Marinated beef stir-fry with Savoy cabbage and cashews

You couldn’t tell by the recipes you see on this blog of mine, but I have a deep love for Asian cuisines; Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Indonesian. I cook and eat dishes from these countries quite often and I’m not sure why my love for these cuisines is not reflected here. I will try to rectify that, however, and share with you my favorites.

When I was about seventeen, I became obsessed with Chinese food that was not particularly popular or widespread in Greece at that time. I bought cookbooks which were actually among the first cookbooks I have ever purchased, I persuaded my mom to buy me a wok and chopsticks, and my adventure in the kitchen began. Up until that time, I had learned everything about cooking from my family—my mom, my grandmother and grandfather—so this was the first time I was venturing out on my own and exploring other flavors, aromas and way of cooking. It was thrilling!

I was intrigued by the exotic ingredients, those I could find that is, and the unique flavors, and apart from the basic dishes I learned how to cook, like fried rice, stir-fries, noodles and spring rolls, I also taught myself how to eat with chopsticks. I never gave up until I learned how to use them properly, no matter how difficult it was for me, and I remember I ate every kind of food with chopsticks in order to practice. It was hilarious.

I used to invite my friends over for dinner to show off my skills and introduce them to Chinese cooking and they were so impressed. They found it delicious and I was so proud. I guess I have always had that deep-rooted need to feed people and see the satisfaction on their faces.

Then my obsession moved to the subcontinent of India and the intoxicating flavor of spices and herbs that were not so unfamiliar to me since my family’s style of Greek cooking (Politiki cuisine) is very much dependent on similar spices.

When I moved to Holland a few years ago, I discovered even more Asian cuisines, and since there’s a huge Asian community in The Hague, with shops that have everything I could ask for, I began experimenting and learning more about them. My love blossomed as I began discovering the Indonesian cuisine, very widespread here in Holland, as well as the Vietnamese and Malaysian.

I can safely say that I cook at least once a week an Asian or Asian-inspired recipe, and it’s about time I shared some of them here as well. This one is Chinese-inspired and based on the technique of stir-frying.

Beef, very thinly sliced, is marinated in a mixture of fresh, fiery, red chilli peppers, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and Chinese five-spice, and then is added to a piping hot wok and stir-fried. The majestic and beautifully deep green Savoy cabbage, cut into long strips, is added to the pan, along with some cashews and the juices of the marinade, and a few minutes later the dish is served with rice noodles and a good squeeze of lime. The zingy, bright, salty, sweet and spicy flavors blend to create a sumptuous and light dish with various and interesting textures.

Chilli and ginger-marinated beef stir-fry with Savoy cabbage and cashews
Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

I discovered Savoy cabbage when I moved to the Netherlands; I have never seen it in Greece. You can substitute it with Chinese cabbage or kale if you can’t find Savoy cabbage where you live.

Stir-frying is a method of Chinese cooking where ingredients are fried quickly in very little oil in a hot wok and stirred continuously. To successfully stir-fry, it is crucial that you have your mise-en-place ready so that you don’t need to stop halfway through the cooking and chop or prepare an ingredient.

Use a tender beef cut like fillet, topside or top rump that doesn’t have fat or sinews, cut into thin strips as it will only cook for a few minutes.

Apart from rice noodles, you can also use egg noodles, soba (buckwheat) noodles, or rice.

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

for the marinade
1 fresh red chilli pepper, finely sliced (keep seeds if you don’t mind the heat)
1 large garlic clove, mashed or grated
2 tsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
1 Tbsp soft dark brown sugar

300 g lean beef (fillet, topside or top rump), cut across the grain into thin strips
50 g unsalted cashew nuts
4 large leaves (about 150 g) Savoy cabbage, central veins cut off
2 Tbsp sunflower oil
Juice from 1-2 limes
Salt

100-150 g rice noodles (cooked according to package instructions), to serve with the stir-fry

Special equipment: wok (or deep frying pan), colander


Preparation

In a medium bowl, add all the ingredients for the marinade and mix well with a spoon. Add the beef strips and mix well to coat with the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes and up to 4 hours. The longer you have time to marinate the beef the better the flavor will be.

