Globecooking recipe : Tiropita (Greece) #readcookeat

As you'll know if you're a regular reader of my blog, there are two cooking challenges that I love to take part in : discovering new international recipes in my globecooking section, and being inspired to cook recipes from the books I read for the #readcookeat challenge. Well, this recipe for tiropita - little filo-pastry cheese parcels - lets me kill two birds with one stone !

I came across a mention for tiropita in Prodigal, a book by Charles Lambert that I read and reviewed back in October. (Click through to read my review.) It follows the rather complicated life of Jeremy, who is a gay, soft porn writer, trying to reconnect with his sister at his father's deathbed. He looks back over his life, including a trip to Greece when his mother died some thirty years previously, when they catch up with his mother's new man.

p208 At the most, it's a matter of days, he explains to them this first afternoon, as they stand together in the hospital car park. They have left her sleeping, eaten tiropita bought in a local bakery, drunk soda water from small glass bottles.

From looking around online, there are numerous variations of cheesy mixtures that can be used to stuff tiropita, so I just went with what was in the fridge. Feel free to mix things up though - the only obligatory ingredients are filo pastry and cheese.

Tiropita

180g feta

80g parmesan

80g ricotta

1 egg

1 pack filo pastry (9 sheets)

milk or melted butter

First of all, I had a good look through for the fridge for different cheeses and found some parmesan (grated and chunks), some ricotta, some feta and some mozzarella. I decided to use the first three.

  

Put the feta in a bowl and use a fork to break it up into small pieces.

Mix in some grated parmesan and some ricotta.

And finally beat in an egg.

For pretty little regular triangles, you'll need rectangular filo pastry but mine was round - oh well, never mind ! Lay three sheets on top of each other, brushing them with milk or melted butter. Cut the pastry into two halves.

Time to start folding it all up. Place a heaped spoonful of cheese mixture on one end.

Fold one corner across to make a triangle.

If using rectangular sheets of pastry, you'll be able to flip the triangles back and forth very neatly. If using round sheets, well, just do the best you can !

Try to keep all the corners tucked underneath if you can. 

Lay them out on a baking tray and brush with some milk.

Bake at 180° for about 15 minutes until they are lovely and golden. Careful - the cheese filling stays very hot for quite a while !

Joining up with #readcookeat over at Chez Maximka.

*** Don't miss my globecooking recipe index ! ***

Fancy trying some more Greek cuisine? How about some of the following :

Bastichio
Dolmades (stuffed vine leaves)

Fig & Walnut Bake

Greek Lamb & Feta Burgers with Red Onion, Cucumber & Olives

Greek Pasta Bake
Greek Salad

Greek-style Lamb, Potato & Thyme Kleftiko
Greek yogurt mousse with olive oil and strawberries

Mediterranean-stuffed Ciabatta

Mediterranean Veg Filo Flowers
Mushrooms à la grecque

Prawn Saganaki
Red Mullet with Olive Cream and Asparagus

roundup of Greek cuisine

Spanakopita

Tart with Tomatoes, Olives & Capers

Youvetsi

#readcookeat recipe : Lancashire Hotpot (Petals and Stones)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my review for Petals and Stone by Joanne Burn, in which Uma discovers that her husband was cheating on her just a few hours before he dies in a crash, on his way home to talk to her. Having already lost both of her parents, this hits her hard, and she takes off to a friend's battered seaside home, to lick her wounds and decide where to go from here on. 

As Uma's mother was Indian, Uma has a deliciously exotic culinary heritage to work through, such as this recipe :

p15 If she stared into the fire for long enough, concentrating on the familiarity of the sofa beneath her, she could almost smell the coconut and cardamom from her mother's breakfast paniyaram, or hear the tapping of her father's typewriter in the other room.

I did investigate some of the Asian dishes, but they didn't sound like things that the kids would be interested in trying, so I ended up being won over by something much more typically British :

p80 'I've made a Lancashire hotpot for tea,' said Mary, bending to open the oven door, grabbing a tea towel and pulling out the baking dish to inspect its progress. 'Half an hour?'

'Shall we see if Ruth and the girls want to come over too?'

'I'm not sure they'll eat hotpot,' said Mary, running a hand through her short silver hair. 'You know how fussy they are.'

'They could have fish fingers. I have fish fingers in the freezer."

That sounded perfect, but as I wasn't that familiar with the dish, I went to investigate and discovered that it is made with lamb. Well, the Madhouse kids aren't keen on lamb, so I switched meats and made it with pork instead. Maybe not very authentic, but it certainly filled a hole !

