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WILD GARLIC PESTO
This is the perfect weekend for wild garlic foraging and pesto making. Below is our recipe to complement our video recipe.
When picking wild garlic avoid decimating wild garlic patch areas. Instead leave the roots in, pick the larger leaves to make space for the shoots in their shadow, leave most of the buds (if picking some for pickles). Leave enough for others.
This recipe makes about 2 kilos of pesto, which you can gift & freeze for a flavour of spring in the depths of next winter.
What:
- 400g wild garlic leaves
- 6garlic cloves, minced
- 500g hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
- 300g Parmesan cheese
- 500 to 600ml extra virgin olive oil
- 6 to 8 tsp. sea salt
- 10 Tbsp. cider vinegar
- 1 to 2 tsp. sugar
How:
- Roast the hazelnuts in 200 degrees Celsius for 10-15 min. Cool and rub between your hands to peel skin off.
- Wash the wild garlic really well. We recommend 3 – 4 washes.
- Pat dry well with clean tea towels.
- In a large blender place at least half the wild garlic, garlic, salt, vinegar, sugar.
- Then weigh down with the nuts, Parmesan and olive oil.
- Blend to reduce in size. Then add what you couldn’t fit and blend again.
- If you have a very small blender, mix in batches. Place what you blend in the same bowl and mix well at the end to ensure consistency of seasoning and flavour.
- If placing in the freezer use small pot and avoid glass jars.
We filmed this whilst listening to Laura Marling’s interview in @bbc6music. Have a listen.
#maker #make #forage #foragedfood #food #wildgarlic #wildgarlicpesto #film #recipes #seasonal #cooktheseason #preseve #gooutside #worldflavours #globalkitchen #pesto #localingredients #instafood #lowimpact #eatwell #easyrecipes #liaskitchenrecipes #wildgarlicpestorecipe #wildgarlicrecipes #recipes #videorecipes #liaskitchen
Arakas – peas the Greek Way
Arakás is a dish ideal for a quick and easy complete vegan meal any day of the week, throughout the year. It is a garden pea, carrot and potato stew with simple, clean flavours and beautiful textures, characterised by the fruity flavour of olive oil and the aromas dill and parsley.
Arakás belongs to Laderá, a category of dishes which is a staple in the weekly Greek diet and which literally translates to ‘with oil’ or ‘oily’. Rather than cooking vegetables as a side, the vegetable of choice is the main event, with a similar process of preparation for each Ladero dish but different vegetable and herbs starring in each recipe depending on the seasonality and accessibility of vegetables, e.g. Okra, aubergine, green beans, etc.
Modern Greeks still eat copious amounts of Laderá despite their increasing gyros and souvlaki eating habits – they are healthy, affordable and delicious staples of a balanced diet. And for convenience it is ingenious to have dishes which provide you with a whole meal in a pot making vegan and vegetarian food easily accessible throughout the year. With frozen peas available this dish can help you make the most of small quantities of carrot and potato you have left over. Just bag yourself some dried dill and parsley to use in this recipe in the future so that you don’t have to find fresh herbs each time.
Ingredients
- 500g frozen garden peas
- 2 carrots, sliced in thick rings or cubed
- 1 large potato, peeled and cubed (walnut size cubes)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 200g chopped tomatoes or passata (or 1 large fresh tomato grated or 1 Tbsp. tomato paste)
- ½-1 small bunch of dill (up to 20g)
- A few sprigs finely chopped parsley
- 2 tsp sea salt
Preparation
- Coat the bottom of a medium sized pot with the olive oil.
- When hot add the chopped onion with a teaspoon of salt and sauté on low heat until translucent.
- Add the potatoes, carrots and pepper. Stir well to coat the oil.
- Add the frozen peas and stir well until they are also well coated with oil.
- Add the tomato of your choice stirring well for a couple minutes to start the cooking process and release the tomato flavour.
- Finally add the herbs and up to 1.5 cups boiling water with another teaspoon of salt.
- The water should cover the ingredients but should not be too much as you are aiming for a dry stew rather than a soup or saucy dish.
- Stir well and when the contents come to the boil simmer the stew for 30 to 45 minutes.
- The food is ready when liquid is absorbed. There should be enough liquid to sponge up with nice slice bread but not so much as the vegetable swim in it.
