"There are no atheists in Obstetrics units and foxholes."
- Sam Sotiropoulos, The Greek Gourmand
My Foodbuzz button - Click to Enlarge
The Fates have a way of spinning things; let me tell you a story… Three weeks ago tomorrow my pregnant wife and I were paying a scheduled visit to the Obstetrics Day Unit 7th floor Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada. To our surprise we did not leave the hospital that day, or the next day, or on any of the days in the next three weeks after that. Indeed, my wife and son are still at the hospital as of this writing. Yes, I am a father! My son, Ilias Georgios Sotiropoulos was born on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 02:06. My wife is recovering well and my son is also doing well; he is a preemie just like his father. :-)
Not to belabour the point, but the past three weeks have been an eternity, as I am sure you can all appreciate. The complete shock of everything that transpired in the last 20 days only sunk in while I was writing this posting and I cried, loud and long. I am still fighting back tears of joy and gasps of simple human angst and relief as I type.
In spite of all that goes on around one in such a set of circumstances, it is necessary to find things to do to occupy one’s thoughts and stay positive. My wife is a rock, her strength and patience and courage have become a lesson for me… I, on the other hand, am a restless soul with an edgy imagination; I am already a serial insomniac, and suffice it to say, this twist of Fortuna did not help me to sleep any easier.
Just days before my wife was checked into the hospital my original proposal for the Foodbuzz.com 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blog Posts global blogging event had been selected and approved by the good folk at Foodbuzz. Both my wife and I had been looking forward to hosting a dinner event in our home for our friends and family, and to share it with the online food blogging community at Foodbuzz and beyond. As circumstances dictated a different than anticipated course we rolled with it, and I was faced with the likelihood of withdrawing my participation. My wife insisted that I wait and see what happened, as she (we) expected her stay at the hospital to be of brief duration.
When it became clear that my wife was not leaving the hospital until delivery, we/she did our/her best to settle into life with constant medical monitoring and care. There were even moments when I thought I might need some attention myself! Whew... So, there we were hoping for the best but fearing the worst as is natural in such a situation. One thing that became apparent right from the start was that the staff that was caring for Sophie (my wife, nameless nevermore) was/is an exceptional group of people. I cannot adequately express my gratitude and appreciation for the amazing work they perform day in and day out; work that goes on twenty four hours a day and is largely unrecognized and unremarked by the greater public at large.
Then I had the epiphany. I was going to use the opportunity of the Foodbuzz 24 event to bring some attention to the important work that Obstetrics units perform, and not only in Canada but the world over, starting with the good people on the 7th floor at Mount SinaiHospital. My wife embraced the idea enthusiastically; it gave us both something to look forward to in the short term within the hospital environment, after all, a hospital is a hospital.
When I contacted Foodbuzz and explained the situation along with submitting a revised 24, 24, 24 event proposal, they were excited about the prospect of my holding the event in the hospital and approved it without hesitation. As a result, I want to thank Ryan, Amy and Shannon at Foodbuzz for giving me something to plan and look forward to while sitting/sleeping at Sophie’s bedside; it kept me sane. I would also like to thank Mr. Christos Athanassopoulos, the Economic Consul at the Consulate General of Greece in Toronto for his assistance, as well as Mr. Alex Alexakis from Krinos Foods Canada Ltd., for generously providing the Greek cheeses, olives and spoon sweets I served for the event (see photos below). In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Steve Kriaris of Kolonaki Group Inc., for supplying the beverages for the event (see photos below).
With the arrival of my son this past Wednesday morning, what was initially planned as a gesture of gratitude for the medical staff at Mount Sinai, ended up as a celebration party for his birth! By the end of the night last night, I had fed some 30 doctors, nurses, orderlies and patients of the 7th floor O.B. unit. What was on the menu? Well, it was a home style example of rustic Greek cuisine in all its glory; simple but tasty and wholesome.
Three Greek cheeses - Click to Enlarge
There were some excellent Greek Feta, Kefalograviera, and Kaseri (or Kasseri) cheeses that were generously provided by Krinos Foods Ltd.
Non-alcoholic Greek beverages - Click to Enlarge
For drinks we had Ioli brand Greek spring and mineral waters, along with Ivi brand peach juice drink, compliments of Kolonaki Group Inc.
My signature orange roast potatoes - Click to Enlarge
There were orange-oregano-thyme roast potatoes (made in exactly the same way as my lemon potatoes but with the substitution of oranges and orange rind for the lemons, along with the addition of thyme (or even rosemary).
Kleftiko all bundled up - Click to Enlarge
And there was lamb Kleftiko (or Klephtiko), which recipe I will provide in the next couple weeks.
Greek yogurt topped with sour cherry spoon sweet & walnuts - Click to Enlarge
And then some Greek style strained/pressed yogurt topped with a choice of grape or sour cherry Greek spoon sweets, walnut pieces and dried figs.
In addition to the above, there was an eggplant dip known as melitzanosalata, a roasted red pepper piquante dip (a variation on the classic tirokafteri dip), some giant Kalamata olives along with some mammoth green olives, a tomato and onion salad, and some whole grain and white baguettes, along with some pita bread.
