Sometimes, you don't really know what lurks in the depths of your freezer. I admit I'm a bit of a list-maker (read: crazy person) so I have a list of all the meats and quantities magentized to my freezer door. But, I don't write down the random things in there, like pesto "cubes," walnuts, tortillas, phyllo cups, or in this case...artichoke hearts.

Tom and I have been out of town a decent amount, and we're going out of town again Saturday through Wednesday (which, as you may have guessed, translates to no blogging for me). So, rather than buying tons of groceries like I usually do, I've been trying to use up what's in the freezer and my cabinets, buying some fresh produce when necessary. When I saw the artichokes, I knew they needed to be used up soon.

This Greek dish is most commonly made with lamb. And, of course it's better with lamb because lamb is better than chicken. Duh. But "lamb" was not on my magnetized freezer list, so chicken it had to be. But no worries--this is a really tasty meal with chicken, too. It's sort of like eating an avgolemono stew, rather than a soup, with artichokes in it. I personally prefer using a dark meat chicken for this because 1) it tastes better and 2) it holds up better to poaching/braising/etc. without drying out. We had this with a salad, and some rice to soak up all the egg-lemony goodness.

Have a great weekend and early week, all!

Kota avgolemono (1)

Chicken with Artichokes and Egg Lemon Sauce (Kota Me Aginares Kai Avgolemono)
Serves 2

1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 pieces bone-in chicken (thighs, leg quarters, etc. I skin them because to me, skin is worthless if it's not crispy from roasting!)
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1.5 cups chicken broth
Dill, to taste
1 cup artichoke hearts
1 egg
1 lemon, juiced
a little cornstarch
salt and pepper

Heat a pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and then brown in the hot oil. Remove the chicken, and add the diced onions to the pan, cooking until translucent. Stir in the garlic until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, being sure to scrape up all the browned bits as you deglaze, and bring to a boil. Add the dill, chicken, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Add the artichoke hearts and continue to cook, this time uncovered, for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the artichokes are tender. Season to taste if necessary.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, lemon juice and a little cornstarch. Slowly add a couple ladels full of the broth from the pan (I find it easier to plate the chicken first, so you don't have to maneuver around that) to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking constantly so your eggs don't scramble. Then, slowly add that mixture back into the pan, again whisking constantly. Stir until thickened. Pour the avgolemono sauce over the chicken and artichokes (and rice!)

Kota avgolemono

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I really wanted to participate in Danielle and Robin's Recipe Remix this time around, since I didn't get a chance to the first time. I think this is such a great idea because really, what do most creative cooks do but remix some sort of existing dish to make it more appealing,  more delicious and more personal to them. The theme this time around was breakfast.

I wanted to do something Greek-inspired and I started thinking that pretty much every Greek desert has some sort of simple syrup-based liquid in it, which makes it perfect for breakfast. You already have your syrup! I decided to go with what is probably the most famous Greek desssert--baklava--and make a baklava French....I mean, Greek....toast. French toast is probably my favorite breakfast item.

I made the typical baklava filling and sandwiched that in some tsoureki (Greek Easter bread). This is a loaf I got from my grandma but if you want to make your own, there are several Greek bloggers who have made it. Then, I made the baklava syrup which is essentially honey, sugar, and water. You can add some lemon rind or a cinnamon stick, too, if you'd like.

I wish I could make this look as good as it tasted. Unfortunately, my loaf of tsoureki was not really French toast material. It was a loaf my grandma made me over Easter, which I then I froze (I had eaten too much tsoureki in a 3 day period!), but it was a very small loaf. You couldn't make normal slices from it (because it was only a couple inches high) so I had to slice it the long way which made for some interesting slices and some falling apart. Oh well!

There isn't much of a recipe because the only things I truly measured were the syrup ingredients but the process is below.

Baklava toast (2)

Baklava French Toast

Crush some walnuts in a food processor and stir in some cinnamon and cloves to taste.

