KEFTEDES: MEAT BALLS

One of the most popular Greek appetizers served as part of a meze platter, or as main meal.

Keftedes are seasoned meatballs, crispy, juicy and absolutely delicious!

Fried meatballs with pork, beef or mix pork and beef or lamb or chicken. A traditional Greek meal you cannot stop eating. Eat them hot, warm or cold no matter just delicious.

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COOK WARE AND BAKE WARE

 

THE  G A S T R A: In Ancient Greece “gastra” was a food preparation concave utensil.

When cooking food in the United States and many other countries, people use the resources that are available to their market.

That means they use their stovetops, ovens, and occasionally the gas or charcoal grills that they may have outside.

In Greece there are plenty of modern kitchens of course that are equipped in the same way as these kitchens, but that’s not the only way Greek people cook.

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The celebratory foods made at Christmas in Greece are Kourabiethes, Melomakarona and the Christmas bread
(Christopsomo)

In all Greek religious holidays, there are special foods, cookies and sweets that are made just for those occasions 

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It comprises a whole philosophy of life and represents the lifestyle of the Cretan people. The unique Cretan Diet is a healthy and tasty diet with centuries-old recipes and modern creative versions, which are always cooked, of course, with the same top quality pure products of the blessed Cretan earth. This diet is not just a variety of dishes presented on the table; it embodies a whole philosophy of life, the quality way of life of the Cretan people. The lucky ones that will visit the modern restaurants in the cities or the small taverns and cafes in the country will have wonderful experiences, participating in the life of the local people.

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In many ways, organic farming in Greece is simply common sense. Many farms are tended with the same careful, sustainable attention that they have been for centuries. Farming practices are handed down through the generations, and those who stick with these practices produce foods that are bursting with flavor. In many ways, this practice is the cornerstone of authentic Greek cuisine. Here’s more information as to how organic farming is important to Greek cooking:

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One of the authentic cultural elements of a region is gastronomy. The distinctiveness of the “kitchen taste” (gustation) is many times associated with the quality characteristics of its society, while “revealing” information concerning its cultural and economical history.

At the same time, gustation seems to be a way of communicating. A way for someone to “talk” to the heart of someone else.

Greek gastronomy has recorded a history of around 4,000 years, with especial characteristics based on pure and unique quality goods produced on Greek land. In fact, it was Archestratos who wrote the first cookbook in history (330 B.C.).

In Greek nutritional tradition the gustative result blends harmonically with the high nutritional value. Dozens of scientific studies have shown the positive effect of a balanced Greek diet on a person’s health, beauty and longevity. In addition, the nutritional culture of the Greeks has traditionally added an extraverted social dimension to the table, combining gustative satisfaction with recreation and communication, and thus maintaining even today some overtones from ancient feasts.

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Gastronomy is, of course, a Greek word. Ironically, the history of the cuisine evinces a decided lack of gastronomical Greek dishes, save for the periods of antiquity, the Byzantine era, and from the last years of the 20th centure, when Greek cuisine and Greek gastronomyexperienced a radical transformation. 

Until very recently, Greek cuisine was home-based. Restaurants fell into several categories: grill houses, fish and seafood places, certain specialty eateries (tripe houses, soup places, souvlaki joints, etc.) and the ever-popular family-run neighborhood taverna, where traditional Greek cuisine was and is the mainstay. In the late 1980s and 1990s, a generation of young, urban Greeks returned from study and life abroad, where they had acquired a more international and sophisticated palate, which translated into demand for cosmopolitan cuisine. In those early decades, a new generation of chefs also emerged who saw their profession as a career and not a choice of last resort; the open market of the EU brought a deluge of new food products to the Greek supermarket, inspiring chefs to experiment. In the 1990s, contemporary Greek cuisine was characterized by an “anything-goes” spirit. Fusion –and much confusion– was the word of the day in Greek gastronomy.
http://www.newwinesofgreece.com/

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Marinated bulbs - a modern version of an ancient aphrodisiac?.  © Jim Stanfield

There were many foods and beverages consumed in ancient Greece that we might not be anxious to try today, like cheese and garlic added to wine, but no more unusual than at least one of the foods that were considered to be aphrodisiacs. When we think of bulbs, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn't "aphrodisiac;" yet, they were highly prized for their reputed positive effect on the libido.

