Food word association

Carl Jung, noted Swiss psychiatrist and one of the founding fathers of modern depth psychology, developed a clinical diagnostic tool, the Word Association Test, in which patients are presented with various stimulus words and asked to give responses to them. These responses are used to identify unconscious personality dynamics and the existence of underlying problems.

Let's combine it with a little free association and let's give it a try. Stimulus word: dessert. Go!

Dessert
Sweets
Chocolate
Cake
Whipped-cream
Coconut
Fruit
Honey
Sugar
Syrup
Cinnamon
Spices
Food
Greek

Well, you don't need a degree in Psychology —though I do have a couple— to figure out what my unconscious is saying. A dessert for me right now equals a Greek dessert.






That wasn't always the case though. A few years ago, my response to the stimulus word "dessert" in a word association test, would be a very specific one. Dessert = Chocolate. Not any more!
Even though I still love chocolate, I've come to appreciate the wonders of sponge cakes and fruity desserts. Most of all, I have come to love "siropiasta" desserts. "Siropiasta" is a category of Greek desserts that are drenched in syrup, like most traditional Greek desserts are. Take Baklavas, or Kantaifi, or Galaktompoureko, or Ravani which is one of the Greek desserts that have been a revelation for me.






Ravani or Revani is a buttery cake doused with syrup. I never used to like it, it always seemed too stodgy to me, so heavy with all that syrup, always wanting to reach for a glass of water as soon as I took one bite of it. But one day my mother called, sounding so excited, declaring that she had found the perfect Ravani. Yes, my mother is as crazy about food as I am. Of course she gave me the recipe and I was blown away by the difference this version of Ravani had in comparison to every other I've ever tasted. So naturally I'm going to share it with you. Because a good thing needs to be shared!






This Ravani is the best you'll ever have. I'm not exaggerating. It's true. It's so delicate, it's so fluffy, it's so moist, it's sweet but not overly sweet and there's a twist. The addition of desiccated coconut to the batter that makes it taste divine and that it gives a different, more luscious texture to the cake.






The syrup is lemon flavored and it permeates the cake giving it a delicious lemony taste that's prominent but not overpowering. This syrup is so light, "showering" the cake, balancing out its buttery and sugar notes.






Its pale yellow color with its golden brown top is a beautiful sight. It's mouth watering and the smell is incredible. As you bring a piece to your mouth you can smell the butter, the lemon and the exotic coconut and when you taste it, it fulfills every expectation.






You can serve it with a dusting of desiccated coconut, with a side of vanilla ice cream, accompanying your coffee or tea and it is guaranteed to satisfy your sugar craving after dinner.











Ravani me Indokarydo (Greek Cake with Desiccated Coconut and Lemon Flavored Syrup)

Most versions of Ravani contain semolina flour. Not this one. The recipe calls for all-purpose flour which is a far better choice for this cake. Semolina flour is one of the ingredients that for me make Ravani incredibly heavy.
I prefer using a 22 cm in diameter round spring-form pan for Ravani which yields a thicker cake but you can use a slightly larger pan (25 cm) or a square pan.






Yield: 1 cake

Ingredients

for cake
160 g unsalted butter, at room temperature plus extra for greasing the pan
230 g sugar
3 medium-sized eggs
160 ml whole milk
250 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
140 g desiccated coconut

for syrup
350 g sugar
360 ml water
20 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed
Lemon peel from 1 medium-sized lemon


Preparation

for cake
Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Grease the bottom and the sides of the spring-form pan with some butter.

In a large bowl, beat with a hand-held mixer the sugar and butter until fluffy. If you have a stand mixer, you may use that instead, fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one by one, beating continuously, until they are incorporated into the mixture. Pour in the milk and beat well.
Add the flour and baking powder and beat until incorporated and then add the desiccated coconut. Mix in the coconut with a rubber spatula until the mixture is well blended.

