Badland Chili

YOUR PRODUCE MAN'S

Athens Olympic Recipes

GREEK "VILLAGE" SALAD

Ingredients



4 ea Ripe tomatoes

1 ea Cucumber

1 ea Onion

1 ea Green pepper

1/3 lb Feta cheese

to taste Olives

to taste Capers

1/2 cup Olive oil

to taste Oregano

to taste Salt



Instructions

·
Cut the vegetables in slices and mix in a salad bowl. Top with the olives,
capers and oregano and cover with "crumbled" feta cheese. Pour
the olive oil evenly.

TSATZIKI

Ingredients



2 cups Pressed yogurt

1 ea Cucumber

4 cloves Pressed garlic

2 TBS Olive oil

1 tsp Vinegar

1 TBS Fresh Baby Dill (diced)

to taste Salt & Pepper



Instructions

·
Grate the cucumber and strain tightly using a cloth until very dry. Mix
in all the other ingredients.

SPANAKOPITA (SPINACH PIE)

Ingredients



2 lbs Spinach

2/3 lb Diced green onions

1 bunch Diced Baby Dill

1 ea Finely chopped leek

2 ea Eggs

1 1/2cup Olive oil

1 lb Filo pastry

to taste Salt & Pepper



Instructions

·
Clean and boil the spinach lightly. Strain it well and chop it.

·
Brown the green onions and the leek lightly in a pot using half the olive
oil. Remove from the heat and add the dill, the eggs, the spinach and
salt & pepper.

·
Oil a pan and spread half the sheets of filo sheets. Spread the spinach
mix on top and then cover with the other sheets. Oil the top and bake
in medium oven for about 1 hr.

SKORTHALIA

Ingredients



5 - 6 Cloves Garlic

1/3 lb Boiled Potatoes

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

Sprinkle of Vinegar

To taste Salt



Instructions

·
Skin and mash the garlic. Add the potatoes and mash them as well while
slowly adding the olive oil. Salt and vinegar to taste.

BRIAM

Ingredients



2 lb Zucchini

2 lb Potatoes

2 lb Eggplants

1 ea Green pepper

3 ea Sliced onions

2 ea Thinly sliced green onions

2 lb Ripe peeled tomatoes

1 bunch Diced parsley

to taste Salt & Pepper



Instructions

·
Clean and chop all the vegetables in large pieces. Bake in a deep pan
for about 1 1/2 hr (medium oven).

FASOLAKIA

Ingredients



2 lbs Fresh green beans

1 Large chopped onion

4 Potatoes

4 Ripe tomatoes

3 Sliced onions

Some chopped garlic

Chopped parsley

Pinch of sugar

To taste Salt & Pepper



Instructions

·
Clean and wash the beans.

·
Warm the oil in a pot and simmer the onions and throw in the rest of
the ingredients, except for the potatoes, with a little bit of water
and leave the beans to slowly cook for 20 minutes.

·
Cut the potatoes in 4 wedges and put them in the pot last. If needed
put in more water and let the food boil for a while. Serve hot.

ROAST POTATOES

Ingredients

12 Peeled and chopped potatoes

4-5 Lemons

2-3 cups Chicken broth

1/4 cup Shortening

as needed Olive oil

4 clove Garlic

to taste Oregano

to taste Salt & Pepper

Instructions

·
Wash the potatoes. Cut into quarters lengthwise, and place in a large
and deep enough baking pan. Sprinkle or lightly brush the potatoes with
olive oil. Put the chicken broth in the pan, add the juice from 3 lemons.
Season the potatoes with salt, pepper, oregano, and finely chopped garlic
or garlic powder. Turn the potatoes over and repeat the seasoning.

·
Cut 1/4 cup of shortening (or lard) into 1/2 in. by 1/2 in. cubes and
distribute evenly amongst the potatoes. Cover the pan and place in the oven
at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender
inside. Uncover the potatoes and broil for a short while to brown and crips
them as desired. Squeeze a lemon or two over them.

Choriatiki Salata (hoe-ree-ah-tee-key sa-lah-tah): Village salad or what
we in America call a Greek Salad, except here you usually don't get lettuce.
It generally consists of Tomatoes(tho-mah-tes),Cucumbers(an-goo-ree), Onions(crem-ee-thya),
Feta, Oil(la-thee), vinigear (ksee-dee) and olives(ill-yes). Sometimes they
leave off the feta so you have to ask for it and they charge you extra.
When I order I ask for a hoe-ree-ah-tee-key meh feh-tah, a village salad
with feta, just to avoid this. If you want it without any of the above items
just tell the waitor: hoe-ris (without) and the name of the item. In Sifnos
get it with mee-zee-thra which is a soft feta they make on the island.