An aphrodisiac is defined as something (like a drug or food) that arouses or intensifies sexual desire. The name is derived from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

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No other part of Greece combines stupendous mountain scenery and scenic hikes with deserted, pristine beaches and an incredible wealth of ancient sites like the Peloponnese. After all, this is where gods and heroes were said to walk the earth and the world’s greatest sporting event was born.

Add to that terrific winery-hopping, boutique accommodation in historic stone towers and the unfailing hospitality of the locals, and you have the recipe for a memorable road trip.

View over Nafplio from Palamidi Fortress. Image by Pavel69 / CC BY 2.0

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By George - Before the turkey, poultry was imported in Greece. Each region of Greece had its own food for Christmas time. Some dishes with pork, and others with duck, goose, wild boar, or rooster. In the Cretan Christmas table, pork was mainly used and this was due to the Choirosfagia (sacrificial pork). The butchering of faltered pig, brought up with particular care from households of Cretan and Greek rural areas, was certainly the most generalized custom in Greek cooking, with roots from the antiquity.

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A Cretan enjoys authentic tastes.
Fresh greens are a way of life.
Uncooked fresh vegetables, olives, Cretan Rusk and uncooked greens are eating with a large amount of olive oil.
The favorite appetizer. Bread and olives
The favorite snack. A Cretan Rusk is drizzled with olive oil, and then covered in finely chopped tomatoes with a sprinkling of salt and oregano on the top.
Until recently Cretan Diet was simple and wholesome.
Natural products like olive oil, olives, fresh fruits & vegetables, bread, pulses, honey, cheese, a little meat and a little more fish.

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Article by George Portokalakis

Olive tree is identified with Greek civilization and history.

A gift to Athenians from Goddess Athena, olive tree, was and remains a symbol of peace and life, and commonly regarded as ‘holy’ among ancient Greeks.

It is also suspected according to archaeological findings (sculptures, statuses and artworks) dated at the Minoan era of Crete, a pre-Greek civilization age, that the mythical Snake Goddess gave the olive tree as a present to Minoans the moment of her birth at the shores of river Triton on Crete island «Μυθολογούσι δε και την Αθηνάν κατά την Κρήτη εκ Διός εν ταις πηγαίς του Τρίτωνος ποταμού γεννηθήναι…» (Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης, 5,72).

Olive oil and olives, fed for thousands of years Greeks, and keep providing us with their priceless produce.

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The instigator and creator was the famous American professor Ancel Keys, the Mr. Cholesterol in the way Americans called him as he was the first to connect “nutrition-heart” and started the research in the late 1940s and specifically in 1947.

In the research he included Greece after the initiative and the inducement of the Greek professor Mr Aravanis in 1954 when it was agreed to include Greece as it had some special nutritional characteristics.

In the research it was also included Italy, Holland, the Former Yugoslavia and now Serbia, Finland and Japan.

For Greece Crete and Corfu were chosen.

In Crete it was chosen a group of 620 residents in the rural area of Kastelli Pediados 50km away from Heraklion where their nutrition followed a typical diet of rural people with a big consumption of oil together with hard agricultural work that is body exercise on a daily basis and a year later a second group of other 620 residents in Corfu in a similar region 45km away from the Corfu city with almost the same diet habits.

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One of the authentic cultural elements of a region is gastronomy. The distinctiveness of the “kitchen taste” (gustation) is many times associated with the quality characteristics of its society, while “revealing” information concerning its cultural and economical history.

At the same time, gustation seems to be a way of communicating. A way for someone to “talk” to the heart of someone else.

Greek gastronomy has recorded a history of around 4,000 years, with especial characteristics based on pure and unique quality goods produced on Greek land. In fact, it was Archestratos who wrote the first cookbook in history (330 B.C.).

In Greek nutritional tradition the gustative result blends harmonically with the high nutritional value. Dozens of scientific studies have shown the positive effect of a balanced Greek diet on a person’s health, beauty and longevity. In addition, the nutritional culture of the Greeks has traditionally added an extraverted social dimension to the table, combining gustative satisfaction with recreation and communication, and thus maintaining even today some overtones from ancient feasts.

Continue reading