Lancashire Hotpot

ingredients :

drizzle of olive oil

1 onion

600g pork (or lamb, if you want to be traditional)

salt, pepper, Italian seasoning

gravy powder

5-6 potatoes

a few knobs of butter

Switch on the oven to preheat to 180°. Heat up the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion. I have a frying pan with a clip on handle that can go straight in the oven, but you may need to transfer the meat and sauce to an ovenproof dish otherwise.

Add the chopped pork and cook until it is nice and brown on the outside. I cooked it through all the way to be on the safe side, but you could leave it to finish off in the oven. Sprinkle over some salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

Mix up some boiling water and gravy granules and pour over the top. Give it all a quick stir. I filled the dish almost to the top so that it didn't dry out during cooking, but the layer of potatoes kept it all nice and moist anyway.

It's up to you if you peel your potatoes or not - I decided not to, both for saving time and also getting some extra fibre into the kids' diets ! Chop them into slices a few millimetres thick, so that they cook quickly and lay them out across the top of the dish. Add a few small knobs of butter.

Put in the oven for 40-50 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through and nicely browned on top. If they start going too brown, add a sheet of foil over the top. Once it's cooked, tuck in, along with a side dish of your favourite vegetable. (We opted for peas and carrots and the kids wolfed it down.)

Adding to the #readcookeat linky over at Chez Maximka.

#readcookeat recipe : Eggs Benedict (Bone Deep)

Back at the start of the summer, I read Bone Deep by Sandra Ireland, a book that dealt with the tale of Lucie and her new job, writing up tales for historian and novelist, Dr Margarita Muir. (Click through for my review.) There was a recipe right at the beginning that I thought would be perfect for here at The Madhouse.

p10 I'd tried to keep my recent ill-health a secret, but nothing gets past my son. I gave in reluctantly to the Girl Friday idea, taking pains to point out that she would be more of a PA for my writing and research, although a little light ironing wouldn't go amiss. I began to warm to the idea, visualising a biddable foreign exchange student with excellent editing skills, a cheery smile and a nice signature dish of eggs Benedict.

Hmm Eggs Benedict ... I only had a vague idea of what they were, but internet soon gave me the info I needed. An English muffin (available from Lidl, if you have one local - I've no doubt you can pick them up elsewhere though), topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. The Canadian bacon would be tricky, but there are all sorts of variations to the original dish, so I was sure we could do something with this ! I ended up making this on our return home after the holidays, so we were a bit low on eggs. 

Eggs Benedict 

ingredients :

per person

1 English muffin

1 fried egg

2 slices of ham (I had some French "bacon")

for the Hollandaise sauce :

3 egg yolks

melted butter

 lemon juice

salt

paprika

Cut the English muffins in half and stick them under the grill for 5 minutes.

 I fried the eggs rather than poaching them to give me extra time to prepare the sauce. Mix the egg yolks, lemon juice and salt and add the melted butter, bit by bit, until you end up with a smooth mixture. (We were just coming back from holiday so I only had 6 eggs - the Hollandaise sauce would definitely work better with 3 egg yolks though !) Taste and add extra paprika, salt and lemon juice, as needed.

Hopefully, the muffins and eggs will be ready by now. Put one slice of French bacon on each piece of muffin and add a fried egg to each. Top with some Hollandaise sauce.

Serve with some couscous, coleslaw and salad leaves. Bon appétit !

Adding to the #readcookeat challenge at Chez Maximka.

#readcookeat recipe : Avgolemono, Greek lemon chicken soup (A Family Recipe)

As soon as I saw the name of Veronica Henry's latest book, A Family Recipe (click through for my review), I knew it would be bursting with dishes to recreate for the #readcookeat challenge. I wasn't disappointed - I've already made flamiche aux poireaux, nachos and a hugely popular leftover nacho salad, and I still have several bookmarked recipes to come back to. There was one particular recipe that caught my eye though, as it also appealed to my passion for globe-cooking : a Greek soup called avgolemono.

p193 It smelt delicious and homely : she had put a chicken in to poach earlier, sloshing in all the ends of the unfinished bottles of wine in the pantry and handfuls of herbs. She took down the little recipe box from the shelf and leafed through the cards until she found the one she wanted. She knew the recipe by heart, but somehow she needed the ritual of finding the card with her mother's writing on it. Even after all these years, it was a connection to Catherine, the mother she had lost when she was only four.

Catherine had been a free spirit, by all accounts, and had spent her late teens and early twenties travelling constantly in search of the sun.

[...]

And the recipes that she had brought back from her travels, including the avgolemono, which was the Griffin family's favourite comfort meal.

[...]

She took the chicken out of the poaching liquid and strained it, then put on two handfuls of basmati rice to boil. She zested and squeezed the juice of three lemons, and separated three eggs. She was just pouring herself a glass of wine when her phone went.

[...]