Pour the batter in the spring-form pan and place it on the lower rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 35 minutes and then move pan to the middle rack and bake for another 15 minutes or until when inserting a knife in the middle of the cake it comes out clean.

for syrup
Meanwhile prepare the syrup. In a small saucepan, add the sugar, water, lemon juice and lemon peel. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to infuse, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon peel from the saucepan and discard it.


When cake is ready, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. When it has slightly but not completely cooled, pour the warm syrup over the cake, a spoonful at a time, starting to pour always from the middle of the cake.
Leave the drenched cake on a wire rack to absorb all the syrup and cool completely. Then remove the interlocking side band of the pan and cut the cake into squares (while still being on the round base of the pan). Remove each square and place it on a cake dish.

Note: The cake will be almost stuck at the bottom of the pan and that is why you need to cut it into pieces first so that it doesn't crack while trying to remove it as a whole.


Serve the cake and keep in mind that it tastes far better the next day!!

The cake will keep for 4-5 days, covered, at room temperature.

A cautionary tale and the best meatballs you'll ever have

Yesterday afternoon, after S and I exercised our right to vote, we decided to go out to dinner. You may notice I use the word afternoon rather than evening referring to dinner, because that's the way things are here in The Netherlands. Most restaurants close their kitchens at around ten o'clock and well, they're empty by nine-thirty anyway. When I first realized this, I was stunned and thought I had moved to a geriatric community rather than an international European city. In Athens, Greece restaurants don't open until nine in the evening. You go out to dinner and you don't come home until one o'clock in the morning. Here though is a different story. The Dutch eat at six o'clock and they are in bed by eleven. How boring, and yet another thing I had to get used to living here.

We were in the mood for Italian so we picked a restaurant not far from our apartment that we haven't been to before, but that we heard through the grapevine that it does great food. I checked out their site and looked elegant and modern, and their menu had a good selection of pasta dishes and entrées. I was kind of excited.
When we got there though, we had another thing coming. First off, I didn't like the ambience of the place. Can't really put my finger on it, perhaps the lighting, the way they'd arranged their tables, it just didn't feel comfortable. Or maybe it was the fact that we were seated at the worst possible table in the restaurant, even though we'd made a reservation. A table right in front of the entrance door, where everyone was bumping onto us and we kept freezing to death by the constant opening and closing of that door.






Moving on, we ordered antipasti for starters that were fairly good, although I don't enjoy seafood like octopus and shrimp on the same plate as prosciutto and mortadella, but that's just me. The wine we had was an overpriced 2007 Chianti that was really nice, right amount of tannins there. Then the main course came, with a delay of 55 minutes! The restaurant had around twelve tables and eight or nine of them had two people sitting at them. How difficult is it to prepare main dishes for that amount of people? We didn't all come at the same time for God's sake! The poor waiter kept apologizing but that actually doesn't matter when you're hungry, does it?






Anyway, I got the veal scallopini with porcini sauce, roast potatoes and braised endive, and S got the pasta with prawns and arugula. Besides the fact that I found a plastic strand in my food that God knows where it came from, the veal was cooked well, the sauce was adequate, but I couldn't find any porcini mushrooms on my plate no matter how hard I looked. The potatoes were bland and not cooked enough, and the endive, even though it was cooked well, it seemed to have been braised in a tomato sauce which has nothing to do with a creamy porcini sauce. Two types of sauces on one plate? C'mon! The pasta dish was nothing special, as S proclaimed. The arugula was too tough, how can that be I have no idea but he kept spitting it into his napkin so that definitely wasn't good.






I have to admit the dessert was satisfactory, but I had a mocha ice cream and ice cream is always satisfactory. S had a créme brulée which I tasted and thought was fine, but he said he have had better. I believed him.
Oh, the highlight of the evening was the complimentary homemade limoncello drinks that were fantastic, but by then it was just too little too late. Our dinner experience was a big disappointment. I gotta tell you, I'm extremely surprised that this restaurant was full and that they were actually turning people away. I'm not gonna name (restaurant) names but I'm also not going there again. I know I'd probably make a rather harsh food critic but hey, I just tell it like it is.






