Sushi

Sushi is one of my favorite Asian cuisine foods. My wife and I enjoy having sushi once every couple of months. There is a nice restaurant we like going to, we usually choose the "all you can eat buffet". I attemped making sushi myself only once in the past, but the other day I had the urge to make sushi and so I ran to the fish market for fresh salmon, took out my sushi recipes, put on my apron and voila..... Here's the outcome.....Enjoy!
I must warn you that making sushi is a bit complicated....but once you try it for a few times, you can become a pro! The ingredients costed approximately 20-25 euros and they are enough for a sushi platter for two people.
All the recipes and every other information regarding sushi, can be found in the recipe book Sushi, Made Easy (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York)

All sushi has a base of specially prepared rice, and complemented with other ingredients. Sushi is made with white, short-grained, japanese rice mixed with a dressing made of rice vinegar, sugar and salt.

Ingredients for rice

• 460 g short grain rice
• 2 1/2 cups water

Vinegar mixture

• 75 ml rice vinegar
• 15 ml mirin (sweet wine , made from glutinous rice, used for cooking purposes, can be found in all major supermarkets that sell international food)
• 45 ml sugar
• 30 ml salt

Method

Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Drain for an hour, then place the rice in a pot with tight fitting lid and add the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Lower the heat and steam for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove the lid and cover the pot with a kitchen towel. Let stand for 15 minutes. While the rice is cooking, combine the vinegar mixture ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Remove the mixture from the heat and cool. Spread the rice evenly over the base of a shallow, wooden bowl. Run a spatula through the rice to gently separate the grains and slowly add the vinegar mixture at the same time. The rice should not be too moist. Fan the rice until it reaches room temperature. Keep it in the wooden bowl, covered with a clean cloth, until ready to use.

Ingredients for sushi rolls (Maki)

Rolling sushi takes practice. It looks simple, but trust me is not. You need a bamboo rolling mat, which is made from skewer-type bamboo sticks woven together with string.

Hosomaki is a slender , rolled sushi, boasting one to three ingredients.

• 500 g vinegared rice (shari)
• 5 sheets seaweed (nori)
• rice vinegar
• wasabi

Ingredients for fillings

• tuna or salmon ( must be really fresh, for aesthetics and hygiene reasons)
• fresh onions
• lettuce
• avocado
• omelette (2 eggs, dash of salt, 10ml water, 15ml sugar, 5ml soy sauce, 25ml sake, oil for cooking)
  
• cucumber
• carrot
• roe

Method

Place a sheet of nori onto the mat. The rolling mat must be dry and placed on a dry chopping board. Moisten your hands in vinegared water and make a bowl out of half a cup of prepared rice. Place this ball on the nori and spread it out carefully. Spread it gently, do not push it down onto the nori. Keep about 12 mm free of rice on the far end of nori to seal the roll.
Place a dab of wasabi on your inded finger and run your finger along the rice, from left to right in a straight line. This line should be at the end closest to you. Place the fillings for your roll on top of the wasabi, and wet the exposed strip of nori with rice vinegar. Lift the front of the bamboo mat closest to you. Roll the maki by pressing the mat down firmly on the nori. The nori will stick to itself when the roll is complete. Shape the ends of the rill so that no rice will fall out and then ler the roll to rest for a minute or two. Moisten a sharp knife with vinegared water before cutting the roll into four or six neat pieces.
( I know that by now you will be completely confused and think that rocket science is easier than making sushi rolls. Trust me it is easier than it sounds, and it is extremely helpful if you could observe someone making these first and then attempt to do it yourself. I watched a few shows on BBC Food before attempting to make these rolls.


Eating sushi


Pour soy sauce in a little bowl, add wasabi to taste, mix well and dip sushi into soy sauce and enjoy. You can also have pickled slices of ginger in between bites to cleanse the pallate. Beverages to accompany sushi are green tea or sake, both to be served warm.

Finnish Pancakes

This is an extremely easy recipe to make especially for sunday breakfast. And it tastes great!


Ingredients

4 tbsp melted butter
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
maple syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 200 celsius. Pour butter in a 9 x 16 inches baking pan (not smaller, trust me it won't work!). Whip eggs in a large bowl, then all other ingredients and mix together. Pour into the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Pour syrup and serve!

Kyri's Broccoli and Chicken pasta

My wife Kyri, is not what we would call a good cook. Unlike me, she is not fond of cooking, she gets bored easily and she can't improvise....She is aware of this and she often says "Well, I'm a career woman....". I have to give her credit for one thing though....She knows how to make the best pasta with white sauce ever.....She makes it with veggies and the other day she added chicken in it and it was divine....So this post is dedicated to my career woman!