- Cool down the dish for 10-15 minutes before serving. This dish is delicious in room temperature or reheated up to two days from cooking. It also freezes well.
Why I love Greek Easter…
There is nothing that can cure the Greek Easter blues like slice of soft and fragrant Tsouréki (Greek Easter brioche bread) dipped in warm (coconut) milk! I am genuinely sad Greek Easter is over.
At the same time Easter leaves me on a high note of optimism. Yes you heard right optimism! The window has been open at work all morning, the breeze caressing my cheeks. It is bloom time and greens are filling my cooking basket.
Greek Easter is the biggest celebration of the calendar year, and YES it IS bigger than Christmas. I think its importance goes further back than the times of Christianity. Easter is after all is a moving celebration defined by lunar cycles, which often means that the Greek one falls at a different time from the rest of the world (apart from this year!). And Easter could be any time in spring but is always around or after the spring equinox (in March), when in ancient Greek times we celebrated the return of Persephone, the goddess of vegetation and bloom, to earth from the underworld (Hades). In our part of the world it seems it was always a time to be happy.
I love Easter time… and that love is contradictory, fuelled by nostalgia of early youth and my birth land, fed by new memories of celebrating at my new home with friends, and it is deeply entrenched in my heart. I don’t know whether I love Easter because of all the beautiful memories of gatherings and celebration at my Thracian or Evritanian villages, with my Greek families. Or because it was the time we were allowed to stay up well past midnight on Greek Big Saturday after we literally played with fire, holding beautifully adorned white candles, chanting out of tune under starry skies at midnight. Maybe it is because of all the ceremonial preparations and the thoughtful selection of the red Easter eggs to withstand the ferocious, conkers-like collisions of our traditional Easter egg game (and always chasing that cheeky, fraudulent cousin that brought along a fake, wooden egg in the hope to win – you know who you are!). Maybe it is all that festivity and happiness we were ‘allowed’ after the gloomy, strict religious week of the Great Passions of Christ, when no TV or happy music were allowed (there was a period of my childhood that from Big Thursday there was no music radio broadcast on any Greek radio station!). I used to hate that week and its gloomy tone but in a non-religious way I now see it as a good opportunity to reflect on the yin and yang of my life, the trials and tribulations of our world and the suffering experienced by people around it, humbly and modestly.
My ‘church’ is out in the fresh air and in my heart. I cannot pretend I am a religious Greek but I love our traditions and ceremonies from the red eggs, to the meditative Orthodox church ceremonies and spiritual chanting in candle-lit churches infused with incense (not far from some of the yoga and meditative chanting that is so widespread now). And that amazing Byzantine hymn – the ‘Sweet Spring’ – which I secretly hummed to on the Big Thursday even when I rebelled when asked to go to church (I just love the poetry and the music of it – it is all about love and life). And the red Easter eggs, the dishes loaded with fresh greens and herbs, foraged and grown in ‘mpaxtsedes’ (backyard allotments) – mageiritsa, kourbani (which I think is an Arab word for sacrificial lamb). And the return to cheese after fasting and going vegan for Lent. And the soft brioche breads with toasted almonds, which are a tradition mixed with that of our Hebrew communities and Armenian neighbours. The koulourákia (Easter biscuits ) which I mixed with dark chocolate in my mouth. And the tender lamb, which was eaten once a year at Easter only because people would not sacrifice their animals regularly as we now do in mass production, commercial practices. And the land’s rebirth, the rebirth of the year, which the Greeks in ancient and moderns times, share with their Iranian friends who celebrate Nowruz with similar ingredients and lasting festivities.
But mostly I love Easter because of what it signifies to me – hope, rebirth and a beginning. And I wish you all the happiest of seasons, feeding on the greens that thrive around you in tune with nature’s cycles. And I also wish you resilience and defiance of the darkness of times and politics. Shine a light in your own heart and the hearts of others.
Carrot & spinach KuKu – A seasonal Frittata
A recipe inspired by the way Iranians make their open omelette or frittata, known as Kuku. It uses March’s seasonal vegetable like carrots and spinach still abundant at Blaencamel farm and in their weekly organic vegetable boxes. This type of frittata uses a generous quantity of ingredients so don’t be surprised when you see how much vegetable goes in it – it is what sets it apart from other open omelettes.
