Mushrooms

Fay’s stuffed Portobello Mushrooms 

Ingredients 

6 large Portobello Mushrooms 

2 slices of bacon diced

1 egg

I small onion diced 

Half  cup of sliced leeks

1 glove of Garlic diced 

3 cups of spinach leaves 

125 grams of Philadelphia cheese 

1 cup of mozzarella grated cheese

1 tbs of olive oil 

Salt and black coarse pepper 

Method

For the Mushrooms 

Clean Mushrooms by taking the outer skin of and cut the stems off and dice them and add them also in the frypan to the rest of the veggies 

Rub the Mushrooms with olive oil salt and pepper and live them in a tray until ready to be stuffed.

For the stuffing 

Cut all ingredients in to small cubes 

Place the olive oil in a frypan and sauté the bacon onion the leeks and garlic until they become translucent add the spinach leaves and stirring well until spinach has welted then taking the frypan away from the heat stir in the cream cheese together with the cup of mozzarella and the one egg mixing until all have combined.

With a spoon fill all the Mushrooms with the stuffing and add some more of the mozzarella cheese on top. 

Bake in a 180* preheated oven until cheese has melted and is golden brown enjoy! 

If you don’t have enough Mushrooms you can also use any other vegetables of your choice I also used zucchini.

Souzoukakia stuffed with feta and Kassery Cheese

Ingredients 

500 g. minced beef meat

Two gloves of crushed garlic

2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp cumin

2 slices stale bread

1 cup. Mavrodafni or any good red wine

salt

freshly ground pepper

1 cup of feta cheese crumbled 

1 cup of thickly grated Kassery or any yellow cheese of your choice

1/2 bunch of fresh parsley 

For serving

yoghurt

parsley

For the sauce

1 kg grated tomatoes

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbsp paste

1 pinch of sugar

2-3 grains of allspice

1/4 tsp of Cinnamon or half a stick 

1 tsp of cumin powder

1 tsp of sweet paprika powder 

salt

Freshly grated black pepper

For the almond pilaf

2 tbs butter

3 tbsp of crushed almonds with out the skin 

2 cup of Jasmine  rice

4 cups. hot water or broth

salt

pepper

Soak the bread in the wine. The squeeze and place in bowl. Add all the ingredients of minced meat and knead together until fluffy minced.

Mix together the cheeses and chopped parsley add some black pepper and mix well until it's all combined in to a firm mixture. 

Simultaneously boil together all the ingredients of the sauce for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens. Dip hands in wine and mold into small meatballs and flatten it down and with a small spoon add a small amount of the cheese mixture in the middle of the meatball and shape in to oblong meatballs and placer hem in a well greased oven tray and sprinkle some olive oil over them and bake for 20min minutes to brown. When meatballs have browned take out of the oven and pore the red sauce on top of meatballs and cover with airfoil and place in moderate oven for a further 20min 

For the Almond rice

Brown the butter with almonds in the pan. Preheat the oven to 200ºC in the air, on the middle rack and heat the pan. Pour in the hot pan butter and almonds, add the warm water or broth and rice and cook for 25 minutes, stirring 1-2 times.

EKMEK

Greek Ekmek Kataifi recipe (Custard and whipped cream pastry with syrup)

Base ingredients

• 250g kataifi dough (9 oz.)
• 50g butter, melted (2 oz.)
• 80-100g pistachios, chopped (3.5 oz.)

For the syrup

• 200g sugar (7 oz.)
• 200g water (4/5 of a cup)
• lemon peel from half a lemon
• 1 cinammon stick

For the custard

• 750g whole milk, cold (3 cups)
• 150g sugar (5.5 0z.)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g corn starch (2.6 oz.)
• 4-5 egg yolks (depending on the size of the eggs)
• 75g butter (2.6 oz.)
• a pinch of powdered mastic (

For the whipped cream

• 500g cold heavy whipping cream (2 cups)
• 60g icing sugar (2 oz.)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Directions

• To prepare this traditional Ekmek kataifi recipe start by making the base. Preheat the oven to 170C and unroll the kataifi dough from the plastic sleeve. Work the kataifi dough with your hands, tearing apart the shreds and spreading the strands out a bit if they clump together, in order to get fluffy. For this ekmek kataifi recipe you will need a 25cm square non-sticking baking dish. Butter the bottom of the baking dish and spread the kataifi dough to form the base of the ekmek kataifi. Pour over the melted butter and bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven, until crispy and nicely coloured.
• In the meantime prepare the custard for the ekmek kataifi (steps 2-4). Add in a large bowl the egg yolks with half the sugar (100g) and whisk until fluffy. Add 3-4 tbsps of the milk and the corn starch and whisk again until the corn starch has dissolved. Set aside.
• Pour the rest of the milk in a large non-sticking pan and add the sugar and the vanilla extract. Place the pan over high heat and bring to the boil. As soon as the milk comes to the boil, remove from the heat and ladle gradually 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture, whilst whisking. Place the pan (with the remaining milk) again on the stove and turn the heat down to medium. Add the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining warm milk. Whisk continuously, until the mixture has thickened and is smooth and creamy. Remove the pan from the stove, add the butter and stir.
• Pour the custard in a large tray, cover with some plastic wrap (the plastic wrarp should be touching the custard, so that it doesn’t form a crust) and let it cool, while you prepare the rest of the ekmek kataifi recipe.
• Turn the kataifi out of the oven and let it cool down completely.
• Prepare the syrup for the ekmek kataifi. Add all the ingredients for the syrup into a small pot and bring to the boil. Simmer the syrup of 3 minutes (without stirring), until slightly thickened and remove from the stove. Leave the syrup aside to cool down for a while, until lukewarm. Ladle slowly the lukewarm syrup over the cold baked pastry, enabling each ladle to be absorbed. Set aside to cool down for a while.
• Prepare the whipped cream and assemble the ekmek kataifi. Top the kataifi base with the custard and even out using a spatula. Put the cold heavy cream into a mixer’s bowl, add the icing sugar and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, about 1 minute. Top the ekmek kataifi with the whipped cream and even out. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and a pinch of cinnamon.
• Store the ekmek kataifi in the fridge and serve cold. Enjoy!