Things to Love About Greece

1. One of the two National Holidays is called "No" day (Oxi = "Ochi"). This single word was famously the defiant answer to the Axis' ultimatum, and that's the holiday we're celebrating today, with these 27 other beautiful things:

Agiou Dimitriou on the night of October 26th.

2. Saints' Days.

3. Market - Much household shopping is done at farmers' markets. One day a week, a neighborhood street turns into a riot of beautiful fruits and vegetables, snapping crabs, and shimmering fish. Same vendors every week- we get to know each other.

4. More on neighborhoods- you're never anonymous. You could call it nosiness, but it's really about accountability, the honor of being part of a community.

The best Bougatsa in Athens is made by a man from Thessaloniki- on Solonos. 

5. Bougatsa - a warm dish of phyllo filled with sweet semolina cream, spinach, cheese, or spiced minced meat, served chopped into small pieces and eaten with a fork, a carton of chocolate milk on the side.

6. Greek Salad (here called "village salad'- "horiatiki"). Never gets old.

7. Boys walk with their arms around each other's shoulders, and girls hold hands.

8. Outdoor summer cinemas- jasmine in the night air, and whiskey on ice at the snack bar.

9. Fresh anchovies flow like water, cheaper than the lemons we squeeze on them.

10. Promenade - dressing up for the evening stroll.

11. Ouzo on ice, cloudy white and just a little bit sweet.

12. Lots of nice rough dark wine never sees a glass bottle - it goes straight from casks to empty fanta bottles.

13. Same for Raki.

14. Malamatina and its iconic logo (!). Nothing's better with fried Bakaliaro and Skordalia.

15. Ion chocolate with almonds in its classic blossom - covered pink wrapper.

16. Goats on hillsides, with their tinkling brass bells.

17. Being able to follow a football match just by the shouting from cafes.

18. Ferries painted white with their rough blue decks.

19. Senior ladies travelling on the ferries with their birds!- They have them in tiny travel cages.

20. Small dogs so nobly carrying their ancient Greek names - Clytemnestra (a dachshund), and a chihuahua named Socrates.

21. Fat flakes of salt scraped from rocks by the sea.

22. The sound of the dice and tiles on wooden backgammon boards in the summer.

23. Old men arguing about politics.

24. Frappe.

25. Recycling centuries of beauty and grace - Church columns and their capitals taken from Roman ruins and other older structures, like these in Agiou Dimitriou.

26. Nine Euro train tickets From Thessaloniki to Athens.

27. Greek coffee, and the coppersmiths' Briki we use for it.

This man brought a tablecloth, transistor radio, and a split of Asti Martini (!),
the better to enjoy an afternoon swim (on a Tuesday).

28. Making the very most of every beautiful day.

What are some of your favorite things?

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Two is Company, Twenty-One is a Crowd, and Not Every Grand Meal is a Dinner Party

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...even if there is a meal, and it feels very much like a party (certainly a happening). There are festive occasions, especially in our home life, that are not about the meal. Last weekend was like that- at the *club, a show, and at home, one of our daughters directing a short film with a cast and crew of a dozen (our other daughter is in and out grabbing whatever is around to eat as she sings and has concerts). That is a lot of people who need a good meal before they get back to making music or movies or whatever.

I almost always cook something for the bands. If I know them I make Touluouse Lautrec cake, and sushi. Otherwise vegetarian snacks- hummus is on every hospitality rider and I feel so sorry for them eating hummus day after day- it just isn't that lively of a dish- that I make a really nice one. They also always want chips and salsa, so I make that too. Knowing the show was coming up and also knowing that we would have 13 film school students in from dawn to midnight, I got a kilo of chick peas, soaked and cooked them up, chilling them in their broth in the refrigerator. I also had sacks of carrots, red peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes- imperfect ones that they have at the end of market day. To this was added little. (The film crew and cast also had a cake but it is so delicious and reliable it must shine on its own- coming next.)

This is not a time for souffle- patient dishes that are ready in a hurry but don't mind waiting until a take is finished or sound check is over are perfect. 

Here's what you need for one band and one film crew-

1 kilo chick peas

1 bag of carrots

1 bag of cucumbers

2 or 3 red peppers

2 or 3 kilos of tomatoes

1 kilo of pasta

1 bunch parsley

1 bunch dill

1 bunch cilantro

3 lemons

2 limes

a jar of tahini

The Hummus:

1/2 k cooked chick peas, drained

1 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch dill

2 lemons

1/2 jar tahini

1 garlic clove

salt

Chop the garlic fine, then add a teaspoon of salt
and smash back and forth with the plat side of your knife-
it will quickly make a smooth paste.