We should've stayed home instead and enjoyed this great food! Greek meatballs (called "keftedakia" in Greek) with fennel seeds and a yoghurt sauce with fresh mint and lemon zest. Does that sound great or what? I assure you it not only sounds great it tastes great as well.





This is another Greek mezes that is a classic. We love meatballs in Greece and there are innumerable combinations for their preparation. The use of different kinds of minced meat like lamb, beef, veal or pork gives different taste and character to the meatballs. The addition of various herbs like mint, parsley or thyme, or the use of spices like cinnamon, allspice and cumin makes meatballs unique and adventurous. They can be eaten on their own, paired with roast or fried potatoes -which is one of my favorite meals-, they can be fried and then cooked in a rich tomato sauce, or served with a simple dipping sauce.






The ones I'm sharing with you here are made with both beef and pork meat which is a perfect combination. The addition of crushed fennel seeds and spices like cinnamon, cloves, ground coriander and cayenne pepper make these meatballs highly aromatic and pungent. They are accompanied by a Greek yoghurt dipping sauce which is both refreshing and luscious, bursting with the fragrance of the fresh mint and the lemon zest, complementing the rich flavors of the meatballs.






This mezes is perfect with ouzo as its aniseed flavor brings out the taste of the fennel seeds in the meatballs. You can also accompany them with white wine like a lovely bottle of Riesling. They're perfect for a dinner party, served as starters, or as part of a buffet, or prepared with a side of French fries and a tomato salad for a family lunch.











Keftedakia me Marathosporous kai Saltsa Giaourtiou-Dyosmou (Greek Spiced Meatballs with Fennel Seeds and a Yoghurt-Mint Dipping Sauce)
Adapted from Myrsini Lambraki

Greeks always choose veal over beef, we don’t particularly enjoy the mature flavor of beef, but you can use either.

Frying these delicious meatballs will fill your house with the smells of Greece. I used olive oil to fry my meatballs but you can substitute with another vegetable oil like sunflower seed oil or corn oil if you want them to be a little lighter.
It's also important that you don't use very fatty meat because the meatballs will be heavy and greasy.





Yield: 40-45 small meatballs / 2 cups yoghurt-mint sauce

Ingredients

for meatballs
250 g minced pork
250 g minced beef or veal
1 large onion, grated
1 medium-sized egg
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup very fine cornmeal
1 Tbsp olive oil plus 1 cup olive oil for frying

for yoghurt-mint sauce
2 cups Greek strained yoghurt like Total
2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest, grated
1 Tbsp olive oil

Preparation

for meatballs
Using a mortar and pestle crush the fennel seeds until they become almost powder.

In a large bowl, place minced beef and pork meat, egg, grated onion, crushed fennel seeds, ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne pepper, salt and 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Mix well with your hands for about 10 minutes, until all the ingredients are well blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour so that the flavors "blend" and the mixture "matures".

Place the cornmeal in a bowl.

Using your hands, shape into small meatballs and roll them in the cornmeal. Put them in a sieve and shake them around, letting excess cornmeal escape through the sieve and into the bowl.

Heat 1 cup of olive oil in a large skillet on high heat until oil is really hot and put meatballs inside. Immediately turn the heat down to medium and let meatballs fry, turning them over once with tongs, for about 10 minutes or until cooked through and until they have taken a nice golden brown color on the outside.
Remove them from skillet with a slotted spoon and place them on paper towels to drain off excessive fat.

Place the meatballs in a bowl and serve immediately.

for yoghurt-mint sauce
In a bowl, mix yoghurt, chopped mint leaves, grated lemon peel, olive oil and salt with a spoon until the mixture is well blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can prepare the sauce one day ahead.
Before serving just stir again with a spoon.

To serve, place meatballs and yogurt sauce in clean bowls. Meatballs must be warm when you serve them. They should be served straight from the frying pan.

