I never grew up with meatloaf....

....At least I don't think I did. Others? Maybe.....but us....
We may have grown up on squid and octopus and halloumi with watermelon...but not meatloaf.

The first time I remember eating meatloaf was at my sister-in-law's house in Cyprus, but there it was wrapped in caul fat and enclosed a layer of hard boiled eggs.

Now, if you know me well, you will know I don't do eggs.

Not fried.
Not boiled.
Not scrambled.

No way, uh uh, never!

We can attribute this loathing to Mama Kouzari who fearing her little girl would be missing some kind of valuable vitamins and minerals that only eggs have, would try and feed me with it, only for me to spit it out.
I would probably have the same reaction now.
Unless of course they're heavily disguised in a chocolate cake or something.......
She even mixed it up with my weetabix, trying to disguise the taste...

Mom, did you really do that?

The best meatloaf I've ever had was a recipe that my Australian friend Coby supplied me with.
It's great hot, served with mash or rice or whichever carb you prefer, but try it cold the next day in thick slices sandwiched between thick white bread.

To die for.

Here's the recipe, which Coby kindly agreed to let me share:

Coby's Meatloaf.


In Coby's words "The sauce is interesting and really delicious in this. I don't like coffee, but I like this sauce inspite of it. There's always a long list of ingredients in meatloaf, but it's super easy to just scrunch it all together".

I would have to agree Coby, but say that I love the sauce because of the coffee. :))
Just the very idea that it's there, makes it all a bit more adventurous and gets people intruiged and wanting to try it. Even though the finished sauce doesn't actually taste of coffee.....

For the meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into squares.
Half a cup of milk
500g beef mince
500g sausage or pork mince (sausage is the tradition)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
Quarter cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 grated carrot
1 grated turnip (I sub another carrot or a parsnip if I don't have turnip at home)

For the sauce:
Half a cup water
Half a cup of tomato sauce (Ketchup)
Half a cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
1 teaspoon instant coffee
30g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
Quarter cup brown sugar.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 160 deg C, if you have a fan oven.

2. Pour the milk over the bread and let stand until milk is absorbed.

3. Place all the meatloaf ingredients in a bowl. Add the bread and mix until very well combined.

4. Press mixture into a greased 4 litre capacity loaf tin. Bake for 30 minutes.

5. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

6. Drain fat from the meatloaf and invert onto a baking dish, pour over the sauce and cook for a further 30 minutes, basting every ten minutes.

Thanks to Coby for a recipe which has become part of my family and our lives.

A huge and heartfelt Thank you!

....to Caroline Smith AKA CARRIE from  The Patterned Plate  for making my title header look so beautiful! It is something I could never have done without you!

What's in a name?

My favourite posts are unsurprisingly maybe, centred around my most favourite recipes of all, the ones that I grew up with, the ones that are closest to my heart. I'm hoping that these recipes are the ones that my daughters will one day ask my help with, as I did with my mom and I can direct them to this blog if circumstances dictate that I'm not in the same kitchen helping them- you could say that they can come here to my virtual kitchen! :))
I needed mom's help with the naming of this recipe, because it gets a little complicated.
When I was small this dish was called 'Kapama', a casserole made with either meat or chicken, potatoes and red wine, I remember my mom adding crushed coriander seeds to the finished dish, but after I got engaged and was influenced by another village's way of cooking (the village is Aradhippou, in Cyprus by the way) and another woman's way of cooking (My Mother-in-law) I saw that she and most of the other women there, made the same dish that I remember when growing up, but made it without the crushed coriander seeds and called it 'Kokkinisto' which means 'reddened' in Greek.
Bear with me reader, for here is where it gets complicated.....talk about regional cooking.....
In Xylophagou, which is where my family's from, 'Kokkinisto' refers to a dish that has been cooked with tomatoes, not red wine. But also to a dish which involves meat and potatoes being dunked into red wine and the fried until golden and cooked through.