Ingredients (4 servings)

2 large onions chopped
fresh onion chopped
2 medium size green peppers cut in small strings
1 medium size orange or red pepper cut in small strings
3 large mushrooms cut in small pieces
canned corn
1 medium size broccoli
500ml fresh creams
60g butter
3 chicken breasts soaked in soy sauce for a couple of hours
salt, pepper, maggi cube
chopped parsley
white wine, half glass

Method

Add butter in a large pan and fry for a couple of minutes. Add onions (not the fresh ones) and let them fry until they get a golden color. Then add peppers, mushrooms, corn, let them cook for a while and then add chicken (make sure you dont drain the soy sauce,it adds to the taste), salt, pepper and wine, mix and let them cook until chicken becomes light brown.
Then add fresh creams, stir well and right before it starts getting thick, add the broccoli and the fresh onions. Sauce needs another 5-7 minutes to cook in low heat.
The right time to start boiling the pasta is right before you add the fresh cream to the sauce mixture. Make sure you make the pasta (penne or any other kind but spaghetti) in a really large pot because you will need to pour sauce in it. Pasta needs ten minutes to cook (add salt or maggi if you like), drain water and add sauce in pot. Sprinkle the parsley, stir well and serve......

South African Milk Tart (Melktert)

Dear Disciples, sorry for the long silence. The Saint has been resting, recharging batteries and now is back for new adventures. Many followers have been requesting to post South African recipes. This is the beginning for the South African Cuisine Journeys with one of my favorite recipes, my mom used to make this when we were kids and I love it. Making it this morning, brought back so many memories from my homeland......

Ingredients for the base

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 egg beaten
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup caster sugar

Ingredients for the filling

1 1/2 eggs beaten
1 1/4 tbsp flour
1 1/4 tbsp corn flour
2 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter
4 1/2 tbsp sugar


Method for Base

Beat together butter and sugar. Add eggs and then all the dry ingredients. You now have a crumbly mix that you press into a pie dish (see picture in oven).
Bake at 170 degress Celsius for 15 minutes.

Method for filling

Boil Milk. In a different pot beat egg and sugar. Add flour and corn flour, then milk and let it cook until it thickens. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter. Pour into baked shell and sprinkle over nutmeg and/or cinnamon. Refrigerate.

Eliopittes Xoriatikes(Olive Pies)

There are a lot of different ways to make olive pies,( eliopittes in Greek). In a previous posting, you can find the Rustic Olive Pie, which is a very well known way of baking an olive pie, this time I am posting another one of my favorite olive pies, baked in a traditional way, with whole black olives in it which gives it such an excellent taste. In the old days, Cypriot housewives used to bake this particular pie in a traditional oven, lighting pieces of wood and branches for fire.
For now, a conventional gas or electric oven will do. Enjoy!

• 

Ingredients

• 1 kg of bread flour
• 12 g of yeast
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• half a cup of black olives with pips
• fresh mint
• 125 ml of olive oil
• 375 ml of lukewarm water

Method

Put flour in a large bowl, add yeast and water and knead very well for about 15 minutes until you have a very elastic, not too thick dough. Let it stand for about one hour. Add olive oil, knead well, then add mint, chopped onion and olives. Knead again very well, cut the dough in the size of a tennis ball and knead it in an oval shape until you use all of it (see picture). Cook for 10 minutes in 195 degrees Celsius, and then for another 15 minutes in 185 degrees Celsius, until you get a golden , brownish color.

Nigella's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake

Nigella Lawson without doubt makes the best chocolate cakes.....My wife lives for chocolate and every time I make any of Nigella's recipes, I think our marriage is revived....
This is the first time I make the Dense chocolate Loaf cake and let me tell you this much......yummie! I found this recipe at http://bakingforthecure.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/dense-chocolate-loaf-cake/
(Just a quick reminder....My famous Guiness Cake is a Nigella recipe too).

Ingredients

• 225 gr. soft unsalted butter

• 375 gr. dark muscovado sugar

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 100 gr. best dark chocolate, melted

• 200 gr. plain flour

• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

• 250 ml. boiling water

Method

Use one 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5.

Put in a baking sheet in case of sticky drips later, and grease and line the loaf t

in. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake: use parchment, Bake-O-Glide or loaf-tin shaped paper case.

Cream the butter and sugar, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric hand-held mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well. Next, fold in the melted and now slightly cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. You want the ingredients combined: you don’t want a light airy mass. Then gently add the flour, to which you’ve added the bicarb, alternately spoon by spoon, with the boiling water until you have a smooth fairly liquid batter. Pour into the lined loaf pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170 degrees C./ gas mark 3 and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake tester or skewer won’t come out completely clean.

Place the loaf pan on a rack, and leave to get completely cold before turning it out. (I often leave it for a day or so: like gingerbread, it improves.) Don’t worry if it sinks in the middle: indeed, it will do so because it’s such a dense and damp cake.

