Day 38: March 31, 2015 - Cooked Shrimp with Spicy Honey Dipping Sauce - Μαγειρεμένες Γαρίδες με Πικάντικη Σάλτσα με Μέλι

Yesterday, we pulled out some shrimp, thinking that we were going to drop in on our Koumbari, and take a little shrimp with us, and hope they had some cocktail sauce for us.  But, we did not go to see them, so we have some shrimp on hand.  We also do not have cocktail sauce on hand.  Usually, we will make a quick cocktail sauce with ketchup, horseradish, and lemon juice.  However, we did not even have the ingredients on hand.  Really, our house has no ketchup right now!  So, we had to find another dip to serve with our shrimp.  Well, we resorted to our collection of saved recipes from various friends and family to find the right dipping sauce for our shrimp.  The criteria were to have the ingredients on hand, to take little time, to be easy to make.  And, sure enough, we found it!

Today's honey dipping sauce may sound gross when you think about honey and shrimp.  But, there are other flavours in this that really shine, and the honey seems to bring those flavours together.  This took about 20 minutes to make, which includes chopping the ingredients, cooking time, and some cooling time.  And, we can assure you those 20 minutes are well worth waiting!

For this recipe, you will need the following:

1 TBSP sriracha sauce (or hot sauce of your choice)**
1/2 onion
1 tomato
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey

**If you like less spicy, add less hot sauce, or more sauce for more spicy.

Begin by  chopping the onion, tomato, and garlic.  They do not have to look too nice, so a rough chop is fine.  We often care that the pieces are the same size or look nice, but this is going to the food processor for a spin, so it really doesn't matter what the pieces look like.  You want to chop the onion, tomato, and garlic, though, to really extract those flavours into the sauce.



Put the chopped onion, chopped tomato, and chopped garlic in a saucepan with the water.  Add the sriracha hot sauce and the salt.  Mix this well and put the pot on the stove.

You want to heat this up to a boil, allow it to boil for about 2 minutes, then turn down the heat to a medium-low to low temperature so the mixture will hold at a simmer.  Put a lid on the pot and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes of simmering, all the ingredients should be very soft and cooked.  Now it is time to process!   We used an immersion blender for this step.  Some people will want to use the food processor.  You could even use a blender.  You want to be able to puree the pieces of onion, tomato, and garlic to liquid, and so the sauce is smooth.  Whichever device will do that for you, use that one.

Blend the ingredients to make a smooth sauce.  While it is still warm, add the honey and the red wine vinegar.  Mix it all together and return the pan to the heat for five more minutes.  This will cook down the sauce a little and make it thicker.  If you want a thin sauce, cook it less time.  For a thick, ketchup like consistency, cook it for 10 minutes.

Then, allow the sauce to cool.  To cool quickly, we put our pot in the freezer for 5 minutes.  That brought the temperature of the sauce to a few degrees below body temperature.  It was not cold, but it was no longer warm.  Our shrimp was cold, so the warmer sauce seemed to balance the cold shrimp.  Serve cold or room temperature to get the best flavours.  This combination is spicy, so if you don't like it hot, don't use as much hot sauce as we did!  But, please note that as the sauce sits, the flavour changes, the level of spiciness will change, too, so keep tasting!

"Everything we do, our every objective, must be undertaken for the sake of... purity of heart... we must practice the reading of the Scripture, together with all the other virtuous activities... to hold our hearts free of the harm of every dangerous passion and in order to rise step by step to the high point of love."

From St. John Cassian (Conferences, Conf. One sect. 7; Paulist Press pg. 41)

Source of quote: http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.html

Day 37: March 30th, 2015 - Quick Vegan Stuffed Tomatoes - Γρήγορες Νηστίσιμες Γεμιστές Ντομάτες

We were watching television one afternoon, and watched a cooking show on Public Television.  The television host was energetic and interesting, and he made something that really caught our attention.  On the television, we saw stuffed tomatoes.  We watched the four minute segment, and jumped off the couch telling each other, "We have tomatoes, let's try these!"  So, together, Husband and I were off to make Stuffed Tomatoes, television style.  The difficult part was that there were no measurements given, but we watched what the host did and decided that we could just copy him.  We have tried putting measurements here for you.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

4 tomatoes (1-2 tomatoes per person; we used a brown-skinned Kumato tomato, a juicy and flavourful variety)

1/2 cup bread crumbs (Panko)

3-5 TBSP olive oil

2 TBSP chopped parsley

2 teaspoons mint

salt and pepper to taste

*for non-fasting periods, you would add grated cheese such as parmesan, romano, asiago, etc.

Start by chopping the parsley and mint.  We used dried mint, but we think the fresh would have been much nicer.  Mix the bread crumbs, mint, parsley together.  Then, pour some olive oil into the mixture, and blend until the bread crumbs start to hold a shape.  You will see that they won't fall off the spoon anymore, and that is how you know there is enough oil.