So what's in a name?
I call this glorious dish 'Kokkinisto', it's my blog, here we go:

My Mom's Kokkinisto

Kokkinisto


1. This is how I usually calculate how much to make. For every person eating, allow 1-2 chicken portions (by a portion I mean either a leg, wing, thigh or breast of chicken) and 1-2 potatoes each.
You know the appetite of your family!
One can also use pork chops (1 per person is fine) lamb chops, pork ribs or belly slices, anything you fancy really.

2. You will also need a bottle of good, full bodied red wine.

3. Open the bottle of red wine, and pour it into a large bowl (if you wish for a lighter colour to the finished dish and in fact a lighter taste, too, you could use only half of the bottle)
Place the chicken or meat portions into the wine and get on with heating some vegetable oil in a large, shallow pan, we are going to brown the meat next.

4. Heat the oil to a high heat, and being very wary of splashes, place the meat carefully into the pan, now, you want to brown the meat very well, so that it's lovely and dark brown (the wine will aid with the colouring)
Now place the halved potatoes in the same wine.
Place the meat into a large casserole, or Dutch oven.

5. Do exactly the same with the potatoes, brown them off well in the oil and place over the meat in the casserole.

6. Pour the wine over the meat and potatoes, Pour water in too, to barely cover them, also salt and pepper to taste, if liked one can also add a pinch of cinnamon (This is a Cypriot recipe- we put cinnamon in everything!)
And the secret ingredient...pour in about a tablespoon or two of the oil...mmmmmm.
Bring to a boil, turn down heat to a simmer and simmer until the potatoes are tender, by this time both the meat and potatoes will be cooked through.

7. Serve in bowls, with lots of the lovely sauce and lots of good, crusty bread.

As you can see in the photo, it's also possible to add a layer of cauliflower florets which have been fried off in the oil and placed over the meat and potatoes. My eldest son loves it this way!
This is a beloved dish in my part of Cyprus, it's made weekly without a doubt, loved by everyone!
The first time I made it, mum reminded me just the other day was when I was about 15-16. As Mum used to work, she'd tell me what she wanted cooked that day and I would write the instructions down and by the time she got home, there'd be a cooked meal on the table :)) You see I loved cooking, even back then.....

1. Off the Shelf ~ Japanese Bible by Fiona Hammond

D'you know, the funny thing about kicking off my 'Off the Shelf cook book challenge' with this book, is the fact that it's one of my latest purchases! It's hardly had time to settle in, before it's being whipped off the shelf!
It's a cute little book, which has achievable, yet tasty, Japanese recipes. I've always wanted to know a little bit more about Japanese food, so this easy book is the ideal, painless way in.

The recipe I chose was the Chicken Teriyaki, a family favourite of ours.
Easier, even, than the recipe I usually follow from Nigella Lawson's book 'Kitchen'.
Authentic? I don't really know...

Chicken pieces are fried off in a little vegetable oil to colour them, removed from the pan and set aside.

A Teriyaki sauce is made up from: half a cup of sake, half a cup of mirin, half a cup of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.

This bubbles away for a few minutes, reducing slightly, the chicken is added back and it's cooked for a few more minutes so that the chicken cooks through.

That's it!

Marks out of ten?      6.

Would I make it again?     No.


Would I do anything differently?  I'm sticking to Nigella's recipe from now on, a little more complex in the taste department!

Off the Shelf ~ My Cook book challenge

Lately it seems, that every time I browse through my local book shop, or on the net, something which feels an awful lot like guilt, stops me from buying any more cook books.
I have so many on my shelves, a lot which have been cooked from, but a lot which haven't been.

My challenge is this - to cook at least one recipe from EVERY book in my collection....

Can it be done?

I don't know, but I'm going to try.

I've put an 'Off the Shelf' tab at the top of the page, where I will list the books I cook from alphabetically by author and then name of book. I will link back to the relevant post as I complete them.

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I'm going to.

At the bottom of the post, I'll also answer these three questions:

Marks out of ten?


Would I make this again?


Would I do anything differently?


(These are my books which are not relegated to boxes in the loft!)