In a small saucepan, bring equal parts sugar, water and honey to a boil (and lemon rind/cinnamon stick if you want). Thicken it by simmering for a bit.

Slice your bread (challah or brioche would also be great here) and spoon the walnut mixture over half the slices. Place the remaining slices on top of the ones with the walnut mixture, basically making walnut sandwiches.

Make your standard French toast mixture, including a beaten eggs and some milk or cream. You can add some vanilla and cinnamon, too, if you'd like. Pour the mixture into a dish big enough to hold your sandwiches and layer them in there. Let them soak for a couple minutes before flipping (carefully...I lost some of my mixture here due to poor bread cutting and flipping) and soaking them on the other side.

Melt some butter in a nonstick skillet or griddle. Add the Greek toast and cook for a couple minutes per side, until golden.

Top with the syrup and some cinnamon, if you'd like.

Nutritional Information Per Serving: I am SO not going there. ;)

Baklava toast

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Or, a fancy schmancy Greek way of saying spinach-'n-rice. In Greek, "spanaki" is spinach and "rizi" is rice.  I hope you're paying attention to some of the Greek tidbits you're learning from my blog because you never know when you may need them. Maybe your next Cranium question is going to ask what a spanakophobe is, and of course you're going to know right away that, obviously, it's someone who fears spinach.

[Okay, I just did about 20 seconds of googling and was not able to confirm that a person who is scared of spinach is called a spanakophobe or anything remotely close to that. So let's not use that example, but it could come into play somewhere, I promise. Maybe not with spanakophobe or rizophile, but some time.]

At any rate, spanakorizo is a very common Greek side dish. The flavors are very typical of other Greek dishes and they taste great when combined. The bonus is that this can double as your vegetable and your starch side. Normally, I am not one to do that (veggies are important and most veggies incorporated into starches tend to be in very small quantities), but here I am giving you the go ahead. About 1.5-2 lbs. of spinach are put into this rice, and the amount of rice you eat is actually less than the serving (how often can you say that about a starch?) but don't worry, the portion is still plenty.

Traditionally, spanakorizo has quite a bit more olive oil to start, but I like to make a healthier version. I suppose using brown rice would make it even healthier but for some things, even I just say no to brown rice. Some Greeks add tomato paste or fresh tomatoes to their spanakorizo but I am not one of them. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the combo of the dill, spinach and lemon as it stands.

In case you're wondering, we had this with a very Greek-flavored pork tenderloin that I quick marinated in fresh lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and oregano and then seared and roasted.

Spanakorizo

Spanakorizo
Serves 4

1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2/3 cup long grain white rice
1-1/3 cup water
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 bunches or about 1.5-2 lbs. fresh spinach, chopped (and remove any stems that don't seem very tender)
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped (or about 1 T dried)
salt and pepper 

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once heated, add the onions and saute until tender. Add the rice and stir to coat it in the olive oil, "toasting" it for a minute or two. Add the water and lemon juice and bring to a boil.

Add the spinach, dill and some salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture down to a simmer. Cover tightly and simmer about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.  

Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 205 / Fat: 6g / Carbs: 33g / Fiber: 4.5g / Protein: 7.3g

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Well, we're back. We had a great time visiting family in Michigan and I ate my weight in Greek desserts (and lamb and potatoes and tzatziki and bread and...). Calorically speaking, the last 5 days didn't happen ;)

As a result of being out of town, we came home to a pretty empty kitchen. We won't be getting groceries until later tonight so in the meantime, I had to make due with what I had around. Frozen shrimp is one of the greatest things for those kinds of nights. You can cook it from frozen or just thaw it under some cold water for a few minutes. And there you go, you have a lean protein that is great in pasta or rice, grilled, in tacos, whatever you want.

A while back I came across two recipes for shrimp baked with feta and below is my version of this dish, made a little more Greek with the use of hilopites. Normally, I would make this with fresh basil and parsley but we didn't have any around. I did have the chopped/frozen basil from Trader Joe's, though, so I actually used a couple cubes of that.

