Greek culture

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Healthy Greek horta greens and garlic dip

Let’s talk ‘horta’!!!

Picking ‘horta’ (i.e. Greek greens) is something many Greeks do all winter, especially those who have easy access to open fields. Ever since I was a small child I remember the whole family going out for half a day somewhere for a picnic and to pick horta. At the time, we lived in the Athens suburbs so it wasn’t something we did often. Now that I live in a semi-rural area a little further from Athens, picking horta is something I can do in the spur of the moment. The area where I live is surrounded by open fields. Sometimes, I just go on foot around the neighbourhood and come back with a full shopping bag in no time.

I recently posted on Facebook a short selection of photos that show various edible horta to be found in Greece. I encourage you to get a knife and go picking haha! They are soooo nutritious. But you need to go to the countryside to pick them – not in civic areas.

Choose open fields or mountains, away from roads. The further from road traffic you are the better. Exhaust fumes reach up to 200 metres and contaminate the soil with heavy metals.

If you have access to Facebook, you could check out the photos now. In the comments, I have listed the common names for each weed. I don’t have the English names on most of the weeds, but I identify them all with their common Greek names, if that helps some among you.

Those marked as ‘aromatic’ are best used in pies (hortopitta or spanakopitta). These should be used in low numbers when mixing them with dandelions to have them boiled. Same goes for gaidouragatho. Add only a few of those to the mix when cooking dandelions or the taste will not be as it should be…

Dandelion = Dent De Lion (Lion’s Tooth) Latin name: Taraxacum Officinale)

When I posted about dandelion on Facebook, a couple of my British friends said when they were little their parents used to tell them to stay away from this weed as it would make them wee the bed. I had a good chuckle about that and found it very peculiar. Makes me wonder about folk wisdom in this case. Surely, dandelion is a diuretic, but so is cucumber…

Perhaps… mothers in the old days knew how nutritious dandelion was so they put the kids off touching them so they could then go and cut them in pristine condition haha

HERE’S HOW THE GREEKS COOK DANDELION:

Dandelions, like all greens, need meticulous cleaning, First, you cut off the root with a knife, remove yellow leaves and other weed debris etc. Then you need to wash them thoroughly in a big tub of water (3 times at least with vinegar and salt in the water). Then you just boil them for 30 mins or so in salted water. Toss them a couple times with a fork while they boil. Drain well and enjoy with fresh lemon juice and olive oil. Fried fish or calamari go well with dandelions (we call them ‘radikia’ or ‘horta’). Alternatively, you can accompany them with an omelette, or just with some fresh bread, olives and cheese.

Make sure to keep some of the water as it’s chockful with nutrients, especially if the greens are wild, which means they are bitter. The bitterness in the water is a wonderful detoxifier for the liver. Have a warm mug with a bit of lemon juice, cool the rest and keep in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

Warm up and have as hot tea with lemon juice. The health benefits are so generous in the case of dandelion.

I hope I have given you enough information (and some inspiration) so you can go out there and pick a batch. If anything, to enjoy that delicious hot bitter tea! Highly recommended!

‘Lapsana’ aka ‘vlastaria’. Latin names: Sinapis Arvensis or Sinapis Alba

Lapsana is the only weed among the ones I list on the specific Facebook post that must be picked on its own. No other weed should be cooked with it. You don’t need a knife for lapsana – you just cut off the ends of the stalks that have buds and leaves on them with your hand. And it must be picked before the flowers turn yellow. The greener the better. Sometimes, they have a blue tint. That’s fine too.

Just like dandelion, you can boil, strain, and enjoy lapsana with lemon juice and olive oil. This is by far my favourite weed to pick and eat. The water is not bitter, but I drink that too as a tea anyway. I am sure it’s nutritious in its own right. I waste nothing with lapsana as I love the taste so much.

Lapsana is found in the fields in the spring, whereas dandelions and all the other weeds that are cut with a knife are ready for the picking all through the winter and in the spring.

