Day 4: Tasty Taramas made with Potatoes. March 21, 2013

Taramas is a staple food during Great Lent.  It is one of those curious lenten dishes because it is made from fish roe, but we are not allowed to have fish.  The roe, however, is not counted in the category of meat or fish.  Therefore, we can make taramosalata and eat it.  In the past, we have made this with bread -- cutting off the crust of stale white bread and then soaking it in water to add to the whipped roe.  But  this time, we made tarama with potatoes.  This, for us, was a first.  We had heard of other people doing this, but potatoes were for skordalia, not taramosalata.

So, we tried a  new recipe for this.  We found an easy recipe online, but omitted the olive oil and used vegetable oil instead.  The folks at Yumly really made it easy for us.  We had all the ingredients, and could not let Great Lent begin without having taramosalata on the table.  For this recipe, you will need the following:

2 large potatoes
5 ounces tarama (cod roe)
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/2 lemons, juiced
3/4 cup oil
garnish with lemon, parsley, or capers

Peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks.  Put them in a pot of water and boil them until they are fully cooked.  They should be cooked long enough as if you were making potato salad.  Drain the water when they are done cooking, and keep the potatoes aside for a future step.  In the meantime, while the potatoes cook, chop the onion and puree the tarama with lemon juice.

The recipe called for 5 ounces of tarama (142 g), but we thought that was too much, and we cut it to 3 ounces (85 g).    This was approximtely half the jar of tarama.

Whip the tarama until it is light and fluffy.  This will take about ten minutes (yes, 10 minutes).  The tarama will have the consistency of mayonnaise.

You need the juice of one and a half lemons.  Juice the lemons with your favourite juicer to remove pulp and seeds.  Then, add the lemon juice to the whipped tarama.  The lemon juice may make the tarama a lighter shade.

You will need one small onion.  We had very large onions, so we cut ours in four, and used one fourth of the whole onion.  Cut it into small pieces that will fit into the food processor or blender you are using. 

Add the onions to the food processor and whip until it is completely smooth.  Then, let this rest and work the potatoes.

In a separate bowl, mash the cooked potatoes.  You can use a fork, potato masher, or a hand blender.  Remember, the more you mash, the smoother your taramosalata will be.

We chose to mash our potatoes enough to have some texture, some chunks still intact.  You can see the chunks of potato in the bowl.

Fold together the whipped tarama mixture with the potatoes.  Fold until the colour is uniform and everything is fully mixed.  

Taramosalata is ready to serve.  We garnished with a slice of Meyer Lemon, but you could use capers, chopped red onions, parsley, or whatever you like.  Keep this chilled until serving.

When we made this recipe, we were skeptical with the amounts and the statement that this would serve 7 people.  Of course, we do not believe that this serves 7 Greek people!  Regardless, it was delicious.  One of the people who tasted this said, "I don't usually like tarama because it's too fishy.  This one has a nice, mild fish taste."   Another taster said, "This is different because it's chunky.  It's like fish mashed potatoes."  We are not sure if that is good for others or not, but the taster was honest.  Our last comment from a taster was that this was "... creamy and good.  I don't need the bread, I just need a spoon!"  We think that was the best compliment we could have received... that and, there were no leftovers!  

We would use this recipe again because it was so easy to follow, and easy to make.  The directions were clear, and simplified.  Mostly, we would make this recipe again because we all enjoyed eating it!  After all the years we have made taramosalata with bread, we find that the potatoes were a cleaner way to make this.  No more dipping our hands in the water and squeezing the bread.  Potatoes are always on hand, whereas sliced white bread is not, so that makes this a more convenient recipe for us.  If you recall, we made taramosalata  in Great Lent Gourmet 2012 (Day 12) but then we were focusing on the differences of making it with the two brands of roe that are readily available in the store.  This time, we wanted to focus on the recipe itself, regardless of which brand of roe one is using.  So, we can confirm that taramosalata made with potatoes is delicious and easy.  For us, it will be a staple food during Great Lents to come.

Above all, strive to love your neighbor; for in his love consists love for God.
- St. Macarius of Optina

Day 3: Boiled Potatoes with Tahini - March 20, 2013

Boiled potatoes sound rather plain, and many people may choose other ways to prepare potatoes.  On Clean Monday, we boiled some potatoes with herbs and seasonings, and they were flavourful, but less enticing than many of the more seasoned foods on the table.  Today, we found a nice way to prepare boiled potatoes with flavour that may be more appetizing than just plain boiled potatoes.

