Friday 12 June 2009

A hellenic supper


After my Greek goody hunt, it was time for a Skiathos-inspired supper. One of the starters that had wowed us at Ilya's Orchard was baked feta: I'd read about it but never tasted it. It's delicious, and a doddle to make. Take a good chunk of feta and place it on a piece of foil. Top the feta with a sliced tomato and pepper (the pale green one for perfect authenticity, but yellow or red will do), then drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and a dash of dried oregano. Wrap up your parcel and put in a hot oven for around 15 mins.
Next up, partly inspired by Mango at Allotment2Kitchen, some roast new potatoes.

Cut your potatoes into chunks, then lavish them with lemon juice, olive oil and herbs: I've used fresh oregano, lemon thyme and common thyme. Add a dash of sea salt and cook in a hot oven (gas mark 6 for me), turning a couple of times as they roast for an hour.

While the roasties and feta were basking in the heat, I made this dayglo version of tzatziki. Take a roasted beetroot (my preferred method for cooking beets is wrapping them in foil and bunging them in the oven until you smell that wonderfully earthy aroma), chop it finely and mix with Greek yoghurt and a finely minced garlic clove. Add a dash of lemon juice. I hesitated before adding some fresh mint, wondering how the sharp greeness would marry with the warm tones of the beetroot, but was unexpectedly good. Serve with a glass of Greek wine.

4 comments:

goodshoeday said...

Baked feta sounds interesting - I'm a huge fan of grilled/pan fried halloumi so this feta idea is going on my must try lunches list. Beetroot tzatziki looks good to and nice contrasting colour. All we need now is some greek style weather

Shaheen said...

I love the texture of halloumi and D loves beetroot, I am following goodshoeday in that this will also be on one of my lunch lists.

PS In you post before you went on holidays you wrote about your visit to your local farmers market, well I am writing to Thank you, it was the way you wrote about your visit that reignited my interest in farmers market again, sorry I call them food producers market.

franmouse39 said...

goodshoeday - I'm with you on the halloumi front - love the stuff and cooked it a lot on Skiathos. Boy, I miss the weather!

Mango - so glad you are back on the trail of farmers markets. Hope you enjoy the cheese and beets.

Michele said...

What a lovely meal!