Take out the core of the tomato.  The core is the top part where the tomato connects to the stem.  Using a melon scoop, remove the inside guts of the tomato, targeting the removal of the seeds.  DO NOT scoop all the way to the bottom of the tomato.  Leave some of the tomato flesh at the bottom for stability.

Now, sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and pepper.  This will give them a little boost of flavour, too.  And, then, fill the cavity that you just made in the tomato by scooping the bread crumb mixture into the space.  You want the mixture to mound a bit on the top of the tomato.  Divide the filling equally among the tomatoes.

Put the filled tomatoes in a baking dish or a baking pan.  Bake at 350º F (about 175º C) for 10 minutes.  The tomatoes will soften and split, and the filling will turn golden brown on top.  (If you are using cheese, sprinkle grated cheese on top before baking.)  Serve these warm out of the oven as an appetiser or a side dish.

We served these as an appetiser, and they were delightfully light and fresh tasting.  The Panko bread crumbs gave a good, crunchy texture, and the parsley really shined in this dish.  We think the type of tomato will make a difference in this simple to prepare but complex tasting tomato dish.

The Perfect Person's Rule of Life:

"The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward.

The perfect person does good through love.

His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does.

He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward.

The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God."

St. Clement of Alexandria

Source of quote: http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.html

Day 36 - March 29, 2015 - Lenten Scallops Saganaki - Νηστίσιμα Χτένια Σαγανάκι

Every week, we talk about what different things we can make for this blog, for family dinner, and for ourselves.  Every week we talk about a variety of foods that we don't make often.  This week, though, we took a big step to make one of those infrequently made foods -- scallops.  They are a nice choice when it comes to seafood, especially the big scallops; they are meaty, filling, tender, filling, and delicious.  Then, why don't we make them more often?  Probably because it is so easy to overcook scallops and ruin them, we are afraid of spending all that money on food we will ruin and waste.

There are several posts online that describe cooking this dish in a two handed pan or vessel ("sagani" in Greek means a two handled pan/vessel, while a "tigani" identifies a one handled pan/vessel). We decided today to use our trusted Fiestaware earthenware dishes (by the way, the Homer Laughlin Company is the last remaining American porcelain dish company in existence!)

Pretty well all the recipes we read used butter and cheese; we realised that we had most of these things on hand, we did not need butter, nor cheese to make saganaki yummy, so our scallops were on the way to becoming dinner for three.  It was perfect, especially since we had 15 scallops and three people, we have 6 two-handled, individual, oven-safe dishes in which to bake the saganaki, so we were ready to go!  And, to our surprise, it took a total of 20 minutes, incliuding baking time, to complete this recipe.  Here is how our version comes up:

For this recipe, you will need the following:

15 large scallops, rinsed

1/2 cup olive oil

juice of half a lemon

1/3 cup dry white wine

2 shots Ouzo

1/2 teaspoon paprika

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 cup sliced leeks, sliced very thin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

salt and pepper as needed

2 TBSP parsley for garnish

This was easy.  Rinse your scallops and dry them off rather well.  You don't want or need extra liquid sitting in this dish, and that liquid may interfere with the flavour of the wine, ouzo, garlic, etc.  Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the scallops while they sit and wait for the rest of the recipe to happen.

Next, mix all the other ingredients to make a sauce -- well, more like a dressing.  Mix them well so everything is incorporated.  Pour this sauce/dressing over the scallops, dividing equally between the pan/dish.  Then, top with the sliced leeks, sprinkling the leeks all over the top of the dish.  Lastly, sprinkle bread crumbs to almost cover the top of each dish.  They will look beautiful going into the oven.

Now, bake the scallops at 450º F (175º C) for 8-10 minutes.  Put the dishes on a cookie sheet to give them some stability.  This will also prevent any liquid bubbling over into your oven (if you made too much liquid).

You want the liquid to cook the scallops and the top to become golden brown.  After 10 minutes, if the scallops are cooked but the top is not brown, turn on the broiler and put the baking pan/dishes under the broiler to make the bread crumb topping that lovely toasty colour.  Garnish these with the parsley that you have, chopped or whole, and serve hot.

This is a great dish to serve small groups, since you can bake them directly in the individual casserole dishes.  They look impressive, are not hard to make, and are a filling choice for a Lenten meal.

"A man who is wrathful with us is a sick man; we must apply a plaster to his heart - love; we must treat him kindly, speak to him gently, lovingly. And if there is not deeply-rooted malice against us within him, but only a temporary fit of anger, you will see how his heart, or his malice, will melt away through your kindness and love - how good will conquer evil. A Christian must always be kind, gracious, and wise in order to conquer evil by good."

St. John of Kronstadt, "My Life in Christ"
Source of quote: http://theodorakis.net/orthodoxquotescomplete.html