All this talking about horta inevitably made me think of skordalia. Greek garlic dip is utterly delicious, and typically accompanies horta (or boiled beetroots) along with fried fish.

GO HERE and get my skordalia recipe too. Now, you have all you need, LOL!

 

 

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Clean romance short read, FREE with Kindle Unlimited. It’ll transport you straight to Corfu to experience summer in an idyllic Greek seaside village. Visit Amazon: https://bit.ly/3pAP3rf

 

Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
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Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu!

 

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St Efraim of Nea Makri. A Greek saint’s chilling tale

St Efraim Monastery is world famous for the saint’s chilling tale and the miraculous healings connected to his name… Earlier this month, I had the chance to visit St Efraim’s monastery one quiet afternoon. It is located on a mountain overlooking the beautiful seaside town of Nea Makri in East Attica. I was lucky enough to find only a small crowd in the monastery. From what I’d heard, the norm is an endless trail of coachfuls coming and going all day.

St Efraim monastery is visited by Orthodox Christians throughout the year, many going to pay their respects and to pray for a healing for them or their loved ones. The saint is famous for the many visions that the faithful have had of him over time – and still do today. He has appeared in apparent human form even before unsuspecting people who had never heard of him. The saint gave these people advice for their health, and sometimes simply prompted them to get some oil from the lamps at the monastery to put on the part of the body that needed healing… And healings happened every time, apparently. The monastery still receives a multitude of healing testimonies from many parts of Greece and abroad.

Inside the monastery, cotton wool drenched in oil from the lamps are offered in individual tiny plastic bags to the visitors. Those hoping for a healing or just asking for protection are able to buy tall candles, as tall as a person, to light up and leave inside a chapel.

St Efraim’s body is in skeletal form and is kept in a beautiful open casket for people to pay their respects too.

If you’re interested to know more about the saint’s life, his terrible death at the hands of Turkish invaders, and the miraculous way in which his remains were found hundreds of years later, you’re welcome to find out everything in the next segment.

Either way, I hope you will enjoy the photographs I took around the monastery. It’s so peaceful a setting, high on a mountain top, edged by olive groves and overlooking the town of Nea Makri and the coast.

The monastery itself is decorated with beautiful stonework. The court is particularly quaint!

I am including some photos of the seafront at Nea Makri, too. It was the quietest I’ve ever seen it, but it makes sense as it was a weekday. Every weekend, and especially in the summer season, it’s always packed.

GO HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS 

Who is St Efraim?

St Efraim was born in Trikala on September 14 (Cross Day) in 1,384 A.D. He was one of 8 children and was given the name Constantinos. When his father died, Constantinos was still a small boy, and his mother took on all the challenges of raising her children on her own. Constantinos expressed a love for God and Christianity from a very young age.

When he was 14 years old, his mother feared the Turks would take him during another of their raids where they took young boys to raise them as Genitsari (Note: Genitsari was a brutal rank of ‘Turkish’ soldiers that hated Greeks with passion. All of them had been taken away when they were small boys (Greek Orthodox children) to be given a strict military upbringing while brainwashed to hate their own nation).

Heeding his mother’s advice, Constantinos left Trikala to seek another part of Greece that would be safe from Turkish raids. She had also advised him to find a monastery and become a monk since he had so much affinity for the monastic life. After many wanderings, Constantinos wound up on Mount Amomon (Mountain of the Clean), which is the very place where his monastery now stands.

Constantinos settled well in the monastery. When he turned 18, he was declared a monk and was given the name Efraim. After a few years, he became a priest. By then, he much preferred to live in natural caves on the mountain as opposed to the monastery.

In 1424, Turkish troops arrived on the mountain and raided the monastery looking for gold. They found next to nothing and slaughtered everyone they found. That day, Efraim was spared as he wasn’t in the monastery. When he returned the next day, he found everyone dead and buried them on his own, then went back to his cave. After that, he returned to the monastery only on special days to do mass in the church.