Sadziki (sahd-zee-key): Yogurt, cucumber and garlic, and salt. Great
on fresh Greek bread.

Spanakopita (span-ah-koh-pee-tah) Spinach pie

Patates to Fourno (pa-tah-tes toh for-no): Oven roasted potatoes. My
favorite dish.

Briam(bree-am): roast vegetables. Usually contains potatoes, onions,
zucchini, eggplant, garlic and tomatoes.

Food, for the Greeks, had all sorts of religious and philosophical meaning.
The Greeks, to begin with, never ate meat unless it had been sacrificed to a god, or had been hunted in the wild. They believed that it was wrong
to kill and eat a tame, domesticated animal without sacrificing it to the
gods. Even with vegetables, many Greeks believed that particular foods were
cleaner or dirtier, or that certain gods liked certain foods better than
others. The Pythagoreans, for example, would not eat beans. But even if
you were not a Pythagorean, the Greeks tended to think of the god Dionysos
whenever they drank wine (which was often), and to think of Demeter and
Persephone whenever they ate bread.

The Greeks ate mainly the Mediterranean triad, wheat (or barley or millet),
wine, and olive oil. They also grew vegetables, especially legumes (lentils,
beans, peas, chickpeas). Possibly they ate more fish than most other Mediterranean
people. Also, because of their feelings about sacrificing meat, they may
have eaten meat less than other people did.

The staple foods of the ancient Greek diet were olives, bread and wine.
They didn't have foods that came from the Americas - tomatoes, corn or potatoes
- because America hadn't been discovered by the Europeans yet.

Wine is made from grapes, so your restaurant will want to serve a substitute,
such as grape juice.

Crusty breadrolls, goat cheese and olives would have been the mainstay
at most meals. Greece is surrounded by water, so the ancient Greeks had
a variety of fish to eat, such as mackerel and tuna. They also ate octopus,
squid, and shellfish, which plays a large part in Greek cooking today. Fish
would have been flavored with bay leaves, rosemary and thyme. Other meat
was only ever eaten on sacrificial occasions such as religious festivals.

For vegetables, the ancient Greeks ate onions, peas, lentils, cabbage and
greens. The ancient Greeks did not have sugar, so they satisfied their sweet
tooth with fresh fruit, such as figs, dates and pomegranates and apples.
They had no oranges or lemons. As a treat they might make small cakes sweetened
with honey. The ancient Greeks would have paid for their meals using small
bronze coins called drachmae. Several scientific studies have connected
the diet of that region—especially Crete—to heart health. Yannis
Papadimitriou, director of the Greek Trade Office in New York, says olive
oil was the first product that alerted people to the Greek diet, but then
they started to be aware of other facets of that cuisine. Press coverage
is making consumers aware of the "Mediterranean Food Pyramid," a
graphic guideline for good eating, something like the USDA Food Pyramid.
It illustrates Mediterranean eating patterns, which include lots of vegetables
and fruits, along with olive oil, fish and wine. No Greek Christmas season
would be complete without the supreme herb, Basil. Although it is rich in
associations, basil came late to Greece and it was believed to have been
brought back by Alexander the Great. At Christmas, most Greek houses take
a sprig of basil wrapped around a small wooden cross and suspend it over
a bowl of water. Oddly enough, in Greek folklore, the days around Christmas
are considered to be very dangerous ones. This is the period when the kallinkatzari,
a kind of devilish sprite, can torment humans. The cross and basil are used
to sprinkle the rooms of the house with holy water to prevent these attacks.
Basil is also associated with St. Basil, or Agios Vassilis, a founder of
the Greek Orthodox Church, whose feast day in Greece is January first. It
is the name day for anyone called Vassilios or Vassiliki. On St. Basil's
day, the Vassilopita is baked. This is a cake which conceals a token. The
entire cake is carefully divided up - the Saint gets the first piece, then
the eldest member of the household, and so on down through the family, sometimes
including those who live far away. A piece may even be set aside for the
various kinds of livestock the household raises. St Basil's day is also
when all vessels of water in the household are replaced with fresh water.
But here the veil of orthodoxy wears a little thin - this is also the day
for offerings to the naiads, spirits of local springs, to ensure the continued
flow of the waters and to thank them for the previous year.

