Recipes from Greece

Tiropites

• • 250g feta cheese

  • 250g cream cheese

  • 2 eggs

  • 2 tablespoons sour cream

  • 2 tablespoons cottage cheese

  • 375g filo pastry

  • Oil or 300g melted butter

Break up the feta and put into a food processor together with the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese. Mix well to combine. Add eggs. Refrigerate the mixture for at least two hours. Take one sheet of filo and lightly brush with butter. Lay another sheet on top and butter again. Cut the pastry into 4 strips lengthways. Place a rounded teaspoonful on the bottom of one strip of pastry and fold corner to corner; making a triangle.

Repeat this process until all the mixture and the filo is used. Butter the tops and place tiropites on un-greased trays and bake at 160C for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden. Serve as an appetizer if made small or entrée if larger.

Skorthalia

In Greek cooking skorthalia is used as a sauce and may be served with fried fish, beetroot, freshly boiled green beans, fried zucchini and aubergine or slathered on fresh bread.

• • 4 medium sized potatoes

  • 6 cloves of garlic

  • 1 cup good fish stock

  • salt and pepper

  • ¼ cup olive oil

  • Juice of 2 lemons

Scrub the potatoes well and boil whole. Crush the garlic with ¼ teaspoon salt and pound well with a pestle. Peel the warm potatoes and pound into the garlic one at a time. Transfer the mixture into a larger bowl, add oil and lemon juice and mix well. Slowly add the hot strained stock to thin down a little. Serve as above.

Fassoulatha

• • 2 cups haricot beans

  • 2 cups tomato puree

  • 8 cups water

  • 1 large onion

  • ½ cup olive oil

  • 2 diced carrots

  • 1 diced parsnip

  • 2 stalks celery with leaves

  • 2-3 chilli peppers

Wash beans in warm water, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with warm water. To the beans add all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer until the beans are soft but not mushy. Season and remove the chillies before serving. Serve with lots of dill pickles, crusty bread and black olives. Allow approximately ½ cup dry beans per person if soup is the only course.

Kourabiedes (Greek Shortbread)

• • 250g unsalted butter

  • ½ cup icing sugar

  • ¼ cup milk

  • 1 dessertspoon vanilla

  • 1 ½ cups self-raising sugar

  • 1 cup plain flour

  • ½ cup walnuts

Cream the butter and the icing sugar until it whitens. Add the vanilla to the milk and add to the mixture alternately with the combines flours. Stir in the walnuts. Pat out onto a board and using a cookie cutter cut out shapes. Bake at 150C for about 25 minutes until firm but not coloured. Roll in icing sugar while still warm so the icing sugar will coat the outside. Dust with icing sugar again while packing into an airtight container.