Heat your wok over medium heat. Without adding any oil, and once hot, add the cashews. Toast them, stirring frequently so they don’t burn, for about 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove them from the wok and onto a plate.

Stack the leaves of the cabbage one on top of the other and roll them up. With a large knife cut them into strips and place them inside a colander. Place colander in your sink, boil 1 liter of water in a kettle (or as much water as your kettle holds) and pour it over all over the cabbage to wilt it. Leave to drain.

Cook the noodles at this point, according to the packet instructions, and while they are cooking, heat the sunflower oil in the wok over high heat.

Remove the beef from the marinade, shaking it so the marinade drips off back into the bowl, and place it on paper towels to dry a bit. Reserve the marinade.
Add the beef to the hot wok and stir-fry it for about 2 minutes or until it has browned all over. Add the cabbage and the marinade juices to the wok and stir-fry for further 2-3 minutes. Add the cashews at the last minute.
Squeeze some lime juice on top, give it a taste and add salt if you think it needs it. Take it off the heat.
Plate the noodles and the beef with the cabbage in individual bowls.
Squeeze more lime juice on top if you want and eat straight away!

Greek roasted pork loin with petimezi (grape molasses)

Hello all. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed good food with your loved ones.

Are you full yet? I know I am. But that doesn’t stop me from eating some more. Well, it is the holidays after all. I can feel guilty about it afterwards. For the time being, let me rejoice in the food and the people I love. I suggest you do the same.

Greeks traditionally eat pork on Christmas and/or on New Year's. So if you would like to feast like a Greek, let me share with you a recipe for pork loin with petimezi that is truly delicious, if I do say so myself.

Petimezi is Greek grape molasses which comes from moustos (grape must). The thick, viscous petimezi is used in Greek cuisine as a condiment in salad dressings, to enrich sauces for meat and poultry, with eggs, cheese, in traditional cakes and cookies named moustokouloura, you name it. Here, I used it as part of a glaze along with mustard and olive oil.

The pork, slathered with the glossy glaze, sits on a bed of garlic heads cut in half, sliced juicy oranges and lemons, and whole, aromatic fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage. Everything gets a generous drizzle of olive oil and the pork is roasted in the oven. After an hour, out comes the succulent meat.

The pork’s crust is slightly caramelized and underneath hides the juicy and tender meat. The fragrance of the citrus, of the sweet and sour petimezi, of the herbs and the mustard has permeated the pork and its flavor is now sweet, tangy and zesty. The sauce, made from the deglazed pan juices, petimezi (again) and balsamic vinegar, finished off with some butter to give it a beautiful sheen, completes the picture. Poured all over the slices of supple meat, it is a wonderful combination and a winner on a festive table.

I wish you all a Happy New Year with health and happiness!

Petimezi and mustard-glazed roasted pork loin with herbs and citrus fruits, and a petimezi and balsamic vinegar sauce

Pork loin is lean so it needs careful cooking as it can dry out very easily. Having a meat thermometer is very handy to ensure that it’s cooked properly.

I love serving it with the garlic that has cooked down to soft, plump cloves and with the herbs, picking some with each bite to give extra flavor to the meat. Roast potatoes, rice or celeriac purée and a big salad would make great accompaniments.