Over the next couple weeks I will be fleshing out the menu with a few more recipes like the one for the Kleftiko as mentioned above, so stay tuned for more.
At this juncture I want to thank my wife, Sophie, for her great courage and steadfastness in the carrying and delivery of our son, Ilias. She did all the heavy lifting and I was just along for the ride and moral support. Also, I wish to once again thank the doctors, nursing staff, and orderlies at Mount Sinai hospital for their excellent care and attention, and most of all for their human empathy and understanding.
Finally, here is the video I cobbled together of the Foodbuzz.com 24 Greek Food Hospital-ity event from last evening, I hope you enjoy it!
Now that I am done feeding everyone else, I am going to have the nurse show me how to feed my son. :-)
Earlier this evening, as part of the FoodBuzz24, 24, 24 worldwide blogging event, I fed over 30 doctors, nurses, orderlies and patients a home-style Greek food meal at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. I will be posting the details, photos and video footage from the event tomorrow.
Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I put an emphasis on quality in my postings and recipes. So, if I did not think the people at Foodbuzzwere a fantastic group doing some excellent work in online food publishing, I would not have added this posting. In a few words, I want to announce the official launch of the FoodbuzzPublisher Community. Foodbuzzis an online culinary publishing network that currently includes over 1100 featured publishers worldwide. The range of food related material, from recipes to restaurant ratings and reviews which are available through Foodbuzz is enormous and growing daily. Join the community and offer up a restaurant review or share your recipes; there can never be enough information shared about food, especially if it is good!
Recently, Foodbuzz launched a global food blogging event known as 24, 24, 24 in which 24 blogs worldwide served up 24 signature meals to groups of guests, and published postings on their respective events within 24 hours. As the first such event of its kind in the world it was a huge success and has led to a series of monthly "24, 24, 24" food blogging events. This coming Saturday, October 25th 2008, is the second installment of "24, 24, 24" and it promises to be a tasty weekend for all those involved. I am looking forward to the Buzz from this weekend’s event. Stay tuned.
Here is a promotional video from the last (and first!) Foodbuzz "24, 24, 24":
Village Greek salad in all its glory - Click to Enlarge Image
Exactly when the tomato arrived in Greece is a matter of conjecture; there are various apocryphal anecdotes and references but nothing definitive. One thing is certain; it arrived sometime after Columbus returned from the New World in 1493. The tomato is native to the Americas and was introduced to Europe after the Discovery made by the great 15th Century navigator on his celebrated voyage across the Atlantic. If Christopher Columbus was of Greek origin as some claim, it may have arrived in Greece earlier than commonly supposed. In any case, the tomato qua tomato has been a part of European and Greek recipes for no more than a few centuries all told. It is downright astonishing how this species of nightshade spread and insinuated itself into the national cuisines of the European continent in such a relatively short time. After all, where would Italian cooking be without the tomato? How about the Spanish food fight festival known as the Tomatina? What of Greek salad?
Like the Italians and the Spanish, Greeks use the tomato in everything from casseroles to soups; they stuff them, roast them, bake them, fry them, dry them, grate them, pulp them, and turn ‘em into sauce. Opa! But the single most popular way for tomatoes to be consumed in Greece is in a salad; and not just any salad of course, but a Greek salad. Just what makes a Greek salad anyway? If you ask a Greek this question, he/she may require clarification. “What kind of salad do you mean?” they might ask. After all, Greeks have all manner of salads or salates as they call them (in Gk. pronounced “sah-LAH-tehs”, which is plural for “sah-LAH-tah”); from Taramosalata, to Lahanosalata, to every kind of salata you can imagine… and even some you cannot. In short, Greeks are the biggest salad eaters on the planet; for them everything is potentially a salad.
So, if what you mean by Greek salad is a tomato salad that includes feta cheese, olive oil and oregano as its most basic constituents, you will need to be specific. More often than not, if you are in a Greek restaurant, both in Greece and abroad, the classic tomato salad with feta cheese is usually referred to as a ‘horiatiki salata’. The word horiatiki is Greek for “village” and is pronounced as “hor-YIA-tiki”. Typically, a horiatiki salad will include onions and cucumbers as well, and in most cases black olives too. As my family is from Arcadia in the Peloponnese we also include Greek pepperoncini in our version of the famous salad, as the small “Golden Greek Peppers” are a specialty of our region.
My father's pride and joy, a 1 kg. tomato! - Click to Enlarge Image
I used tomatoes from our kitchen garden for this dish, as we still have quite a few left. My father-in-law brought us some seed from Greece in the spring, so our tomatoes are actual Greek tomatoes. Yesterday, I pulled the remaining tomatoes off the vines as we had a frost warning for the overnight period. This year, the family prize for the largest tomato went to my father who managed to grow a truly behemoth bunch of tomatoes; the largest of which was a 1 kg (2.2 lb) monster, as pictured above. The award was a bottle of ouzo. The monster tomato ended up in a salad exactly like the one pictured in this recipe, and it was tasty!