The Greek Monastery Cookbook (by Archimandrite Dositheos) is a good one for Great Lent because the Monks specify recipes for oiless fasts, fasts with oil and wine as well as for non-fasting periods.  This recipe is for a strict fast, with no oil or wine.  This book presents uses for tahini in more ways than we would have originally thought.  A challenge in this cookbook, though, is that we don't always understand the directions.  This recipe, thankfully, was clear and simple, and took us less than one hour to make. This potato-based side dish was easy, and we had all the ingredients on hand, so that added to the appeal of the recipe.  We did not have ten people to serve today, so we cut the recipe in half.  We are giving you the amounts needed to serve 5 people.

For this Boiled Potatoes with Tahini recipe, you will need the following:

1 pound potatoes (about 500 g)

2 soup spoons of tahini

some parsley (about 1/2 cup) chopped

juice of 1 1/2 lemons

1 medium onion, finely chopped

salt, as needed

First, boil the potatoes in salted water.  This did not take too long (it depends on the size of the potatoes).  If you like, the cookbook suggests this:  "Note: Instead of boiling, you may bake potatoes for an hour, in an oven at 200 ℃ (392 °F)"

To check the doneness of the potato, and to make sure that it is cooked in the middle, stick a fork or a knife in the middle and watch the potato slide off the fork (or knife).  If the potato does not slide off by itself (without you shaking the fork) then it is not quite done.  Check for doneness every five minutes thereafter. 

Peeling the potato was easy.  The skin is quite soft and you can just scrape it off with a knife -- either the dull side or the sharp side.  The peel even comes off  by rubbing it with your fingers.

Make sure to get all the spots off the potato!

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces.  Allow the potatoes to cool enough for you to be able to handle them.  For every person, this amount of time will vary, but you do want them still warm when you mix them together with the other ingredients.  We cut these into large cubes, the same size that we would use for any potato salad dish.  You can cut them large or small, but the larger the pieces, the prettier they look with the chopped onions.

Spoonfuls of tahini.  This is a soup spoon, just like the book said.  Please note that on page 6 of this book there is a pretty useful conversion chart (however, a shortcoming is the confusion of using terms such as "1 tablespoon = 15 ml" while not explaining in detail if a soup spoon is exactly the same thing as a tablespoon.).

Adding the lemon juice a little at a time was helpful.  That way we could taste to determine if there was enough lemon juice with the tahini.  We wanted to taste a hint of lemon without overpowering the tahini.  We thought the one and a half lemons was just shy of what we thought as "just right", so we decided to use the juice of two whole lemons.

The tahini changes consistency as you add the lemon juice.  You will see it become lighter in colour and thicker; then it will just get lighter in colour and thinner with many air bubbles (see photo below).

Prepare the tahini as follows:  Beat the tahini with the lemon juice until it thickens.  Then, dilute slowly with hot water until it becomes a diluted sauce.  We beat the tahini and slowly added the lemon juice.  We thought that when the tahini and lemon became fluffy with air bubbles, and it was very thick - that would be enough for the mixing.  But, then, we added the water, and the sauce took on the consistency of squeeze-bottle mustard -- just thin enough to stir.  

Add the onions and some salt.  Combine the ingredients so all the onions are fully coated with the sauce.  This is the sauce that will go on the potatoes.

Pour the sauce over the potatoes.  Mix well to ensure that all the potatoes are fully coated.  Then, add the parsley and mix again.  We found that using a rubber spatula and folding the sauce with the potatoes, and then folding the parsley into the mix separately worked well, so we did not smash the potatoes.  We chose yellow fleshed potatoes, which, when cooked become creamy and velvety in texture.  They are fragile when cooked, so we wanted to make sure to leave the chunks intact.  Mix well and finally serve.  One of the suggestions of the original recipe is to sprinkle mortar-pounded walnuts.  We did not like the idea of the walnuts with the potatoes, so we voted against nuts, even though they would look beautiful on top.

Serve potatoes either warm or cold.  Our personal preference was to have the potatoes warm.  When it was cold, it was admitedly good, but it was not as good as when it was warm.  We loved the creaminess of the sauce with the creaminess of the potatoes.  This recipe was an absolute winner in our family.  It's funny; we trust monks for many things, and now we are more certain that we can trust them for cooking recommendations also!

This potato recipe was great.  It was relatively clear, concise, and appropriate for a strict fast.  The flavours and textures were a nice complement to the steamed vegetables we had.  And, the bright green of the parsley with the white of the tahini and the gold of the potatoes really made for a beautiful presentation.  As we ate the potatoes, we did not feel like it needed any more lemon, but some of us would have preferred it with a little more salt.  We all agreed that if we put this potato dish in the food processor with a little garlic, that would make some great skordalia!  Who knows, maybe we can create a new recipe?

Day 17: Orthodox Monk's Olive Pie Recipe Disclosed

Olive pie.  It sounds yummy - if you like olives.  It sounds like a food that we should try.  Especially since it seems that, as Greeks, we have olives at almost every meal.  Why not make a pie?  Having never made olive pie before, we are a little unsure of what the end result will look like.  But, that is what we are doing here together -- learning and sharing.  We hope that if anyone has a different recipe, you would be willing to share with us, too.

