Amorgian Food

Boil 500 grams of fava beans in 2lts of water in low heat, adding half tea spoon of salt, and one onion.  It is ready when it becomes creamy.

Ingredients for croquettes: One big onion – one handful of anise or dill. Chop them in small pieces, and you simmer them in 1/4 cup of olive oil. In a bowl, place two cups of boiled fava, the simmered vegetables, adding salt and pepper, two eggs, two cups of flour, and 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Stir them well, until the mixture becomes soft.

To fry them, use a pan with a lot of vegetable oil. When it is really hot, use a spoon to put small portions of the mixture into the pan and deep fry them. When both sides are brown, the croquettes are ready. You can use other vegetables too, like zucchini, tomatoes, etc.

For the dough: One cup vegetable oil, one cup white wine, 3 cups self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, a little pepper.

Mixture for the filling:

In a bowl, put 2 eggs, salt, pepper, chopped fresh mint or dry mint and soft feta cheese or cream cheese. Stir them well and they are ready for the pies.

The filling can be also with spinach, for spinach pies. In this case, add onion and dill, chopped and simmered before adding them into the mixture.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix them all by hand, until it is ready to use (2 min). With a little spoon, make small balls and press them on the kitchen counter, to give the fillo round shape. Put one tea spoon of the mixture on each one of them and fold it in two, pressing the sides to close. Fry them in low fire, cooking from both sides, or bake them in the oven.

1 kilo of all purpose flour.  100 grams fresh yeast or two small envelopes dry yeast.

½ tea spoon salt, 5 spoons sugar, ouzo flavour or vanilla flavour, water (about 2 and ½ cups).

Dissolve the yeast, the salt and the sugar in the water, which must be warm.

Add the flour slowly and the flavour, beating by hand, wire, or hand mixer, until the mixture becomes thick but not watery, creating bubbles at the top. Let it rise for at least 1-2 hours, covered, in room temperature. Then deep fry spoonfuls of the mixture until they appear crispy small croquettes.

Serve them hot, dipped in syrup, and sprinkle them with sesame, and cinnamon.

Syrup: 2 cups of sugar, two and a half cups of water – boil them with orange peel, and a stick of cinnamon for half hour in low temperature. At the end, add one cup of honey.

Simmer a big chopped onion in a deep pan with one cup of olive oil.

When the onion becomes gold, add a cup of red wine.

Add one kilo of lamb or goat meat in small pieces and stir it until it gets a little brown. Add 2 kilos of potatoes cut in cubes. Add water to cover it all, as well as salt, pepper, and cinnamon sticks. Let it cook in very low temperature, for about 20 min in a press cook, or 75 min in a regular pot.

Take 4 big tomatoes, and grate them, so that they become a thick sauce.

In a pan, simmer a thinly chopped onion and one cup of chopped anise (marathos) using one cup of olive oil.

Place them all in a deep bowl and add 2 eggs, salt and pepper.  Add 2 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Stir with a wire, until it becomes a thick mixture. Use a spoon to drop small portions of the mixture in a pan with a lot of hot vegetable oil until it becomes gold in both sides. Take them out of the pan with a fork, and place them in a tray with kitchen paper, so the oil is absorbed. Serve the croquettes on leaves of lettuce, with some yogurt, or sprinkle them with grated cheese.

A very healthy dessert has been prepared for centuries, using fresh local fruit.

Grapes have been very popular, especially the variety without seeds.

Ingredients:

One kilo washed grapes, cleaned from their stems, 1500g sugar, 2 cups of water.

Put them all in a saucepan, and place on fire. Cook slowly as long as it is necessary, for the grapes to become soft and syrupy.

It usually needs 2 hours boiling. For special natural flavour, add during boiling some leaves of citrus geranium, or some leaves of lemon tree or orange peels.

This kind of sweets have always existed in Amorgian houses and they were offered to visitors in small flat plates, in spoonfuls, with a glass of cold water.