You can find Blaencamel farm vegetables at both Farmers’ markets in Cardiff, Roath and Riverside, on Saturday and Sunday respectively, but also in Aberystwyth and their own farm shop. Order their boxes here.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 250g (3 medium) carrots, coarsely grated
- 150g spinach, finely chopped
- 15g (half a small bunch) parsley, finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 50g sundried tomatoes or mixed antipasti e.g. peppers and artichokes, finely chopped
- 30g cashews, chopped
- 3 Tbsp. Goji berries (optional)
- Fresh mandarin or orange juice
- 100g (half a pack) feta cheese, crumbled
- ½ tsp. ground cumin
- A generous pinch of smoked or regular sweet paprika
- ½ tsp oregano
- 1 generous pinch of saffron strands
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 6 eggs
- 2 generous pinches of salt
- ½ tsp. sugar
- Olive oil
Preparation (30 minutes)
- Add enough fresh mandarin or orange juice to cover the goji berries in a small bowl or mug. Infuse whilst prepping.
- Add a tablespoon (or two) of olive oil to a 20 to 25cm non-stick pan, and sauté the onion on low heat with a pinch of salt and the sugar until it caramelises (5-10 min).
- Pound the saffron in a bowl with a rolling pin, beat in the eggs and allow time for the saffron to infuse in them.
- Remove the onions from the pan, add another tablespoon of oil, add the carrots and cumin. Sauté until soft (5 min).
- Return the onions to the frying pan, add the goji berries, cashews, sundried tomatoes and antipasti. Mix well.
- Add the spinach and parsley little by little so that it slightly wilts. You don’t need to cook your spinach much or at all but you might choose to wilt it a bit of you are using a smaller pan.
- Add the flour, pinch of salt, baking powder, paprika and oregano to the eggs and beat until the flour is mixed well and to give the eggs some volume and softness.
- Mix into the pan gradually and carefully making sure the beaten egg goes to the bottom of the pan and mixes in well between the abundant ingredients to hold them together. The pan should remain on low heat all this time.
- Make sure that the ingredients are spread evenly on the pan and sprinkle the feta cheese on top.
- After firming up the frittata on the hob for a couple of minutes, you can cook the frittata in two ways: a) If your pan is heat resistant place it in a preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes at 180-200 degrees –cover with a lid or aluminium foil for half the time, or b) Cover the pan with a lid or plate. Continue cooking on the hob on low heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Then place under a preheated grill for a couple of minutes or until golden and risen.
- If using a 20cm pan it should be at least 5cm dip to make a cake like frittata that will rise.
- You can choose to omit or include ingredients on this list. It is also very easy to replace them. For example goji berries can be replaced with cranberries or even barberries if you prefer an authentic Iranian taste.
Blaencamel Farm’s Cima di Rapa & greens in coconut sauce
Cima di rapa is a star ingredient grown organically in our very own patch by the fantastic Blaencamel Farm this January. It is a broccoli sprouting (Broccoli raab/Rapini) loved in Southern Italian/Puglian cooking, typically in anchovy and butter sauce combinations and served with orecchiette pasta. Together with the other greens offered in Blaencamel vegetable boxes and at farmers’ markets this January, Cima di Rapa has inspired a Lia’s Kitchen dish that takes me back to my Greek – greens – loving roots but also uses coconut milk, an ingredient I have come to love through my travels in India and Cambodia. Good and ample sea salt is essential for your recipe, as Cima di rapa loves a salty kick.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 700g mixed Blaencamel farm greens, such as 2 bunches of Cima di Rapa, half a bag of spinach and half a bag of winter sproutings
- 5-10g peeled ginger (size of the top of your thumb)
- 1 big peeled garlic clove
- 1.5 cups of coconut milk for drinks OR 1 tin of coconut milk for cooking (400ml)
- 4 tbsp. coconut oil, if using coconut milk for drinks OR 1 tbsp. coconut oil, if using tinned coconut milk for cooking
- 1 heaped tsp. Oliveology’s truffle salt or Pembrokeshire Beach company Seaweed Salt
- 1 heaped tsp sea salt
- A pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
- 1 tsp Pembrokeshire Beach Company Kelp Seaweed (optional)
* You can source Pembrokeshire Beach Company products at Penylan Pantry.
