Revythalevro (chick pea flour)

Visited for the first time an Indian grocery shop in Piraeus. I hew that it was there for a long time, but had never actually entered as I have not cooked Indian food since I moved to Grece.

It did not have vast variety of things, but I could at least find what I was looking for.

Chick pea flour (left) and coriander powder (right).

I don't know why, but the supermarkets near me sell only whole coriander and no powder. As I don't have spice grinder, I could not buy whole coriander. There are spice marchants at laiki markets, but their spices do not look particularly fresh and tend to be expensive.

Chick pea flour (besan flour) is very convenient during Orthodox fasting period, but the Greeks evidently do not have tradition to eat it. It is curious, because in Italy, whose cooking has many ingredients common with the Greek one, they have chick pea flour - farina di ceci.

With it, I cooked onion bhaji and chick pea pancakes.


By the way, Megari Tetarti (Holy Wednesday) is, as well as Megari Paraskevi, the day we are not supposed to eat oil (some say that it is OK, if it isn't olive oil) as well as all the usual prohibited food. I am not so strict as not to eat for lunch the lentil soup (including olive oil) remained from yesterday's supper, but I need to cook something safe for dinner. Rather annoying task, I have to say.

Nistissimo snacks

We paid a visit to our bakery and I found some more nistissimo (suitable for Orthodox religious fasting) items.

First: Patatopita

There is mashed potato inside. Pie should be made with vegetable shortening (I think in any case that most of the snack pies sold at bakeries and pie shops are made with vegetable oil as butter is too expensive).

Carb+carb combination. Excellent.

Second: Almond, pistachio and sultana kritsini.

The bread-biscuit part is about equal as the nuts and sultana part.

I found interesting inclusion of pistachio.

Greek bakeries hold still more treasures to discover.

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By the way, yesterday I fried artichokes (aghinares) and king prawns (separately) in beer batter and they turned out to be excellent sarakosti food. They are added to my sarakosti cooking repertoire.

Taramas and taramosalata

When we lived in UK, we used to buy taramosalata (or taramasalata) from suparmarkets. It is conveniently packed in plastic tab and priced around £1 for maybe 200 or 300 grammes.

I thought the situation would be same also in Greece, but, then I found out it isn't. Although I can find packed taramosalata, it seems the Greeks still buy taramas and make their own taramosalata.

I have a bitter memory about taramas. When we were living in Italy, 10 years ago or so, Hubby's mom sent us a tub of taramas. But none of us - Hubby (we were not married then), his two brothers, and I - knew what was taramas and how to use it, and finding it too salty, we threw it in a bin. Only later, Mom told us what it was, but it was too late.

As a revenge, I decided to buy taramas and make my own taramosalata. It is one of the typical Lenten food and it is the high time to try.

This is how it looks.


Close up.



This one has a natural cod roe colour. I read that better the quality, more natural the colour. The red or pink ones are cheaper and sometimes not cod roe at all.

At the grocery store I bought this, there were two choices of taramas. This one was about 20 euros a kilo, while the other one was like 5 euros a kilo and bright pink. I bought the more expensive one, of course. God knows what that cheaper one could be?

The Japanese people eat lots of cod roe and we know how it should taste like. This definitely taste cod roe, although much saltier than the ones we usually eat in Japan.

So, taramosalata. I made it, but did not photograph as it was in the evening. As you can imagine, it was white and not pink as you find it in supermarkets in UK, as the taramas wasn't dyed. It was fine, but I thought I put too much lemon. And I should not have used extra-virgin olive oil, as it had too strong a taste that overpowered the subtle taste of taramas. I will make some other experiments and will show you the one I like the best.

Octopus, Shellfish and Pickles

Some photos from Piraeus Market this week.



The coming Monday is Shrove Monday (Katharideftera) and the Market has been very busy with the people looking for the nistissimo (=lenten) foodstuff.



For example, octopus.





It is allowed to eat octopus, squid and cuttle fish, but octopus is the most popular. Those are defrozen octopuses from Morocco. In the past, the octopuses were easily fished in the Aegean, but due to the overfishing the locally fished octopuses are rarity.


It is allowed to eat shellfish as well. The mussles are the cheapest at less than 5euros a kilo (they are still much more expensive than in UK where I sued to buy a kilo for 2.20 pounds). Then come the Gyaristes (the ones at the middle) for about 10 euros a kilo and then kidonia (at the left end) for 11 to 12 euros a kilo. These prices were then increased by 10-20% at the weenend due to the higher demand.



The Greeks eat more pickles (toursi) during the lenten period; small cucumbers, cabbage, green tomatoes, beets toursi etc.

I like sour pickles, but not the over-salted Greek toursi and Hubby does not eat either of the types at all.

And I need to buy talama for talamosalata. Here in Greece, people still make their own talamosalata from talama and stale bread. I have never done it, but will give it a go.

Kali Sarakosti!

Halvas of Drapetsona

This Friday, on my way to LIDL in Drapetsona, I encountered a long queue in front of a shop.



It was a queue to buy Halvas from a famous manufacturor-retailer of Halvas in Drapetsona (Halvas Drapetsonas).



Halva is a type of sweets made of sugar and sesame seeds, popular in Greece as well as in Middle East. As it does not contain any animal fat or protein, it is consumed typically during the Lenten period.

Another type of halva - semolina halva - is also free of animal derived ingredient and, thus, is also typical of this period. Different from sesame halva, semolina halva is easy to prepare at home. I am planning to make one in these days.

[Shopping List: LIDL]

Orange Juice 1l -- 1.59euros

Grated mixed cheese 200g - 1.49euro

Chili salza 500 ml - 1.59euros

Soy sauce 250ml - 1.29euros

Trivelaki (fusilli) pasta 500g - 0.40euro

Small tube pasta 500g - 0.45euro

Cannot Wait Sarakosti?

Sarakosti (Lenten period) is starting from this Monday, but, evidently, some people cannot wait starting it!



Fishmongers are selling putting octopuses and king prawns on the front and selling them hard and people buy them. I don't understand. As we have to keep on eating these for 50 days, I - who probably won't do the full fasting, but will avoid meat and fish - do my best to avoid them when I can, i.e. until Monday. I might buy frozen ones to stock in freezer but not to eat them now.


And a random cat photo of the day.