Finding Meaning in Orthodox Lent, and Pleasure in Potatoes.

I grew up, not Catholic, but surrounded by Catholics, and so with the Catholic conception of Lent. It's more lax in that only a couple of days a week are affected, but in one important way it's a more meaningful affair: you vow to give up an indulgence- something that has significance for you. Orthodox lent is more culturally obvious- special menus at 24 hr fast food places obvious. There is a (largely theoretical) prohibition against all products from any animals with blood for 40 days- no pate, no ice cream, no gyros, no chocolate mousse, no beurre noisette, no fish and chips (except on the day of the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday- then we have fish). But, there is convincing lenten "cheese" in every supermarket- a yellow 'gouda" type, and a crumbly white brined "feta" type. A larger transgression against the spirit of abstinence? Unlimited quantities of crustaceans, cephalopods, bivalves. 

But what about the substance of things? The letter of Catholic or Orthodox law is not the point. It would takes nights of fried shrimp and steamed crab to make me finally ache for a hamburger. And "blessed" non-dairy "cheese" is morally ridiculous. 

What is not ridiculous? A season of simplicity and purity, a modesty in our cravings. Knowing there is not more piety in a lobster tail than in a broth of naked chicken bones. Above all, an abstinence from excess.

The secular rewards are great- a jaded palate is cleansed, and subtlety, quality, the nature of things just as they are shines again. At the table, the secular and the spiritual meet- this time in the form of a boiled potato, with oil and salt. If this does not excite you, you are probably not truly hungry enough to eat. If you are, it will be more delicious than you could imagine.

We will need:

2 potatoes

water

salt for the water

flaky sea salt for the finished potatoes

olive oil

I schlepped this 10 K bag of excellent high altitude potatoes from beautiful Archangel, Almopia:

When the Aegean pools up in rocks off the shore,
and the wind and sun whisk the water away,
this is what is left of the sea.

Scrub the potatoes, leave them whole and unpeeled, and cover them just barely with water. You can salt the water or leave it sweet, but some salt (a little less than you would for pasta)} deepen the flavor of the potato. Boil them gently until a knife slips in all the way to the middle without resistance. Perhaps 35-40 minutes.

The skins slip easily from the potatoes when they are sill hot- spear one with a fork, and coax the peel from them with a knife.

Slice them thickly, pour good oil over them, and shower them with fat flakes of salt. Of course, they are wonderful with herbs, or onions, or capers. Potatoes are bland. But they are not flavorless- they are subtle, rich and full- and no more need an accent than a bridal gown needs a red belt. Just this once, let them be the picture rather than the canvas, and enjoy them as they are.

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Imam Bayildi- Melting Sweet Eggplants for the pre-Easter Table.

The tender, yielding, mouth pleasing richness of texture is described in Greek as "λουκουμι"- loukoumi- what we know as Turkish Delight (a name which, in turn, is semi-jokingly called an oxymoron by more conservative English-speaking Greeks). Meats- slow roasted or gently braised ("melt in the mouth") dishes- are often called "loukoumi," and so are these magnificent melting eggplants, stuffed with sliced onions that are themselves nearly falling apart, sweet and fragrant. They really are a Turkish delight- known and beloved in all the neighboring countries as well, prepared as if their own. It's ideal for the Orthodox fast, and for vegetarian and vegan friends. and it is beautiful on the table- those paisley shaped eggplant halves and the golden onions in their orange oil glitter like gems. 

Oil elevates the humble ingredients. Like with our other oil rich dishes- green beans in oil and tomato, cuttlefish in wine- you need a lot to get the desired oil-bathed tenderness, but the excess floats free of the dish (tinted and richly scented with the best notes- you could just ignore it, leaving it in a fragrant pool on your plate). Apart from this lavishness, the dish is modest in expense- just a couple of eggplants and two or three onions, a bay leaf, some allspice berries, salt and pepper. And time- it cooks slowly, but mainly untended.

We will need:

2 large eggplants

3 onions

1 large tomato

120 ml/ 1/2 C olive oil

a bay leaf

whole allspice (if you have none, use a modest pinch of cinnamon, and an even smaller one of cloves) 

salt and pepper

parsley to garnish

Halve the eggplants lengthwise and score them from end to end all over, making sure to score deeply into the stem end- the slowest part to soften. Salt them all over like crazy to draw out any of the bitterness that eggplants sometimes have. 

This will draw out some moisture as well. Rinse the salt off and squeeze them dry-

The flesh of the eggplant- spongy before-  is now dried and more compact. The scoring lets the oil cook them deeply, without getting soaked in and making them leaden. Put just under half of the oil in a skillet and warm it to medium. Place the eggplants in the pan- as snugly as you like- in fact if they don't quite fit, they will soon as they begin to soften and take up. 

As they slowly cook, the eggplant color will be lost and they will turn a deep tan- this is no great loss as they will be cut-side up anyway

While they are cooking, peel and halve the onions and slice them as thinly as you can. Change the positions of the eggplants from time to time- the ones in the center may singe a little otherwise as the outer ones stay firm- and let them gently fry until they are tender when pierced all over with a fork. The cut side will be golden and browned in spots. Move them to a plate, and put the onions into the tasty dirty pan with the rest of the oil, the bay leaf, and four or five whole allspice (or ground spices), and let them slowly saute, stirring once in a while. After about 20 minutes or a little more they should look like this:

Grate the tomato on the large holes of the box grater and add the pulp to the pan along with salt and pepper to taste, and cook a while longer until the oil floats free and it is almost syrupy:

Stuff the eggplant halves with the onions and put them stuffed side up back into the skillet on very low heat, just to give the bottoms a chance to soften more and the flavors to blend. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with parsley if you like, with bread for the sauce and some feta on the side, and maybe a wine that is not ultra dry to play up all that soothing sweetness- loukoumi indeed. 