Glazing

This is not part of Nigella's recipe.

• 85g chocolate coarsley chopped
• 3Tbsp icing sugar
• 3Tbsp (42g) unsalted butter

Melt chocolate. Remove from heat and stir in the icing sugar. Stir in the butter little by little.

Halvas(Semolina Cake)

This is a very traditional Greek and Cypriot cake. There are a lot of different versions of Halvas, some bake it in the oven, some use raisins instead of almonds, some prefer to mix olive oil and sunflower oil....This is the saucepan version, with almonds. It is a very popular cake especially during fasting period.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups of sugar
• 3 cups of semolina
• 5 3/4 cups of warm water
• 5 tbsp of rosewater
• 1/2 cup of almond nuts (skinless and cut in small pieces)
• 1/2 cup of sunflower oil

Method

Put sugar and warm water in a small saucepan and stir well until dissolved. Remove from heat and add rosewater. In another saucepan (preferable with a non sticky bottom), put oil and almonds and fry until they become slightly brown in color. Add semolina and mix continuously for one minute, while on heat. Then remove from heat, add syrup (the water, sugar and rosewater mixture), mix and put on heat. Stir well with a wooden spoon until it becomes thick. Remove from heat and put in a Pyrex. Take a wet wooden spoon and flaten the top of the cake until it looks really shiny! Enjoy!

Souvlakia

I love meat. Everybody that knows me, knows that. Today I am posting one of my favourite meat dishes. It is very simple to prepare and it is one of the most popular, if not the most popular meat dishes in Cyprus.
It is also the the No.1 take-out/take-away food on the Island and is what hamburgers are to the USA. When people don't order souvlakia for take-out, most will prepare souvlakia over the weekend and invite friends or family over to enjoy this delicious food. Even though everybody prepares souvlakia in a slightly different way, the overall preparation is pretty much the same. My secret is adding the spice Sumac, that gives the souvlakia just that slightly different taste than the norm, and I also marinate them for a few hours in a mixture of soy sauce and olive oil.



Ingredients

• 1.5 kg of pork belly cut into bite size cubes
• 2 tomatoes cut into cubes
• 2 large green peppers cut into cube
• 1 large onion cut into pieces
• 1 eggplant cut into cubes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1-2 tsp sumac spice
• salt according to taste
  

Method

• In a bowl mix cubed meat, olive oil and sauce sauce.
• Then sprinkle sumac all over the meat and again mix well.
• Cover the bowl with cling film and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
• Put the meat on skewers with onion, eggplant, peppers or tomatoe in between the meat and cook over charcoal for 15-20 minutes.
• Garnish with finely chopped fresh parsley and some lemon juice if you wish.
  

Sesame Wine Rusks

An extremely easy recipe to make and very tasty as well!

Ingredients

• 1 kg of self raising flour
• 250 ml of dry red wine
• 250 ml of sunflower oil
• 250 ml of vegetable shortening
• 250 ml of sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (powder)
• 1 tsp of cloves
• 3 tsp of baking powder
• 1 cup of sesame seeds

Method

Mix all ingredients but the sesame seeds in a bowl, knead the dough very well and then make dough into small rings (6 -7 cm diameter) or any other shape or size you like and finally dip them into the sesame seeds (on one side only).
Then place them onto a baking tray and bake them in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes are over, reduce heat by 10 degrees Celsius every five minutes until you reach 170 degrees Celsius. Remove from the oven, let them cool and treat your guests along with tea or coffee.

Ofto Kleftiko

There is absolutely no way you visit a traditional Cypriot or Greek taverna, and not find Ofto Kleftiko on the menu.
It is a delicacy, a very popular dish, along with souvlaki, sieftalies,ntolmadakia(koubebia) etc.
Kleftiko is actually a form of cooking, in which the raw ingredients are put into a hole in the ground, sealed with mud and slow fired for about 6 hours.
Having cooked for so many hours, the meat becomes very tender. Nowadays, Ofto Kleftiko is wrapped in special paper or aluminum foil, cooked in clay ovens, (found in almost every yard in the villages of Cyprus), or in clay pots. Mostly served with potatoes, which become super soft and tasty being cooked in the juices of the meat.

Ingredients

• 2 kg of lamb
• 1 large onion, cut in small pieces
• 1-2 sticks of cinnamon
• salt
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 tbl spoons of brandy

Method

Cut meat in large pieces and place them in a clay pot or pyrex. Add salt and brandy, mix them well, add bay leaves, onion and cinnamon sticks, pour 5 tbl spoons of water and cook in oven at 200 Celsius, for approximately 1,5 hours. Open lid in the last 5-10 minutes to allow meat to get a roasty look.