Preparation (20 minutes)
- Wash all the greens really well. To ensure all dirt is removed leave the greens in a bowl or basin for around 10 minutes after the first wash.
- In a big pot add enough boiling water to cover the greens (stalks included) and boil for around 10-15 minutes on low heat, or until the stalks are cooked.
- Whilst the greens are cooking, heat the coconut oil and fry the ginger and garlic for a few minutes (roughly chopped in 2-3 three chunks each).
- Then add the coconut milk of your choice, the specialty salt and the kelp seaweed salt and chilli flakes if you are using.
- Lower the heat and simmer the coconut sauce for 5-10 minutes or until the greens are cooked.
- When the greens are ready, drain them keeping the liquid from the boiling process. You can use the liquid to boil pasta or noodles in it (if that’s a serving preference) and you might need a little bit of the liquid to thin the sauce of the dish, particularly if you are using tinned coconut milk.
- Return the greens in your big pot and pour the thin coconut sauce over them, simmering for another couple of minutes.
- If the coconut sauce has thickened use some of the liquid (kept after draining) to thin it. This is a dish for which you should have a runny, thin sauce to serve the greens in. The end result should be something between a thin soup and a stir fry.
- Cool down for 5 minutes and serve with bread or noodles to enjoy the flavoursome and nourishing sauce.
My Greek Kitchen
I am staying in bed today after a terrible night of coughing and keeping the neighborhood up! Poor them…
Rosemary Baron is keeping me company with her book about Greece and its food. I love reading others’ take on Greek food and this lady being an archaeologist is a very credible, unbiased source of information. She says, ‘the ancient Greeks regarded cooking as both an art and a science and throughput the ancient world Greek chefs were accorded the status and reputation that French chefs now enjoy. The principles and practice of fine cooking and gastronomy as we know it today were first established in the abundantly stocked and highly creative kitchens of Ancient Greece, and modern Greeks still enjoy the foods and tastes that inspired the chefs of antiquity’.
Rosemary Baron goes on to talk about the height of the Minoan civilization and trade with North Africa, which helped create a small garden of Eden in Crete that influenced Hellenistic cooking. At the height of the Roman civilization Greek chefs and teachers were sought after and employed in the Roman homes and kitchens, and according to Baron it seems under their tutelage the amazing, distinct Italian cuisine developed. Then the Byzantine empire helped the influence of Greek cooking influence travel further. And then during the occupation of the Franks, Venetians, Ottomans eastern and other influences arrived, and tribes like the Vlachs brought spices like my beloved paprika.
I am certain Greek chefs embraced new ingredients and influences from other cultures. The early Greek diet of olives, wheat, figs, grapes, wild greens, fish and a little meat was enriched with ingredients such as lemons, potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes, spinach, okra introduced by trade, but also war and occupation.
The silver lining is that even dark times of occupation were still characterized by culinary and cultural diversity. In her book Baron clearly asserts that the hybridity between Greek, eastern and even Balkan cuisine was mostly nurtured during the more peaceful Byzantine times rather than the Ottoman Empire. But I am sure that the Ottomans have helped many dishes travel through Greek chefs to new parts of their Empire where other cultures also embraced and adapted them.
What fascinates me is Baron’s explanation that during Ottoman times Greeks, who were forbidden to speak their own language, were forced to use Turkish names for dishes such as the now famous moussaka, boureki, dolmades, losing the connection of the dishes to their origins. As children we were taught about secret Greek schools during the Ottoman occupation. They were the underground hubs of language that kept Greek alive but I didn’t know that Greek chefs also took refuge in monasteries for their safety and to safeguard centuries of culinary knowledge!!! Apparently there they wore tall white toques which distinguished them from the monks – the toque is now the chef hat and symbol throughout the world.
Food and its love travel well even at the worse of times. It is a beacon of hope and should connect rather than divide. What I know as traditional and modern Greek cuisine is a real testament to that, and it is a lot more diverse than just the delicious feta and tzatziki.
You can now join my 2017 cooking classes telling you the story of my Greek kitchen. Classes include an Introduction to Greek Kitchen Basics; The Greek Flavours no one is telling you about; The Art of Greek Pie; The Magical Art of spice mixing.
