TRADITIONAL TASTES AND DISHES

Your partner's world in your palate!

Recipes from the countries we correspond.

One of the first things we do when we try to learn about other cultures is to taste some of their traditional dishes. Through taste we feel to share an experience, first hand. We feel that a part of that culture is being revealed to us, through our palate. It is true that every country's cuisine, does reveal a part of a culture. Is it really true? When we say Italy, we think pizza or pasta. When we say Greece, tourists think of moussaka and feta cheese. When we think of Turkey, hmmm, I don't know what tourists think about Turkey, what I know is that we share many dishes and their names, due to the historical meeting of the two cultures. For me Turkey is spices, eggplants, pasturma pies or bourek and baklava and, and, endless tastes. We also share many recipes with the countries of the Balkans, like many the types of pies, like cheese pie, spinach pie, bougatsa and many others. What dishes do you associate with Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, France, Czeck Rep. I hope I don't forget any one of us, partners. So here is one from Greece:

We call it "κεφτέ" but I know our dear neighbours call it "kiofte". It is "keftedes me z'mi" as my grandmother used to call it or "kefte with sauce in english". It is served with whatever you like, rice, potatoes, spaghetti, mashed potatoes and a lot of bread to dip it in the sauce. It is easy to cook. You could try it yourselves!

 

Ingredients:

Meatballs (keftedes) 

minced meat (beef, or half beef half pork, your choice)
1 egg
2 table spoons vinegar
2 table spoons olive oil
2 pieces of stale bread, without the hard part, dumped in water (press to strain excess water)
2 onions
fine chopped spearmint
salt and pepper
flour and olive oil for frying


Sauce:

1 - 2 fine chopped garlic cloves
3 ripe tomatoes grated
1 table spoon tomato pourre disolved in a little water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
some vinegar
salt and pepper


Preparation:

1. Mix all the kefte ingredients in a bowl and knead it. Leave it in the fridge for 1 hour.
2. Knead the keftedes in balls (not very small, not too big) and roll them over the flour.
3. As soon the olive oil is heated, fry the meatballs well. Take them out and dry them from excess oil on a plate with kitchen paper.
4. After we finishe frying, we take out of the pan the excess oil and fry the garlic. Add the tomatoes and the toamto paste. Then add the salt and pepper, the vinegaar and the sugar. Let the sauce be cooked until it boils.
5. When it starts turning into sauce, add the meatballs in and let them boil for a little while.
6. Serve with rice (pilafi), fried potatoes, or spaghetti, or whatever you like most. 

ΚΑΛΗ ΟΡΕΞΗ