This is a really simple, delicious and healthy dish. Hey, it won't erase the diples from the past weekend, but it will still make you feel great.

Baked shrimp and feta pasta (2)

Baked Shrimp and Feta Pasta
Serves 2

1/2 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup hilopites (or orzo)
2 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried basil (I used 2 of the fresh/frozen TJ's cubes)
1/4 cup white wine
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup feta, crumbled
salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook hilopites until just al dente (won't take long at all for such a small pasta). Drain.

Meanwhile, in a skillet or a small dutch oven, heat the olive oil until shimmering and then add the onions and cook until transulent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then, add the white wine and reduce by half. Stir in the tomatoes, oregano, red pepper flakes, basil, and salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes to combine the flavors.

Off the heat, stir in the shrimp and the hilopites. Move the mixture to a small baking dish (unless you are using a dutch oven; if so just keep it like that) and top with the feta. Bake about 10-12 minutes or until the shrimp has cooked through.

Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 422 / Fat: 11g / Carbs: 46g / Protein: 28g

Baked shrimp and feta pasta

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A few weeks ago, I went to Greektown with my friend for dinner. I was meeting her there and was a little early, so I decided to duck into the Greek market. I hardly ever go there because it's really out of the way and it always seems to be closed when I'm in the area. Whenever I go, I tend to stock up on...well, cheese, primarily. (And, shh, don't tell but I prefer the Bulgarian feta to the Greek kind).

At any rate, when I was browsing the aisles for long, tubular noodles for making pastitsio, I came across hilopites and just about ran up to the clerk to hug him. I had never seen them there before, and I have been wanting (and searching for) hilopites for a while now. Hilopites are small, square egg noodles. When I was young, about 90% of my diet consisted of things with hilopites and soups made with fithe (or is it fide? Or...I can never type Greek words in English. But, it's similar to vermicelli.)

Hilopites

Hilopites are just one of those things that are so nostalgic for me. To be honest, more than anything, they bring back memories of what a picky eater I was. I remember visiting Greece and begging my great aunt to make me plain broth with fide or hilopites every day I was there. I probably haven't eaten them in a good 15 years. So maybe now you understand why I was SO excited to find them!

This recipe is really nothing new. It's similar to my manestra but with a little added spice. I make something like this very often, both with beef and with chicken (dark meat). Sometimes I just serve the sauce over spaghetti instead of cooking pasta along with the meat. Sometimes I use allspice and bay instead of cinnamon and cloves. But I always top it with myzithra :)

You'll have to excuse the monotone picture, here. I forgot to put the extra parsley on before photographing!

Beef with hilopites

Beef with Hilopites

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. beef, cut into 1" pieces
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. dried or about 3 Tbsp. fresh parsley
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
3 cups water
1/4 heaping tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 lb. hilopites
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a deep saute pan. Season the beef with salt and pepper and then add to the oil to brown, in batches if necessary. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Add the onion to the pan and cook  until translucent. Stir in the garlic and parsley (if you are using dried) and saute an additional minute before adding the tomato paste. Cook off the tomato paste for about 30 seconds, and then add the water. Be sure to scrape all the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then add the beef back in. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about an hour or really as long as you'd like (the longer you simmer, the more tender the beef gets).

Add the hilopites and simmer, uncovered, until done, stirring occasionally. If you are using fresh parsley add it around the same time as you add the hilopites.

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Plasto

So, four months later and I have finally made the plasto my yiayia taught me how to make. Although it's one of my favorite things to eat, I am constantly just running across new things I want to try every week, so it keeps getting pushed back. Plus, I very recently made spanakopitas which are extremely similar.

Plasto is a regional Greek dish that is essentially a greens pie with a cornmeal crust. You can really use any greens you want, though spinach usually tends to make up the bulk of the filling (at least for my grandma's version). Chard, dandelion greens, mustard greens, etc. will all work. It's totally up to you.