Don’t be tempted to serve the pork without the sauce. It needs it, not only for flavor but for moistness.
I didn’t add any flour to the sauce because I didn’t want it to be thick, but if you prefer it on the thick side, add half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of flour or corn flour.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients
1.2 kg center-cut pork loin (with a little fat on top, no bones), tied (you can ask your butcher to tie it for you if can’t do it)
1 large orange, sliced thickly
1 lemon, sliced
2 heads of garlic, cut in half crosswise
4-5 fresh rosemary sprigs
5 fresh sage sprigs
5-6 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup water

for the glaze
4 Tbsp Greek petimezi (grape-must syrup/grape molasses)
2 Tbsp mild-flavored mustard

for the sauce
200 ml chicken stock
2 Tbsp petimezi
½ Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1½ Tbsp unsalted butter

Special equipment: large baking pan (preferably suitable also for the stovetop), pastry brush, meat thermometer, sieve


Preparation
Take the pork out of the fridge at least half an hour before cooking so it can come to room temperature.

Preheat your oven to 190ºC.

Arrange the orange and lemon slices in a baking pan in one layer. Place wider slices in the center so the pork can sit on them comfortably. Add the half garlic heads between the citrus slices. Arrange the whole sprigs of rosemary, sage and thyme mainly in the middle of the pan.

Prepare the glaze by whisking the petimezi and mustard in a small bowl to combine.

Rinse the pork and pat it dry with paper towels. Rub it well all over with 3 Tbps olive oil and season it well all over with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Transfer it to the middle of the pan (fat-side up), on top of the citrus slices and fresh herbs and using a pastry brush, brush the top and sides with some of the glaze (see photo). Drizzle the remaining 3 Tbps of olive oil over the citrus fruits around the pan and pour in also the water.

Place the pan on the low rack of your preheated oven and roast for 20 minutes. Take it out and glaze the pork with the glaze mixture using the pastry brush. Make sure to be very gentle so you don’t remove the previous layer of glaze.
Roast for a further 20 minutes on the low rack of the oven. During roasting, check if the pan is dry and if so, add a little more water.
Take the pan out and glaze the pork for the last time with the glaze mixture, being gentle again with the brush. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven this time and roast the pork for a further 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted in the middle of the loin reads 65ºC.

Take the pan out of the oven and remove the pork from the pan and onto a board. The temperature of the pork will continue to rise while resting, a couple of degrees. You can cover it very loosely with aluminum foil if you wish to keep it warm.

While the pork rests, prepare the sauce. Remove the garlic and herbs from the pan. Press the orange and lemon slices through a sieve to get their juice, letting it fall into the pan. Discard the citrus slices.
Place the baking pan on the stovetop over medium heat and pour in the chicken stock. Using a wooden spoon, deglaze the pan. Take it off the heat and pour the liquid through a sieve and into a small saucepan.

Note: In case your baking pan/dish can't be put on the stovetop (for example, clay pots may break when put on direct heat), add the chicken stock to the pan and return pan to the oven (which you have kept at 190ºC) for 5-10 minutes or until the stock starts to simmer. Remove pan from the oven and deglaze, using a wooden spoon. Continue with the recipe instructions as described above.

To the saucepan, add the petimezi and balsamic vinegar as well as a little black pepper, set over medium-high heat and let it simmer and reduce by a third. Don’t let it get syrupy, it needs to be on the thin side. Add the butter and whisk it in. Check the seasoning and add salt if you think it needs it. Don’t add salt in the beginning because the flavor of the sauce concentrates as it cooks down so it may be too salty.

To serve, cut off and discard the twine from the pork carefully so you don't remove the crust and discard it. Place the pork on a platter and drizzle it with a little olive oil. Pour the sauce in a small container with a spout so you can add as much or as little as you wish. Slice the pork and pour the sauce over it.
Serve with the garlic and herbs.

Enjoy!

Oven-baked sweet and spicy spare ribs

As I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day, she said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. D (my brother) decided to become a vegetarian”. The phone almost fell from my hand and I began laughing. She had to repeat that statement at least six times before I finally believed her. D a vegetarian? Whaaat?? D who when we were growing up used to steal the pork chops from my plate? D whose portion of kokkinisto (Greek veal stew cooked in tomato sauce) was at least half a kilo?? I never saw that coming, to say the least.

