Make a traditional Cyprus dinner

By Loulla Astin

This is one of the best chicken recipes you will ever make! Everyone loves it, it’s succulent juice, melt in your mouth flavourful.

Baked Chicken Breast with Yogurt Mayonnaise & Cheese

Serves 6
6 boneless, skinless large chicken breasts
1 cup of milk
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sumac
1 tsp garlic powder
5 tbsp grated Parmesan
5 tbsp grated Cheddar
Ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
To garnish
Sprigs of rosemary

Place chicken breast in a bowl of milk and lemon juice, let it marinate for 30 min or overnight.
Preheat oven to 190C.
In a small bowl, combine the yogurt and mayonnaise with the garlic, paprika, sumac, chopped rosemary, pepper and half the cheese and 1 tbsp olive oil.
Remove the chicken from the milk, wipe with kitchen paper and season with ground pepper (no salt).
Place 1 tbsp of olive oil in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, lay the chicken and spread the yoghurt mixture evenly on top of each chicken breast and sprinkle with remain cheese.
Place the chicken in the oven for 35 minutes then turns the heat up to 200C and cook for 10-15 minutes to allow the chicken to get a nice golden colour.
Serve with jacket potatoes and corn on the cob or anything else you like. Garnish the chicken with a sprig of fresh rosemary and enjoy!

Stuffed Vegetables with Mincemeat

Stuffed vegetables are very popular in Greece and Cyprus, especially in the summer months. I like to use long grain rice.

Serves 6
4 medium bell peppers, any colour you like
2 medium aubergines
2 large courgettes
4 large tomatoes
For the filling
100ml olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
450g minced lamb, beef, or pork or mix
200g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
4oz long-grain rice
½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
1tsp sugar
4 tbsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp chopped mint
4 tbsp chopped dill
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
275ml warm water or stock

Slice the pepper tops off and the tomatoes, remove the seeds, turn the tomatoes upside down to drain. Cut the courgettes and aubergines then hollow them out, removing the flesh (chop it and use it in your filling).
Heat half the olive oil and sauté onions and mincemeat and cook until meat is brown. Mix in the rice, stir so is coated with oil, add the tomato puree, and chopped tomatoes, and cook the tomatoes for few minutes. Mix in the sugar, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste, add ½ cup hot stock or water and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the rice has absorbed the water (do not overcook the rice) and remove from the heat. Cool a little and mix in the herbs.
Fill the peppers and other vegetables with the stuffing, leaving room for the rice to swell, seal them with tops and place in an oven baking dish, closely together.
Dilute the tomato puree in the warm water and pour into the bottom of the oven dish. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper and drizzle the remaining olive oil.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 1½ hours, basting once or twice and turning the tray so they will brown nicely. Serve lukewarm.

Caramel Cake

Poutigna is a traditional Cypriot biscuit and custard pudding resembling a cream caramel. It features a base of caramelised sugar; broken biscuits prepared to rich condensed milk and egg custard.
It’s believed that this delicious dessert came to Cyprus during the British rule, when British officials and cooks brought sweets such as custard and bread & butter pudding to the island. It’s one of the nicest Cypriot desserts, not too sweet, tastes incredible and also looks very beautiful, like a large exotic crème caramel.

For the Caramel
100g granulated sugar
3 tbsp water
1 medium bandit tin
Unsalted butter for greasing
For the Cake
3 organic eggs
2 organic egg yolks
1 x 379g tin condensed sweetened milk
1 litre full fat milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g Marie biscuits, crushed into small pieces

To make the caramel put the granulated sugar and water in a small frying pan or saucepan. Shake the pan first to half dissolve the sugar in the water. Then, over a medium-high heat, leave the caramel to form without stirring. This should take about 10 minutes, keep your eye on it. It should start to smell like caramel when light brown. Swirl it around a bit and wait until the caramel is medium to dark brown.
Pour the caramel into a butter bandit tin, set aside to cool so that the caramel sets.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and warm up.
Whisk the eggs, vigorously in a medium bowl until paler. Then whisk the condensed milk, warm milk and vanilla. Mix the crushed biscuit.
Place the tin into a large roasting tin and surround with hot water from the kettle so it comes to about half or ⅔ of the way up.
Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes or until set, insert a knife , it should come out clean. Remove from the oven carefully, and after 5 minutes, remove the tin onto a cooling rack. When cool, transfer to the fridge, cover with cling film and chill for at least 2 hours.
To serve: Turn onto a large plate, and cut into thick slices.

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