On such a day (Cross Day), September 14, 1425, the Turks returned and this time they caught him. What followed was 8 months of imprisonment and they tortured him from time to time, insisting to find out where the gold was, but there was none to give.

Finally, on May 5, 1526, the Turks hung St Efraim upside down from a mulberry tree in the courtyard of the monastery and killed him by stabbing him in the stomach with a lit torch.

Fast forward 419 years later…

In 1945, a nun called Makaria, driven by divine inspiration, decided to go to Mount Amomon and settle in one of the old cells of the ruined old monastery. Soon, she began to clear the rubble of the old church inside it, hoping to make it operational again. She asked a local, whom she hired as a worker, to dig at a specific spot, as she had been receiving insistent advice in the form of an eerie whispering voice to do so.

The man was difficult and refused to dig in the specific spot, but the nun insisted so he finally gave up. Digging at about 1.70 meter deep, they found what looked like an old cell and the remains of a man. He wore the robe of a priest, and it was intact. A divine fragrance filled the air as soon as the skeleton came to light.

That same night, while she prayed, Makaria heard footsteps. They were coming from where she had found the remains. On her way there, at the entrance of the church, she saw a vision. It was a tall and thin man, with a long black beard that reached down to his neck. He had dark eyes, and he was wearing the robes of a monk. One hand emitted fire, while the other was positioned in a gesture of blessing. He spoke to her then, asking her to move his remains away from the crypt near the grave where she had placed them.

The next day, Makaria cleared the bones and placed them in a crypt inside the church. That night, St Efraim appeared in her dream to thank her. That was also when he gave her his name.

Over time, St Efraim disclosed to her all the details of what had happened with the Turks and how he had been murdered.

According to the Greek Orthodox Church, the miracles of St Efraim to this day are in the thousands. He is honoured twice a year. On May 5, where his assassination is commemorated, and on January 3, the anniversary of the discovery of His remains.

The mulberry tree where Efraim gave up his spirit has been preserved over the centuries, or, rather, what is left of its dried up frame. Kept safe in an enclosed space in the monastery, it stands as a silent witness to St Efraim’s brutal and untimely death.

Interested in Greek saints and their miracles? Check out my posts about St Spyridon (patron saint of Corfu), St Vasileios (the Greek ‘Santa Claus’!) and St George.

 

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Get Effrosyni’s FREE books with your signup to her bimonthly newsletter! Fun news from her life in Greece and a load of FREE kindle books in every issue! http://bit.ly/2yA74No

 

Clean romance short read, FREE with Kindle Unlimited. It’ll transport you straight to Corfu to experience summer in an idyllic Greek seaside village. Visit Amazon: https://bit.ly/3pAP3rf

 

Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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Greek vigil lamps, frankincense and how to clean up your house spiritually

Today, I’d like to share about the Greek custom of the vigil lamp. Vigil lamps are lit in Greek homes on all big religious holidays, but in homes where loved ones have passed away they may be found lit every day, especially in the homes of widows.

Traditionally, in every Greek home, there is one corner (usually the bedroom), where icons are placed on the wall (along with the wreaths from the wedding ceremony of the home owners so the marriage can remain blessed). The vigil lamp is often placed in the same corner too. I have such a corner in my bedroom, but in the recent years, following the deaths of my Corfiot grandparents and then my mother, I created a second shrine in my study. I burn my vigil lamp in there amongst icons and photographs of my deceased family members. It all helps to keep their memory alive and my spirit connected to them.

The light of the flame serves to remind us that God is light, and that we have a divine light (our soul) inside us too. When the lamp is lit in the memory of a deceased, it is believed that it promotes the peace of their soul. Traditionally, a lamp is always kept lit on the grave for that very purpose, but those not able to visit the grave daily, may light a vigil lamp at home for the souls of their departed loved ones.