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A Lenten Chocolate Cake That Tastes Like Sin.

Lofty, very dark, with a delicate moist crumb- the cake, which is eggless and non-dairy, is lenten in no other way. Apart from the obvious Avarice, the popular vices Sloth and Pride are also rewarded in this frankly very lazy and yet impressive recipe. 

When I think of Cake with a capital C, it is always at least two layers and filled and iced, (the exception- pineapple upside-down Cake made with copious amounts of rum and with fresh pineapple, maraschino cherries and walnut halves wedged generously everywhere). Our lenten cake is not that cake- it could be, by preparing two pans with oil and flour and baking paper, and by making a filling of say, cream of coconut and dark dairyless chocolate. But it is not- this is a sheet cake- the only one that I make because I think that sheet cakes are actually layer Cakes that have been held back by our own laziness from realizing their true destiny. This cake though is so spontaneous, so low maintenance, that its destiny is truly just this- a cake mixed directly in a naked pan and placed in the oven. There is no oiling and flouring and lining of pans, no beaters to clean, no bowls to scrape- just that mere dinner fork to rinse off when you are done. As to Pride- the cake delights everyone who eats it. When they find it is lenten (so also vegan), they are very impressed. When they find you mixed it in the same pan from which you are now cleanly lifting out perfect fluffy squares, they think you are a domestic magician. 

Enough with vice though- the cake is rich with virtues-  modest ingredients surely in your pantry (and none of them expensive), ready quickly, and plain and unpretentious it is Modesty itself. And it is just the thing for a Wednesday lunch. When cake is least expected is probably when it is needed most of all.

We will need:

A large pan- 9"x 13", or 25 x 28 cm

2 1/2 C/ 425 g flour

1 3/4 C/ 350 g sugar

2 tsp/ 10 ml baking soda

1 tsp/ 5 ml salt

1 7/8 C / 250 ml water

3/4 C. 180 ml oil

2 T/ 20 ml vinegar

1 tsp/ 5 ml vanilla (homemade here)

Put all the dry ingredients right into the naked baking pan:

Mix them with a fork:

add the oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla, 

and stir with the fork in swirling motions, working your way around the pan, until it is well enough mixed:

Bake the cake at 350 F/ 170 C for about 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (moist perhaps, but clean).

And serve it forth straight from the pan. The bottom is moist- the squares come away easily with a flat spatula:

And are in fact so moist they are lovely as is, maybe with just a dusting of sugar so it at least looks like you went to a little trouble (which we know you did not).

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Grilled-meat-smoke Thursday

Carnival's not carnival without the carne-
the tables in Modiano market are covered with souvlakia and grilled pancetta. No plates- just greasepaper.

There is a rhythm to the orthodox Christian calendar that goes unnoticed in Manhattan. I sorely miss Jewish holidays and baking, and Chinese New Year (and the baking), and making dinner for the boys who did the heavy work in the kitchen in the take-out falafel place I worked at in graduate school- "Sunset's in ten minutes" they would smile- famished!- during Ramadan. I grew up between Little Italy and the Italian South Village so the seasonal treats of the Catholic calendar were familiar too. Anyway, in New York there was always celebrating, and a little repenting, going on. It lent a tremendous texture to everyday life, but no single discernible rhythm.

Greece is primarily Orthodox Christian and when pretty much all of your neighbors are participating in the same holidays and the stores are stocking foods for those holidays it is easy to get into the community's rhythm- both in public life and at the table. The Thursday that marks the start of Carnival (carne = meat= same holiday) is a mad Dionysean carnivorous frenzy of debauchery- by the time Lent rolls around (Monday of the following week- 10 days later), it feels like a gentle reprieve.

"Τσικνα" is the fragrant smoke of grilling meat; "πεμπτι" is Thursday- "Tsiknopempti" = grilled meat smoke Thursday = Mardi Gras (except "Jeudi" not Mardi). Like any socially organized form of debauchery (bachelor parties, New Year's eve...), it can seem a little forced, and there is a lot of Latin music. But the mood is infectious- grilling starts in the neighborhoods by mid-morning. Barber shops, tire salesmen, pretty much everyone has a grill set up on the street in front of their business, Malamatina bottles on the table and some popular music from the car stereo with the windows rolled down. All the school kids are dressed up like it's Halloween.

By night, it's not just school kids:

The ubiquitous sexy Nun costume meets its
 much less subtle replacement.

It's hard to to make out the
shower head above her 

A handsome couple!-
 but it looks like Morticia is stepping out on Gomez with Lurch?

The grills from the afternoon are still smoking, bamboo skewers litter the busier streets, and now big speakers are set up for makeshift street parties everywhere.

Vasileous Irakleiou- bordering the central market,
 is packed on all the feast days.

Finally, up on the hill in Tsinari, an outdoor table in the cold with riotous festivity just on the other side of a thin pane of glass:

Grilled fat lamb chops always taste better outdoors, and so does red wine:

Eventually, the city winds back down, and stray revelers make their way home through the nighttime marketplace-

- in just enough time to get a little sleep before it all starts up again. Nine more days of this, and it's flying kites and eating tarmosalata and laganes.

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