Lamb kofte with mint salad wraps and capers.

Well hello there, I shan't delay you with futher excuses or apologies for the delay in my updating the blog.

 Rather, I'll just go ahead and post the recipe for this little delight!

 The recipe is simple. I used the same mixture as with the Greek style gyros. For those who aren't bothered to go check that out (you should!), i'll post it here as well.

Ingredients (enough for 2 people, plus seconds)

• 1 kilo lamb minced meat
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cinammon
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp parsley powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp oregano

Fry them in olive oil for 3-5 minutes on each side on medium-high heat. Cut into one to check if it's ready.

Fun fact
Kofte is a Middle Eastern dish. Each country has its own variation. It varies from Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and reaches as far as Morocco. There is not right or wrong way to kofte ( which also has different pronunciations according to the region). In Cyprus, kofte is usually fried, or at least that's how my grandmother makes it. When she doesn't fry it she usually puts it in the oven with tomato sauce and some potatoes, but we call it bifteki.

 Now because the kofte have quite a bit of garlic in them, we pair them with some tomatoes and some mint salad. Where is the salad you may ask? Well, we put a salad mixture (lettuce, alfa alfa sprouts, cucumber, carrots and parsley) in some rice wraps along with mint... Tada! Fresh spring rolls!

You should eat the kofte first and the salad last, because that's the best way to get rid of garlic breath! No one wants garlic breath; it's vile. The mint, parley and tomatoes are natural ways to get rid of garlic breath. They are odor fighters and because you swallow them and they go down the throat, they get rid of the remaining garlic that's left there. No toothbrush or mouthwash will ever reach down that far!

Last but not least, we added some capers to the dish. These particular capers were marinaded and very salty. So we just soaked them in water to drain some of the salt out.

In Cyprus, we use the baby shoots of the plant as well as the capers and the 'cucumbers' and we pickle it. The caper bush can be found nearly everywhere on the island and it is a very nice companion to the main meal. The only downside is the thorns, which you usually clean off before marinating, or else you hope they will have softened and wont injure your mouth (ouch!).

 Benefits of capers
Capers are so good for you. They offer such a big punch for something so little. They contain vitamins A,K, riboflavin and niacin, as well as antioxidants. They help in stomachaches and can help lower LD cholesterol due to the niacin. The antioxidants they contain are rutin and quercetin, which  have anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties.
And this isn't even all! Iron, copper and calcium are also in capers.

In short, they are a superfood. So eat them up and enjoy!

 Yum.. look how nice it looks inside! It's crispy on the outside while juicy and so flavorful on the inside!

Give it a try and let me know how you fared.

Until next time.

Zucchini omelette

Hey everyone!

This is a quick little recipe, I've got a lot of them lined up for you people so keep an eye out!

This is perfect for any time of the day, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner.

 Just a plain zucchini omelet as breakfast is yummy.

This is pretty easy and delicious. It's not really an omelet, more like scrambled eggs. 

We put in:

• sliced zucchini
• leek/green onion,
• tomatoes
• red peppers
• dried pork loin (homemade Cypriot lountza) marinaded over a month in red wine.
• salt and pepper to your liking
• 1 egg per person (we had jumbo eggs so that meant 2 yolks per egg)
• feta cheese

Lightly fry the zucchini with the red pepper and then when it's sufficiently browned to your liking, add the rest of the ingredients and start mixing until the eggs are cooked and there's no visible uncooked egg-white around your pan.

Keep in mind to taste your omelet before you put in any salt. Feta cheese is pretty salty already, as well as the dried pork loin that we put in.

Also, for any Costco members out there, i really recommend the EPIROS feta cheese they sell. It's the best feta cheese I've had in Canada.

It's made of sheep's milk rather than cow's or a mixture of cow and sheep milk, it's authentic and much healthier. It's also the most popular feta cheese brand in Greece.

But if you want to make it a lunch dish, all you need to do is add some rice or anything else that is to your liking. Here we added black rice!

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And that's it! Enjoy :)

Salmon accompanied with blueberry salad.

The bottom picture is Haddock. The top is Salmon. Just make what you prefer!

Ingredients

• salmon fillets
• leek
• frozen vegetables
• blueberries
• coconut milk
• 1/2 cup tomato juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Start by preheating the oven at 300 degrees F (150 Celsius).  Cut your salmon fillets to your desired size and place in your cookware along with 1/2 cup tomato juice, 1 tablespoons olive oil and some cut up leek.

We put half a can coconut milk (condensed, not the watered down stuff) with frozen veggies and a handfull of blueberries in a pot and put it to warm up a little. The coconut milk gets that blue hue from the blueberries as well as a distinct aroma. It's such a good combination.

Meanwhile put the salmon in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes in 300 degrees F.

If your vegetables are thawed then you wont need to leave them as long in the pot. Be the judge and do the taste test. Get the pot off the burner when you think it tastes best.

And that's it. Simple and fast and absolutely delicious.

Tofu Vegetable Puff Pie!

Hello!! I've been MIA for about a week, sorry about that. But now I'm back and with a delicious, different kind of pie made with Tofu. You can see the tofu above, it's marinading in half a teaspoon of masala curry powder (you can pick some up at your local Indian grocery store, or at a supermarket near you). 

It was our first try doing vegetable pie (xortopita) using tofy as our dairy alternative. It turned out really good, but already we've realized that it would've been better if we had added onion and if we had let the boiled vegetables sit for a while until some water drained away.

Here's what we used.

• 2 1-inch slices of firm tofu, marinated in half teaspoon masala curry powder.
• 1/2cup spinach 
• 1/2 cup celery
• 1/2 cup kale
• 1/2 cup leek
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 package of butter puff pastry
• spry/shortening to oil our cookware so our pie doesn't stick

We boiled the vegetables, and let them sit for a bit. Put salt/pepper or any other seasoning of your choice. Meanwhile we set out half of the butter puff pastry on our oiled cookware and we started to preheat our oven at 350 degrees F.

 Put your vegetables in the pastry spreading them out.

Add the marinated tofu on top of them. The tofu will provide a spicyness due to it's masala curry taste. We also added the juice that you can see from the photo of the tofu being marinated.

 Start wrapping our filling with the pastry. Don't force it, we don't want it to tear up.

 Add the other half of our puff pastry packate on top, and continue wrapping it up until it's all covered up.

That's it! We placed it in our pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F for about half an hour, or until golden-brown.

It tasted great. BUT, we also thought that next time, we'll put a medium onion chopped up in our mixture. However, unlike our vegetables, we aren't going to boil it beforehand.

What do you think?