Vigil lamps come with a cup which you may fill with just olive oil, or water and olive oil if you don’t wish to keep burning the lamp all day. For example, if you intend to leave the house, as it’s not really advisable to leave a vigil lamp burning at home unattended.

Put in some water first, then the olive oil. The latter will naturally float on top. To use a vigil lamp you will also need a float made of cork and a box of waxed wicks. The wicks look long and pink, as you can see in the photograph below. After you put the wick through the hole in the float, squeeze the wick above the float with your fingernails to flatten it and thus stop it from sinking lower through the hole.

The shorter the wick on top of the float, the smaller the flame and the longer it will burn. Nowadays, tall votive candles are available to buy everywhere in Greece to place on graves. These burn unattended for days on end. However, the traditional burning of olive oil is believed to be the best offering.

The burning of frankincense usually goes together with the lighting of the vigil lamp. Personally, I burn frankincense on the big religious holidays and any other time when the energies in my home seem stuffy, negative or just off kilter. Over the years, I’ve grown quite sensitive to energy and instinctively know when to do this. There is no set interval, so if you want to try this too for your home, just use your instinct to decide when is a good time.

In the above photo, you can see the necessary tools for frankincense burning. i.e a suitable bowl (with a handle, as the bowl itself gets pretty hot), frankincense resin, and charcoal discs to put the resin on. To ignite the disc, hold it in the air between two fingers and place the flame of a lighter under it. As soon as it starts to spark, place it in the bowl and blow on it to encourage it to light up further. I light the charcoal disc in front of my open kitchen window and sometimes turn on the kitchen ventilator too, for good measure.

The reason is that when the charcoal ignites it produces thick white smoke as it starts to spark, a noxious thing to breathe in. So give it a few seconds to let out the worst of it. When it subsides, carefully drop a couple pieces of frankincense resin on the disc, depending on their size.

Depending on the size of the frankincense pieces, you may fit on the disc only 1 piece, or 2 or 3.

As you throw the pieces of frankincense on the disc, if you’re a believer, you may want to do this: If you’re putting on one piece, say, ‘God is one!’ (O Theos ine enas!). If you’re putting on two pieces, say, ‘Two are the natures of Jesus: God and Man!’ (Dio ine i fisis tou Christou. Theos  kai anthropos!). If you’re putting on three pieces, say, ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ (Patir, Ios ke Agio Pnevma!)

Before going around the house with the bowl in your hand, ensure you have opened one window in every room, even if it’s just a tad. Why? Because this will allow your logical mind to accept and understand the notion of ‘sending away’ the demonic aka negative (stale) energy. Negative energy in the home needs to be removed or it will cause all sorts of bad things, like misfortune, disease or disarray…

Now, if you’ve never done this before, here is what I do, and you can adjust the process to your own preferences. The information that follows is my own process, which is quite original for Greek standards. It combines things other Greeks do, along with practices of spiritual people in other countries. Use your intuition, as, for your own home, you surely know best!

Go from room to room with the bowl in your hand making sure that you go to every literal corner, and every nook and cranny. These are the places where stale energy accumulates. In every corner, make a cross in the air with the bowl and say, ‘Jesus Christ wins and makes all evil scatter’ (in Greek: Iisous Christos nika, ke ola ta kaka skorpa). Or, you can simply say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, leave now!’ or something similar using the power of His name.

Do not miss the bathroom. Especially the space over the toilet bowl. Honestly. I am not kidding. Do not miss particulatly dusty spaces either. Negative energy loves to accumulate in the spaces that are less than squeaky clean.

As you go around the house, stop at every window and external door, also at every TV or computer screen, every mirror, and the fireplace, if you have one. These are portals from where negative influence may enter the home. So move the bowl in front of them from a distance while vaguely tracing the outline (i.e. that of the window, the TV screen, the computer screen, your bathroom mirror etc). You don’t need to be exact with the lines you draw in the air. It’s the intention that counts.