Fortified by a glass of wine, Laura finished off the avgolemono, beating the egg yolks and lemon juice into the chicken stock, then whipping the whites before folding them in, along with the cooked rice. The creamy yellow concoction never failed to soothe her, and Kanga arrived just in time for her to dollop several spoonfuls into two bowls, then scatter finely chopped parsley, a sprinkling of lemon zest and black pepper on top.

I was intrigued, but I felt rather unsure about how well it would work - putting raw eggs in hot stock just seemed wrong and I had visions of a horrible scrambled-egg-in-soup catastrophe. I still wanted to try it though !

I had lots of leftover cooked chicken from the Sunday roast so I didn't follow the authentic recipe which starts with poaching raw chicken to get a chicken stock. Mine came from a stock cube, I'm afraid !

Avgolemono 

ingredients :

leftover cooked chicken

chicken stock (homemade or 2 chicken stock cubes)

3 eggs

juice and zest of 1 lemon

handful of basmati rice

salt, black pepper

fresh herbs

If making from scratch, poach the raw chicken in water, adding herbs and any leftover wine you may have in the kitchen, to create a rich stock. Once cooked, remove and shred the chicken, reduce the stock and put the shredded meat back in. If using leftover roast chicken, dissolve the stock cubes in boiling water and add the chopped chicken. Toss in a big handful of basmati rice. (I used a basmati rice with quinoa, as it was in the cupboard.)

I looked at a lot of different recipes for avgolemono - there are a huge number of variations - and there was about a 50-50 split as to whether you should beat the eggs whole or separate them. As I was multitasking (the kids didn't want to try my "scrambled egg soup" so I was cooking something different for them), I went for the simple option and beat the eggs whole, adding the lemon juice and zest.

Now, you need to be careful at this point to avoid the scrambled egg disaster that is just waiting to pounce ! While whisking continually, temper the egg mixture by slowly adding a little stock at a time to raise the temperature gradually without cooking it.

Once achieved, breathe a sigh of relief and pour the lemon/egg mixture back into the soup. Do not bring to a boil or the eggs will scramble! Taste and season with salt and pepper, adding a handful of fresh herbs if you like.

Check the rice is cooked and serve.

Well, I'll be honest, I was underwhelmed, because the lemon flavour was too delicate and it just tasted pretty much like my regular chicken soup, that I make on a Sunday night with the leftovers from the roast dinner. However, I was nervous of how this would turn out and therefore made a half-hearted effort, using only two eggs instead of three (also because I was the only one eating it). The descriptions of the soup that I read mention a thick, vibrant yellow soup with a silky, velvety texture, whereas mine was quite thin and the colour of normal chicken soup. If I made it again, I would definitely add in that extra egg (which is why I put three in the ingredients list) and reduce the quantity of stock to avoid diluting the texture. The lemon flavour needs to be intensified too, so maybe use two lemons instead of one, and a good handful of fresh herbs scattered on top when serving would give it some extra oomph too. It's got potential though, and is an interesting way of using up the leftovers after the Sunday roast and jazzing up your regular chicken soup.

Adding to the #KitchenClearout linky as it used up leftover roast chicken.

Also adding to the #readcookeat linky at Chez Maximka.

Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index - if you fancy trying some more Greek-inspired cuisine, how about these ?

Bastichio
Dolmades (stuffed vine leaves)

Fig & Walnut Bake

Greek Lamb & Feta Burgers with Red Onion, Cucumber & Olives

Greek Pasta Bake
Greek Salad

Greek-style Lamb, Potato & Thyme Kleftiko
Greek yogurt mousse with olive oil and strawberries

Mediterranean-stuffed Ciabatta

Mediterranean Veg Filo Flowers
Mushrooms à la grecque

Prawn Saganaki
Red Mullet with Olive Cream and Asparagus

roundup of Greek cuisine

Spanakopita

Tart with Tomatoes, Olives & Capers

Youvetsi

#readcookeat recipe : Singaporean Teochew Duck Rice (Life Of A Banana)

Last week, I reviewed PP Wong's quirkily-named The Life of a Banana (click through for my review), which focuses on the trials and tribulations of newly-orphaned, twelve-year-old  Xing Li, a BBC or British Born Chinese person, constantly caught between two cultures and never feeling like she fits in anywhere. She is what some Chinese people call a banana - yellow on the outside and white on the inside.

I love reading, and I love cooking, and I have a particular passion for globe-cooking, trying out weird and (hopefully) wonderful recipes from all over the world, so I was excitedly bookmarking foodie mentions left, right and centre. At one point, the family take a trip to Singapore and this line caught my eye :

p111 Through a massive ball of smoke, I see little hawker stalls selling delicious yummy food. Satay, beef ball noodles, chicken rice, prawn laksa and duck rice. My mouth waters and Uncle Ho pushes past people.