This took a little trial and error (I had originally thought I could get away with a cup of cornmeal but ended up adding an additional half cup). And, though the recipe below is more recipe-like than the one I started with, it will still vary a little based on what type of pan you use. I was debating on using an 11x7 baking dish or a 9" springform and ultimately went for the springform since I prefer baking with metal (my 11x7 is glass), it would be easier to get out, and it fits more so I could have a higher filling-to-crust ratio. If you go the route of a regular cake pan (or 9x9 or 11x7) you will need to reduce the filling below. And honestly, I am not 100% sure about the filling amounts, anyway. I didn't *really* measure 7 cups of greens but to me, that's what it looked like. If you're not sure, just build your filling in your baking dish and dump it into a bowl before adding the feta, to make sure you don't have too much or too lilttle. Remember, of course, that they will "shrink" as they cook.

Plasto 2

Plasto

5 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 cups swiss chard, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh dill or about 1 Tbsp. dried
1 leek, sliced (white and green parts only)
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp. softened butter or margarine, divided
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1.5 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup + about 1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together your spinach, chard, dill, leek, feta and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Spread 1 Tbsp. each of the softened butter and olive oil on the bottom of your pan. In a medium bowl, add the cornmeal, a pinch of salt, and 1/3 cup of milk. You may use a little more or less milk but you are going for a crumbly mixture that you can press into a crust. Place half the mixture over the oiled/buttered pan and press down to form a crust.

Place your greens on top of the bottom crust. To the remainder of your cornmeal mixture, add the milk slowly, mixing with a fork,  until you get a consistency that is wet and spreadable, but not too liquidy. You should be able to spoon the mixture over the greens, but it should not pour out of the bowl. Dollop the mixture over the greens and form a top crust by spreading it around. Top the pie with dollops of the remaining tablespoon of butter, and the olive oil. Bake for about 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

The following nutritional information is with using real butter and 2% milk (which I accidentally bought instead of skim. D'oh!). You could make it lighter with skim and using less butter or using margarine, a butter flavor spray, etc. This is for 1/6 of the pie.

Calories: 278 / Fat: 14g / Carbs: 31.4g / Protein: 8.8g

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Everyone falls into this trap at one point or another, don't they? You see something on sale and you buy it--because it's on sale. You probably don't need it, you may not even know what to do with it, but there it is with you in the checkout lane. Or so is the case with my package of ground chicken. It was on sale and I bought it. I had no idea what to do with it, so I stuck it in my freezer. When it eventually came out of the depths of my freezer, I had to figure out what I was going to make with this (frankly, extremely unappetizing looking) stuff that has never been in my fridge before.

We eat fairly healthily but if there is one thing I can't do, it's ground turkey. I don't know. I should probably try it again since there are so many great blogs with ground turkey recipes that actually look pretty good. But, what can I say? It's just not my thing. I'm a beef lover. Even at Thanksgiving, my dad and I often sulk over the lack of red meat.  I don't eat red meat that often and when I eat it in ground form, I just make sure it's really lean and then I don't feel at all bad eating it. So really, why bother with the alternative? Well, to that point, why bother with the ground chicken!? I am telling you, it truly is because it was on sale! I am a SUCKER! Okay, that and I remembered seeing this chicken pesto burger Nikki made that looked pretty tasty. Originally, I was going to make the same burger since I have some pesto in my freezer from the last batch I made. But, I decided to go a different route (while still keeping the Mediterranean flair) and keep this Greek-inspired. I seasoned the burgers fairly simply and added some cheese (which, as you already know, makes everything better) and then topped them with a chunky tapenade of sorts made from kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes. The result was a juicy, flavorful burger. We liked it, we really liked it! Who knew?! I mean, okay, we obviously like chicken, but like I said, I am not normally one to use it where beef belongs :)

Mediterranean chicken burgers

Mediterranean Chicken Burgers
Makes 4 burgers

1 lb. ground chicken (alright, alright...or turkey)
3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1.5 tsp. dried oregano
12 kalamata olives, pitted
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil (or oil from the tomatoes)
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

Mix the chicken, feta, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Shape into 4 patties. Lightly spray a grill/grill pan with oil and cook the burgers until done, about 5-6 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, make the tapenade by putting the olives, sundried tomatoes, garlic and a little ground pepper in a food processor, pulsing until combined. While pulsing, drizzle in the oil. Top the burgers with the tapenade.