As any of the latest naval stand offs between Turks and Greeks in the Aegean
shows, the Greeks are not much amenable to the idea that their food might
be indebted to Turkish cooking. It is commonplace for Greek food writers
to introduce Greek cuisine as one “shaped through over 3,000 years
of history.”1 The sumptuous feasts described by Homer or Plato and
menus from Athenaeus--all this will be described as part of the Greek culinary
heritage. Sometimes it can get rather silly, such as the comment of one
writer that “When you start your day with rolls and coffee, you are
following an ancient Greek custom.”2 One Greek writer went so far
as to state that Greek cuisine is twenty-five centuries old and is the ur-cuisine
that the Turks, Italians, and other Europeans borrowed from, not the other
way around.3 Nicolas Tselementes was a noted Greek food authority who claimed
the Greeks influenced western European foods via Rome; he traced the ancestry
of such dishes as keftedes, dolmades, moussaka, and yuvarelakia to ancient
Greek preparations that subsequently became masked behind Turkish and European
names. He also said that bouillabaisse was an offspring of the Greek kakavia.4



The Greek food writers are right about one thing: Greece is the source
for an original European cuisine, just as it is the source of Western
philosophy. The Hellenist influence on the Mediterranean is no doubt
a powerful and important one and should not be underestimated. But
whether it is the only font to Mediterranean cuisine is another matter.
Greek culinary nationalism has hindered any reasoned debate and research
on this question of the degree to which the Greek people preserved
and maintained the classical heritage through 2,500 years, including
Roman occupation, barbarian invasions, and 500 years of occupation
by the Turks, not to mention interference and occupation by Venetians,
Genoese, and Catalans. They ignore the fact that the majority population
of peninsular Greece in the Middle Ages was Slav.5 They also underemphasize
the importance of the Byzantine Empire, the Greek successor state to
the Roman Empire in the East.



The Byzantine Empire saw its most glorious period in the sixth century.
A new period of splendor also occurred in the ninth and tenth centuries,
but after the Turkish victory at Manzikert (Malazgirt) in 1071 the
fortunes of Byzantium declined. The empire broke up when the Crusaders
captured Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and continued
as a truncated state, ever-shrinking in the face of the Ottoman Turks
and vainly begging for aid from the West. Finally, Constantinople fell
to Mohammed II in 1453 and the Byzantine Empire was extinguished forever.
But this Greek civilization certainly left important culinary artifacts,
and these culinary influences from Byzantium are a more likely Greek
contribution than that from classical Greece as claimed by so many
writers. We know that there were Byzantine mechanical devices such
as one for preparing dough using animal power, apparently invented
at the end of the tenth century. We can surmise that there was other
important culinary transfers as well. Unfortunately, there are no comparative
historical studies of Greek and Turkish food by disinterested third-party
scholars, although at least one Greek scholar believes his countrymen
claim too much ownership.6 In any case, all claims regarding the heritage
of Greek food must be taken with a grain of salt for Greek culinary
history still awaits its Maxime Rodinson. As the scholar of medieval
Hellenism Speros Vryonis Jr. warned: “In matters of cuisine the
conquerors undoubtedly absorbed some items from the conquered, but
the problem is again obscured by a similarity in Byzantine and Islamic
cuisine which probably existed before the appearance of the Turks.”7
Turkmen cuisine was very simple, usually produced from their flocks,
with products such as milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese, with grains
such as millet, fruit, honey, eggs, and a type of pancake cooked on
a hot iron griddle. Vyronis states that the elaborate Turkish cuisine
that came later was foreign to the Turkmen nomads and belonged to the
native cuisine of the eastern Mediterranean. There is a similarity
between the sweets of the Turks and those of the Byzantines, he argues,
where one finds dough, sesame, nuts, honey, and fruits, as the Byzantine
pastilla shows. The Turkish baklava was known as kopton and Athenaeus
gives a recipe. (Athenaeus, XIV, 647-48). Cheese, borëk, and pastirma
were all known to the Byzantines, as was the roasting of meat on a
spit. The above argument by Vyronis has been convincingly challenged
by Charles Perry, who says that Vyronis misread the Greek text of Athenaeus
and that the simple food of Turkic nomads may actually have been the
mother of invention for more complex preparations, like layered doughs
for bread, see Perry 1994: 87-91. For my part, I am convinced of the
possibility that contemporary Greek food, when it is not directly taken
from the Turks or Italians, has its roots more properly in the Greek
Byzantium than it does in the classical era.