After you move the bowl around the outline, draw with the bowl an X over the rectangle. This seals the portal and keeps negative influences out.

Stop when you reach your shrine of icons too, if you have one, and do crosses in the air in front of them, offering a brief prayer to God, Jesus, Mary or your beloved saints to help you clear your home and bless it.

When you’re done going around your home, place the bowl in the window sill until the smoke dies away and the disc grows cold, safe enough to throw away. Alternatively, put water from the tap into the bowl to drench the disc and extinguish it.

If you don’t have frankincense discs and the other paraphernalia needed to sanctify your home the Greek way, I am sure you will be able to find similar things in your country. A good choice is the use of frankincense sticks. If you live in Greece, go to your nearest supermarket or search for eshops that sell ‘ekklisiastika products’ (i.e. ‘churchware’) to find higher quality stuff. This eshop, for example, belongs to a monastery, and these tend to offer better quality and thus more aromatic resin, for example.

Is frankincense enough?

Certainly not. Not for me, anyway. I don’t take any chances when ousting stale energy, so I do three ‘sweeps’ of my house back to back! Each time I hold a different thing and always, meticulously, I go in every single corner. If I don’t have much time, I sometimes omit the third ‘sweep’ but I always do the first two.

The first one is what I’ve already described, using the frankincense. The second time I use sound. Loud sound makes stale energy run for the hills, so to speak. Bells or gongs work wonderfully for this purpose. More often than not, I use this sheep bell from the island of Limnos that my father gave me. Its sound is very loud so it’s perfect, but sometimes I use my Tibetan bowl instead. This is not as loud but makes a wonderful eerie sound that I find very satisfying and rather mystical. When I use sound, I don’t have to say any words. The loud sound does all the work 🙂

The third time I go around the house, I pick a couple flowers from my garden first. Holding them in my hand with a small icon or a cross, I go around my home to every nook and cranny, and offer blessings, speaking non-stop. “Peace! Love! Prosperity! Radiant health! Balance! Hope! Courage! Joy! Unity! Harmony!” You get the idea 🙂 The power of words is immense!

So there you have it. This is the best way I know to cleanse my home energetically. I swear the air feels lighter after that for days. One last note: It’s best to do this alone in the house. Definitely no one small, sick, weak or vulnerable should be indoors when you do this. No pets, small children and elderly people. When the energy starts to ‘run away’, you don’t want it ‘bumping into’ anyone of the sort, affecting their energy in a bad way.

For the same reason, you must be strong yourself (physically and mentally) when you do this. If unsure, say a little prayer and ask your angels or your favourite saint for protection before you start.

Hey. I know this is not for everybody. If you found this a little ‘out there’ or ‘woo woo’, I totally get it. It’s Greek culture, after all, and we can often act like a crazy bunch. I mean, take that Zorba guy… He certainly was a little loopy, LOL!

 

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Get Effrosyni’s FREE books with your signup to her bimonthly newsletter! Fun news from her life in Greece and a load of FREE kindle books in every issue! http://bit.ly/2yA74No

 

NEW BOOK! Clean romance novella.  Spyri never forgot that old summer in Corfu when she met Markos. Visit Amazon: https://bit.ly/3pAP3rf

Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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St George’s Easter egg? A Greek tradition, but not for every year!

“St George wants a red egg!”

That’s what my Corfiot grandmother used to say whenever I asked her why St George’s Day is late in any given year. As you may know, St George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd, but in Greece this is not always the case. The reason for that is because in the Orthodox faith, the hymn used to honour Him in church, mentions Christ’s Ressurection. Therefore, it is not possible to honour the saint unless Greek Easter has come and gone. So, if Easter is later than April 23rd, St George is celebrated on Easter Monday.

I took this photo on Easter Monday (2022) in the main street of my little town of Nea Peramos (west Attica). After the mass, a procession took place to honour St George. The icon was accompanied by a brass band, the priest and town officials, boy and girl scouts, and other youngsters dressed in traditional Minor Asia costumes.

