Souvlaki

We went on a family vacation to Greece a few weeks ago – probably our best vacation ever.  Perfect weather, we went to the beach every day, nobody barfed, and everybody slept well.  Pretty much everything you could ask for in a vacation – those of you who have young children will know what I mean.

We stayed at Bungalows Ingrid (highly recommended) – small bungalows in the middle of an orange grove, inexpensive, clean and well maintained, with a beautiful taverna in the middle.  Ingrid made us simple but fantastic breakfasts every day, which we ate on our patio, or at a picnic table surrounded by orange trees.  The bungalows are between the towns of Assini and Drepano, near Nafplio with its Venetian fortresses, shops, and waterfront cafes, about two hours drive south of Athens on the Peloponnese Peninsula.  The town of Tolo, with a gorgeous sandy beach (most of the beaches in the area, while beautiful, are pebbly), is about a kilometer away.  I cannot recommend this place highly enough – we will be going back.

While we were there, we had some terrific meals at local tavernas – The Meat Market (literally, the meat market) in Drepano, the Mermaid in Vivari (the next town to the east of Drepano), and Casablanca in Tolo, where we got our lunch to take away and eat on the beach every day.  Which brings me to Souvlaki – marinated skewers of grilled chicken or pork.  Since we’ve been home I’ve made it three times.  Try this for your next barbecue – you won’t be disappointed.

But first, a disclaimer – I’m not big on measuring when I cook.  There’s a time and place for measuring, and it’s usually when I’m baking.  Otherwise, I tend to eyeball things.  So I’ll try to provide measures in my recipes, but they’ll probably be a little fuzzy.  It’s be my little way of encouraging you to experiment…

Chicken or Pork Souvlaki

Cut chicken breasts or pork chops into 1-1.5 in. cubes (if you make them bigger, it’s less work to put them on the skewers).  If you do pork, leave a little bit of the fat around the edge – it’ll get crispy and flavourful when you grill it.  Drop the cubes in a zip top plastic bag, and for each pound of meat you’re cooking, add:

• The juice of one lemon or lime – cut it in half and squeeze it straight into the bag
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon or so of oregano, preferably Greek
• A slug of olive oil (2 or 3 tablespoons)
• A few shakes of salt and a few grinds of pepper

Seal the bag, shake it all up, and throw it in the fridge for an hour or two.  I’ve also made this on a weeknight, leaving the meat at room temperature on the counter for half an hour, and it was delicious.

When you’re ready to start cooking, go get your grill started.  Then cut up an onion into 1-1.5 inch squares (peel it, cut it in half, pull out the smaller layers in the middle, cut the outer layers to the right size, then break up the layers).  You can also cut up a green pepper into similar sized pieces if you like.

Thread the cubes of meat onto bamboo skewers (I know, I know, you’re supposed to soak them in water first.  I never do and they work fine), alternating a piece of meat with a slice of onion or green pepper.  When your grill’s ready, put the skewers on, cooking on each side for a couple of minutes – they should take 8-10 minutes in all, depending on how big your cubes are.

For a quick meal, serve with a green salad and some fresh crusty bread.  For a Greek feast, serve with Tzatziki, grilled pita bread, and a Greek Salad.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure you could also just marinate and grill whole chicken breasts or pork chops if you didn’t feel like doing the whole kebab thing.

Tzatziki

Peel a medium sized cucumber (or half a long English cucumber), cut it in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon.  Grate the halves on a box grater, and put the shreds into a colander or mesh sieve.  Squeeze out the extra water (it’ll make your tzatziki watery otherwise).  In a pinch, you could pile the shreds onto the center of a paper towel or dish towel, pull the edges up to make a ball, and squeeze the water out.

Dump the shredded cucumber into a bowl and mix with 1 cup of greek style (generally full fat) or nonfat plain (if you must) yogurt.  Mince one or two cloves of garlic (depending on how strong you like it) and add to the bowl.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice (maybe a teaspon), mix it all up and add salt and pepper to taste.  You can also add a drizzle of olive oil, or just leave it alone.  Serve as a sauce for the meat, and a dip for the pita bread.

This amount of Tzatziki will probably serve 2-3 people (be warned: it’s addictive).