I knew that I had some duck breast in the freezer, so I decided to investigate duck rice. If you google it, you will see dozens of photos of the dish bought at various hawker stalls in Singapore, but no actual recipe called duck rice. I browsed through many variations, including some with photos that made me feel quite queasy because they use a whole duck complete with head, and discovered that the most common option was Teochew Braised Duck. The recipes are all very different, but I used this one from Genius Kitchen as my main inspiration, and tweaked it to suit what was in my spice rack and cupboard. 

It was a great way of using up some of those spices that I'm not overly keen on (Chinese five spice, because I don't like the taste of aniseed) or that I never know what to do with (galagal powder, anyone?). It is a rich, fragrant but quick and simple dish that can be put together in minutes (unlike the traditional version with a whole duck that needs to braise for hours).

Singaporean Teochew Duck Rice

ingredients :

1 duck breast

salt, pepper

1tsp galagal powder

2tsp Chinese five spice

a glug of kecap manis (thick sweet soy sauce - you could use regular dark soy sauce and sugar)

a drizzle of sesame oil

1 clove of garlic, crushed

chilli sauce (optional)

white rice to serve

Score the fatty side of the duck breast. Grind salt and black pepper over the top.

Fry it fat side down for a few minutes until the fat starts to melt, then flip it over and cook the underside. You won't need to add any oil to the pan. While the underside is cooking, pour over the remaining ingredients, making sure the spices and soy sauce cover the whole duck breast and ooze down into the slits. Turn it back over so that the fatty side is face-down and cook for 5 minutes or so.

When the duck is medium rare (or very rare, depending on your preferences), take it out of the pan and slice it up. Return it to the pan, adding extra spices and soy sauce if you need more, but traditionally, it's quite a dry dish. I also added some sliced mushrooms, as there were some in the fridge that needed using up. Toss in the sauce until the meat is nicely covered and cooked to your liking.

Serve over white rice.

Adding to the #readcookeat linky over at Chez Maximka.

Not only did I use up a lone duck breast that was lurking in the freezer, I also used up some of the less popular spices from my spice rack, so this is also going on the #KitchenClearout linky.

#readcookeat recipe : Flamiche aux poireaux (A Family Recipe)

You may remember that last week, we ate nachos, and the next day made Leftover Nacho Salad, both of which were inspired by a mention of a family farewell feast at the beginning of Veronica Henry's aptly-named novel, A Family Recipe. (Click through for my review.) As I was reading the book, I kept turning over corners of pages to highlight recipes that I might like to try out for the #readcookeat challenge. There are lots of family-friendly dishes that I knew would appeal to the kids, so it wasn't long before I recreated another.

p223 Her mouth watering, Laura bought a flamiche aux poireaux - leeks set in golden wobbly cream in a rectangular tart - a loaf of bread thick with seeds and nuts, a bag of bitter salad leaves and a punnet of pale-gold apricots.

A flamiche is a kind of savoury tart that originates in the North of France - mainly Picardie but also the Nord-Pas de Calais and into Belgium. It's basically a leek tart but there are various versions, some of which are open and resemble a quiche and others of which are closed and look more like a pie. I went slightly freestyle, using up what was in the fridge, and basically made a softer, creamier version of my usual quiche, upping the quantity of cream and reducing the number of eggs. I added some bacon, which isn't a traditional part of the recipe, but it worked very well. It was very tasty and is perfect for a lighter summer meal with salad.

Flamiche aux poireaux

ingredients :

3 leeks

2tbs butter + a little water

a sheet of ready-made puff pastry (or shortcrust pastry)

200g bacon

200ml thick crème fraîche

2 eggs

Chop the white part of the leeks into slices, avoiding the grit and mud-filled green leaves. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and gently fry the leeks, stirring every now and then. If they start to stick or burn, add a few tablespoons of water until they are staring to soften.

Use the pastry to line a pie dish and prick the base with a fork. Put in the oven while it preheats to 180° and while you get on with cooking the filling.

Once the water has evaporated, add the bacon to the leeks and fry, stirring, for about 10 minutes until it is cooked through.

Turn off the heat and dollop on the cream.

Stir it through the leeks and bacon.

Whisk up two eggs and add to the mixture, stirring to combine.

 It shouldn't scramble as the cream will have cooled things down,but it's not the end of the world if it does.

Pour the mixture into the pastry case and pop it back in the oven until it is set, about half an hour later.

I love the way it came out looking all rustic and uneven because I didn't bother trying to get a perfectly smooth finish when putting the pastry in the dish. It has a lovely soft, creamy texture and the bacon/leek flavours work really well together. I was tempted to add a handful of grated cheese too, but I thought I was already taking enough liberties with the recipe by adding bacon to what should usually be a vegetarian dish !

Linking up with the #readcookeat linky over at Chez Maximka.