Taste Greek Food

Making bread yourself that is tasty and good looking is easier than you might think. The recipe for bread is simple and the steps to make amazing bread are easy to learn. The main ingredients are flour, water, yeast/pre-dough, salt and sugar.

The flour:

The flour makes the bread. Choosing high quality flour is important and with different flours you can vary the taste of your bread a lot. In the recipe we use 700g of mixed flour, 200g of white flour and 100g of corn flour – the mixed flour will give a nice yellow color and the corn flour makes the loaf  heavy without loosing the softness. You can experiment here alot. If you want it more soft, replace or reduce the corn flour, for a stronger color, use more mixed flour etc.  You can also add seeds of sunflowers, pumpkins or flax. Most important here is to sieve the flour to not have impurities in the dough later.

Yeast/pre-dough:

Another important aspect for bread is the yeast or better the pre-dough. Pre-dough will make the bread soft without the smell and taste of yeast. In the recipe both are used – but only half the yeast you would use normally to just help the pre-dough initially and to speed up the process.

You can buy pre-dough from any bakery and keep a handful every time you make bread. So buy it once and keep it for up to one week without feeding it in the fridge.

Salt and Sugar:

The sugar is needed to let the yeast do its job – salt needs to be dosed carefully.

Water:

If you want bread that lasts you need to also add some oil. The most healthy oil is olive oil. Not only your bread will last for up to a week, the oil adds taste and enriches the bread. Remember to always use hand-warm water to activate the yeast without burning it.

Preparation:

If you make bread regularly it is good to get a routine: prepare all tools – the bowl for the dough, the measure for water, the scale, measuring spoons and all ingredients – the flours, slat, sugar, oil, yeast and pre-dough. This way preparing the dough goes fast.

If room temperature is too low to grow a yeast dough, preheat the oven to 30-40 degree and leave the dough for around and hour.

To bake the bread it is most useful to have baking pans – like those for loaf cakes and baking paper. This way our bread gets nicely shaped and everything is easy to clean afterwards.

I can only encourage you to try it yourself. Making bread is fulfilling and you will be surprised how amazing bread can taste. Just a warning: You might not like your baker’s bread any more.

By making bread yourself you also exactly know what is inside. No worries about chemical additions or taste enhancers that can harm your health.

And in the end it is actually cheaper to make bread yourself than buying bread that will last for 2 to 3 days only.

Related Posts:

• Psomi (White Bread)
• Patates gi ahni (Greek Steamed Potatoes in Tomatosauce)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Manestra (Greek Pasta)
• Fakes (Greek Lentils)

Ingredients:

• 700g  mixed flour
• 200g white flour
• 100g corn flour
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 4 tablespoons of  olive oil (or corn oil)
• 2 ½ cups of warm water
• 15g yeast
• 1 potion of pre-dough

Preparation:

Remove the pre-dough from the refrigerator (which you made by youself or bought from the bakery) one day before making the bread.

Sift all 3 flours in a mixing bowl, add salt and sugar and mix it well with a spoon.

Prepare a hole in the center of the mix for the oil and water.

Dissolve the yeast in one of the cups of  warm water and add it with the rest of the water to the flour.

Also add the oil and the pre-dough.

Now knead the dough very well and add flour if necessary (white flour) to have a soft dough that  does not stick at the hands.

After kneading very well, cover the dough and let it rest in a warm place till it gets double. It will take about 2 to 3 hours.

Then knead the dough again and split it in two. If you need pre-dough, take away a handfull of dough and put it in the refrigerator till you need it again. The pre-dough will last up to 7 days without “feeding” it. If you need to keep the pre-dough for more than 7 days, take it out of the refrigerator, add a handful of flour and let it grow for 24h before you put it back in the refrigerator.

Prepare the baking pans with wax paper or oil, add the dough and let it rest again till it becomes double. It takes about one hour.

When the dough grew enough, cut the loafs with a sharp knife.

Bake the breads in a preheated oven for 40 minutes at 180 degree.

When the breads are ready (the bread sounds hollow), take the breads out of the forms, brush the surface with water and cover them in a clean towel or cloth to cool down.

Finally, place the cold breads in bags to keep them fresh for several days.

Related Posts:

• About making bread
• Patates gi ahni (Greek Steamed Potatoes in Tomatosauce)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Manestra (Greek Pasta)
• Fakes (Greek Lentils)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of margarine
• 250g. fresh butter
• ½ cup caster sugar
• Caster sugar for decoration
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 to 6 packs of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 4 to 5 cups flour
• Optional: 1 cup of  almonds (roasted, peeled, chopped)

Preparation:

Blend the caster sugar, the butter and margarine in a mixer well, add the egg yolk and 2 to 3 vanillas.

