Re: Medit-style eating
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Medit-style eating
- From: B* B*
- Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 13:08:39 PST
Helene's post really got me going....I could almost smell her kitchen. :)
It's very true, while many of the ingredients of the Mediterranean are
well-known in the U.S., knowledge of their uses are quite limited, even on
the West Coast where many of them grow. I still am surprised at how many
people in Seattle have never tried a fresh fig, even though they grow here.
Whereas the U.S. has a variety of climates, our eating habits tend to be
rather "homogenized".
Eggplant is one of the most under-used vegetables here. In Greece and
especially in Turkey, they prepare them in so many ways, mousakka, fried
thin slices with garlicked yogurt, cooked with tomato, onion, and olive and
served cool, in kebabs, as different kind of "salads" (spreads really, to
eat with bread), stuffed, the list goes on and on.
And artichokes...*sigh*...This time of year in Greece, they are dirt cheap
and you can go to the markets and see housewives taking them by the stems
and shaking them to see which are fullest and heaviest for their size. When
I last lived in Greece, in the early 80s, they went for around 5 cents a
piece during high season, and mostly the hearts were eaten. The Cypriots
even eat them raw; I've sliced the hearts very thinly and put them into a
salad. Fun to watch people crunch them and try to figure out what they are
eating. :)
In the "laiki agora", the rather smaller but still wonderful Greek version
of the Turkish neighborhood pazar (bazaar), the farmers from surrounding
villages bring in their vegetables to sell; you go and compare what each
person is selling, quality and price, and then run back and grab the goods.
If you time it just right, towards the end, they are usually overstocked
with whatever's in really high season and are unloading them; prices drop to
half or so.
Olives - there are indeed many, many kinds. The laiki agora will usually
have someone there with a cart with vats of at least 8 kinds but usually
even more - pointy red-black kalamata olives in wine vinegar, plain large
green ones, cracked green ones (tsakistes) cured with lemon slices, maybe a
slightly hot one, oil-cured black olives, mild water-cured olives, large
ripe ones (throumbes), etc. etc. In some villages they also collect wild
olives; these are only about half an inch wide.
One of my favorite recipes from this time of year is something called
"tsagaridhi" in Kephallonia. It's not a "sophisticated" dish but it's
wonderful, and to me, just means Spring! You need:
Equal parts fresh fennel leaves and "scallion stage" garlic
Baby fava beans (you can also use sugar snap peas here)
New potatoes
Olive oil
Other spring greens such as asparagus are good too.
Boil a large pot of water, and put the baby red peeled potatoes in. When
they are nearly done, take the fennel and dip into the water for 8 seconds
or so to blanch and soften. Pull out and let cool a bit.
Throw the chopped garlic, greens and all, into the boiling water, blanch for
about 20 seconds. If you have asparagus or favas, add them at the same
time.
Pour the pot into a colander and drain.
Chop the fennel finely. We are talking *lots* of fennel here. :)
Heat a large skillet with plenty of olive oil. Put in the fennel and saute
a bit, then add the other ingredients, sautee for several minutes. Add salt
and pepper to taste. There should be enough olive oil for some extra to be
in the serving bowls to dip bread in.
Make sure you have a really good dense bread to eat with it!
This dish is also made with equal parts garlic and "kaloiria", the
grape-hyacinth-like flowers we have discussed earlier here. If I ever find
out what the species is, I'll let you know. I wouldn't recommend going out
and eating your grape hyacinths...
Bob
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