Pick the leaves off of one large bunch of parsley and half a bunch of dill, and put them in the bowl of the food processor with about half of the chickpeas (take them out with a slotted spoon- we want none  of the liquid in this dish but we need it in another), the zest of 2 lemons, their juice, a clove of garlic mashed carefully with salt into a smooth paste (we need more garlic/salt paste for the salsa- mash 2 at once and set the rest aside), and about half of a jar of tahini. Puree until smooth and a beautiful light green color and taste, adding salt, lemon, tahini, etc. as you like and being conservative with more garlic- raw garlic gains in intensity. Serve dusted with sumac- which is beautiful and tangy.

What makes it nicer? The herbs for one- color and bright fresh flavor missing from legumes and seeds. And the lemon zest lifts the flavor higher and leaves a floral perfume, not just tangy zing. 

Just a little vinegar in each jar s enough- fill to the top with water.

For the carrot sticks- do them first so they can sit in water with vinegar (1:8), salt, and a garlic clove- they are transformed from (stodgy)crunchy to (suave)crisp. Leave them for over 6 hours though and they are almost too flavorful to enjoy with the hummus (but very fine as a cocktail pickle- I have them often in the refrigerator).

The Salsa:

4-5 tomatoes

2 peppers

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 bunch cilantro

1 or 2 limes

2 small cucumbers

I loved using the blowtorch for the gazpacho the other day, and all my favorite restaurant salsas have some char to them. Basically, this is the gazpacho, minus most of the oil and all the bread and water, plus cilantro, lime zest and juice, and some dried red chilies. 

Slice an onion fairly thinly, and blacken with a torch along with 2 sweet peppers of any color, 4 or 5 tomatoes, some garlic mashed with salt. Puree everything in the food processor along with a very large handful of cilantro leaves, the lime juice and zest, ground black pepper and crushed dried chilies- going slowly (start with a half) and adding more as you like. The sweet smoke of the vegetables and the brightness of the cilantro and lime are very nice together. No photo- it was whisked off to the club the moment it came out of the blender. But you can imagine what it looks like. Make yours as smooth or as chunky as you like.

The Pasta:

1/2 k /1 lb chick peas, cooked until done, with all of their cooking liquid

1/2 C olive oil

2 onions

4-5 cloves garlic

1 1/2 k/ 3 pounds tomatoes, grated

fresh herbs-sage, thyme, oregano

1- 1 1/2 k pasta, any shape you like (we used 3 different shapes)

The liquid should be much more than the chick peas,
and should still reach just over halfway up the sides so there is room for the pasta..
The dish expands enormously.

Take our your largest and deepest pot. Chop the onions and saute in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic, and stir over the heat until golden. Drain the chick peas- keeping the liquid (full of almost gelatinous body, like a homemade chicken stock). Add the chick peas, salt to taste, black pepper, and a small handful of herbs. Stir a moment to let the chick peas absorb some aroma, and add broth and the tomatoes. There should be a lot of liquid- another 2 times the depth of the chick peas. And the seasoning should be bold- we are adding a lot of starch to soak up the liquid and all the flavor. It will sit patiently at a low simmer for as long as you need it to. When you are 10 minutes away from serving, add the dry pasta to the pot and stir often. The finished dish should be a lively springy pasta (not too very soft) with the chick peas and some brothy sauce- add some water or tomato when it cooking if it seems to need more liquid, or if more people gather. Serve with more fresh ground pepper and grated cheese, a rough one, like dry myzythra (ricotta salata). This is a generous dish, satisfying many.

Plan:

There's a reason there are no photos of the kitchen while all this was being made- vegetable peels, onion skins, herb stems flying everywhere. The dishes use a lot of the same ingredients so the most efficient way is to just fly into it and do one grand clean up when the pasta is on the stove. Start with the hummus so it has time to chill and then do the salsa so you can get the food processor out of the way. Cut up the carrot sticks and some cucumber spears and chill them. Start the chick peas and tomato broth and grate a lot of cheese. It will be ready in ten minutes after the pasta is added, but as there is so much it will stay hot a very long time. Clear a large table and put out all of the mismatched bowls and forks and spoons that you own and know that they certainly will be enough, and that no one will go hungry. 

*Principal (John Spencer Blues Explosion last Saturday, the 5th)

** Dinner for Morrisey (I made it on a hot plate next to the bar): steamed broccoli, steamed carrots, potatoes mashed with salted butter. Black-eyes peas salad for Nouvelle Vague. Tricky cooks for himself. I don't think Lemmy ate anything special. We ordered in for Isaac Hayes. He was majestic. 

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