Friday, 30 January 2009
Good Greek Cooking (or How To Fake It)
I’ve been kinda craving Greek food for a while now, and I live much too far away from Taki’ s Mad Greek to make casual trips there for some good Greek cooking. So last night I decided to cook my own Greek food, or at least fake it good enough.
Y’know how to get stuff to taste Greek, right? You need basically three ingredients:
- Olive oil (xtra virgin = best)
- Lemon
- Fresh Mediterranean Oregano
So here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
- 3 chicken breasts
- a bunch of little white or gold potatoes
- lemons
- fresh Mediterranean oregano
- fresh rosemary FROM MY BACKYARD
- ¼ to ½ red onion
- ½ of a big cucumber
- bell pepper (any color)
- spinach or romaine lettuce
- cherry or grape tomatoes
- Feta cheese
- tahini in a jar
- cayenne pepper
- garlic cloves
- olive oil
- soy sauce
- salt & pepper
Potatoes:
Take a bunch of little white or gold potatoes, cut them in half so there are enough to line the bottom of a corningware dish. Liberally apply olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and finely-chopped fresh oregano, and toss it all together so it’s all evenly distributed and all the potatoes are coated. Take some garlic cloves, smash ’em up and distribute them amongst the potatoes. Put the potatoes in a 400-degree oven and cook ’em until they’re done (about 30-40 minutes probably).
Salad:
While those potatoes are cooking, dice up your cucumber, red onion, and bell pepper. Slice your tomatoes in half. Tear up your spinach or lettuce. Toss it all together with some crumbled feta cheese.Dressing:
Scoop a big spoonful of tahini into a food processor and squeeze a bunch of lemon into it. Pour in a gloop of olive oil. Add a dash or two of soy sauce and as much pepper as you want. Smash up some garlic and toss it in, and add just a pinch of cayenne pepper. Whirr it all up until it’s a nice, smooth consistency like salad dressing, which is exactly what it is. You can adjust the thickness by adding more tahini (to thicken it up) or lemon juice or olive oil (to thin it down).
Chicken:
When the potatoes are about 10 minutes from being done, take some chicken breasts and liberally apply olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, finely-chopped fresh rosemary, and finely-chopped fresh oregano, and toss it all together so it’s all evenly distributed and all the chicken is coated. Heat a pan on med/high and sear the chicken in it until it starts to turn golden on the outside and is cooked all the way through, about 4-5 minutes per side depending on how thick your chicken is. Squeeze more lemon juice all over those suckers during their last minute of cooking. Squeeze lemon juice all over the potatoes as well and remove them from the oven.
Plate the chicken and the potatoes and sprinkle some leftover fresh oregano over them. Toss the salad with only enough dressing to lightly coat it. The dressing also tastes excellent on the chicken and the potaotes. Partake and enjoy.
I must admit that I didn’t make everything; Carrie concocted the dressing. It all tasted quite excellent accompanied with wine and Animal Crossing.
Categories: Cooking.