The history of Greek food is as complicated as Greek history. Listening
today, one would think that the boundary between Greek and Turkish
is true and clear--but it isn’t, for although Greece was part
of the Ottoman Empire for a long time, the Greeks themselves sometimes
benefited from a pax turcica. In the Middle Ages the Greek peasants
of Anatolia rose up against the towns where their Greek landlords lived,
converted to Islam, and welcomed the Turkish nomads arriving from the
East. Remember, too, that the Greeks helped the Turkish expedition
against Crete in the seventeenth century because they hated the Venetians.
Before the Turks, Greece was under the scourge of the Catalans who
took Athens in 1311 and set up their own dynasty, not to mention the
Florentines in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. By
the mid-fourteenth century, parts of Greece were falling to the Turks
and the great Greek capital of Constantinople fell in 1453, a momentous
event. Some of the most famous admirals in the Turkish service were
Greeks, such as the corsair Khayr al-Din (Barbarossa) and possibly
Kemal Re’is, whose fleet defeated the Venetians off Modon in
1500. When the Turks overran Greece, they populated the fertile plains
of Thessaly and western Macedonia but were never really able to conquer
the mountains. These mountain Greeks, the famous Klephts, often raided
the plains, attacking both Greeks and Turks. The Turks sometimes used
the institution of the Greek armatoloi (men at arms) to track down
the Klephts. There were also Greek tribal communities left completely
untouched by the Ottoman forces, such as the Suli of Epirus (Ipiros),
the Máni in the Peloponnesus and the Sphakia on Crete. These
tribes were semi-autonomous communities left unmolested by the Ottomans
in their impregnable mountain confederations. They rarely interacted
with the Turks, except occasionally when the Ottomans compelled them
to pay tribute if they had sufficient troops in a local area to do
so.8



The rivalry between the Houses of Anjou and Aragon over the island
of Sicily affected Greek history of the late thirteenth century more
than any other cause. Once peace came to Sicily, the Catalan auxiliaries
of Aragon sought their mercenary adventure in Greece, wrecking havoc
on the Greeks and the Frankish rulers of the Levant. The Catalans ruled
Attica and Boetia for seventy-five years until Athens was taken by
Nerio Acciaiuoli, a member of a famous Florentine banking and arms
manufacturing family in 1388 and the Greeks subjugated. The position
of the Greeks during this time is reflected in Catalan, Sicilian, and
Florentine documents where, when concerned with Greece, the Greeks
remain nameless.9 For a hundred years Greece was dominated by this
conflict, only to fall to the Ottoman Turks in short order.10 By the
late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries there was an upsurge
in Greek ethnic awareness that sustained the Greeks as a people through
four centuries of Turkish rule. This spirit was fostered and guided
by the Greek Orthodox Church. Whatever exists in the way of a unique
Greek cuisine more than likely derives from the efforts of the orthodox
church in sustaining Greek Byzantine culture, rather than from the
classical period, and was influenced by mountain Greeks who were not
so easily subjugated by occupying powers.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about what culinary
traditions or recipes may have been preserved in Greek Orthodox monasteries
outside of folkloric apocrypha. The number of fasting days in the Greek
Orthodox calender are numerous, and the Greeks are a devout people, so many
preparations were created for special religious occasions or for the particular
needs of fasting. The most important holiday for the Greeks is Easter, celebrated
by Christians as the anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The
following recipes are some examples of foods that might find their way onto
a menu for a variety of religious holidays.

“The Greeks' fierce pride in their heritage has kept the basic culture
intact. Whether a slave under Roman rule, a captive under Turkish domination,
or a newly arrived immigrant, the Greek is always aware that he is the direct
descendant of men like Plato, Homer, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Aristophanes.
The Greek who begins life in a new land on the bottom step of society as
a dishwasher needs only to remember how Aesop left a legacy of poetry while
cooking as a slave.”

Food-related evidence from ancient Mediterranean cultures is diversified
and vast. Carbonized seeds that date to the 10th millennium B.C.E. reveal
hunting-gathering economies. Domestication of plants and animals in the
region was followed by herding and settled agriculture. Stone technologies
of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic gave way to smelting of copper,
bronze, and iron. Iron Age settlements ultimately evolved into

sophisticated urban centers exemplified by ancient Athens and Rome.

Great civilizations leave written texts. Throughout the eastern Mediterranean
archaeologists and linguists have poured over and deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs,
the Phoenician alphabet, and have traced food-related terms from earliest
Greek to into Classical and Hellenistic Periods, and earliest Latin to Republican
and Empire texts, and ultimately into Byzantine and ecclesiastical Latin
expressions. An impressive body of

literature has survived from antiquity that documents agricultural practices,
food storage, cooking and dietary patterns.