There are many places around Greece that are known for the various pites (πίτες) made with phyllo dough, and this is a different type with a homemade bread-like dough.  Cypriots, in particular, are known for their delightful olive breads.  And, Macedonia is known for their olive and leek pites. Regardless of where you are in Greece, or in Canada or the U.S., a pita is a good food to have any time of day, any time of year.

At first, we thought this recipe looked very easy.  After all, many of the recipes in the Monastery Cookbook are straightforward and easy to understand.  The trick is knowing that many of the measurements come in the form of "soup spoon" or "drinking glass" and that can be tricky, since we all have different sizes of drinking glasses.  Anyway, the measurements can be figured out after one or two recipes, so we are not too worried about that.  They do have a conversion table in the book to help with grams to pounds, litres to ounces, and celsius to Fahrenheit.  But, when the directions say use a soup spoon, we felt that only an actual soup spoon would be accurate, so we did not adjust that.  Some of the measurements are undefined.  For example, in this recipe, the directions stated to dissolve the tahini in some water.  We did not know exactly how much water is some.  Everyone defines "some" differently, so we felt there was room for error.  Also, the language used can be a little misleading.  The ingredient list called for 1/2 kilo farina.  So, we read through the directions, expecting that the word "farina" would be used there, since it was in the directions.  Well, that was not true.  The word "farina" from the ingredients list was replaced with "flour" in the directions.  That, in itself, was actually helpful, because we then knew exactly what farina was.

We chose to follow the recipe of the Greek Monastery Cookbook for several reasons.  First, we know that the ingredients used in this cookbook are common enough, and many can be found year-round in any grocery store.  Also, we believe that most of what is created at a Monastery can be considered "organic".  Monasteries are known for growing their own food and using only what they can grow.  I don't know if they ground their own flour, though.  And, we all know that organic food and organic ingredients are very popular right now!  Regardless, in this book, there is even a detailed chart about what foods to eat in which season.  It is typical and historical that we (Greeks) eat seasonal foods.  It does seem unnatural to enjoy strawberries in the winter, even if they are available to us.  So, in this book, we tried to find a seasonally appropriate recipe.  Flour, tahini, olives are all year-round staples int he kitchen, so we did not think twice about using any of it.  Even the leeks in the recipe are plentiful this time of year.  For some of us who grow our own herbs, we have fresh herbs year round -- otherwise, we have frozen fresh herbs from the summer harvest.

Back to the recipe and the cookbook... All of the recipes from this book are scaled to feed 10 monks.  That is 10 people unless otherwise noted.  As we were flipping through the pages, we did not note any change to that number, and we stuck to the original amounts.  If you are part of a family or group who are big eaters, you may want to make the full recipe for five people instead of ten.  We considered cutting it down, but thought this would be a nice food to have on hand for the week, so we made it for 10 people.

First, we gather the ingredients we need for this olive pie.  You will need this short list:
1 cup (250 grams)pitted dry black olives (the wrinkled ones),
3 soup spoons of tahini,
2-2 1/2 cups (1/2 kilo) flour,
a little salt,
2 scallions (green onions),
1 leek (another onion),
some dill,
3/4 cup (150 grams)walnuts,
and some water.
If you have a nut allergy, you can omit the nuts and replace that with more of the vegetables, more olives, or just omit it all together.

We have to make sure that all of the olives are pitted.  This takes time, but is safer for our teeth when we bite into this delightful pie.  There may even be tools like a cherry pitter to help in this task.  We used our hands, squeezed the olive, and the pit popped right out!  Or, a knife would cut the olive and you then pluck out the pit.  Whatever way is easiest for you.  This is a good activity to do while watching television or talking on the phone.

Next, all of the filling ingredients are chopped.  We used a food processor, but we are certain this is easy to do by hand.  And, to make sure we got it right, we chopped each ingredient individually.  We think that  we could have put them all together, pulsed the food processor a few times and been done; but, wanting to get it right was more important.  Now, in hindsight, if we are short on time and want to make this, then putting all the filling ingredients together and chopping once seems like a reasonable timesaver.




Then, there is the dough.  You have to dilute the tahini in some water.  The book did not offer an amount of water to use, but it was 3 soup spoons full of tahini.  By our estimates, we thought half a cup, but not more than 3/4 cup was adequate for the 2 to 2 1/2  cups of flour.  Use your best judgement for the water.  You want to create a dough, and the amount of water can vary depending on the type of flour and the age of it.  We used a regular, all-purpose flour for this recipe.

Roll out half the dough to fit the baking dish.  Make sure that the dough goes up the sides so it creates a "pie" in that way.  The book gave no directions on how thick or thin to roll out the dough, or even how big of a baking dish.  So, we took our best guess and used a medium sized glass baking dish.  We, then, rolled out the other half of the dough for the top of the pie.  We tried to get that the same size as the baking dish.