You can book online here or email lia@liaskitchen.com.
Watch Rick Stein’s programme about Thessaloniki, Greece and its food to find out more about my city of birth and what you might get during our courses: http://bbc.in/2gnRaMQ.
The Big Cheese Freeze
Yep, that’s right! You can indeed freeze cheese and you can do it safely, in a very tasty way.Not only will you avoid wasting your food and money, but you might also save some time by having handy frozen cheese portions ready to use into quick and easy meals.
Just watch my short video and I bet you will be inspired to make your own #BigCheeseFreeze recipes after that.
This Food Safety Week pledge to join the #BigCheeseFreeze and use the hashtag to show us photos of what you are making with the cheese you freeze. Follow @liaskitchen for inspiration and @FSAWales for more tips on food safety.
#Foodsafetyweek #EatitCookitFreezeit
Made In Spring Roath
When you step out great things happen. I stepped out to Made in Spring street feast fiesta organised by Made in Roath last Sunday for a fantastic day of food, conversations, stories and reunions.
People were sunny last Sunday, like the weather. And the Made in Spring/Made in Roath crew did a grand job getting neighbours and friends out of their houses in an intimate gathering. Thank you so much for having Lia’s Kitchen there. It’s wonderful to be part of such a great event in my neighbourhood.
Also the wonderful Helia Phoenix, a wonderful creative force with a name that sounds like sunshine, came to see us and she honoured me with an entry on the We Are Cardiff blog. It had to happen like that!
Thank you all so much for making the second Lia’s Kitchen outing a success.
I look forward to more.
Caramelised Onion, Leek and Spinach Pie
A favourite pie with a sweat and creamy twist. Makes 12 pieces.
Lia's Kitchen 
A Political Kitchen
Posted on Updated on
The latest divisive recipe for disaster in our global kitchen is the possibility for UK voting to leave the EU. It’s time for my second, acritic homeland to shake things up a year on from the Greek tragedy that dominated global media.
I will be voting IN, exercising my right to vote as a British citizen for the first time. Because I see the bigger picture…
My vote has nothing to do with fear or ulterior motives. But I worry about the message an OUT vote/campaign gives to the European and other foreign citizens that make up our society. Because however it is served to you the OUT argument is rooted in sectarian views, xenophobia, racism and misanthropy. I plead with you not to be distracted by feelings and arguments that try to present it as revolutionary progression.
I am voting IN because I like the free movement of people, skills and languages- and FOODS. I have seen this freedom change the UK into an even more colorful mosaic of culture that spreads stronger across the continents. Many of us have two homes one of which is the UK. This simply makes a stronger society and state. Doh!
I am voting IN because I believe EU brings more economies and savings than costs to services, businesses and goods. So if you worry about what you pay to be in the EU it’s time to start thinking about what you are saving.
I am voting IN because I think it’s the right global thing to do. OUT would send the wrong message to the global political community at a treacherous time of increasing conflict and provocation. In my heart I know it would be a reversal of peaceful progress.
Sure it is possible for the UK to leave Europe. This would happen possibly after years or a decade of negotiations during which European leaders will most likely impose limitations and sanctions affecting UK (and EU) citizens to our detriment.
There are compelling arguments to remove oneself from the circle of absurd European political decision-making and discussions taken in closed rooms, unrecorded (no different to most political or diplomatic processes though).
But I would rather we have representatives in those rooms with hearts, fists and ‘balls’ to challenge decisions, rather than be affected by them outside the union.
Just think about it all a bit more before you cast your vote…This vote is not just about a five year government plan. Your vote matters in the long run…
Are you away on 23 June for the #EUreferendum? At Glastonbury festival perhaps? Or somewhere else with no polling stations?
UK citizens can still vote by post or proxy but you MUST change this today and by 7 June. Fill in one of the applications below and post to your local electoral office (link to find that in application).
Postal votes must either be received by the electoral office 11days before election or pass it to someone to hand in on day.
https://www.gov.uk/…/519324/Postal-Vote-Application-Form.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/voting-in-the-uk/voting-by-proxy
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This entry was posted in Comment, Uncategorized and tagged eu referendum, politics.