In order to help teams sort the recipes to be submitted for EASTERN EUROPE we offer the following guidelines. The goal is to only include recipes that fairly represent the region we will be visiting.
The countries that make up Eastern Europe are:
Albania
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Georgia
Hungary
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
Moldova
Poland
Romania
Russia
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Turkey is NOT included.
Cookbook
Cookin' Kotkas in Eastern Europe
Round 2~
Second 2 Regions June 6th- June 18th
1 Wild Card
Dates: All recipes and challenges for this forum can be made between June 6th to June 18th, so all reviews for Eastern Europe and Greece must be submitted on June 18th by 11:59 PM est
Scoreboard
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe non-challenge
1. Divaconviva -
(Surprise!) Russian Teacakes by Julie B's Hive
2. Tom&Candy -
Czech Sauteed Mushrooms by Um Safia
3. Charmie777 -
Miracle Hamburger Stroganoff by Laffer
4.
5.
Eastern Europe Forum ~ Where Is Lorac...... ?
non cooking Team
1. Realbirdlady
Breads/Baking Forum ~Breads of EE
cooking
1. LoriInIndiana -
2. LavenderLynn -
Armenian Bread Rounds - Bread Machine by Charmie777
3. Charmie777 -
4. Benthe -
5.
Holidays & Entertainment Forum ~Holiday Cuisine
cooking
1. LoriInIndiana -
2. LavenderLynn -
Corn Blini With Smoked Salmon and Chive Cream by Sharon123
3. TLu -
4.
5.
Menu Ideas & Help Forum ~Murder Mystery at the Castle
Team Event~ 1 entry
1.
Lavender Lynn - Menu for the Mystery Challenge:
Appetizer
Hearty and Healthy Potato Soup l#284265 by mama's kitchen
Salad
Pickled Beets (Cwikla) #84141 by --Rita--
Vegetable
Cabbage and Potatoes #136622 by PaulaG
Main Dish
Sauerkraut With Polish Sausage #244486 by Lazyme
Dessert
Kolackys #304367 by Sydney Mike
Beverage
Czech Coffee H Kαva by Sharon123
Greece
Greek Cooking Forum~ Non Challenge
1. Tom& Candy -
Roasted Oregano Potatoes by Parsley
2. Realbirdlady -
Kotopoulo Skorthato (Lemon Garlic Chicken With Potatoes) by Ravenseyes
3. Realbirdlayd -
Aegean Pasta Salad by JackieOhNo
4.
5.
Greek Cooking Forum~ It's All Greek to Me
non cooking
1. Lavender Lynn -
Grilling/BBQ Forum ~ Fishing for Compliments
cooking
1. LoriInIndiana -
2. Benthe -
3. TLu -
Cooking Photos and Information Forum ~
cooking & photo
1. Tom&Candy -
by Lainey6605
2. LavenderLynn -
Armenian Bread Rounds - Bread Machine by Charmie777
3. Charmie777 -
4. Charmie777 -
Warm Goat Cheese Salad by Vicki in CT
5.
6.
Decorating Ideas Forum ~ Romantic Greece
cooking & photo
1. LoriInIndiana -
2.Charmie777 -
Greek Bread (Abm) by Annacia
3.
Cookbook for Greece
Cookin' Yatas in Greece
**GREECE Cookbook Submission Tips**
Here is an overview of Greek Cuisine to help you reference what fits into Greek foods and what might fall outside and therefore be rejected.
Typical dishes
Greek cuisine is very diverse and although there are many common characteristics amongst the culinary traditions of different regions within the country, there are also many differences, making it difficult to present a full list of representative dishes. Just to give an example, the vegetarian dish " Haniotiko Mpoureki" (oven baked slices of potatoes with zucchini, myzithra cheese and mint) is a typical dish in the region of Chania (western Crete), which a family may consume 1-2 times per week in the summer season. However, it is not cooked in any other region of Greece.
Appetizers
simple meze: Cheese & olives (left) Pikilia, Meze(right)
Meze is a collective name for a variety of small dishes, typically served with wine, ouzo or homemade tsipouro. Dips are served with loaf bread or pita bread. In some regions, dried bread (paximadhi) is softened in water. Orektika is the formal name for appetizers and is often used as a reference to eating a first course of a cuisine other than Greek cuisine.
Boureki: individually wrapped vegetable and meat fillings in phyllo pastry or dough.
Deep Fried vegetables "tiganita" (courgettes, aubergines, peppers or mushrooms).
Dolmades: grapevine leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables, meat is also often included.
Fava: Yellow split pea puree or other bean purees; sometimes made of fava beans (called ?; in Greek)
Greek Salad: The so-called Greek Salad is known in Greece as Village/Country Salad (Horiatiki).