So, to get on his nerves, as a proper sister should do, and tempt him, even though I doubt he will be tempted, he’s a strong-willed person, I’m posting these spare ribs in his honor.

But besides my brother, there’s you, and since the holidays are upon us, I’d like to share this recipe for spare ribs with you as well as my view on holiday dinners. When you reach the point where you have been cooking Christmas and New Year’s dinners for family, friends and loved ones for some years, you get bored with the same kinds of dishes. Sure, turkey is great, a big ham is excellent, but there are so many meat dishes you can choose to cook apart from those that are, well, boring.

Spare ribs. They may be messy to eat, you may need to use your hands (who am I kidding, you’ll most definitely need to use your hands), and you may have to steal the last piece from your fellow diners, but you will be rewarded with happy people enjoying a fulfilling meal that’s absolutely delicious and holiday-worthy. And, you will not be too tired after preparing it, cause it is so very easy. It only needs fifteen minutes of your time.

You prepare the spice and sugar rub, you rub it all over the ribs, wrap them in foil and bake them in the oven for three and a half hours. When they’re ready, you pour the juices in a small pan, add some vinegar and reduce a bit to create a thick-ish sauce that you pour over the caramelized, sweet and spicy, smoky and hot spare ribs. They are pure sin, with the tender, juicy, falling off the bone meat that melts in the mouth, and the spicy and slightly acidic sauce that balances the sweetness.

They are ideal for those occasions, holidays or not, that you want to share with your closest friends and family, those who don’t mind eating with their hands, those who won’t look you the wrong way when you reach for the beer bottle with greasy hands. In a nutshell, the people we all should be spending our holidays with.

PS 1: Thank you to everyone for your kind wishes on my last post. Your support means a lot!

PS 2: I have nothing against vegetarians. I hope they have nothing against me either.

Oven-baked sweet and spicy spare ribs
Slightly adapted from The New York Times

Serve them with thinly-cut (matchstick) fried potatoes (like the ones in the photos), or roast potatoes, a big green salad or slaw to give freshness to the meal and to balance the sweetness, spiciness and richness of the pork.
We love heat in our ribs but if you can’t stand the heat of chilli, add a little less.

Yield: more than enough for 4

Ingredients
1.7 – 2 kg spare ribs

for the rub
200 g (about 1 cup) soft dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp chilli powder (add 1 Tbsp if you can’t handle very spicy flavors)
2 tsp pimentón de la Vera, dulce (Spanish sweet smoked paprika), (add regular sweet paprika if you can’t find pimentón)
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves

for the sauce
the juices from the cooked spare ribs
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Special equipment: large baking pan, aluminum foil, baking paper


Preparation
Rinse the spare ribs and pat them dry with kitchen paper. They should fit in one large baking pan in one layer. I buy two long slabs and they fit in my somewhat small oven in one layer perfectly. If yours don’t, cut them into two slabs.

Preheat your oven to 150°C.

In a medium bowl, add all the ingredients for the rub and mix with a fork or whisk to blend.

Take two large pieces of aluminum foil (large enough to fold around the spare ribs) and lay each one on your kitchen counter. Sprinkle some of the rub mixture along the center of each piece of foil and place a slab of spare ribs (meat-side down) on each aluminum foil piece, on top of the rub. Sprinkle each slab with the rest of the rub and rub it well on all sides with your hands.

Keeping the ribs meat-side down, fold the foil to create two tightly sealed packets. Be careful not to tear the foil or make any small holes.

Line your baking pan with baking paper and place the packets on the baking pan, one next to the other, making sure the seal of the foil faces upwards otherwise juices may run out. The reason you add baking paper to the baking pan is because sometimes juices may run out, causing the aluminum foil to stick to the pan thus making it hard to remove the packet from the pan without tearing the foil and losing the juices.

Place on the middle rack of your preheated oven and bake the ribs for 3½ hours, turning the pan front to back halfway through.
They are ready when a fork easily penetrates the meat.