Greek Salad

Peel and seed another cucumber (or the other half of the one you used for the Tzatziki), cut into thick slices, and place in a shallow serving bowl.  Cut a few nice ripe tomatoes into chunks and put on top of the cucumber.  Slice up a green pepper, and half a sweet red onion and put on top of the tomato.  Cut some feta into big chunks, and put on top of the vegetables.  Sprinkle with dried oregano.  Drizzle with plenty of good olive oil and a little bit of red wine vinegar; squeeze half a lemon on top.  Server with a bowl of Kalamata olives.

Borough Market

I’m going to start out with a post about one of my favorite places in London: the Borough Market in Southwark.  Open Thursday to Saturday, the Borough Market is London’s oldest food market – a sort of semi permanent farmers market and food festival.  With sellers offering everything from fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry and game to cheeses, prepared foods of every ethnic stripe, amazing breads and cheeses, even beer and wine.  You can fine any and every ingredient imaginable to make the most fantastic meals, or buy an armload of treats for a picnic on the banks of the nearby Thames.  We go pretty much every Saturday we’re in town.

Standouts include, more or less in the order that we visit them on our (nearly) weekly visits:

• The worlds best cheese toastie (grilled cheese to us Americans), featuring fresh crusty bread, cheese from Neal’s Yard Dairy, and fresh leeks and onions.
• Monmouth Coffee, with a stall in the main market, plus a storefront on the west edge.  Fresh roasted beans to take home, and fresh brewed filter coffee and espresso drinks to enjoy as you shop.
• Lebanese Harissa from the Arabica Food & Spice Company - with walnuts, garlic and chilis, I’ve tried to recreate this one at home, but haven’t succeeded yet.
• Stichelton (unpasteurized Stilton) from Rennet and Press. I have to mention this because it’s my five year old daughter’s favorite.  She’ll sit and eat a whole block.
• Chorizo from the Basque Pig – perfectly spiced and flavorful.
• Bread from the Flour Station.  The ciabbatta’s everything it should be – crusty, airy, delcious.

I could go on and list pretty much every stall in the place.  You’ll just have to go and see for yourself.  It never fails to inspire me to pick up a sackful of the freshest stuff to bring home and cook for dinner.  Get there early on summer Saturday’s, because by mid day it’s packed.  Take the tube to the London Bridge station, and follow the crowds.

An added bonus for your visit: Just off the back side of the market there’s a little pub called the Rake that’s one of London’s best.  It’s tiny, but has a fantastic and ever changing selection of beers from around the world selected by its owners, also the proprieters of the Utobeer beer stall in the market.  They’ve got a little patio that’s perfect for sitting and drinking a pint after a morning at the market.

Welcome

My mom told me she wasn’t turning any more helpless men loose on the world.  I needed to be able to do my own laundry, iron a shirt, sew on a button, and cook.  As a kid, I had to cook at least once a week, and I was encouraged to experiment with whatever I found in the cupboards.  I can’t imagine the sorts of things my family managed to choke down, but it seems to have worked - I learned how to cook.  As another incentive, the policy of the house was that if you cooked, you didn’t have to clean up.  My wife, on the other hand, has implemented a different policy – if you cook, you have to clean up whatever mess you’ve made.  I guess she’s figured I don’t really need to be encouraged to cook anymore.

Now that I’m married and have a couple of small children, cooking has, I’ve realized, turned into my chief hobby.  It doesn’t take me away from my family, and everyone seems to enjoy the results.  I like to experiment with different styles and ethnic cuisines, and I’m often inspired by my travels.  I’ll try post my current favorites along with old stand bys that I come back to regularly.  If you get down a few basics, you’ll never be at a loss for a meal, and you can come up with lots of creative variations.

I’m also a bit of a toy junkie, and the kitchen is a great place to have toys.  We’re living in a flat with a pretty small kitchen at the moment, though, so I’ve had to figure out what I really need and use (most of our kitchen gear is in storage).  Hopefully some of this will be of interest to anyone just starting out, or trying to figure out how to downsize a kitchen to the truly essential items.  I’ve often thought that a book laying out how to get started would be really helpful to a lot of people, so I’ll probably use this forum as a way to bounce ideas around.

Finally, I don’t just like to cook – I like to eat out too.  And since we’re living in London right now, and London is one of the greates cities ever for, well, pretty much everything, but definitely food, I’ll share some of our favorite spots.  Any reviews will be pretty limited – we don’t get out that much anymore, but I definitely have some suggestions.

So, to summarize, this blog will be about food, cooking, and restaurants.  And anything else I feel like writing about.  Enjoy!