Continue mixing till everything is mixed well.

Now stop the mixer and continue to mix by hand, add baking powder and the flour bit by bit till you have a soft dough.

Finally, add the almonds and knead again briefly.

Roll out the dough, cut ut square shaped pieces and place them on a baking sheet with wax paper.

Bake at 175°C  for 30 minutes till lightly browned.

Prepare the caster sugar for decoration by mixing it with the 2-3 remaining vanilla packs.

Put a  baking paper on a table and add the caster sugar on top of each Shortbread.

Let the Shortbreads get cold and place them in a metal cookie box.

Related Posts:

• Patates gi ahni (Greek Steamed Potatoes in Tomatosauce)
• Milopita (Greek Apple Pie)
• Fakes (Greek Lentils)
• Prasa (Greek Leeks with Rice)
• Lahanorizo (Cabbage and Rice)

Ingredients

• ½ kg of minced meat
• 1 cup of soup rice
• 1 medium onion
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• pepper
• 1 tablespoon of cooking margarine
• flour

Lemon sauce:

• 1 to 2 lemons
• 1 to 2 eggs (2 eggs will make the soup more creamy)

Preparation

Fill a large pot with water (around 3/4 of the pot) and put it to boil and add the margarine and the salt.

Wash the rice and peel, clean and blend the onion.

Mix the minced meat with 1/2 cup of the rice, the blended onion, salt and pepper.

Mix well and then form balls from the meat.

Before you add the meat balls in the boiling water, flour them.

Boil for 10 minutes and add the other half  of rice. Once the rice is done lower the temperature and create the lemon egg:

Divide yolks from egg and squeeze lemons.

Put the white of the egg in a bowl and start to whip it with a fork until it lathers well.

Continue the whipping and add the egg yolks.

Mix thoroughly by whipping constantly and slowly add the lemon juice.

Be very careful to mix thoroughly each time you add juice do not stop the whipping at all because otherwise the egg will get “cut”.

After adding all the juice of the lemons and while still whipping continuously, add 2 tablespoons of fish broth slowly as we did with the lemon juice.

Then add to the lemon egg mix to the soup and stir the soup.

Serve hot, accompanied with feta cheese and fresh bread.

Related Posts:

• Kreatosoupa (Greek Meat Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Psarosoupa (Greek Fish Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Keik (Cake)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Galaktompoureko (Custard filled pastry)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of veal meat
• 2 to 3 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 2 – 3 medium carrots
• ½ cup of soup rice
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon of cooking margarine

Lemon Sauce

• 1 to 2 lemons
• 1 to 2 eggs (you can make with an egg but the soup chylonei more if youuse 2

Preparation:

Fill a large pot with water (around 3/4 of the pot) and add the meat to cook (at this point we can use pressure cooker to reduce cooking time).

Then we remove the meat with a slotted spoon and leave it in a bowl to cool.

We clean and cut the vegetables, which we add to the water with the salt and the margarine. (We do not chop the onion, we just clean it and cut it from above). If necessary add water.

While the vegetables are boiling cut the meat into small pieces and add to pan with vegetables.

Wash the rice and when the carrots and the potatoes are half done and add to it in the pot.

When the rice is done, lower the temperature and make the lemon egg sauce. (You can remove the onion at this point if you want):

Divide yolks from egg and squeeze lemons.

Put the white of the egg in a bowl and start to whip it with a fork until it lathers well.

Continue the whipping and add the egg yolks.

Mix thoroughly by whipping constantly and slowly add the lemon juice.

Be very careful to mix thoroughly each time you add juice do not stop the whipping at all because otherwise the egg will get “cut”.

After adding all the juice of the lemons and while still whipping continuously, add 2 tablespoons of meat broth slowly as we did with the lemon juice.

Then add to the lemon egg mix to the soup and stir the soup.

Serve hot, accompanied with fresh bread.

Related Posts:

• Giouvarlakia (Greek Meatball Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Psarosoupa (Greek Fish Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Keik (Cake)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Galaktompoureko (Custard filled pastry)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of fresh soup fish (the result will be better if you have more than one type of fish)
• 2 to 3 medium carrots
• 2 to 3 medium potatoes
• half a celery (root and leaves)
• 1 medium onion
• ½ cup of soup rice
• ½ cup of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of salt

Lemon sauce:

• 1 ½ – 2 lemons
• 1 or 2 eggs ( 2 eggs will make the soup more creamy)

Execution:

Fill a large pot of water (3 / 4 around the pot) and put it to boil.

