Country town farmers markets and Shirley …..

Well what an emotional 2 weeks we have had.  Before letting you into a little secret and probably one of the cutest markets I have been to I have to share this.

Esquites - Mexican corn salad

Recipe: Esquites
By: Donna Alderson

My gorgeous friend Donna recently returned from a trip to New York and came back with this recipe. So today we stray from our Greek recipes and travel to Mexico…I will definitely be making this again.

Bakaliaros Tsiladia from Kalamata

Not quite…but I used what I had in the pantry and freezer….

Snapper, veggie patch and the community spirit…...

I'm really getting into this gardening business…especially now that I can harvest my herbs, silver beet bok choy and strawberries.  I sit on my front porch and watch the world go by through my staked tomatoes, greek columns and garden ornament of the almighty Zeus watching over us. (My daughter thinks it's her pappou!)

Arnaki me pligouri - Spring Lamb with Burghul

What to cook on a strange spring day in Melbourne….The weather last night and today has been very strange to say the least..The storms and lightning at 2am this morning where pretty terrifying…Found out first thing this morning that a house in our suburb of Prahran was struck by lightning and caught alight.  Today the sun would peak out then minutes later the rain would start…AHHHH!! So I raided my pantry and fridge and made a Greek oldy but a goody…Arnaki me pligouri.

Fried ricotta, feta and silverbeet pites…and roadtrip to Dromana

Last weekend, my family and I had the pleasure of having our very good friends stay at mum and dad's shack in Dromana.

Spring Gardening

Spring has finally arrived in Melbourne..Gorgeous sunny days perfect for a little gardening.  Now I DON'T have a green thumb and living in Prahran with literally a concrete backyard doesn't help.  But I will persevere.  Last year we planted tomatoes, zucchini, basil, mint and other herbs.  We got a few tomatoes, one zucchini, which was delicious and loads of herbs.

Fava me loukanika

While I was in Greece last year, I bought a bag of the famous Santorini fava.. In summer it's traditionally matched with sliced red onion and capers, grilled octopus, or even a tomato caper sauce.  Being winter in Melbourne and having a heap of home made Greek sausages I thought I'd combine the two.  I made a version of spetsofai.  A sausage dish with peppers and tomatoes.

Greek Village sausages - Thracian style - Greek Mama Project!

Recipe: Loukanika me portokali
By: Koula Takouridis, Melbourne, Dromana, Alexandroupolis


It's winter in Melbourne, so naturally it's sausage making season.  Several weeks ago I was invited to my friend Maria's house to watch the boys make Italian sausages and salami.  That experience brought back memories of our sausage making days so I asked mum to show me how she makes the "loukanika" I grew up with.  The orange skin spiked ones.  Yummo.

Fried cheese pastries with petimezi!

A few weeks ago I made a couple of spanakopites and had left over home made filo pastry. It wasn't enough to make another whole pita so I made fried cheese pastries.

Sausages and salami - Italian Mama Project

What a day we had yesterday.  My gorgeous friend Maria aka Wayan (our Balinese names for being first born) graciously invited me to her house to watch the men make sausages and salami.  Every year or so Maria’s family, her sisters and their families get together and make wine, tomato sugo and sausages.  This year the boys have added salami to their repertoire.

Galaktoboureko - Greek Mama Project

Recipe: Galaktoboureko
By: Georgia Panopoulos

I don't have a sweet tooth but give me my friend Maria Bakasetas's mum galaktoboureko, cheesecake or ice cream and my no sweet tooth philosophy goes out the window.

Stifado meat pies!

Recipe: Stifado meat pies
By: Carol Takouridis

Ahhh…It's great being a Greek Australian…Best of both worlds. So here I combine 2 of my favourite meals in one.

Lee's Minestrone

Recipe: Minestrone

By: Lee Pellizzer

Tomato Sugo - Italian Mama Project

Recipe: Tomato sugo

By: Maria Z. aka Wayan

My latest instalment of my Greek Mama Project will be renamed Italian Mama Project for this entry…As our “paisans” say “ Una fazza una razza”…..

Tsourekia - Greek Mama Project

Recipe: Tsourekia

By: Dina Tzouras

My koubara’s mum makes the BEST tsourekia. 

Greek Easter lamb on the spit!

One of the Greek traditions of Greek Easter is the roasting of lamb.

Spanakopita - Greek Mama Project

Recipe: Spanakopita
By: Theologos

There are 1001 different types of pites but spanakopita is in my top 5.  Love, love, love it!

Greek Easter koulourakia

Easter is approaching.  Time for fasting, baking koulourakia & tsourekia and then indulging in a weekend of protein.

Greek inspired energy balls

Tiropitakia Kourou - Greek Mama Project

Recipe: Tiropitakia Kourou (feta cheese shortcrust pastries)

By:  Eleni Kahermani,  Alexandroupoli

Giouvarlakia Avgolemono (Meatball soup in egg lemon sauce)

I love soup!!! Especially Greek ones.. Unfortunately they aren't that well known amongst my Aussie friends.  Time to change that I think!  

My favourite soups are all finished with avgolemono.  Greek chicken soup, giouvarlakia and my all time favourite magiritsa to name a few.

Zucchini Moussaka

Very excited…We grew our very first zucchini in our little concrete backyard in Prahran…I swear it grew overnight….and to do this little beauty some greek justice I made a zucchini moussaka.  Very light with only a thin layer of béchamel.. Evangeline ate it because she was the one who watered the plant every day and was so excited to pick it.

Dolmathes gialantzi (dolmathes with rice)

DOLMATHES WITH RICE

Evangeline and I were in Dromana the last few days and along with the bag of homegrown zucchini, lemons, mint, peaches and cherry tomatoes I collected young vine leaves..  I haven't eaten dolmathes since I made them back in July while I was in Greece.  Here is the recipe and some photos from my dolmatha making day.

Sardines 2 ways - charcoal and fried!

Sardines cooked on charcoal…in my opinion the best way to eat them.

Nothing is more Greek in summer than freshly caught fish on the bbq or fried with a fresh horiatiki (what we know as Greek salad) with produce only from the garden and ouzo or tsipouro.  During my holiday in Greece this year we indulged in these little beauties at least once a week.

They are not only wonderful eating but very healthy.

Flinders Mussel Giouvetsi

We have strange weather here in Melbourne..It can be 30º one day and 18º the next.  Today it's a mental 43º ….CRAZY…A couple of Sundays ago was one of these days but the weather changed within a matter of seconds…Very scary as one second I was watching my little one jumping on the trampoline whilst I was on the elevated verandah and the next I was close to literally losing her.  It must have been a mini cyclone as I watched the verandah roof fly off above me an head towards the trampoline.  Panic stations kicked in when I realised she wasn't on there but on the boat which was it's next target.  It slammed against the boat then some how the wind picked it up and aimed it right at my mum and baby.  Then something incredible happened.  It flew over their heads, over the fence and down the street.  This thing was nailed and bolted down so you can just imagine the force of it.  Well if I didn't believe in guardian angels in the past I sure do now..

Baked mullet with summer vegetables

I love fishing, especially when I catch a few fish.  In the bay if you can't catch a snapper, flathead are always a given… Catching mullet though is a special treat.  These little beauties are usually overlooked but they are fantastic eating and full of Omega 3.