Using a pastry brush, coat the bottom and the sides of the baking dish with tahini.  This will give a nice flavour; like adding sesame seeds on top of bread.  The tahini also adds a little colour and will prevent the dough from sticking to the baking dish.  You could use oil if you prefer.  Our second choice would have been to use a pan spray to coat the baking dish.  But, the pastry brush with tahini was easy, and we had tahini in the recipe, where we have used
no oil, so this seemed to make sense.







Once the dough is fitted to the baking dish, and the top portion is set it aside.  We are going to now mix all the ingredients for the filling.

Make sure that the individual components are evenly distributed in the mix, so that with each bite you get the delightful dill, and the pungent olives.

Then, take this filling mixture and put it in the baking dish with the ready bread crust on the bottom.

Once the filling is spread around to fully cover the bottom of the pie, then, unfold, lay, or place the top dough piece over the entire amount of filling in the baking dish.  It should cover all of the filling.








Next is the part that we found a little tricky.

We had to pinch the dough together, then make the edges fold into the baking dish.  We tried several methods of pinching, crimping, folding, and snipping.  But, we found that simply folding over the edges was the easiest to keep the top and bottom together, and it looked clean and homemade.  We liked the look. 

  

 Next, we baked the pita at 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 degrees Farenheit) until it got a nice golden  colour.  The directions told us to bake for one hour at 200 C, but we think that may have been a little long for a baking time.   Perhaps baking it for 40 to 45 minutes at such a high temperatre would have been adequate.

 There it is.  The final product.  In total, we were able to do this start to finish in about one hour - that's including all the pictures that we took and all the translating of the recipe.

We have several observations about this delicious Olive Pie.  The next time that we make this, we are going to wash off or soak the olives.  The final product was salty, and the only salt in the recipe was in the dough.  The only salt that was in the filling came from the olives.  For three of our tasters, this was just too salty, so wash the olives, or soak them for a day before use.  If you are a salt fanatic, then don't bother.

Next, we want to point out that the measurements for this recipe were awkward to us.  We came up with the more standardized 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of olives, etc.  The book has the amounts listed in grams.  Without a scale, using weight measures did not work.  We used general converting and rounding off of amounts to come up with what we did.  We think that a few of our amounts could be adjusted to make this even tastier.  We wrote the amounts that we used in pencil in the book, so that next time we make this, we will know what amounts of what we used, and we will be able to refer to this blog to refresh our memories of what worked and what did not.  

Lastly, we want to mention that the recipe called for "some dill".  For us, we love the taste of dill, so we used some by our measure which would be a lot for others.  Each one of us would have a different amount of dill, which would make everyone's pie unique.  The salt of the olives did somewhat overpower the lovely taste of the dill.  But, that's okay.  There were other flavours that shined through everything.  One of which was the tahini in the bread dough came through subtly and perfectly.  It was a lovely taste that lingered a little.

The only other adjustment we would make would be the bread dough -- since the directions did not tell us how long to knead the dough, how thick to roll out the dough, or how large to roll it (nor how large the baking tray), we made our best guesses at all of these -- rolling it to the size of the baking dish made sense to us.  Yet, when we bit into the pie, we  found the bottom crust was too thin and fell apart as we served each piece.  The top dough was good enough, but we believe there are better ways to do this.  Next time, we would roll the bottom a little thicker than the top.  And, we would trim the edges when sealing the two pieces (top and bottom) together.  

The pinched and rolled edges were very crisp and hard after baking.  That's why we think that cutting off the excess dough and then creating a simple crimping pattern will make an edible crust.  We would approach it the same way we do a sweet pie with the pattern -- whether that is using a fork or our fingers, and that will help us to not be embarrassed to serve the corner pieces.  As for tonight's pie, the corners were cut out and discarded because they were inedible.  For future pies, we know better.

Overall, we enjoyed this recipe, and we still think this cookbook is a must for any good Orthodox Christian who follows the fasting schedule.  There is such a large variety of recipes and so much other information in these 367 pages.  Like any cookbook, there will be recipes you love and recipes you don't love.  That's okay.  We will make this recipe again and try a few of the mentioned suggestions.  If you have other ways to make this pie, we would love to know.  This will be a staple in our kitchen for all of the fasting periods.

"Provided they live a worthy life, both those who choose to dwell in the midst of noise and hubbub and those who dwell in monasteries, mountains and caves can achieve salvation. Solely because of their faith in Him God bestows great blessings on them. Hence those who because of their laziness have failed to attain salvation will have no excuse to offer on the day of judgment. For He who promised to grant us salvation simply on account of our faith in Him is not a liar."

—St. Symeon the New Theologian