Tsoureki (sweet bread)

Greek Easter is full of drama and the food follows in the same line. Throughout the Holy Week, we are supposed to abstain from meat and dairy and on Good Friday we don’t even have olive oil (other oils are ok although many older people just eat soups boiled in water).

 Mageiritsa soup

After Easter midnight mass on Saturday, we crack our red eggs and eat mageiritsa, a special soup made with lettuce, dill and innards (blech). I actually make a vegetarian version and you can find the recipe here. Then we may have some cheese  or tsoureki (a sweet bread) and that’s it. It’s after midnight, remember? And you have to leave room for the next day.

Easter Sunday is the biggest feast of all. That is, if you are not a vegetarian. That’s when people spit roast lamb ALL DAY and also eat other kinds of offal which I’d rather not talk about.

Baklavas

Sour Cherry spoon dessert

On Easter Sunday We also have lettuce salad, greek salad, tsatziki and several homemade pies like spinach pie or cheese pie. After lunch which usually lasts till dinner, we have desserts like baklava or koulourakia (butter cookies) and tsoureki.

Nafpaktos

Giant beans eaten on Good Friday in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

Beet salad eaten in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

Aubergine patties eaten on Good Friday in "Petrino" restaurant, Nafpaktos

This year, we spent Easter in Nafpaktos, a beautiful seaside town and we were very lucky, foodwise. Most restaurants serve great food, but especially Maria Loi’s. She is a well known Greek chef and has opened her restaurant in Nafpaktos. It’s the sweetest place and she is kind and attentive to all. She called us on the mobile to tell us she had found a table for us (the restaurant was fully reserved) and she even made special vegetarian food for us.

Fresh pasta filled with truffle at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Rocket and greens salad with a delicious vinegraitte which had some sweet fig syrup, at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Cheese cake, chocolate coated strawberries and panna cotta at Maria Loi’s restaurant, Nafpaktos

Mum’s easter salad

We had Easter Sunday lunch at my mum’s. Think Christmas dinner. Now multiply by 10. That’s my mum’s Easter lunch. This year the vegetarian options were roast potatoes, spring salad, mushroom pie, stuffed vine leaves (dolmadakia), cheese souffle, tsatziki, greek salad, the obligatory red eggs, several cheeses, and baklava and ice cream for dessert.

Mum’s mushroom pie

Mum’s stuffed vine leaves (dolmadakia) 

These dolmadakia are so tiny, just a bite and my sister and I treat them like precious gems. My mother gave some to my mother in law and my sister and I sulked. Mum said: "But I gave you too!" Whereupon we replied "Oh, yes? How many? One hundred?"

Cinammon and Clove restaurant

Zagoria villages

On the second day of our visit to Ioannina, our friends took us to Vitsa, a nearby village that belongs to the Zagoria villages complex. The way I am saying it, it sounds as if they are not real villages but vacation places built like villages, but trust me they are very real and very beautiful. And very cold.

We went to have lunch at this restaurant Cinnamon and Clove (Kanella & Garifallo) and as soon as I opened the menu my pupils were dilated and my jaw dropped. There were dozens of mushroom dishes, with all kinds of mushrooms, cooked in all possible ways: soups, stews, grilled, oven baked, sautéed, in salads. Porcinis (we call them vasilomanitara which means king mushrooms) chanterelles, morels and other delicious fungi and when the waiter asked me what I wanted I said everything.

Chanterelles

Greens pie (lahanopita)

The other great thing you can eat while in Ioannina or Zagoria or Epirus in general (the northwest region of Greece) is savoury pies. I had a pie with all kinds of greens that they describe as “Lahanopita”. You can have one piece for lunch and you are full until dinner.

Poor, disgusting eels

Easiest cheese pie ever

Easiest & Fastest Cheese pie ever
I mixed together 2 eggs, around 300 gr (3 cups) all purpose flour, 2 cups yoghurt, 3 cups cheese (any kind, I used feta, gruyere and the Greek equivalent of cottage cheese). Beat them all together and add some milk and one or two tablespoons of olive oil. You have to end up with a thick mixture that will look like pancake batter but thicker. If it is too runny add more flour. Sprinkle some oregano or chopped rosemary and bake in a buttered tin in a pre-heated oven at 200 C (392 F) for about 20 minutes or until it is set (you can dip your knife in it and comes out clean). Frankly, it is the easiest cheese pie I’ve ever made (sloth) and one of the tastiest.

I have been neglecting this blog and neglecting cooking in general, but I haven’t neglected eating. I had my Easter Holiday on Mount. Pilion, in Makrinitsa village and the food our hosts -Kostas and Elena- prepared for us was delicious.

So a big thank you to our friends. Please invite us back, next time we’ll behave.

I want to confess I have a problem with most people who run taverns in Greek villages. Why can’t I find mushrooms, almost anywhere?

Greece is full of mushrooms and some of them are rare and delicious. But somehow, they haven’t made it into the kitchens of professionals. I don’t know the reason to that, except maybe that people don’t like to experiment, and that they are content with a good old steak.

Another thing that bothers me in Greek villages is the lack of homemade, lovely, savoury pies (not in Makrinitsa though, because we had a very nice leek pie in Theofilos café). Really, people are lazy.

I want to find a village where people bake bread, make pies and cook mushrooms. And that’s not because I want to validate my village life stereotypes, but because that is what I look for in cities too. Real food, that sometimes takes more time and effort. Theofilos cafe is one such place in Makrinitsa, where you can taste delicious food that a.is fresh and cooked with skill b.doesn’t cost a fortune.

This is firiki preserve, a small but very taste apple is used to make it

What most greek villages have though, is preserves. Usually, these are fruits that have been boiled in sugar and water, so they end up very syrupy and are stored in jars. Cherry, rose petals, orange, bergamot, fig, apple, grape and quince preserves, are the most common. But you can also find tomato preserves or aubergine preserves, and these are sweets! They go by the generic name “glyka koutaliou” that means spoon sweets, because you only have a spoonful (supposedly) with coffee or a glass of water. But you can very well use them to top your ice cream or yogurt, they are perfect partners.

Another good thing you can find is tsipouro, a strong drink -that has nothing to do with ouzo- which if good, never gives you a headache.

You drink it in little shots and always with food, especially, pickled or spicy food, like this baked feta with onions and peppers. I wish I could send all of you some tsipouro (tsipouraki for friends) because it is the best thing when the sun is shining and it is even better when it is cold outside. Here you can see some of the -come on, tiny!- empty bottles on our table.

And this was just round one.