Horta: wild or cultivated greens, steamed or blanched and made into salad, simply dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. They can either be eaten as a light meal with potatoes (especially during Lent, in lieu of fish or meat).
Kolokythoanthoi: zucchini flowers stuffed with rice or cheese and herbs.
Koukkia: fava beans.
Lachanosalata: Cabbage Salad. Very finely shredded cabbage with salt, olive oil, lemon juice/vinegar dressing.
Marides tiganites: Deep-fried whitebait, usually served with lemon wedges.
Melitzanosalata: aubergine (eggplant) salad.
Pantzarosalata: beetroot salad with olive oil and vinegar.
Patata salata: Potato salad with olive oil, finely sliced onions, lemon juice or vinegar.
Saganaki: fried cheese; the word "saganaki" means a small cooking pan, and can be applied to many other foods.
Skordalia: thick garlic and potato puree, usually accompanies deep fried fish/cod.
Spanakopita: spinach wrapped in phyllo pastry.
Taramosalata: fish roe mixed with boiled potatoes or moistened breadcrumbs.
Tzatziki: yoghurt with cucumber and garlic puree, used as a dip.
Tyropita: cheese (usually feta) wrapped in phyllo pastry.
Many other things are wrapped in phyllo pastry, either in bite-size triangles or in large sheets: kotopita (chicken), spanakotyropita (spinach and cheese), hortopita (greens), kreatopita (meat pie, using ground meat), etc.
Soups
Avgolemono 'egg-lemon' soup: chicken, meat, vegetable, or fish broth thickened with eggs, lemon juice, and rice.
Bourou-Bourou, a vegetable & pasta soup from the island of Corfu.
Colomo soup.
Fakes, is a lentil soup and one of the famous everyday Greek soups, usually served with vinegar and feta cheese.
Fasolada, a bean soup defined in many cookery books as the traditional Greek dish. It is made of beans, tomatoes, carrot, celery and a lot of olive oil.
Magiritsa, is the traditional Easter soup made with lamb offal and thickened with avgolemono.
Patsas, a tripe soup.
Psarosoupa 'fish soup' can be cooked with a variety of fish types, and several kinds of vegetables (carrots, parsley, celery, potatoes, onion), several varieties include the classic kakavia which is drizzled with olive oil.
Revithia, a chickpea soup.
Trahana soup.
Vegetarian main dishes
Aginares A La Polita: artichokes with olive oil.
Arakas Me Aginares: fresh peas with artichokes in the oven.
Bamies: okra with tomato sauce (sometimes with potatoes and/or chicken/lamb).
Fasolakia freska: fresh green beans stewed with potatoes, zucchini and tomato sauce.
Gigantes beans: baked butter beans with tomato sauce and various herbs.
Horta (greens) already mentioned in the Appetizers section, are quite often consumed as a light main meal, with boiled potatoes and bread.
Lachanodolmades: Cabbage rolls, stuffed with rice and sometimes meat, spiced with various herbs and served with avgolemono sauce or simmered in a light tomato broth.
Spanakorizo: Spinach and rice stew cooked in lemon and olive oil sauce.
Yemista: Baked stuffed vegetables. Usually tomatoes, peppers, or other vegetables hollowed out and baked with a rice and herb filling.
Meat dishes
Souvlaki plate(left) Stifado with fried potatoes and salad(right)
Baked lamb with potatoes . One of the most common Greek dishes. There are many variations with additional ingredients.
Bekri Meze: 'drunkard's snack', diced beef marinated in wine, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, olive oil and cooked slowly.
Giouvetsi: baked lamb in clay pot with Kritharaki - orzo.
Grilled lamb chops (paοdakia) with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper.
Grilled octopus in vinegar, oil and oregano. Accompanied by Ouzo.
Gyros: meat roasted on a vertically turning spit and served with sauce (often tzatziki) and garnishes (tomato, onions) on pita bread; a popular fast food.
Kleftiko: literally meaning "of the Klephts", this is lamb slow-baked on the bone, first marinated in garlic and lemon juice, originally cooked in a pit oven.
Keftedes: fried meatballs with oregano and mint.
Kotopoulo pilafi ('Chicken Pilaf'), mostly popular on the island of Crete.
Moussaka: eggplant casserole. There are other variations besides eggplant, such as zucchini or rice, but the eggplant version melitzanes moussaka is most popular.
Pastitsio: a baked pasta dish with a filling of ground meat and a Bechamel sauce top.
Pork with celery (hirino me selino/hirino selinato).
