Halloumi is indigenous to Cyprus and is one of a few cheeses made in Cyprus, so as a Cypriot and a food blogger this is something I wanted to try and make myself.
Traditional
Battered Bakaliaros (salted cod), in Greek “μπακαλιάρος”, is the traditional food we eat in Greece on the 25th of March.
Today is a day we celebrate in Greece by cooking or baking anything with cheese and so it is called Tyrini (tyri = cheese) and as it is always on a Sunday we call it Cheesy Sunday. Just like carnival is celebrated by eating all the meat before lent (carne levare meaning remove all meat) …
Makarounotes Chylopites (or hilopites) are traditional Greek egg and milk pasta. They are either cut long like tagliatelle and fettuccine or in very small pieces of about 1 cm long which are ideal as a side dish or in soups. Makarounotes are the long ones, which take their name after the word “makaroni”, which is a description of the long pasta to distinguish them from the smaller ones.
Cypriot pitta bread are much different to the Greek pitas. They are flatbread like the other pita but are different in shape and in taste.
Diples (pronounced diip-LESS), which means folded, is another traditional Christmas sweet pastry, made in many parts of Greece especially in the Peloponnese. These are the desserts they serve at weddings, christenings, engagements etc. but are also very popular during Christmas.
Vassilopita is a traditional Greek cake or bread with a coin inside, named after St. Basil, which is made for New Year’s Day. Vassilopita is made in two ways. One is a sweet kind of brioche bread called “tsoureki” and the other an orange flavoured cake.
At the beginning of this month I wrote about the tradition of baking Christopsomo (which translates as “Christ’s Bread”) and I baked one so that the readers of my blog could actually see the whole procedure beforehand and bake one on Christmas Eve, if they liked. Today however, is the day we are actually baking …
Galopoula Gemisti, is the Cypriot stuffed roasted turkey which is filled with finely chopped chicken giblets, rice, almonds and raisins.
The word soutzoukakia derives from the Turkish soujouk, which is a dry, spicy, sausage and the Greek suffix -akia, meaning “small”. The fact that it derives from the Turkish word does not mean, of course, that this is Turkish, as in Wikipedia we often see various things named as Turkish, when in fact they …