Remove the pan from the oven. Unfold carefully each packet and pour the accumulated juices into a small saucepan. Fold the foil again to keep spare ribs warm.

Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir in vinegar. Simmer the sauce until it reduces by a third, being careful not to over-reduce it to the point that it becomes syrupy and too sticky.

Serve the spare ribs on a large platter, whole or portioned, with the sauce on the side so that everyone can add as much or as little as they want on top.

Enjoy!

The Greek Mousakas

There is a lot of dispute among Greeks over what is a proper mousakas and even greater over what constitutes the perfect one.

Mousakas’ roots are not Greek—you can find versions of the dish in Arab/Middle Eastern and Balcan countries. It was Greek-ified in the first half of the 20th century by the French-trained Greek gastronomist Nikolaos Tselementes, who added the delicious, yet so un-Greek at the time, béchamel sauce on top of the layered dish and introduced it to Greek home-cooks through his cookbooks. Mousakas became part of Greek cuisine ever since, as did the béchamel sauce, that made its appearance on top of other Greek dishes like pastitsio.

Greek mousakas (μουσακάς) is commonly made with minced beef/veal sauce, fried eggplants, kefalotyri cheese and is topped off with an egg-enriched béchamel sauce. But then there are other versions including eggplant and potatoes, or eggplant and zucchini, or all three. My family’s version is the last one.

You will find many versions of mousaka among Greek homes and in restaurants or tavernas. A lot of them will not be good, most of them will have the wrong type of béchamel sauce that’s too thick, others that will be filled with grease and an inordinate amount of olive oil. Mousakas must be anything but oily and greasy and unsavory. It should be characterized as meaty, honeyed rich and luscious.

The meat sauce is traditionally rather rich in sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves, but my version is a little lighter. It is mostly tomato based rather than spiced, and it lends itself to a lighter mousaka. The eggplants, potatoes and zucchinis are all fried but yet are not as heavy as you would expect. Of course, being Greek and having grown up with this dish, I’m used to eating it, so to be honest, there will be some of you who may find it heavy.

To me this is the better mousakas—of course every Greek cook will say the same thing about theirs but, oh well. The different layers of potato, zucchini, eggplant, alternating with meat sauce and a good sprinkling of kefalotyri cheese, make for a more interesting combination of flavors that work together beautifully and harmoniously. The very strict, traditional moussakas of just eggplant and meat sauce, is to me just a tad one-dimensional and even though I enjoy it, I prefer this one more.

The béchamel sauce on top is creamy and rich but not heavy, rather airy as it soufflés up in the oven. Granted, to make a good béchamel is not easy, you need to practice, however, once you get the hang of it and feel for it, then you’re okay. Following the recipe always helps.

Mousakas is the ultimate home-cooked dish. I certainly feel sorry for all those tourists having to suffer through eating mousaka in many touristy areas around Greece, eating those awful specimens of mousaka that are oily and heavy and not at all what a mousakas should be. So for those of you who would like to taste the real thing, do make this one and let me know how you liked it.

Greek Mousakas

Mousakas is all about balance of layers. The most important element/layer of mousaka for me is the béchamel. It shouldn’t be too thick nor too thin, and it should be rich and creamy.

Even though eggplant and zucchini are summer vegetables, this dish is made all year round in Greece. It is super comforting on a chilly autumn and winter evening.

Traditionally, the cheese used in this dish is Kefalotyri, a hard, yellow Greek cheese made from raw goat or sheep's milk that has a slightly salty, sharp flavor and aroma. If you can’t find it, use Pecorino or Parmesan.

