Greek salad

Easy, tasty, and a perfect accompaniment to pork souvlaki.

Mix together in a bowl: 1 cucumber (peeled, seeded and chopped), 1 tomato and 1 red pepper (seeded and chopped), black olives, and a sprinkle of finely-chopped red onion. Crumble over some feta cheese and top with a simple vinaigrette.

Pork Souvlaki

A summery recipe we discovered this year ...

Combine 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Add cubed pieces of pork and leave to marinade in the fridge for a day.

Skewer and season the meat and grill.

Serve with tzatziki sauce, rice, salad, pittas, retsina, and sun. Also tasty at any other time of year :)

Cornbread

Cornbread is not something we ever encountered the other side of The Pond, and I only tried it relatively recently and decided to hunt down a recipe. I was delighted with how easy it was to get good results on a first try!

The recipe comes from this site: https://cafedelites.com/easy-buttermilk-cornbread/
But I'll repeat the basics here as the site is very cluttered with ads and you have to scroll down half a mile to get to the actual recipe.

In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well to remove any lumps.

Make a well in the center and add 1 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup honey, 2 eggs. Mix to combine ingredients, then add 1/2 cup melted butter. Whisk until the batter is smooth, but don't over-mix.

Heat the oven to 400F, and preheat a greased 9" baking dish. Pour in the batter and cook for about 25 minutes. The top should be slightly browned, and the toothpick test will tell you when the middle is cooked. Leave to cool a bit before cutting and serving.

Rice

Given that rice is such a staple for us, maybe even more so than potatoes, I thought I would share our easy, no-fuss approach to cooking plain boiled rice. This is adapted from a pilau rice recipe, but without the spices.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a pan, and add the rice. Stir around for a few seconds to coat the grains. Add salt and either stock or water. If you had the pan warm enough the liquid should hiss when you pour it in. You want about 1 1/2 to 2 times the volume of liquid to rice.

Bring to the boil, give one last stir, and put the lid on. If you're cooking on gas, you want to turn the heat really low for about ten minutes and then switch off for the remaining time. If you use an electric hob it's even easier - when you put the lid on, switch off the ring and just leave the pan where it is. The residual heat in the ring will do the rest.

Twenty minutes later, you have beautifully cooked, hassle-free rice. Don't be tempted to lift the lid and check on it. You need to keep the steam in the pan to cook the rice. Just trust the process.

If you are cooking brown or wild rice, increase the cooking time. You can also leave the pan on the stove for a while longer if you're not yet ready to serve. This approach is very forgiving.

Ginger beer

We just started making our own ginger beer this summer. Cost-wise I don't think it's much of a saving on shop-bought pop unless you buy bulk ingredients, but it's a darned sight tastier and recalls a less commercial age.

The recipe we use is here, but it's very easy.

This makes a 2-liter bottle. We usually double everything up.

Place 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 tbsp grated ginger in a pan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved (yes, it looks a frightening amount, but it does dissolve, honest). Let the mixture steep for an hour or so until it cools.

Strain the syrup to remove the bits.

Get a cleaned-out 2-liter bottle and pour in 1/8 tsp dried yeast, the strained syrup, 3 tbsp lemon juice, and top up with cold water. Put the lid on and shake, then leave in a cool spot for a few days. Check it daily and crack the lid to let off pressure. There should be a bit of a fizz. It is now ready. Keep refrigerated to stop the fermentation.

Note - plastic bottles are probably safer than glass. Also you can feel the pressure building up by giving the bottle a squeeze. If there's no 'give' it's time to let off some steam!

Christmas pudding

This is a traditional English treat - a moist and rich steamed fruit pudding. We usually try to make these at the start of the year to give them plenty of time to mature before eating, and if you make more than you can eat in one Christmas they will comfortably keep until the next!

We are late this year, and only just got around to it last weekend.

This is an old family recipe that I blogged about in detail over on my other blog, including cooking instructions and pictures. Check it out here:
https://thebaldpatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-pudding.html

Pasta with creamy chicken and mushrooms

A really simple but tasty dish.

Fry some chicken pieces and sliced mushrooms in a generous knob of butter until cooked. We actually like to fry the mushrooms first to brown them, then set them aside while we cook the chicken so they don't go soggy. Add a good portion of cream and boil until it thickens. Having butter in the pan helps to thicken the sauce.

Serve over pasta of choice.