Greek Cuisine - A Wealth Of Recipes And Flavors

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

When you hear Greek cuisineWhat is the first thing you think of? I remember three things - Greek salad, olive oil and olives. However, this is not all that Greek cuisine has to offer. It is rich in many flavors. In it we can find both recipes for delicious Mediterranean food and a wide variety of Balkan food included in its recipes.

Let's take a long walk to our southern neighbor and get acquainted with some of its most famous delicacies. I guess you don't know that the ancient culinary arts in Europe began in ancient Greece. The first cookbook ever written appeared in Greece. It was written in 330 BC.

Greek cuisine has been formed over the centuries, influenced by the cuisines of the Balkans and the Middle East. Today, Greek chefs use a wide variety of products in the making of their dishes - herbs, olives, olive oil, lamb and goat meat, as well as wine. The most used is fish.

In the variety of products used in Greek cuisine, you can most often find zucchini, eggplant, olives, cheese, yogurt. However, these are only a small part of the varied and delicious Greek food.

In ancient Greece, they prepared their food quite economically. The main ingredients in the dishes were wine, olive oil, flour. They cooked fish more often than meat. Byzantine cuisine was very similar to classical Greek cuisine. Yes, but they used new products that were not known before - caviar, lemons, fish, nutmeg and more.

The most famous Greek herb was thyme. It is even mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. Other spices and herbs that are typical of Greek cuisine are oregano, garlic, dill, basil and bay leaf. These spices are also characteristic of the extremely useful and healthy Mediterranean food that the Greeks prepare.

Many places in Greece use sweet spices to flavor meat - for example, they add cinnamon to stewed meat. Many dishes known from Greek cuisine are borrowed from Turkish. Other dishes are influenced by Italian and also French cuisine.

Both in our country and in Greece, different dishes in different regions of the country are prepared differently. For example, they have a vegetarian dish that is made when potato rings with zucchini, mint and cheese are baked in the oven. This dish is typical of western Crete, which is located in the Chania region - it is consumed at least twice a week.

On the other hand, in other regions of the country this dish is not consumed at all. There are also many popular appetizers in Greek cuisine: boureki (a mix of vegetables or meat that are wrapped in puff pastry or plain dough), pancakes (these are fried vegetables, zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms or peppers).

The Greeks serve at their table as an appetizer and our favorite Greek salad. Greek cuisine is also rich in many types of soups, the most famous of which is Boro-Boro - soup with vegetables and pasta. The Greeks like to add many types of vegetables to their soups, as well as to combine several types of fish in one soup.

If you are a vegetarian and want to eat healthy, then Greek cuisine is your cuisine because it is extremely rich in vegetarian dishes. Some of the most famous dishes are:

- Bean fresco - fresh green beans with zucchini and tomato sauce;

- The favorite sauce of the Greeks is tzatziki, the Greek version of our dry tarator;

- yiouvarlakia - this is a dish consisting of pieces of meat with egg sauce and lemon, most often served with a garnish of rice; - païdakia - this is grilled lamb, seasoned with salt, oregano, lemon and pepper;

- Moussaka - the most popular meat dish in Greek cuisine. It is made from minced lamb and eggplant, but can also be made with rice and zucchini.

Cheese is also a very popular food in Greek cuisine. The most popular is feta cheese. There are different types of cheese in different regions of the country.

And after describing almost all Greek cuisine, we will now talk about desserts. The Greeks put honey instead of sugar in most of their desserts. Baklava is better known as a Turkish dessert, but the Greeks also often prepare it in various ways.

One of the most famous desserts in Greece is the walnut cake. It is followed by biscuits with butter or olive oil, apple pie with powdered sugar and so on. The Greeks are famous for a very nice Turkish delight, with amazing orange jam, as well as amazing Greek cookies.