Archive for the ‘Crete's cuisine specialities’ Category

A traditional Greek meal (part 1)

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Greek traditional tavern

In case you visit Crete or generally Greece, there are some dishes you should definitely taste. So here is a small article about what you should order in a restaurant or a Greek traditional tavern (taverna).

Let’s start off with the appetizers, this first part will be all about them. The first thing to order should be the Horiatiki (Choriatiki) Salada, or Greek Salad, which has tomatoes, cucumber, olives, Feta cheese (the traditional cheese of Greece) and virgin olive oil. Don’t miss the “tzitziki” which is a top specialty for Greeks and basically is a cucumber dip. Be sure to order “kalamarakia” which is chopped squid and a great appetizer. Don’t forget to order french fries and the famous saganaki, which is nothing but pan-fried cheese, with a bit of lemon added to make it taste better. These are the basic appetizers you should taste. But there are lots of delicious dishes you can try. Just look through the menu and order whatever looks nice and tasty.

In the second part, you will be given info about the main dish, and the top Cretan and Greek cuisine specialties.

Crete’s Cuisine Specialties

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

We are sorry for having left this section without posts for such a long time. We will post new recipes and specialties of the great Cretan and Greek cuisine as soon as possible. Please feel free to send suggestions and/or requests for something particular you may have in mind. Look forward to seeing new posts!

Kserotigana

Friday, March 7th, 2008
crete cuisine
Ingredients
  • 1 glass of orange juice
  • 3 soup spoons of extra virgin oil
  • 4 soup spoons of water
  • 3 cups of flour
  • salt
  • light frying oil
    for the syrup

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1cup of honey
    for the sprinkle

  • sesame
  • cinnamon
  • walnut melt in thick pieces

Preparation

  1. Put the flour into a basin and make a hole in the middle. Put the juice, the oil, the water and the salt in the hole and make an elastic dough. Then leave it for two hours.
  2. Split it in two pieces and open them to thin puff pastries upon a floury surface. Cut them into thin ribbons with a round tool.
  3. Put the oil inside a frying pan until it burns.
  4. Sink a fork in the oil and wrap a pastry ribbon around it until it looks like a snail. Do the same for all the ribbons and put them into the pan.
  5. Raise down the cooker a little bit and turn the ribbons around after a while so they can be fried in both sides.
  6. When they get browned take them out and place them on a absorptive towel.
  7. Boil the syrup and when it gets ready, place a little of it on the kserotigana. Then you can powder them with the sesame, cinnamon and walnut.

Bon apetit!

A Cretan “sandwich”

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

A sandwich-like food famous in Crete but on the rest of Greece as well are the “Dakos“. Dakos contain the basic ingredients of the horiatiki traditional Greek salad, but these ingredients are now put between two pieces of dry bread called “paximadi”. Put some sliced pieces of tomatoes and feta cheese between two paximadia pieces, add some oregano and much olive oil. Pure olive oil and feta cheese makes the difference. Cretans just love to make a delicious dako, not only because it is tasty but also because it is good for their health. Its ingredients are included in the Mediterranean diet list of ingredients. It just may be the reason why cretan live so long and are on a good mood! Enjoy.

Top Cretan Specialities

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Traditional Horiatiki Salad

This is an article about a top specialty in Crete, which are popular all over the rest of Greece as well. It is the traditional Greek Salad, also known as “Horiatiki” Salad (it means the salad of the village!). This salad contains tasty but also important ingredients for us. To make a bowl of this traditional salad, you will need -approximately for two people-2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, olive oil (try pure virgin Cretan olive oil for better taste), 1 onion and feta cheese. Without that last ingredient, the salad will be a common one instead of being unique and traditional. Slice the cucumber, the tomatoes and the onion to pieces, add the feta cheese and the olive oil on top. Also add some salt and some oregano and you are ready to taste a salad that is not only tasty, but healthy as well. Enjoy.

Cretan products

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Creatn pure honeyPure virgin Cretan olive oil

 

Cretans are considered to be so healthy because of the Cretan food. The Mediterranean cuisine and especially Cretan cuisine is one that nutritionists suggest as one of the best worldwide. Products of Crete are of top quality and are as pure and natural as they can be. For instance, there is the famous olive oil produced there, which is used in a variety of recipes, like salads, pies an so on. Other products of Crete are the top quality honey and some kind of cheese like mitzithra and malaka cheese. Last but not least, Cretans produce a special kind of dry crispy bread with which the “dakos” are made. Cretans also produce the famous Feta cheese which you will sure find to be delicious! Just remember to taste as many Cretan specialities as you can when you visit the island.

Kalitsounia

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

kalitsounia
This is the recipe with which you can bake the famous Kalitsounia (also known as kaltsounia) by yourself. They taste really good and are very popular amongst Cretans and visitors of Crete. Kalitsounia is part of the traditional Cretan cuisine. If you decide to make them, consider that you should have good ingredients such as pure olive oil and Tsikoudia, which is a traditional drink of Crete with a high percentage of alcohol.

Ingredients: (These quantities will provide food for about 35 dishes.)

Step 1: To prepare the dough, you need water (approximately 5 cups of tea), salt (apr 2 small spoons), olive oil (500ml), flour (about 2 kilos) and tsikoudia (about 1 cup).

Step 2: To prepare the filling, you will need 500gr of mitzithra, 750gr of anthotiro, about half a kilo of malaka cheese and 4 eggs.
Preparation
During the preparation you must first prepare the dough. Use first the water and the salt with the flour and the olive oil. Then add the tsikoudia. You are now ready to add the three kinds of cheese mentioned above and all eggs, one by one. Make sure the ingredients are well mixed. Cut out pieces and fill them with filling using a small spoon according to the image above. Bake the mix and you have made yourself some delicious (hopefully!) Cretan Kalitsounia.