Athenian Eats

Her birthday is May 25th, and mine the 19th!

Any ideas for delicious menu items?
What’s your favorite kind of cake?

I think my vote is on red velvet…. or carrot….

you?

• 1 garlic clove, mashed to a paste
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup Greek-style whole-milk yogurt
• 1/2 European cucumber, seeded and finely diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• Warm pita, for serving

Mix ingredients and serve with pita, crudités, or with grilled meat! Healthy, cool and so tasty.

the ingredients you need for this recipe:

1. 14 whole graham crackers, broken
2. 1/4 cup sugar
3. 1/4 teaspoon salt
4. 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5. Two 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
6. 1 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice, plus 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
7. 8 large egg yolks

We decided to make banana bread because Aja and I had 10 almost black bananas, and since I can’t throw food away, i thought it would be a good idea to make banana bread because anything banana flavored is good in my book.

4 medium overripe bananas, the blacker the better- mine were barely staying on the stem!
1 to 1 1/4 cups sugar- i just used a cup of sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature, or 1/2 cup canola oil- half butter, half canola oil
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup or more nuts, raisins or chocolate chips- we used raisins and REAL bitter sweet chocolate

Before you do anything, preheat the oven to 350. so in one bowl we smashed up the sugar and the four mushy bananas- i used my hands- it was really easy to get everything together and to mix up the sugar with the bananas really well, after that we added the butter and the oil- the butter was at room temperature- didn’t melt it so it sort of stayed in chunks before i put it in. next time i might just put in apple sauce because it apparently makes the bread a lot more moist-
after we added the butter and oil we beat in the eggs and vanilla. in a different bowl we mixed the flour, baking soda, and salt. sift them makes sure everything is combined evenly and gets rid of random chunks. after the flour, baking soda, and salt are combined, we add that to the banana mixture. mixture everything up until it’s relatively smooth and well blended. we put the mixture into a glass bread pan and buttered up every side. and leave in for about an hour. you’ll know your banana bread  is ready when the top is a nice deep brown color, however if the inside is not cooked then just put aluminum foil on top of the bread and put it back in the oven. that will stop the bread from burning and it will allow the inside of the bread to continue to cook until it’s ready!

So you can use 8-10 Romano peppers or you can use 12 large red peppers (red peppers are the sweetest pepper out of green, yellow and orange, it just depends on how ripe they were when they were picked, and sometimes red peppers can be a bit bland, which is why romano peppers are used in this recipe, however, Aja and I didn’t not find the romano peppers so we just used regular large red peppers which were sweet enough.)
Buffalo Mozzarella— we used regular mozzarella- however, buffalo mozzarella comes from buffalo- not cow-  
goat cheese
freshly ground black pepper
big bunch of basil leaves
4 tablespoons of olive oil salad leaves
corn flour for dusting
good olive oil or canola oil for frying
balsamic vinegar to finish the dish
So you’ll need to start this recipe about 24 hours before you serve and eat- everything needs to chill and firm up. also, it doesn’t hurt for the flavors to nicely meld together.
Skinning red peppers is time consuming if they are uncooked, however, all you have to do is put them in the oven on broil and keep rotating them until all the sides blister and blacken- that takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Once they are all sweaty- they start to get juicy too!- you pull them out and put them in a freeze plastic bag for about 15 minutes and this does all the work for you because when you pull them out of the bag the skin basically falls off. While you are waiting for the red peppers you can work on the goat cheese and mozzarella mix.
Tear the mozzarella up into thin shreds- to make the mixing process easier, now combine the goat cheese and mozzarella in a bowl with a lot of freshly ground black pepper (it’s advised not to use salt but i think it wouldn’t hurt) and then you add in whole basil leaves- aja and I decided to chop them up a little bit because they were really huge. once everything is mixed we added about four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil- and put the mixture in the fridge for about 10 minutes-
so now peel your peppers and and take out the seeds and the stalk
so cut the peppers in thin slices and lay them down on a long sheet of plastic wrap in a long straightish line- you might want to slip this into two parts because you willl have to fit it into your fridge and it mght not fit if it’s too long. so once the red peppers are in order and close together then you can add the goat cheese and mozzarella mixture in the middle of the red peppers. Then roll the red peppers into a log around the goat cheese.
now frying them: when you are ready to serve and it’s been at least twenty four hours it’s time to eat then you can pull the roulade out for frying or you can eat it cold- aja and I tried it cold but frying added a interesting texture to the rather soft dish- always enjoy a crunch.
they recommend that you leave the roulade in the wrapping when you are trying to slice into 1 inch thick rounds but i thought it was easier to cut it without the wrapping
so in order to fry them up- aja and i used flour salt and pepper and canola oil
we let the pan get hot and put them in until golden brown- we did about three or four at a time- our slices were as large because we used smaller peppers, so more can fit at a time
fry the slices for about a minitue or until golden and crispy
add some balsamic to it once it’s ready to be served!