Bread for the masses

I live in The Hague, the international city of peace and justice, for almost three years now. I know I've been complaining about the weather, the fact that I have no family or close friends here, about missing my own country, but I have to admit, this is a city I'm proud to live in.

On March 3rd we have municipal elections here and expats are allowed to vote. Yesterday evening I attended the first ever political debate in The Netherlands and probably the first one in Europe that was held for expats in the English language. I was amazed that such a debate was taking place. The fact that the Dutch were acknowledging the fact that I too live here, that I too have rights and demands and responsibilities, that I too would like to know what the different parties stand for and what are their views on the issues that concern me, was a gesture of respect and acceptance.






Having lived in Greece for most of my life, this notion of a debate for expats seems incomprehensible. I could not imagine such a debate ever taking place in Greece, the land that had actually given birth to democracy, but still the land that its current democracy leads people to despair and uncertainty as a result of the government's- both past and present- horrible economic and social management. It saddens me that my country is so far from the European ideal in many issues, let alone the issues facing expats living in Greece.
Don't get me wrong, I do love my country and I'm not suggesting that my adoptive country is a perfect one, but I'm happy that it is liberal and democratic, forward and supportive of its new members. Because, after all, it's such a great feeling to be included and to feel welcome in the city or country you choose to live in.






I am a political and social being but I don't want to confuse you, this is still a food blog. And what better time than now to be sharing a recipe adapted from a Dutch chef. A very accomplished and highly respected Dutch chef, Rudolph Van Veen. The recipe is a simple bread roll, a quick bread roll to be exact. When I saw the recipe I thought "this is for me!". We're always out of bread around here and what a better way to tackle that than by making my own and in no time. I know I've promised you a particular bread recipe on a previous post but first things first. Let's begin with an easy one.






Now, don't expect this bread to be the classic soft, chewy bread. These qualities are given by the addition of yeast and this recipe does not contain any. What it does contain is whole-wheat flour for good health, baking powder which gives it its lift and a good amount of mascarpone cheese which gives it its unique flavor.






This bread roll, which is almost like a scone, is dense and a little bit crumbly with a beautiful golden brown crust. The slightly tangy flavor from the flour and the hint of sweetness from the mascarpone give an original taste to these bread rolls. You can eat them for breakfast with lots of butter and jam, for lunch with some goat's cheese and cold cuts of chicken or turkey, for a snack with salami and a couple of lettuce leaves and of course you can choose them to accompany your dinner.











Quick-and-Easy Whole-Wheat Bread Rolls
Adapted from Rudolph Van Veen

The original recipe calls for créme fraiche but I opted for something more luscious than that, mascarpone. You can also use cream cheese instead.







Yield: 10 bread rolls

Ingredients
450 g whole-wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
150 g mascarpone cheese
250 ml lukewarm water

1 egg, beaten, for coating

Preparation
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Choose the air circulation setting.

Using a large bowl or a smooth surface in your kitchen to work on , mix the flour, salt and baking powder until well blended. You can use your hands or a wooden spoon to do this. I prefer using my hands.
Create a hole in the middle of the flour mixture, pour the lukewarm water in it and add the mascarpone.
Begin mixing the ingredients by hand by bringing the flour slowly towards the mascarpone and water, mixing the ingredients, incorporating them and creating a dough.
Knead until you have a firm dough. This whole procedure does not take more than 3-4 minutes.
Roll the dough out into a French baguette-style loaf, 5-6 cm in diameter and cut it into two large, equal pieces with a knife. Then take each large piece and cut it into five small equal pieces. Take each little piece and roll it into a ball. The size should be a little smaller than a tennis ball.




Line a baking sheet with baking paper or a non-stick mat and place the bread rolls on it.
Beat one whole egg and brush the top of each bread roll. Cut the top of each roll with a knife, making a cross, and put baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes and then lower the oven to 190 degrees Celsius and bake for another 7-8 minutes. They should be golden brown on top and cooked all the way through.
Remove from the oven and place bread rolls on a wire rack to cool.

They're best eaten the same day but they're also delicious the next.