Ingredients:
3 medium sized ripe tomatoes cut into quarters or sixths ½ a cooking onion, sliced ½ a cucumber, peeled, halved and sliced Several Greek pepperoncini (be sure to squeeze them to drain the brine before using) Some Kalamata or wrinkled black olives (the choice is yours) ½ cup (125 ml.) crumbled Greek Feta cheese ¼ cup (60 ml.) Greek extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons (30 ml.) Greek wine vinegar* (optional, I normally do not add it) 1 teaspoon (5 ml.) dried Greek oregano Fresh ground pepper Salt to taste* (optional, I normally do not add it as the Feta is already salty enough)
Wash and cut the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions and put them together into a salad bowl.
Add several olives and pepperoncini to the bowl.
Sprinkle the crumbled feta overtop of the vegetables, then follow with fresh ground pepper, oregano, and the olive oil (salt and vinegar are also options at this point, but are not required ingredients. I do not add salt because as I stated above the Feta cheese is already quite salty, and any additional salt will only serve to make the tomatoes drain their water, thereby limiting the standing time of the salad).
Mix everything together a couple turns, but don’t overdo it, and serve.
A hearty Greek recipe from Cyprus - Click to Enlarge Image
This dish requires no introduction to our Cypriot friends, and though yiouvetsi [γιουβέτσι in Gk., pronounced “yoo-VE-tsee”] dishes are common fare throughout Greece, this variation employing ground meat is from Cyprus. As the 1st of October is Cypriot Independence Day, and since I was unable to attend the reception held by the Consulate General of the Republic of Cyprus here in Toronto due to a nasty cold, I thought I might whip up a dish to belatedly commemorate the occasion in absentia, as it were.
We are now in the Autumn season here in the Northern Hemisphere, and this recipe is a representative Greek comfort food that is easy to make and even easier to eat during the increasingly colder and shorter days that are upon us. The term “yiouvetsi” can best be translated as ‘casserole’ and the name is derived from the type of earthenware vessel that is traditionally used to bake it; a deep two-handled round clay dish. I used an oval stoneware casserole as I broke my yiouvetsi dish (boohoo!) and have not had a chance to replace it. The main point here is that a metal pan is no substitute for a ceramic cooking vessel when one is trying to remain true to traditional Greek food cooking techniques. If you have a ceramic casserole dish, this would be a good recipe to use it on. If you do not have clay or stoneware crockery, then I recommend something like a CorningWare® or Pyrex® glass-ceramic ovenproof dish, as a metal pan will require that you stay on top of it and stir the contents often or the pasta will stick to the sides and bottom. My grandmother used to say that "a true yiouvetsi is stirred only once, half-way through the cooking and no more".
My yiouvetsi straight out of the oven - Click to Enlarge Image
Variations on the yiouvetsi theme in Greek cuisine can include cuts of lamb or chicken, or it can be made without any meat whatsoever. Cheese (usually a dried Greek whey cheese known as myzithra) can also be grated and sprinkled overtop when serving; though I typically do not use cheese on the meat-based variations, it remains an option. Usually, the meatless version of this dish is referred to simply as manestra [pronounced "mah-NE-strah"]. NOTE: Other pasta noodles may also be used to make yiouvetsi, but the krytharaki (orzo) noodle is the most commonly used for this purpose in this Greek recipe.
Ingredients:
1 lb. (450 gr.) ground veal
1 quart (1 litre) beef stock
1 ½ cups (375 ml.) of orzo pasta
1 cup (250 ml.) fresh strained tomato juice/sauce [or 2 tbsp. (30 ml.) tomato paste diluted in 1 cup of water]
1 onion, grated or finely chopped 2 garlic gloves, finely chopped or pressed
1 cinnamon stick (a couple inches in length will suffice)
4 spice cloves
3 tablespoons (45 ml.) Greek extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon (15 ml.) butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a large sauce pan, then, over a medium heat, add the ground veal and breaking it up with a wooden spoon sauté the meat for 5-8 minutes stirring constantly until it is thoroughly browned.
Once the ground veal has been completely browned, add the onion, garlic, tomato sauce, cinnamon stick, cloves, salt and pepper to the saucepan with the meat. Stirring the contents well, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes over a medium-low heat.
In a separate pan/pot bring the beef stock to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low, so as to keep it hot until we need it.
When the meat has cooked, remove the cinnamon stick from the pan. Add the uncooked orzo pasta to the hot beef stock for a couple stirs, then add the stock to the pan with the meat sauce and stir to mix thoroughly.
Butter the sides and bottom of the casserole, then add the yiouvetsi mixture to the dish and bake uncovered at a moderate heat 350° F. (180° C.) for 50-60 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed by the pasta. Stir the yiouvetsi well with a wooden spoon only once at about the 25 minute mark (making sure to get into the corners of the dish) then let it cook undisturbed for the remainder of its allotted time. Look for the surface of the yiouvetsi to form almost a crust-like top layer, especially near the edges of the dish. Remove from the oven when done and let the casserole sit for 15 minutes before serving.