Lentils and rice with caramelised onions

Cyprus' proximity to the Middle East favours and aids the inter-mingling of each others recipes. In fact, a lot of Cypriot recipes bear more in common with recipes from the Middle East than Greece! This homely peasant dish of lentils and rice with caramelised onions is also called 'Mujendra' in Cyprus, and 'Mujadarah' or 'mejadra' in the Middle East. So you can see, even the names are similar. Apart from tasting delicious and being an inexpensive meal, lentils and rice provide a low-fat, complete protein meal chock-full of Fibre, iron and other minerals.

We really enjoy this in our family, it's one of those meals that everyone will eat willingly, wink, wink.

No arm twisting involved.

Lentils and rice with caramelised onions
Serves 4.

2 measuring cups of green lentils
1 measuring cup of long grain rice
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
2 tbsp olive oil (for frying onion)
salt


1. Rinse the lentils, place in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until almost, but not quite, cooked.

2. Add more water if needed, so that the lentils are well covered, then add the washed rice. At this stage the water should cover both the lentils and rice, so add more if needed.

3. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, and get on with frying the onions.

4. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry over a medium-high heat until they are caramelised, very well browned.
Don't chicken out at this stage and leave them pale, they need to be really dark (but not burnt, obviously!) as this is what adds the lovely, sweet flavour to the finished dish.

5. Add the onions to the almost cooked lentils and rice, add salt at this stage too.

5. By the time the rice and lentils are tender, the water should have been completely absorbed.

6. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and black olives. Delicious!

Nigella's American pancakes

Bearing in mind that this blog is first and foremost aimed at collecting my favourite recipes and recording them here for posterity, one will always need a good recipe for pancakes.
Is that not so?

I love American pancakes.
While the elegant and sophisticated, slim French Crepe, will always be there in the wings, the real Star of the show, in my eyes, is the fluffy but substantial cousin.

Nigella's American Pancakes
Recipe adapted from 'Nigella Bites'. By Nigella Lawson.

2 tbsp butter
225g plain flour
2 heaped tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
300ml full-fat milk
2 eggs
1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil for frying.

1. Melt butter and set aside.

2. Blitz all the ingredients including the butter in either a blender or mixer.

3. Using a quarter cup measure (or just guess!) cook the pancakes in the vegetable oil, turning over when you see bubbles erupting on the surface. cook for another couple of minutes.

4. Serve with maple syrup and, if you so desire, crispy bacon. Mmmmmmmm!


This is what I wrote about them a few years back.....

Yes! Don't shout......I know.........

I write in my books.

Happy New Soup! Errr, I mean, Year!

I know.....I know.....

It's the middle of January and my poor blog has been somewhat neglected of late.
Fear not, I have been cooking and baking but just haven't had the time to come here and share it with you.

I hope you've not turned away from me dear reader, because I want to share with you my very latest obsession...

Soup.

Yes, soup!

I've not really been much of a soup person, fearing that the family will feel that they've not really been fed.
Apart from the obligatory Soupa Avgholemoni.

Obligatory, that is, for a good Greek girl like me.

But these soups have proved to be filling and warming and just darn tasty! Perfect for the Wintery, cold months.

I made Nigella's lentil and chestnut soup on Boxing day and apart from it's murky appearance (More than one person thought that I'd made some kind of curry sauce to go with the Boxing day buffet) It was received warmly and enthusiastically by everyone.
The crispy bacon really makes this soup.

Nigella's pea and pesto soup from her book 'Nigella Express' is another soup we enjoyed, this time all I had at home was jarred pesto, not the nicer fresh pesto, but still, it was a great soup. Sorry Nigella.

Another soup from 'Nigella Express', the 'Minestrone in minutes', to which I added some small cubes of cooked ham, went down well too...

As did the Sweetcorn chowder, also from 'Express'.

It seems the 'odd soup out', but in no way any less tasty, is this soup from the Waitrose website.
A deliciously creamy Ham, leek and Butter Bean soup.

You can find the recipe HERE.

So, you see, I've been busy..... making soup!

It's nice to be back.

See you soon.