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Goodbye 2020: End-of-year-reflection
An eventful year, 2020, has come to an end. Over the last few days, I’ve had time to relax a little (which is why I decided not to publish a new post last week), re-connect with my family, and reflect on the year just gone (as well as on the 56 posts I published over the last twelve months). January 2020 5 (+1) Japanese novels to read in 2020 2020 was going to be the year that the Olympic Games would’ve taken place in Japan, a country that has fascinated me since a very young age, but I’m yet to visit. In the last couple of years, I have read…
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Moussaka: a classic Greek dish
I was born on this day quite a few years ago. For many years, I would celebrate my birthday with my friends and family, either in Thessaloniki, where I was born and raised, or in England, where I’ve lived for the last 12 years. This year, however, a birthday party is simply not an option. I shouldn’t be complaining though; instead, I am spending this special day with my mother, who’s come all the way from Greece to London. To mark the occasion, I’ve baked a classic Greek (albeit not Christmassy) dish: moussaka. Moussaka is perhaps the best-known Greek dish. It is a layered dish, traditionally made with fried sliced…
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Melomakarona: Greek Christmas honey cookies
It’s this time of the year that Greeks around the world start eating and/or baking melomakarona, aromatic cookies made of flour and olive oil, flavoured with cinnamon, cloves and orange, and dipped in honey syrup. Melomakarona are traditionally eaten around Christmas time; one may say they are the Greek equivalent to the British mince pies. As I’m baking melomakarona this year, I’m reflecting on my baking journey. I first started baking 9 years ago, soon after I started my psychiatry training in Leeds. Inspired by the culinary murder mystery novels I was devouring at the time (i.e. ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder’ by Joanne Fluke), I started baking batches of cookies…
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Tomato pie with phyllo pastry
Traditional Greek stuffed vegetables (tomatoes and peppers). Baked tomato fritters from Santorini. Spinach and feta cheese pie. Greek semolina halva with orange and honey. These are some of the traditional Greek recipes I’ve recently experimented with. Today, I am using the basic ingredients I used in these recipes to create something different, but as delicious: a tomato pie. For me, the star ingredient in the recipe is -surprise, surprise- the tomato, one of my favourite ingredients and protagonist in my diet. Tomatoes are rich in various antioxidants and the major dietary source of lycopene, which has been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and cancer.…