Yield: 6-8 servings / for a medium-sized baking dish 31x25cm, 6-7cm deep (the size of the dish is important so try to use a similar-sized dish)

Ingredients

for the meat sauce
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
500 g minced veal or beef (it shouldn’t be too fatty)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp sweet paprika
Pinch of sugar
½ cup passata (tomato pulp)
2 heaped Tbsp tomato paste
½ cup hot water

for the vegetables
4 medium-sized potatoes, cut lengthwise into 5mm slices
2 medium-sized eggplants, cut lengthwise into 5mm slices
2 large zucchini, cut lengthwise into 5mm slices
Sunflower oil, for frying

for the béchamel sauce
100 g unsalted butter
100 g all-purpose flour
1 liter fresh whole milk
2 medium-sized eggs
White pepper, 3-4 grinds of the mill
3 Tbsp grated Kefalotyri
Salt

More grated Kefalotyri (about 5 Tbsp), for sprinkling on top of each vegetable layer and on top of the béchamel (50-60 g cheese in total for the whole dish)

Special equipment: kitchen paper, medium-sized baking dish 31x25cm, 6-7cm deep


Preparation

make the meat sauce
Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions for about 5 minutes, until they become soft and translucent and then add the garlic. Sauté for 1 minute and add the minced meat. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring continuously with a spoon or spatula, until browned. Season with salt and black pepper, add the sweet paprika and sugar and stir well. Then add the passata and tomato paste and stir well. Add the water, stir well and let the mixture come to the boil, uncovered. Once it does, cover and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the minced meat is almost cooked.
While the filling is cooking, you need to keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally, because it might need more water. Once cooked, the sauce should not be dry. It must have an average amount of liquid in it in order to permeate the vegetables and give the dish extra flavor.

fry the vegetables
In a wide, shallow frying pan, add as much oil to fill it by ¼. Heat the oil over medium-high heat and when it’s very hot, add the potato slices on one layer and fry them on both sides. Add more oil if needed.

Important note: The potatoes (as well as zucchini and eggplants) need to be cooked by ¾ as they will continue cooking in the oven. Be careful though, especially with the potatoes because you don’t want them to be hard.

Remove the potatoes and place them on kitchen paper to absorb the extra oil. Continue with the rest.
Fry the zucchini and eggplant slices in the exact same manner as the potatoes, placing them afterwards on kitchen paper.

make the béchamel sauce
In a small, heavy-based saucepan, add the butter and melt over a low heat. Add the flour and using a whisk, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes until you have a white roux.
While whisking, pour the milk in the saucepan, turn heat up to medium and allow the mixture to come to the boil, whisking continuously to prevent lumps.
Once the béchamel comes to the boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for 6-7 minutes, stirring with the whisk regularly, until it thickens, being careful that it doesn’t become lumpy or catches. Remove pan from the heat and add the two eggs, whisking vigorously and quickly to incorporate them in the sauce. You need to be super quick doing this because you don’t want your eggs to scramble. You can do it one egg at a time if you prefer. Add the kefalotyri and white pepper, season with salt to your liking and mix well.

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

assemble the mousaka
Eyeball the division of the meat sauce into three portions in order to spread it equally over the three different vegetable layers.

Lay the potatoes on the bottom of the baking dish in one layer. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 Tbsp kefalotyri. Cover with one portion of meat sauce.
On top of the meat sauce, lay the zucchini slices, in one layer but making sure not to leave gaps between the slices. If some overlap, that’s okay. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 Tbsp kefalotyri. Cover with another portion of meat sauce.
On top of the meat sauce, lay the eggplant slices, in one layer but making sure not to leave gaps between the slices. If some overlap, that’s okay. Sprinkle with a little salt and 1 Tbsp kefalotyri. Cover with the last portion of meat sauce.
Spread the béchamel sauce on top evenly and smooth the top. Sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsps kefalotyri cheese.

Place the baking dish on the low rack of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, then transfer dish to the middle rack and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until the béchamel has taken on a golden brown color.
Remove baking dish from the oven and leave to cool before serving. If you try to cut pieces of mousaka while it’s hot, the layers will collapse.
The next day the mousakas will taste even better.

You can keep refrigerated for 2-3 days or in the freezer (in an airtight container) for 2-3 weeks.
You can reheat individual pieces.