Soutzoukakia Smyrneika: large meatballs with cumin, cinnamon and garlic and served in a tomato sauce.
Souvlaki: (lit: 'skewer') Anything grilled on a skewer (lamb, chicken, pork, swordfish, shrimp). Most common is lamb, pork or chicken, often marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon.
Spetsofai: a dish with country sausages, peppers, onions and wine. Originates from Mt. Pelion.
Stifado: game (rabbit, venison etc.)stew with pearl onions, red wine and cinnamon.
Desserts and sweets
Koulourakia and Kourabiedes(left) A piece of Baklava (right)
Baklava, a popular sweet dessert, of phyllo pastry layers with nuts, sugar, syrup, honey and cloves.
Diples, a Christmas and wedding delicacy, made of thin, sheet-like dough which is cut in large squares and dipped in a swirling fashion in a pot of hot olive oil for a few seconds. As the dough fries, it stiffens into a helical tube; it is then removed immediately and sprinkled with honey and crushed walnuts.
Galaktoboureko, custard between layers of phyllo. The name derives from the Greek "ghala", meaning milk, and from the Turkish bφrek, meaning filled, thus meaning "filled with milk."
Halvadopites A nougat of sesame with almonds in a thin crust.
Karidopita, a walnut cake.
Koulourakia, butter or olive-oil cookies.
Kourabiedes, Christmas cookies made by kneading flour, butter and crushed roasted almonds, then generously dusted with powdered sugar.
Loukoumades, similar to donuts, loukoumades are essentially fried balls of dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.
Melomakarona, "honey macaroons", Christmas cookies soaked in a syrup of diluted honey (meli in Greek, thus melomakarona), then sprinkled with crushed walnuts.
Moustalevria, a flour and grape must pudding.
Moustokouloura, cookies of flour kneaded with fresh grape must instead of water.
Ravani, is a golden yellow cake made with farina or semolina and topped with a light sugar/honey or orange-flavored syrup.
Rizogalo 'rice-milk' is rice pudding.
Loukoumi is a confection made from starch and sugar, essentially similar to the Turkish delight. A variation from Serres is called Akanes.
Milopita me Pandespani, apple pie with cinnamon and powdered sugar.
Spoon sweets of various fruits, ripe or unripe, or unripe nuts. Spoon sweets are essentially made the same way as marmalade, except that the fruit are boiled whole or in large chunks.
Tsoureki, a traditional Christmas and Easter sweet bread also known as 'Lambropsomo' (Easter bread), flavored with "mahlepi", the intensely aromatic extract of the stone of the St. Lucie Cherry.
Vasilopita, Saint Basil's cake or King's cake, traditional for New Year's Day. Vasilopites are baked with a coin inside, and whoever gets the coin in their slice are considered blessed with good luck for the whole year.
Yogurt with honey or spoon sweet syrup.
Cheese
Some feta cheese, a traditional Greek cheese
There is a wide variety of cheeses made in various regions across Greece. The vast majority of them remain unknown outside the Greek borders due to the lack of adequate advertising and the highly localized distinctive features. Many artisanal cheeses, both common varieties and local specialties, are produced by small family farms throughout Greece and offer distinct flavors atypical of the mass produced varieties found commercially in Greece and abroad. Here are some of the more popular throughout Greece:
Feta
Kasseri
Kefalotyri
Graviera
Myzithra
Anthotyros
Manouri
Metsovone
Drinks
Wine is the most common drink in Greece. Legend claims that wine was invented on the island of Icaria.
Beer is widely drunk; common brands include Vergina, Heineken, Amstel, Zeos, Mythos, Alfa Hellenic Lager, Fix, Henninger, and Kaiser, all of which are produced locally, some under license.
Ouzo (an 80-proof clear alcoholic beverage that is flavored with anise; it turns milky white with water or ice; the best said to be produced on the island of Lesbos).
Tsipouro or (esp. in Crete) tsikoudia/raki (Mostly home-brewed, a clear drink similar to ouzo, often with higher alcohol content, and usually not flavored with herbs. The city of Volos at the centre of Greece is well-known for its Tsipouradika (literally: tsipouro places). In Thessaly tsipouro is always flavored with anise.
Retsina (a white wine that has some pine resin added, originally as a preservative, but nowadays for the flavor; this is an Athens region specialty. It should not be aged.).
Mavrodafni Sweet, liquor-style, red wine with higher alcohol percentage than normal.
Metaxa, a brand of sweet brandy, 40% alcohol content.
Greek coffee, made by boiling finely ground coffee beans, and is served thick and strong, and often sweetened.
Greek frappι coffee : a foam-covered drink derived from spray-dried instant coffee that is consumed cold.