Nutrition Information (this is just for the burgers and topping, not the bun as those will vary greatly): Calories: 212 / Fat: 12.3g / Carbs: 3.1g / Protein: 28g

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Having a food blog and frequently making new meals may make it seem that I am in the kitchen for hours at a time but don't let me fool  you--I'm pretty lazy. During the week, I will rarely make anything that takes longer than 15 minutes to prep and although I am a little more ambitious on the weekends, I still dread certain things like chopping vegetables for an hour or making things that need time to cool/rise/set/etc. before they can even start the cooking or baking process.

This is where the cheater's version of spanakopita comes into play. I hate working with phyllo. Hate it. Am I a terrible Greek or what? Some people, like Peter, have even made their own phyllo and I am too lazy to even use the one that comes in the freezer section of my grocery store. I mean, the layering, and the buttering/oiling of every layer, the need to make so many layers, the keeping the phyllo you are not using moist as you are building layers. Forget it! I will do it time to time to make baklava or tyropites (cheese pies) and don't get me wrong, I love phyllo. But it's not something I want to do very often. So I make my spanakopitas with puff pastry.

This may have started as an easy way out, but let me tell you that it's possible I now prefer spanakopita this way. Of course, for me it's also a nice change of pace since I usually eat the phyllo version my family makes. Tom just prefers the puff pastry over all. In fact, he has been begging to to make these for months and months. I don't make them very often because I can eat 10 in one sitting. This is no joke, people! I decided to freeze half the batch before baking them off this time (without the egg brush), to help me out a little in that department.

spinach pies in puff pastry

For a more authentic spanakopita, you can certainly make the recipe below with phyllo, or just double the recipe to make a standard spanakopita filling.

Puff Pastry (Cheater's) Spanakopita
Makes 18 spanakopita triangles

a little olive oil
1/2 cup sliced leeks or about 1/4 cup diced onion
fresh dill, to taste
fresh parsley, to taste (you can tell this recipe is very technical)
1/2 lb. fresh spinach (right around 1 bunch) 
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs, divided
salt and pepper
1 box (2 sheets) puff pastry dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large skillet, heat a little bit of olive oil until shimmering. Add the leeks or onions and saute until tender. Stir in the spinach and then turn off the heat. The spinach will start to wilt down, but not much.

Meanwhile, roll the puff pastry dough into a square, making it slightly thinner and then cut each sheet into 9 equal squares by making 2 horizontal cuts and 2 vertical cuts.

To the spinach mixture (you can move it to a bowl if you like), add the feta, parsley, dill and salt and pepper to taste. Beat one egg and add that into the mixture.

Spoon about 1-2 Tbsp. of the spinach mixture in each puff pastry square. Brush the sides of the square with a little water and then being 2 opposite sides together to form a triangle. Press with your fingers to seal. Place on a baking sheet. Beat the second egg and then brush the tops of the triangles with the egg. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden. 

spinach pie in puff pastry812

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For as much as I enjoy food, I can pick what are probably my two favorite dishes with little hesitation: Greek-style stuffed cabbage with egg-lemon sauce (lahanodolmades avgolemono) and roasted lamb with tomatoes and orzo (arni youvetsi) with lots of grated myzithra. But, I tend to not make these dishes at home and wait for my yiayia to make them when I visit Michigan (she takes requests, of course). Tom is not that crazy about cabbage, so I usually make youvarlakia, which are almost the same thing as the dolmades but without the cabbage. And roasting lamb just doesn't make much sense when there are only two people in the household. So, unfortunately, I don't eat my two favorite meals all that often.

