Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266756 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-12
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A glance at the index reveals this to be a book of Greek recipes without moussaka! Real Greek Food has a lot going for it already. The name derives from the restaurant The Real Greek opened in the fashionable East End of London (imagine being able to write such a phrase) in 1999 by Theodore Kyriakou to very considerable acclaim. Expert midwifery from food writer and journalist Charles Campion has effected a transfer of his cooking to the domestic realm with mouth-watering effect. This is Greek food of a type and quality very different from the usual dismal offerings of the dreaded moussaka, souvlakia, kleftiko and the rest. For one thing, Kyriakou is from Athens, not Cyprus, and seems to have been brought up with sophisticated culinary expectations: in his preface he pays tribute to his parents' devotion to "Greek gastronomy", not ordinarily a pairing of words easy to compute. Sample menus might include Belly Port with Leeks, Parchment-Wrapped Liver and Potted Chicken with Walnuts. Other unusual but delicious dishes are Pork and Quince Casserole, Crab Claws Stewed with Muscat Wine and Poached Rack of Lamb with Fennel. Desserts include Caramel and Hazelnut Tart and the intriguing, medieval-sounding, though obviously modern, Mustard Ice Creams, which tempers the hot tang of Dijon mustard with Greek honey. It all adds up to a very fine collection, smart and modern, recommended to anyone who feels there must be more to Greek cooking. --Robin Davidson

Synopsis
To the current genration, Greek food is the food of the packaged holiday - chips and kebabs, or the local taverna, while to those who have stayed at home it tends to be the food of their local 'Greek' restaurant, which is almost inevitably churning out a succession of identikit Cypriot dishes. Whatever happened to real Greek food? Real Greek cuisine is the cuisine of the family not of the restaurant. It is a cuisine laden with flavour, one that relies on fresh produce, and one that is rooted in its own tradition. It is also seriously delicious, and surprisingly healthy - real Greek food revolves around olive oil, vegetables, yoghurt, honey, fresh fish, wine - providing all the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and more. Real Greek Food features over 100 easy to follow recipes which don't call for expensive ingredients or obscure techniques. Innovative dishes by acclaimed chef, Theodore Kyriakou include, fava (a light, puree of yellow split peas) or arnaki me maratho - rack of lamb poached in a clear broth with fennel: and kaltzounia me mizithra - small tartlets made with cottage cheese and saffron.

This book is certain to surprise, and guaranteed to delight all lovers of Greece and its islands.

Customer Reviews

Just like home - yet different
Kyriakou and Campion's book follows the principles of The Real Greek restaurant: intense Greek flavours with a daring mix of ingredients which exceeds what most Westerners would associate with Greek cooking.

As an Athenian with Arcadian roots, I was impressed by the authenticity of the beautiful recipes included in this book. They all smell like home - yet differently! Like an Athenian's interpretation of regional recipes by way of Modern European, if you get my drift. While this is not a cookbook for the diet minded, everything feels lighter than you would expect and yet irresistibly rich at the same time. Cuttlefish with spinach and pine kernels is a well loved dish from my childhood, and this book proposes a cleaner version with a finer balance of aromas. My personal favourite, Peloponnesian green beans with new potatoes, packs a surprisingly zesty kick for such a humble dish and all because of the ingenious addition of mint into the rich red sauce - well, the use of small new potatoes instead of the rather bland floury variety we have in Greece did not hurt either! Most of the meat dishes are hearty without being too heavy and combinations of sweet and tart feature quite prominently. The real head turner have to be the Ismir meatballs which make my guests swoon without fail even though I usually cheat by using ready made swedish meatballs instead (sorry aunts but I don't have all day!)

I thoroughly recommend this book for those interested in Mediterranean flavours. It has been put together with a passion for the subject, and the lovingly photographed close ups of the dishes alone are worth the price. Unlike the above reviewer, I found all of the recipes rather straightforward and easy to reproduce: the fact that I recognised about half of the recipes from my own childhood might explain why! If the real cooking times do not always correspond to those suggested in the book, this is not necessarily the writers' fault: more likely it is because your average £300 cooker bears little resemblance to the power hobs at The Real Greek. Or at least that's what I like to think. It has to be said though that as far as the ingredients are concerned, it certainly helps if you live in a big city…

Just like home - but different
Kyriakou and Campion's book follows the principles of The Real Greek restaurant: intense Greek flavours with a daring mix of ingredients which exceeds what most Westerners would associate with Greek cooking.

As an Athenian with Arcadian roots, I was impressed by the authenticity of the beautiful recipes included in this book. They all smell like home - yet differently! Like an Athenian's interpretation of regional recipes by way of Modern European, if you get my drift. While this is not a cookbook for the diet minded, everything feels lighter than you would expect and yet irresistibly rich at the same time. Cuttlefish with spinach and pine kernels is a well loved dish from my childhood, and this book proposes a cleaner version with a finer balance of aromas. My personal favourite, Peloponnesian green beans with new potatoes, packs a surprisingly zesty kick for such a humble dish and all because of the ingenious addition of mint into the rich red sauce - well, the use of small new potatoes instead of the rather bland floury variety we have in Greece did not hurt either! Most of the meat dishes are hearty without being too heavy and combinations of sweet and tart feature quite prominently. The real head turner have to be the Ismir meatballs which make my guests swoon without fail even though I usually cheat by using ready made swedish meatballs instead (sorry aunts but I don't have all day!)

I thoroughly recommend this book for those interested in Mediterranean flavours. It has been put together with a passion for the subject, and the lovingly photographed close ups of the dishes alone are worth the price. Unlike the above reviewer, I found all of the recipes rather straightforward and easy to reproduce: the fact that I recognised about half of the recipes from my own childhood might explain why! If the real cooking times do not always correspond to those suggested in the book, this is not necessarily the writers' fault: more likely it is because your average £300 cooker bears little resemblance to the power hobs at The Real Greek. Or at least that's what I like to think. It has to be said though that as far as the ingredients are concerned, it certainly helps if you live in a big city…

Great food - interesting book - be careful with the recipes
First off let me say that I think that the restaurant "The Real Greek" is superb. The food is wonderful and imaginative.

That takes us to the cookbook. I have tried a number of the recipes and have found some that are great & easy to prepare - the shallot and vegetable salad with thyme honey mustard dressing for example.

On the other hand - the recipes for some other dishes appear either to be 'wrong' or clearly not what is done in the actual restaurant - e.g. the pastitso - I cannot believe that you are really meant to use that much nutmeg.

In addition - some of the ingredients can be difficult to get.

So - I recommend you buy this book, but try things out before preparing for guests to avoid embarrasment.

Polli kalo fagito alla then eini efkalo.