Cyprus recipes with Loulla Astin

Baked Feta Saganaki with Cherry Tomatoes

This is a beautiful, rustic Greek, classic comfort food that relies on simple ingredients to create incredible depth of flavour. While Bouyiourdi and Saganaki are traditionally separate appetizers, Bouyiourdi being a baked spicy feta dish and Saganaki meaning anything fried or baked in a small, two-handled pan, combining them gives you the best of both worlds. It creates a rich, bubbling dip that is perfect for sharing. Baking feta softens its sharp, salty bite into a creamy texture. When combined with the high heat of the oven, the cherry tomatoes burst and release their sweet juices, which mix with the olive oil and garlic to form an instant, rich sauce.

Serves 2
225g vine cherry tomatoes, cut in half (left whole if very small)
6 red onions, cut into rings
6 thin green peppers, cut into rings
4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 block (200g) feta cheese
Dried oregano
Chilli flakes
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220C fan.
Put half the onions and peppers in the saganaki dish or a small round oven-safe dish, add the cherry tomatoes and whole garlic cloves.
Place the whole block of feta cheese in the centre of the dish. Scatter the remaining onions and green peppers around it. Sprinkle a pinch of dried oregano and chilli flakes over the top. Drizzle with the honey and the extra virgin olive oil.
Baked in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese softens and the tomatoes are lightly charred.
Serve: Bring the dish straight to the table. Eat it right away with fresh, crusty bread to scoop up the warm juices and cheese.

Braised Lamb with Green Beans and Potatoes

A delicious and popular Greek/Cypriot dish, easy to make, using lamb and dwarf beans, also known as French beans casseroled in a tomato sauce. We Greeks like to simmer the beans for a long time until very soft and not crunchy.

700g shoulder or leg of lamb, diced into large pieces
Salt and pepper
100ml olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 glass white wine
6 medium Cyprus potatoes, peeled
700g fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 x 400g chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
½ tsp ground cinnamon
600ml warm water
1 lamb or chicken stock cubed
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
2 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat until browned, you need to do it in two patches, remove to a large casserole.
In the same oil, sauté the onions until translucent then add the garlic and cook for a few seconds. Return the lamb to the pan and deglaze with the wine. Mix the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two, add the chopped tomatoes, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, ground cinnamon and sugar.
Season with salt and pepper and pour the warm water and crumble the stock cube, make sure the meat its covered with water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 50 minutes or until meat is almost tender.
Stir the potatoes and the trimmed beans and add more hot water if necessary and continue simmering for 40 minutes more or until the meat, potatoes and beans are fork tender.
Finally add the lemon juice and chopped herbs.

Palouzes

An old-fashioned Autumn Cypriot grape jelly dessert, Palouzes, in Cypriot dialect or Moustalevria in Greek, is a pudding made with either fresh grape juice or concentrated grape juice when no fresh juice is available. For me, Palouzes is much more than a simple dessert, it is a taste of my childhood and my Cyprus.
I love recipes like this because they tell a story, they remind us of our grandmothers, of village kitchens and of a time when food was prepared according to the seasons. For a simpler modern version, I use good-quality, 100 per cent unsweetened grape juice from the supermarket. It saves the time-consuming process of preparing and straining fresh grape must, while still producing a delicious result.

650ml 100% pure, unsweetened pure grape juice
2-3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
4 heaped tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tbsp rose water
To serve
Ground cinnamon
Crushed walnuts

Pour the cold grape juice into a saucepan and whisk in the cornflour and sugar while the juice is still completely cold. This is important, it helps prevent lumps from forming.
Place the saucepan over medium low heat and stir continuously with a whisk first then with a wooden spoon. The mixture thickens quite quickly, so keep stirring to prevent it from sticking or burning on the bottom of the pan.
Continue cooking until the mixture becomes thick and glossy and coats the back of a spoon and large bubbles appear on the surface. Mix in the rose water.
Remove from the heat and allow it to cool for a couple of minutes.
Rinse your serving bowls with cold water, then pour in the warm Palouzes. Allow them to cool before placing them in the refrigerator to chill.
Just before serving, sprinkle generously with ground cinnamon and finish with crushed walnuts.

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