 small balls and thread onto 4 flat metal skewers. Lightly oil a broiler pan and brush the meatballs with oil.

Preheat the broiler and cook the meatballs under medium heat for 10 minutes, turning frequently, and brushing with more oil if necessary, until browned.

Source: From the cookbook "Perfect Greek," published by Parragon in 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4054-8858-7

Grecian Meatballs (my version)

Ingredients:

4 lbs. ground beef
1 large onion, cut into quarters
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups Italian bread crumbs
4-6 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 eggs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the ground beef in a bowl. Place the onion, garlic cloves and 2 of the eggs into a blender. Blend until well combined. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the beef. Add the bread crumbs, mint, parsley, salt, and pepper. Beat the remaining eggs and add them to the bowl. Mix the ingredients together well (this works best using a kneading motion with your hands).

Form the mixture into balls (I ended up with 40 medium-sized meatballs). Place onto two jelly roll pans that have been covered with foil.

Cook the meatballs for 45-60 minutes (or until nicely browned and no longer pink in the middle). You can turn the meatballs once during cooking, if desired, but it is not necessary.

Serve with red sauce, if desired.

Notes: The Greek Festival meatballs are fairly bursting with flavor, so I made a few adjustments on the quantities. I also quadrupled the recipe (I have my reasons!). I didn't have any plain bread crumbs and rather than making my own, I simply used packaged Italian bread crumbs. I think this was serendipitous because it just boosted the flavor even more. It didn't make the meatballs taste Italian at all. It just deepened the flavor. Also, I started to grate the onion and I thought it was a pain, so I simply put it into the blender with the garlic. It infused the meatballs with flavor and was a whole lot easier for me! Oh, and meatballs are really freezer friendly. If you want to freeze some or all of the meatballs, place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for a few hours (just until they are set and won't stick together if you place them in a bag). After the meatballs have frozen for a few hours, put them in a zip top freezer bag and label them (contents and date). Then, when you want to cook them, take out as many as you like, place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake from frozen according to the recipe--only add 10-20 minutes to the cooking time. Watch carefully, so they don't get overdone. The red sauce is freeze-able too. Just freeze it separately in a plastic container.

Red Sauce for Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon oregano
1 (8 oz) can tomato puree
1 (4 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (28 oz) can whole, peeled tomatoes

Directions:

In a pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic. Cook, stirring well, until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add oregano and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute. Add tomato puree, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and whole, peeled tomatoes. Break up whole, peeled tomatoes with the back of a spoon or cut up with kitchen sheers.

Simmer on low while meatballs cook (at least 30 minutes).

Source: My own mind.

Greek Lemon Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 lbs potatoes, unpeeled, washed, and cut into bite sized pieces
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lemon, juiced and zest grated (see notes)
4 Tbsp. water
6 cloves garlic, peeled
4 bay leaved
2 rosemary sprigs (see notes)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped (see notes)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pinch sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a 9x13 baking dish with tin foil. Place the cut potatoes into the baking dish.

Drizzle the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water over the potatoes. Place the garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sugar, salt, and pepper on top of the potatoes.

Stir well to coat.

Bake the potatoes for 1-1 1/2 hours or until they are cooked through, tender, and slightly crispy.

Stir every now and then during cooking to coat with the herby oil.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley prior to serving.

Source: Darn it, I found this online at least four years ago and now I can't remember what recipe site I found it on. Sorry!

Notes: I didn't have fresh lemons on hand, so I used a liberal amount of bottled lemon juice (to make up for not having lemon zest). The dish was still yummy, but honestly, lemon is the star flavor of this dish. Don't substitute the fresh lemon for bottled juice! If you really love the flavor of lemon, I would recommend using the juice of two lemons and the zest of one. Also, in addition to peeling the garlic, I halved it as well.

As for the herbs, substituting dried herbs works just fine in this dish. I didn't have fresh rosemary, so I used 1 teaspoon dried and crushed it between my fingers as I sprinkled it over the potatoes. I also didn't have fresh thyme, so I used 1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme.



Basic Greek Salad

Ingredients:

1 large bunch Romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 cucumber (you can either peel, thickly slice, and quarter this, or simply slice it into rounds with the peel on)
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, optional
1/2-1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup pitted, sliced kalamata olives
Whole or sliced banana peppers, optional
Favorite bottled or homemade Greek salad dressing (see notes)

Directions:

Combine and toss all ingredients together in a large bowl.

Note: If you would like to make your own Greek salad dressing, here's a simple recipe found in the South Beach Diet cookbook:

South Beach Greek Salad Dressing:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients together. Makes enough dressing for 1 serving.

Mediterranean Greek Salad

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

3 cucumbers, seeded and sliced
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
3 cups diced Roma tomatoes
1/3 cup diced oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, oil reserved
1/2 red onion, sliced

Directions:

In a large salad bowl, toss together the cucumbers, feta cheese, olives, Roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, 2 tablespoons reserved sun-dried tomato oil, and red onion. Chill until serving.

Source: Allrecipes.com, submitted by Heather Shevlin

Avgolemono Soup

Before:
After: Yum!

Perhaps my favorite thing, second only to making art is making good food. I am constantly trying new recipes and creating some too. This is probably because my mom was always such a great cook, we rarely had the same meal twice (with the exception of some family favorites!) So I have decided to blog once a month about a recipe I have found or created that I think you should all try. This month the recipe is Avegolemono Soup also known as Greek Lemon Soup (Well that is what I call it :) ) I also wanted to use my hand made pottery that I made last summer in my ceramics class. For some reason, its always more fun to eat out of homemade dishes :) So you kind of get a double dose of art and food in this one. Lucky dogs.

This soup is SOOOOO fast easy (seriously 10 minutes) not to mention RIDICULOUSLY Cheap. You probably have all of the ingredients on hand . Plus I really think it would please even the pickiest of eaters. Yum yum yum. If you feel like spending more time in the kitchen serve them with some homemade pitas. I made these pitas a few weeks ago (from Cooking Light mag, one of my very favorite things, you can find the recipe online at myrecipes.com) and they were so delicious. This time I served the soup with a tossed salad and pomegranate tea.

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Soup)

Here is the recipe. I got it from a book Clint gave me, but I have modified it...

Ingredients:

3 pints chicken broth ( 3 16 oz cans)
2 eggs
2 Tbs lemon juice (or more depending on taste, I like things extra lemony)
about a cup of cooked rice or orzo pasta
one cooked chicken breast, shredded
parsley, chopped about 1/4 cup
salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring broth to a boil, reduce to a simmer. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Add a small ladle of the soup to the egg mixture and whisk until well combined, then slowly add this mixture to the pot of the cooking broth. Whisk constantly until texture is smooth and egg is well integrated. Add chicken and rice cook on low for a few minutes, then add some fresh parsley. Yummmmmy!

Happy cooking!

Note: It is important to add a small ladle of soup to the egg mixture before adding the egg mixture directly to the soup. It tempers the egg mixture so that it doesn't cook immediately once it is added to the soup. If you add the egg mixture directly to the soup, it will end up more like Chinese egg noodle soup with string of egg throughout the soup rather than a silky, creamy texture as intended in this recipe.