But, lucky for me, Tom *will* eat anything. In fact the only thing he doesn't like is Grape Nuts cereal, which he professes tastes like gravel. He likes almost everything else, and things he feels just sort of "eh" about (like cabbage), he will still eat. And hey, I can always eat the cabbage from his plate if he doesn't want it (much like I did with my dad's plate, when I was younger).

I have been majorly craving some lahanodolmades (LA-hah-no-dole-MAH-thes) lately, so I decided to make these. In general "dolmades" refer to stuffed grape leaves whereas "lahanodolmades" are stuffed cabbage (lahana = cabbage). I much, much, much prefer lahanodolmades with avgolemono over the tomato sauce many versions of stuffed cabbage tend to have. Plus, it's really the only way we made them in my family. These are really easy to make vegetarian by simply removing the meat. Normally I don't thicken my avgolemono with flour or cornstarch but that's because generally I am making something more soup-like whereas this is more sauce-like so I do add the cornstarch here.

Dolmades

Stuffed Cabbage with Egg Lemon Sauce (Lahanodolmades Avgolemono)
Serves about 4

1 cabbage
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup white rice
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, finely diced or grated
fresh dill, to taste--but don't be stingy!
fresh parsley, to taste--again, don't be stingy! 
1 tsp. salt
ground pepper to taste
2--2.5 cups chicken broth or water (I use a combo)

Avgolemono
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add some salt. Meanwhile, peel the outermost leaves of the cabbage off and then, with one hand on the cabbage to steady it, use a small paring or utility knife to cut around the core of the cabbage. Pop the core out with the tip of your knife (basically you will have a hole in your cabbage). Then, add the cabbage to the boiling water and boil until the leaves are tender, about 10-12 minutes. Carefully peel the cabbage, layer by layer, reserving the leaves. If they are big, feel free to cut them in half.

In a pot or dutch oven (I just use the same one as I did for the cabbage), put some sort of layer of vegetables on the bottom. You can use some of the leftover cabbage leaves, onion, lemon slices...today I did a combo of all three because my onion was too large to use all  up in the meat mixture and I had some torn pieces of cabbage.

Lightly mix your ground beef, rice, beaten egg, onion, dill, salt and pepper until the ingredients are incorporated. Lay a cabbage leaf flat on your work surface and place about a tablespoon or so of the meat mixture at one end of the leaf. Tuck in the sides of the leaf and then proceed to roll it up. Place the rolled up cabbage seam side down on top of bed of veggies. Continue stuffing/rolling the remaining cabbage and placing them next to each other in the pot. When you have one layer completed, make another layer of the stuffed cabbage.

Dolmades stacked

After you have made all your rolls, pour water or broth into the pot. The cabbage rolls shouldn't be submerged completely, but you should be able to see the liquid coming up from the sides. I also place an inverted plate on top of the rolls, to keep some pressure on them so they don't open during cooking. Bring the broth to a boil and then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 60-75 minutes, until the cabbage is very tender.

To make the avgolemono, mix together the eggs and lemon juice and then add the corn starch to make a slurry. Take a few ladles of the broth from the cabbage rolls (I like to take out all or most of the rolls before doing this, just because it makes it easier on me and you can also pull out things you don't want to eat, like if you used lemon slices), and slowly add it to the egg-lemon mixture, beating continuously. Then, add the avgolemono into the pot, again stirring continuously. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dolmades 2

Nutritional information per serving (using extra lean ground beef): Calories: 324 / Fat: 13.5 / Carbs: 18.2g / Protein: 33.5g 

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A while back, I was talking to Peabody, and I asked her to make some loukoumades so I could live vicariously through her blog.  One, because I don't make doughnuts and two, because I already look like I wear a doughnut around my waist so I don't need to be eating said doughnuts. Loukoumades are Greek doughnuts/fritters that are doused in (what else) a honey syrup and served warm with cinnamon and walnuts (or whatever you want, really). If you haven't guessed by the description, they are delicious. Then, the other day, I came across this Time to Make the Doughnuts event hosted by Peabody and Helen of Tartelette and decided this was my chance. Loukoumades, here I come!

