Tradition recipes with Loulla Astin

Baked Stuffed Courgette (marrow)

A delicious summer dish! Marrows are super healthy, utterly delicious, cheap and we Cypriots love them. If the marrows have a very tough skin, with a vegetable peeler, remove few strips of the skin, mine were organic and very fresh from my friend’s allotment. You could always add a few thick slices of potatoes around the stuffed marrow, it will make it a more substantial meal. Otherwise, all you need to accompany this dish is perhaps a nice salad, Cypriot bread and maybe some yoghurt.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

3 spring onions, chopped including the green part

400g pork or beef or chicken minced

100g Risotto rice

1 tbsp tomato puree

200g can chopped tomatoes

2 tsp sugar

100g toasted pine kernels (optional)

1/2 cup hot water

A handful, chopped parsley

2 tbsp chopped mint

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 large marrows, cut the thick parts into 4cm thick pieces

2 large tomatoes thinly sliced

1 cup warm water, diluted with 1 tbsp tomato puree

2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

For baking

Hot water

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 190C

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions for a couple of minutes. Add the mincemeat, garlic, spring onions and brown the mince, then mix in the rice and stir for few minutes. Season with salt, pepper, cinnamon and sugar, mix the tomato purée and cook for a minute then mix the chopped tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes and pour one cup of hot water, simmer for about 10 minutes or until rice is half cooked, the mixture shouldn’t be not too thick. Mix in the pine nuts and herbs and adjust seasoning and remove from the heat.

Prepare the marrows- scoop out the middle of the marrow slices, leaving a little flesh around and at the bottom, discard the flesh and seeds.

Arrange the marrow in a baking dish and spoon the filling into each one, top with a slice of tomato and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Pour about 1.5-2 cups of tomato puree diluted with warm water and a little salt and pepper and cover the baking pan with foil. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until marrow has softened.

Remove the foil, baste the marrows with the tomato sauce and baked uncovered for 15 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm with a salad.

Fanouropita – Saint Fanourious cake for lost and found things

Every year on August 27 the Orthodox faithful baked this vegan cake to honour Saint Fanourios. He is the Patron Saint of lost things; his name means to find or reveal something. The Fanouropita is an especially popular in Rhodes because that’s where the saint’s icon was found. Many have picked up the story of the saint and Fanouropita is made all over Greece and Cyprus. We Greeks have a cake for all occasions! The cake can be made any time of the year and taken to church to be blessed by the priest and to ask for the things you seek; good health, a husband or a wife, lost things!

Traditionally, a Fanouropita should be made with seven, nine or 11 ingredients, always an odd number. I like to keep our traditions, and the number of ingredients symbolises in Greek Orthodox Christianity the sacraments of the Church, the days of creation, but also the orders of the angels. The cake is cut and offered to seven married women who have not been divorced or widowed for the wishes to come true.

150g mixed raisins

4 tbsp brandy or red wine

300ml sunflower oil or olive oil

225g caster sugar

Juice of 3 oranges or 1 cup orange juice

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

grated zest of 1 orange

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

500g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g finely chopped walnuts

Topping

Icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Grease and flour a 30cm round baking tin.

Soak the raisins in the brandy or wine for 30minutes to 1 hour.

Whisk orange juice with the soda.

In a large bowl, using a hand electric whisk, whisk the oil and sugar together then add the orange zest, the orange juice with the soda.

Sift the flour, baking powder and spices and whisk until smooth. Roll the raisins into a little flour, it stops them sinking on the bottom of the pan. Using a wooden spoon mix in the raisins and walnuts and pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes or until the cake is golden and cooked. Remove and cool.

Decorate the cake by placing a cross in the middle or a lace paper doily or a lace cloth, then sift icing sugar over it, and carefully remove the paper so the pattern remains, or just sift lots of icing sugar all over the cake.

While you are making the cake, keep asking St Fanourios for things you would like to be found or you want to happen!

Loulla’s book My Kosmos My Kitchen can be ordered from www.amazon.com or www.austinmacauley.com/book/my-kosmos-my-kitchen. For more traditional Greek and Cypriot recipes and inspiration, join Loulla’s Facebook group Loulla’s Recipe Share