Peel and cut the carrots into slices and the potatoes in medium-sized pieces.

Also clean and chop the celery. The leaves along with the tender part of the stem, but wash them leave them uncut.

Peel, wash and cut up the onion.

After we prepared the vegetables, we add them to the boiling watertogether with the salt and the oil.

Peel and wash the gutted fish (if the fish is large cut it into pieces to fit in the pot).

When the vegetables are half done, we remove them from the water with a straining spoon and let put them in a bowl (except the onion ).

We add the fish into the boiling water and add water if necessary.

When done remove the fish from water and drain the water with a colander to not have bones in a clean saucepan.

Wash the rice and put to boil in same water. When half-done add the vegetables and finely chop the leaves from the celery.

If you want to add pieces of fish to the soup, clean the fish from the bones.

Or serve the fish separately a platter.

Once the rice and vegetables are done, lower the temperature and create the lemon egg  sauce:

Divide yolks from egg and squeeze lemons.

Put the white of the egg in a bowl and start to whip it with a fork until it lathers well.

Continue the whipping and add the egg yolks.

Mix thoroughly by whipping constantly and slowly add the lemon juice.

Be very careful to mix thoroughly each time you add juice do not stop the whipping at all because otherwise the egg will get “cut”.

After adding all the juice of the lemons and while still whipping continuously, add 2 tablespoons of fish broth slowly as we did with the lemon juice.

Then add to the lemon egg mix to the soup and stir the soup.

Serve hot with mayonnaise and fresh bread.

Related Posts:

• Giouvarlakia (Greek Meatball Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Kreatosoupa (Greek Meat Soup with Lemon and Egg)
• Keik (Cake)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Galaktompoureko (Custard filled pastry)

Ingredients

• 1 kg of potatoes (3 – 4 large potatoes)
• ½ cup of olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce
• Water (to cover the potatoes)
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• A bit of oregano
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic

Preparation

Clean and chop the onions and wilt in a pan with the oil.

After cleaning  and cutting the potatoes, add them to the pan.

Stir for about five minutes.

Then add all remaining ingredients (garlic as cloves) and boil for about 30 minutes.

Add water if necessary.

Related Posts:

• Fakes (Greek Lentils)
• Prasa (Greek Leeks with Rice)
• Lahanorizo (Cabbage and Rice)
• Fasolakia (Green beans in oil)
• About making bread

Ingredients

Dough:

• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 125g. margarine
• 2 packs of vanilla
• 1 pack of baking powder

Filling:

• 3 apples
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• Icing sugar

Preparation:

First we prepare the filling. Grate the apples and mix them with the sugar and the cinnamon.

After that we prepare the dough. Melt the margarine and mix it with the sugar, the eggs, the vanilla and the baikin.

Add the flour gradually, mixing everything by hand, until we have a fairly firm dough.

Grease and flour a medium sized pan.

Divide the dough in half. Spread half the dough in the bottom of the pan. Then add the filling and spread it evenly.

Finally add the remaining dough on top after rolling it with a rolling pin or the palms.

Bake at 170C untilit becomes brown (about 30 minutes).

Optional: Once baked, sprinkle the apple pie with powdered sugar and let it cool.

Related Posts:

• Kourabiethes (Greek Shortbread)
• Patates gi ahni (Greek Steamed Potatoes in Tomatosauce)
• Keik (Cake)
• Fakes (Greek Lentils)
• Prasa (Greek Leeks with Rice)

Ingredients

• 125 gr magarine
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 baking powder
• 1 vanilla
• ¾ cup of milk

Preparation

Grease and flour a cake form.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with mixer for about 10 minutes.

Bake on middle rack at 200C for 1 hour.

Related Posts:

• Milopita (Greek Apple Pie)
• Fasolada (Bean Soup)
• Galaktompoureko (Custard filled pastry)
• About making bread
• Kourabiethes (Greek Shortbread)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of beans
• ½ cup of olive oil
• 1 medium onion
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce
• 1 large carrot
• ½ celery
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation

Clean and wash the beans.

Start boiling water in a big pan and add the beans.

Once the water starts boiling, turn off the heat and let the beans rest for 1h.

Then drain the water and put the beans back in the pan with just enough water to cover them.

Now chop the onion and add it.

Add all other ingredients, stir well and let it boil.

The cooking time is about 45 minutes.

Related Posts:

• About making bread
• Patates gi ahni (Greek Steamed Potatoes in Tomatosauce)
• Keik (Cake)
• Manestra (Greek Pasta)
• Fakes (Greek Lentils)