Well...there is a small problem with me making loukoumades. Okay, there are a few. For one, I have never worked with yeast, or at least, not yeast that hasn't been manipulated in a bread machine. I'm actually pretty terrified of yeast. But, working with yeast was one of my 2008 cooking resolutions, so why not knock it out in February?

Second, frying and I do not get along. When Tom and I were first dating, I decided to make some homemade french fries for him. He was really amazed by this, like no one ever makes fries at home. Well, somewhere in between my saying, "Oh, it's no big deal!" and "Really, it's not hard. My grandma and I would always make these growing up!" I managed to burn the &*_$%@# out of my wrist when grease splattered all over it. Five years later, the scar is still noticeable. That wasn't the first time I had deep fried anything...but it was the last.

When I decided to tackle both these fears, my next step was finding a recipe for loukoumades--not an easy task, apparently. I must have looked at 4 dozen recipes for loukoumades and I'm pretty sure no two were alike. Now, with cooking recipes, this isn't a problem. I know what works and what doesn't, at least for my tastes. With baking (which I am not good at) and yeast (which I have never worked with) I'm not quite as confident in combining recipes to make the right one. There were recipes with milk, recipes without. Recipes that called for one packet of yeast and 4 cups of flour while others called for a packet of yeast and 2 cups of flour. Out of nowhere came a recipe with vanilla and, even more surprisingly, a recipe with eggs. My head was starting to spin. I frantically searched Peter 1's blog, Peter 2's blog, Ivy's blog, Laurie's blog..surely one of these great Greek bloggers has made loukoumades. I know I can trust their recipes. No dice! Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Eventually I went with this recipe from recipezaar of all places. I halved the recipe. I also used more flour and omitted  the oil because it was the only recipe I saw that had oil in it. Otherwise, I followed the recipe for the doughnuts (I always make my honey syrup for everything the same way so I didn't even bother looking at that portion of any of the recipes).

After a couple hours my dough had risen! Hooray! Elly: 1, Yeast: 0.

Now, the frying...eh. For one I don't have a candy thermometer. I used the wooden spoon trick (you know, if it bubbles around it, it's ready to go) which worked. But by the end I think the oil got too hot because the doughnuts were a tad soggy. But that's ok! They get that way with the syrup anyway.

What I did not get and what I STILL do not get is how to make these things actually look the cute little dough balls I get at the Greek festivals and church, all the same shape. This batter was the consistency of a thick pancake batter so I couldn't exactly shape it before dropping it into the oil. I got all kinds of crazy shapes, although most of them looked like animals.

This one sort of looks like a rooster, right?

Cocka doodloukoumades

And this one, a bit like an aardvark, perhaps?

Fried aardvark

This resembles a seahorse. Or maybe a dead zebra. I'm not too sure.

Unknown species

Some turned out better than others, obviously, but you get the point. Still, I will take misshapen fritters to check "work with yeast" off my 2008 list any day.

Loukoumades

Loukoumades

Batter
1 package dry active yeast
1 cup warm (100-110 degrees) water
1/2 cup milk (brought to room temperature)
2-1/4 cups flour (maybe more) 
1.5 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Syrup (you may or may not want to reduce this to 1/2 cup of each of the following; it did make a little too much but it all depends how syrup-y you want your loukoumades)
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup sugar

Vegetable/neutral oil for frying
cinnamon and chopped walnuts for garnish

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add that, along with the milk, to the  yeast. Add more flour if necessary to achieve a thick pancake batter like consistency. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) for about 2 hours.

When the batter has risen (it will be about 3 times its original size) heat your oil to about 365 degrees (if you have a candy thermometer) and drop the batter by the teaspoonfull into the hot oil. Fry until just golden brown and then put them on a cooling rack placed over a pan (to catch the oil).

To make the syrup, bring the honey, sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Boil for a couple minutes to thicken slightly and then skim the foam off the top. Pour the mixture over the fritters. Top with cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Serve immediately.

Loukoumades (2)

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Loukoumades (3)

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