Aegeaneating

Bring to a boil the potatoes over medium high heat.

Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them.

Stir in the eggs, white cheese, Gruyere cheese,  and chopped onion.

Add diced parsley and mix well until the potato mixture has consistency.

When the mixture is stiff, add salt and black pepper.

Drop a scoop of the mixture into the palm of your hand.

Roll and shape into ball.

Repeat the process.

for coating:

Once the potato balls are all formed, coat them with flour.

Chill them in the fridge for a couple of hours.

for frying:

Fill a deep fryer with oil and heat it over medium high heat.

Drop three potato balls at a time and fry them until golden brown on the outside turning occasionally.

Place them on a paper towel lined plate to drain off the excess oil.

Serve immediately.

Perfect as a side dish.

Now is the season to consume fresh horse beans to welcome the spring!

Many farmers plant horse beans to replenish the soil with nutrient nitrogen. 

Scientists have discovered that fresh fava beans helps to fight Parkinson’s disease.

Wash the horse beans and pod cut them from both sides. If it is mature enough, take the beans out.

Saute the chopped onion with hazelnut oil in the pressure cooker. Place the horse beans and the rest of the ingredients to the pressure cooker. Add salt, sugar, lemon and tangerine juices with 3/4 cup water.  

Cook 20  minutes until they are tender.  

While cooking, cut the filo pastry sheet into twelve 10cm squares.

Brush with melted butter and line four individual brioche tins in 3 overlapping layers.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200° C for 5 minutes. 

Transfer the horse beans to a food processor. Process until smooth.

Taste and adjust seasoning(cumin) or extra virgin olive oil if necessary.   

Place the horse bean puree to the filo baskets.

Garnish with chopped dill.

Depending on the season, the ingredients are changing.

These days, instead of fresh tomatoes we started to use home-made sun dried tomatoes that we prepared on hot summer.

A delicious dip not to be missed!

Put the sun dried tomatoes in boiling water for an hour.

Blend the dried hot pepper with basil.

Saute the chopped onion and garlic with extra virgin olive oil.

Remove from water and dice the tomatoes. Add to the onion, garlic mix and simmer about 5 minutes.

Combine blended hot pepper and basil to the sauteed mixture.

Add balsamic vinegar, if necessary add 1 T extra virgin olive oil.

Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Spread it to toasted breads or sliced pitas.

Make your day with a delicious yogurt~cucumber dip!

It is a variation of cacık (????????). In Iran, a similar meze is made and called   mast-o-khiar, meaning yogurt with cucumber.

Blend the garlic cloves with salt until finely mashed.

Combine garlic paste with yogurt, dill and mint. Add diced cucumber and chopped toasted walnuts.

Serve with drizzled extra virgin olive oil.

Spread it to crackers, toasted breads or sliced pitas as a delicious dip.

Squids are molluscs with soft flesh. It is popular in Aegean region but mostly confused with calamari.

In some areas many think squid and calamari are the same, saying that the calamari is the Italian word for squid!

Calamari is similar to squid in may respects such as, both squid and calamari have an ink sac as a defence mechanism.

The main differences are; squid is larger in size than calamari. Calamari has side fins running along the whole length of the body on both the sides. In squid, the side fins are found only for a shorter length of the body on both the sides.

• 2 medium cleaned squid tubes
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 T white wine
• 1 t soda
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• salt
• 1 lemon

Wash and rinse the squids.

In a bowl, mix flour, water, soda, wine, salt and make a batter. Toss the squids into the mixture to coat.

Pour oil to a heavy deep skillet. Heat until the oil begins to bubble. Place the coated squid and turn the heat to medium level.

Fry it until golden brown. Repeat the same for the other squid.

Place them on an absorbent paper towel to drain excess oil.

Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

You can find fried calamari receipt from here.