sometimes i get bored of salad and don’t really want to eat it- that’s because i’m not experimenting enough with salad
Aja and i made prosciutto wrapped around goat cheese- just stick a toothpick in it and put it in the oven around 350 for a few minutes with olive oil drizzled on top a pinch of salt. and once that come out the cheese is nice and warm and the prosciutto absorbs the olive oil and just add that to a salad with a vinaigrette of your choice. the different textures from the lettuce to cheese to prosciutto makes the meal more appetizing- also, if you are vegetarian then you can just add the roulade to the salad- goat cheese and mozzarella wrapped in red peppers and fried. when you’re looking to buy prosciutto make sure it’s more of a dark pink vs a light pink color. I personally prefer prosciutto when it’s a bit tougher and saltier versus soft and unsalted.

for this recipe, you will need a
thyme, chervil, parsley, tarragon, and small bunch of basil- these should be fresh herbs
you’ll need half a lemon
three egg yolks
teaspoon of Dijon mustard or English mustard (we used Dijon, i don’t think it makes a big difference) the mustard adds a nice spice to the mayonnaise
canola oil and olive oil
salt and pepper of course
so the recipe calls for pollack- it’s a whitefish with a strong flavor- however, i think this would work with a variety of white fish- and even salmon (which i love) however, we used Tilapia.
I’ve explained how to make mayonnaise before and i had failed that time. however, i made it a second time and i had aja’s help which made a huge difference! i’m not going to go as intensely into detail as last time but i’ll still go step by step for those of you who didn’t catch the mayonnaise episode.
The glaze, we need to put the three egg yolks in a wide bowl that will give you space to whisk properly- or use a wooden spoon- up to you! Whisk in the mustard to the egg yolk bowl until it is well blended. once it is well blended, start dribbling a drop at a time at first and whisking constantly, however we did very little but continuously at first- which is why it might have been so thick but it did turn out like mayonnaise. as the glaze starts to thicken, you can start pouring in a gentle stream. once all the oil is incorporated, started adding the ¾ or more cup of olive oil and remember to keep whisking all the time and stop when it has reached the consistency of thick mayonnaise— it should be thick but also kind of fluffly. the more oil you add (and we added a lot) the mayonnaise will get thicker. now it’s time to add the salt and pepper and the herbs- it’s pretty much up to you- if you want more basil then parsley then that’s fine or if you don’t want tarragon that’s fine too. but you will need a good bit of herbs—- also this isn’t in the recipe but i think it would taste even better if there was some garlic in the mayonnaise- more taste means you would use less of it you glaze the fish- i thought garlic was the missing ingredient in this fish. and i know that most people wouldn’t think to add garlic but i thought it might’ve been nice. also, don’t forget to add a few drops of lemon juice!
stir in all of the mixed herbs and make sure it is well blended. four the white win and olive oil onto a large roasting pan- season it with salt and pepper and put in your pieces of fish with a thick glaze on top- the depth of the glaze should be about the same height as the fish— smearing the fish with a glad will protect it from direct heat in the oven so that it stays nice and moist- maybe even too moist but we don’t need as much white wine.
you just put in the fish at 400 degrees in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes
when aja and i pulled the fish out it didn’t look very beautiful but it tasted nice. it wasn’t a show stopper- i haven’t had a fish meal to that but it was definitely a success. the fish might have been too moist but i do believe that the white wine is not necessary for this recipe and the fish and mayonnaise is enough to keep the fish moist. the fish is heavy- you you don’t need a side dish- maybe a salad but nothing more.