Tyrokafteri with Greek Chili

I bought fresh chili from Laiki Market. These are the hot chilies most readily available in my Piraeus neighbourhood.

They are more expensive than sweet peppers and this time it cost 4 euros per a kilo (in the photo are 300 g. for 1.20 euro). In Greek, chili and pepper are the same word "piperia - piperies) and are differentiated by the addition of "glykes" (sweet) and "kafteres" (hot).

I bought these to make tyrokafteri. As we liked the tyrokafteri with fresh green peppers we ate at the Taverna Nikitas in Psyrri, I wanted to recreate it. It is extremely easy to make.

1) Chop chili very finely

2) Mash feta to the consistency of your liking

3) Mix chili and mashed feta adding Greek yogurt if you like

4) Eat it with bread or as a garnish of meat, pasta, vegetable dish (it actually works as an alternative of tzatziki)

Dried powder chili works as well, but if you use this type of fresh chili, the resulting dip taste more fresh, salad-ey. You can use food processor, of course; in this case the consistency will be more smooth.

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Not being satisfied with the feta I bought from Sklavinitis, I tried one from a cheese shop near Piraeus Market.

This is a varrelisia feta (feta matured in barrel), price was like 8.30 euros per kilo. This one has a more matured and more sour flavour with a peppery stings on my tongue.

Nice cheese, but Hubby preferred the factory made more bland version. It is a shame.

Manly Cheese

Went to Piraeus Market for shopping and found much more people than usual; they were buying things for Sragosti (Lenten period), things like octopus, prawns, crabs, talama for talamosalata (evidently, here in Greece, many people make their own talamosatala at home from talamo and I see more talamo than talamosalata in shops), pickles called toursi, halvas etc.

But we are still in Cheesefare week and I bought some cheese leaving Sarakosti shopping for weekend. These are from a cheese shop near the market.

What I meant to buy (and actually bought) was Kaseri cheese.

When I said I wanted some Kasseri, the cheeseman asked me "Kasseri from where?" and then before I could answer, he just responded by himself and gave me Mytilene Kasseri.

Kasseri cheese is a nice yellow cheese that it to everyone's taste: it is soft, smooth and does not have too strong a character. It is very versatile as well.

And then I saw this unfamiliar cheese and could not resist trying.

Arseniko cheese from Naxos. The name reminded me of arsenic poison, but according to later inter Internet research, it is rather from αρσενικός meaning male or masculine. It is from goat and sheep milk and also known as Kefalotyri Arseniko Naxou. It does not seem to be much known as Hubby's mom, who is knowledgeable about food, has never heard of it.

The part close to the rind has almost parmiggiano like dry and hard consistency, while the central part is moister and butterier.

The rind looks aged and very hard.

Now the taste. There is some granularness in texture and, in taste wise, although there is strong umami sweetness, it is also peppery and slightly bitter. It has much stronger character - more masculine, manlier - than, say, Kaseri. Hubby liked it, but I, who is not a cheese-eater, find it too strong to my taste.

I packed both of them into Hubby's sandwich for lunch. He will tell me later if they are nice in sandwich as well.

Chiote Kopanisti

Kopanisti is a type of white, paste-like cheese made mainly in Cyclades. The most famous Kopanisti producer is Mykonos.

Our neighbourhood grocery shop happened to have Kopanisti from Chios and we decided to try. Just to be clear, Chios is in North Aegean and not in Cyclades.



It is a very strong cheese. Salty, pepperly, tangy and above all, stinky. It has something in common with blue cheeses, but this one definitely is stronger.

I wander if all the kopanistis are as strong as this one.