Tips-cooking
Karydaki, which means small (or young) walnut, is one of the best Greek traditional spoon sweets. The spoon sweet is made with baby green walnuts in Spring, when the outer shell has not become hard. The procedure for making it is a bit labour intensive but it is worth while. Use the tenderest ones [...]
Continue reading about Glyko Karydaki – Fresh Walnuts Preserved in Syrup
When preparing spoon sweets we must be sure that the syrup is just right neither too watery nor too thick. Usually if they are not thick enough if they are left outside the refrigerator they will get mildew and if they are too thick the sugar will crystallize. In any case there is no need [...]
Traditional, homemade, spoons sweets are slowly disappearing. Working housewives have so little time to spare that they can’t devote to such time consuming work and prefer to buy them from supermarkets. As a result, traditional recipes are gradually being forgotten and whatever spoon sweets are made and consumed are all too often no more than [...]
Vine leaves or grape leaves are the leaves from the grapes used for making wine or the grapes we eat. The best period to get the vine leaves is when they first appear, during April – May, when they are fresh and tender and before they are sprayed with pesticide. Leaves are quite light in [...]
Continue reading about How to.. preserve and store vine leaves
Ravioles is a Cypriot pasta dish, similar to ravioli, having its roots probably from the Venetian times. In Cyprus this pasta dish is filled with aged halloumi and the pasta is cooked in chicken broth. A few days ago my son came back from Crete and some friends from Crete, Sophia and her family, from [...]
Continue reading about Ravioles or Raviolia (Cheese Ravioli, as made in Cyprus)
If we buy a whole chicken from the butcher we have to wash and clean it. We remove any visible feather roots and any remaining which cannot be removed we burn them off. Take a piece of cotton and wet it with a one tablespoon of spirit. Light it in the sink and pass chicken [...]
There’s nothing like homemade mashed potatoes, the ultimate comfort food. Preparing mashed potatoes is so simple to make and cannot be compared with the dehydrated stuff you get in supermarkets. Mashed potatoes are made by pressing freshly boiled potatoes. Baking or starchy potatoes are recommended for mashed potatoes as they are high in starch with [...]
Continue reading about How to Make Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes from scratch
A Roux (pronounced rou) is a combination of flour and fat, butter or oil which are bound together to thicken sauces, gravies and stews. Preparation time: about 15 minutes or more if you want it dark Ingredients: 60 – 70 grams butter 80 grams flour Heat butter in a sauce pan and add flour and [...]
When preserving fruit or vegetables it is best to store them in glass jars. We get lots of products sold in jars, so if you like preserving fruit or vegetables you can recycle them by using them. Before doing so, you must make sure to sterlilize the jars, so as to destroy any bacteria which [...]
Continue reading about How to sterilize jars for preserving fruits and vegetables
If you are using fresh vine leaves wash and then put them in a sauce pan with plenty of water and boil for 5 minutes. If you are using frozen ones, follow the same procedure without defrosting them and then remove cling film. Cool them in cold water and strain them. Place one of [...]
