Eating Greek

My nieces came over for dinner yesterday.  It was dinner and Skype day, a way for us to all visit with Claire.  I always let them choose what they’d like to eat and they requested Greek, so this time I did an easy Greek family dinner.  The kind of dinner we had often growing up.  I served Grilled Lamb Chops with Oregano and Lemon Juice, Stewed Romano Beans, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic, Parsley, and Lemon, and Revani (semolina cake) with Yogurt and Apricot Jam.  I kindly let my nieces suffer smelling and looking at the food while we chatted with Claire…bad planning on my part!  No doubt it shortened up our Skype time with Claire.

We had simple broiled lamb chops at least once a week, for dinner.  It was Dads job to season the meat so he’d douse them with Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and lots of dried oregano and let them sit until dinner time.  Mom always broiled them in our wonderful broiler on top of our Chambers stove.  The top of the broiler was used as a griddle, it is a fabulous design and I don’t know why modern stoves have the broilers in a drawer on the bottom of the oven where I never use it.  Instead I cook my chops in a cast iron skillet and finish them in the oven.  The stewed beans are a family favorite, even folks who don’t like vegetables will like these beans.  I love making them when the flat buttery Romano beans are in season.  The recipe for the beans will be in the Mom Was Right cookbook.  The potatoes are very easy, wash about a pound of fingerling potatoes and put them in a large bowl.  Heat the oven to 375.  Add 3T melted butter, 2 T olive oil, and 2 t salt to the bowl with the potatoes and coat well.  Spoon the potatoes onto a cookie sheet with sides.  Pour about 1C chicken stock in the pan with the potatoes and roast until tender, about 25 minutes.  In a small bowl mince 2 cloves garlic, zest from one lemon, and about 2 T fresh parsley, sprinkle the mixture over the potatoes and serve.  This makes enough for 4-6 servings.

Kali Orexi!

Revani is a simple yogurt semolina cake.  Because it has a soaking syrup it lasts a long time.  Mom loved this cake because she liked to enjoy a piece of plain cake to have with coffee for breakfast.

1 C Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1/2 C sugar

2 t vanilla

1/4 C butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 1/4 C semolina flour

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

Soaking Syrup

1 C sugar

1 C water

zest (be sure to not include the white part since it will make the syrup bitter) of one orange

Heat oven to 350.  Butter a 9×9 or 8×8 pan, set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together yogurt, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.  Stir in the butter and add the semolina, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 25-35 minutes or until the cake is firm in the middle.  While the cake is baking make the soaking syrup.

In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and water and place over a high heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, add the orange zest and let the mixture simmer for five minutes.  Once the cake has baked, pour the syrup over the cake.  There is lots of debate about whether or not you pour hot syrup over a hot cake, or hot syrup over a room temperature cake, I always pour hot syrup over a hot cake and it works fine, so do what best suits your cooking schedule.

Once cool cut the cake into serving pieces and serve with a dollop of yogurt and either fresh apricots or apricot jam.

Serves 12