Contents

Avocado spread

Beetroot salad

Colorful salad with cabbage and carrots

 Dakos or dakakia or koukouvagia

 Dough for cheese or vegetable pies and small pies 

Eggplant salad

Greek salad

Lettuce and dill salad

Parsley sauce

Tzatziki 

Baklavas or stroto

Carrot cake

Melomakarona 

Moustokouloura

Mpougatsa Ilias

Orange cookies

Pasteli

Revani

Semolina Halva

Sweet pumpkin pie

Sweet bread - cake with raisins and walnuts 

( mpougatsa )

Avocado spread
 1 ripe avocado
 50g walnuts
 juice of 1 lemon
 1 cup oil
 salt
 pepper
 optionally add 1 clove of garlic

Instructions
 Peel the avocado, cut it into cubes, mash it with a blender and add the walnuts, lemon juice, oil little by little, salt and pepper. Continue beating until the spread is homogeneous.
 Try and adjust by adding additional salt
Spread it on toasted bread

Beetroot salad
 2 large beets
 100 g walnuts
 1 cup oil
 salt
 100 g feta cheese
 1-2 cloves garlic
Instructions
 Wash the bulbs, clean them  and boil them until soft.
 Let them cool.  Cut the beets into small pieces, slowly add the oil, salt, walnuts and garlic and blend the ingredients with a hand blender. Taste and depending on the result, add salt.

Colorful salad with cabbage and carrots
 1/2 gr green cabbage
 300 gr purple cabbage
 2 medium-sized carrots
 Sauce
 juice of one lemon
 salt
 1/2 coffee cup extra virgin olive oil
 2 tablespoons balsamic cream with orange or fig
 Instructions
 Wash the cabbage and carrots
 Cut the cabbage into small pieces
 Grate the carrots on a fine grater
 Place the ingredients in a salad bowl
 Prepare the sauce and pour over the salad
 Add the sauce

Greek salad 
 2 medium ripe tomatoes
 1 medium cucumber
 1 dried onion
 1 green pepper
 4-5 olives
 100g diced feta cheese
Sauce
 Salt
 oil

Instructions Wash the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and onion well Chop the ingredients Place the ingredients in the salad bowlAdd the olives, feta cheese and the sauce

Dakos or dakakia or koukouvagia
 Small dakakia (dehydrated bread with herbs)
 2 ripe tomatoes
a small amount of xynomizithra from Chania (fresh soft cheese) or alternatively 100 g feta
 oregano, oil
Preparation
 Wash and dry the tomatoes
 Purée the tomatoes and crumble the xynomizithra or feta cheese.
Wet the dakakia a little. Put enough juice of tomato in each one to cover their surface. Add the xynomizithra. Pour a little oil on each one and sprinkle with oregano.

Dough for cheese or vegetable pies and small pies

1 cup water

1 cup oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons raki or tsipouro or apple cider vinegar

1/2 sachet yeast

500g all-purpose flour

  Mix the yeast with the water and sugar and 4 tablespoons of flour. Wait 5 minutes and then add the remaining ingredients and knead into a smooth and elastic dough. 

  Leave it for 15 minutes and it is ready to be rolled out into sheets for pies or small pies, filling them with spinach and wild herbs or feta cheese or a combination of unsalted cheese and feta cheese.

Eggplant salad
 4 large
 60-100 g oil
 juice of 1 lemon
 2 tbsp. vinegar of your choice (or more, if desired)
 salt
 optionally, you can add 4-5 sprigs of parsley and 100 g of feta cheese.
Preparation
Wash the eggplants and dry them well. Prick the eggplants with a knife in several places, so that they do not burst as we bake them in the oven for 15 minutes until soft. Let them cool. Remove the skin, remove the seeds from their inside. Cut the eggplants into small pieces through a hole and press lightly to remove the moisture. Using a stick blender, mix our ingredients until the mixture is homogenized.

Greek salad

2 ripe tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 medium onion

green or other colored peppers

100g feta cheese, diced

salt

oregano

5-6 pickled olives

optional capers

  Wash the tomatoes, cucumber and peppers. Slice them. Place them in a salad bowl and add the onion, cut into rings. Add the oil, salt, oregano, and pitted olives.

Lettuce and dill salad
 1 medium lettuce
 4-5 sprigs of dill
 1 small fresh onion

Sauce
 1 cup of oil
 salt
 juice of 1 lemon or equal amount of grape vinegar
 

Instructions
 Carefully wash the lettuce leaves, onion and dill one by one. Cut the lettuce, and chop the onion and dill.  Place the ingredients in a salad bowl. Prepare the sauce and add it to the salad.

