020: greek influences

why hello there! once again, it has been an absurdly long time since i've gotten to do this, again because of travel. for one, finals. then my winter break was jam-packed! my boyfriend came up from florida to visit over christmas (his very first experience EVER with a white one!), and then my parents and i spent 3 weeks traveling in greece, before i went back down to florida for a week to visit james and his family. let me tell you, after a month in the 60s-70s that a greek/floridian december/january offer, the -8 that i woke up to this midwest morning hit me like a slap in the face. but if that's the only negative that comes from a month of travel, i'll take it!


traveling in greece opened me up to a lot of new flavor combinations, if not necessarily new cuisines. here are a few of my favorites:

1.) a green salad (lettuce, spinach, cabbage, all of the above, etc) with olive oil, lemon juice, and dill as its "dressing." i got very used to and comfortable with the olive oil, vinegar, and salt that the spanish use, but this combo offers a similar freshness. there will be a lot of tang in the flavor, and the dill (especially fresh) adds a fantastic full herb sensation. these can, of course, be in any proportion according to your own taste preferences, but if you like formulas, i'd do about equal parts olive oil and lemon juice and enough chopped dill to lightly cover the top of the salad.


2.) greek salad. this is not your typical green salad, as it is comprised solely of cut tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese. if you can't get fresh tomatoes, i'd avoid making this dish, as it is one of the central flavors, and its absence would ruin the dish. the tomatoes are cut into wedges, and the cucumbers in slices. you can either crumble the feta over the top, or, more traditionally, serve a big ol' slab of it over the top of the tomatoes and cucumbers, which are just mixed together. the only dressing on this dish is a sufficient amount of olive oil to coat the veggies, and then oregano over the top. sometimes we added lemon juice and/or salt to mix up the flavors a little bit, but it was always something nice and fresh to have with a meal.


3.) using fried potatoes in lieu of pasta, rice, or other starch. the greeks love their fried potatoes, and boy oh boy are they good! i would recommend beginning with heating olive oil in a skillet or sauce pan where the oil can be at least a good 3/4" deep. peel your potatoes, and cut them into either slices or wedges (slices will probably fry more evenly). when the olive oil is good and hot, put your cut and peeled potatoes into the oil (carefully! it will probably spit at you), and let them fry (remember to turn them so they cook evenly) until they are light brown. when they're done (they will be HOT! be careful!), you can do one of several things with them.

• serve them. this one sounds obvious, eh? but the really greek way of doing this is to serve them with a dash of balsamic vinegar or a spritz of lemon juice over them to give them a really fresh taste. they are also typically served unsalted, though oregano might be used instead. they make a great side to anything with which you would normally serve potatoes, french fries, rice, pasta, etc.
• use them as a base. these make a great thing over which to serve either meat or veggies (like eggplant, artichokes, peppers, okra, etc.) in a sauce. one of my favorites was roasted pork with bell peppers in a tomato sauce served over these potatoes instead of over rice or pasta.
• bake them. i think my favorite dish i had the entire 3 weeks abroad was a baked veal dish, where veal was baked together with these potatoes (yes, they had been fried before baked) with feta cheese as the congealing agent. the veal was diced over the top of the potatoes, and plenty of cheese was over the top, baked in a casserole and making almost a baked pasta hot dish, except, again, using the potatoes as the base starch.

get creative! there are all kinds of things you can do with potatoes. for a spanish equivalent, try my spanish omelette. it's a very similar concept and method, just in a different place along the mediterranean.


if you have any questions or would like some more specific instructions, leave a comment or email me. don't be afraid to experiment! happy cooking :o)
-kl