Parsley sauce
 
 1 bunch of parsley, coarsely chopped along with the stems
 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
 4 tbsp. unsalted and roasted almonds or walnuts or pine nuts
 5 tbsp. kefalograviera
 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
 ½ cup olive oil
 Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
 Put all the ingredients in the blender and puree them. The oil should be added gradually to the mixture so that it can be diluted and does not stick and the mixture is ready to accompany mainly pasta dishes.

 We choose healthy fruits and separate the black ones from the green ones. We score the surface with a smooth, sharp knife and place them in different containers with water. We change the water every day for 10-20 days until our olives become bitter. Then we immerse them in salt water (10 parts water / 1 part sea salt) for a day and finally we place them in sterile jars of 500 g in a solution of 100 g vinegar, 40 g sea salt and 400 g water. We supplement with a little oil for protection. 

  Alternatively, we can preserve green olives in a solution of 400 g lemon juice or bitter orange juice with 40 g salt. white almonds or Florina pepper after removing the pit. We can add aromatics to the contents of each jar (oregano, rosemary or carrot slices, or small pieces of colored peppers). We can also fill the large olives with with white almonds or Florina pepper(red) after removing the pit.

It is also customary to crush small unripe olives with a heavy object and for this reason they are called "tsakistes". The same process of de-bittering and storing is followed.

Tzatziki

300 g. strained yogurt

1 cucumber

1/3 clove garlic or more, it's up to you

3 tbsp vinegar, white wine or apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 pinch salt

pepper

Instructions

  Wash the cucumber and clean it. Grate it and drain it very well. Mix the yogurt with the garlic, vinegar, salt, pepper and add the grated cucumber. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Sweet recipes

Carrot Cake

3 cups self-rising flour + a little more for the pan

1/3 tsp baking powder

1 cup corn oil + a little more for the pan

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp brandy

1/2 tsp cinnamon

zest of 1 medium orange, unwaxed

1 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

1 cup carrots, grated on the coarse side of a grater or ground in a food processor

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped, optional

Instructions

Sift the flour with the baking powder into a bowl.

Pour the oil, sugar, brandy, cinnamon and zest into a bowl and mix well with a whisk.

Add the juice, carrots, sifted flour with baking powder and finally the walnuts and mix.

Pour the mixture into the mold and bake for 50-55 minutes at 180 degrees.

Baklavas or stroto

500 g Beirut leaves

For the buttering:

150 g melted butter

150 gr olive oil or 300gr olive oil

For the filling:

300 g walnuts

200 g almonds

2 g cinnamon

1 dose vanilla

For the syrup:

350 ml water

500 g granulated sugar

1 dose vanilla

1 clove

1 cinnamon stick

1 lemon peel

Instructions

Butter a round baking pan and spread the 12 sheets crosswise after first buttering/oiling them one by one, leaving their edges protruding from the pan.

For the filling:

Lightly crush the nuts with a rolling pin and mix them with the cinnamon and vanilla in a basin. Then pour a layer of crumpled sheets, add the filling and butter. 

Once we take the baklava out of the oven, drizzle it with hot syrup 2-3 times.

Repeat the process once more. Butter the sheets that protrude one by one and fold them towards the inner side of the baking pan. Add another 5 buttered sheets and put the baklava in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and cut it into diamonds. Butter its surface well, sprinkle with water and bake at 150 degrees for 1 and a half hours.

Dough for cheese or vegetable pies and small cheese pies

1 cup water

1 cup oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons raki or tsipouro or apple cider vinegar

500g flour

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

  Mix the yeast with the water and sugar and 4 tablespoons of flour. Wait 5 minutes and then add the remaining ingredients and knead into a smooth and elastic dough.   Leave it for 15 minutes and it is ready to be rolled out into sheets for pies or small pies, filling them with spinach and wild herbs or feta cheese or a combination of unsalted cheese and feta.

Melomakarona
 

Dough

 150 g oil
 100 g sugar
 zest and juice of one orange and one lemon
 1 cup cognac
 1 tsp ground cinnamon
 1/2 tsp ground cloves
 400 g flour
 1 tsp baking powder
 1/2 tsp baking soda

Syrup
 300 g sugar
 100 g honey
 200 g water
1 cinnamon stick
 orange peel

 For sprinkling 

100 g walnuts 1 pinch ground cloves