The town of Nea Peramos (‘New’ Peramos) was founded by refugees from Peramos in Asia Minor, who had brought with them an ancient icon of St George – their patron saint. The icon you see in these photos is not it; this is a contemporary one used to worship Him in the town’s church (St George’s church, naturally). The old icon is kept safe in the church as it’s so precious.

St George has always cast his protective gaze over Nea Peramos and its people. The locals speak of sounds of His horse clip-clopping all around town at night. They say the saint was patrolling around town on his horse every night all through WWII, and they believe this is why not one of the people of Nea Peramos lost their life during the war.

As you may know, St George was from Cappadocia, an area now in Turkey that used to be Greek. Legend has it that there was a dragon in Libya that guarded a water spring. Every now and then, people had to pick one of the locals in random to offer for sacrifice so that they could get water from the spring.

When the princess of the land was picked to be sacrificed next, St George, a young officer of the Roman army, arrived on his horse, saved the princess and slayed the dragon with his spear.

Legend or fact? Either way, I am sure you will agree that it makes for a very charming story!

 

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Get Effrosyni’s FREE books with your signup to her bimonthly newsletter! Fun news from her life in Greece and a load of FREE kindle books in every issue! http://bit.ly/2yA74No

 

NEW BOOK! Clean romance novella.  Spyri never forgot that old summer in Corfu when she met Markos. Visit Amazon: https://bit.ly/3pAP3rf

Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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FREE books, Easter eggs, cheeky cats, and Greek memorial food!

Greek Easter is next week (April 24), but I am aware Easter is this weekend for most of you out there! Have a great time with family and friends and enjoy those chocolate eggs and bunnies 🙂

I will be busy in the kitchen this coming week, making Easter cookies and also dying eggs with red onions and turmeric, the way I do every year, like our grannies used to. Some turn out very rustic-looking and totally imperfect, which gives me extra joy. If you’re anything like me, and wish to avoid the chemicals in the dye too, you can see here how I prepare them.

Today, I’m pleased to share the latest fun news from my life in Greece: Cute kiddies dressed up for Greek Independence Day and the latest cheekiness from my cats, Loulou and Sissi. I’m also sharing a Greek Orthodox tradition that is very special and is called ‘koliva’. It is Greek memorial food made with wheat berry. You’ll find all the above in my latest newsletter along with a load of FREE kindle books!

CHECK OUT MY NEWSLETTER

Enjoy, and Happy Easter, everyone!

 

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Rustic Easter eggs, Greek customs, cheeky cats and a load of FREE books! #freebooks #indiebooks #easterweekend Share on X

 

Limited time offer! Get the awarded novella, “The Boy on the Bridge” for FREE, along with the short story collection, “Facets of Love” with your sign up to Effrosyni’s newsletter. Fun news from her life in Greece and a load of FREE kindle books in every issue! http://bit.ly/2yA74No
NEW BOOK! Clean romance novella.  Spyri never forgot that old summer in Corfu when she met Markos. Visit Amazon: https://bit.ly/3pAP3rf

Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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March 25th celebrations in Greece, garlic dip, and vegetarian pastichio

 

This is salt-cured cod – the traditional food for the 25th of March in Greece, and the one thing I could never serve on my table, even if Greek custom dictates it! Growing up, March 25th has always been a bit of a drag around lunchtime. My mother would be busy battering and frying salt-cured cod (we call it ‘bakaliaros’), and I’d be just as busy behind her back fake-gagging and pulling faces, since even the smell attacked my senses. I was not looking forward at all to the time I’d be asked to eat the fried fillet pieces on my plate.

And because I’d refuse to eat them, I’d wind up having only half a meal – the weeds (dandelions or beetroots with their greens) and, of course, garlic dip (skordalia) with fresh bread to dunk in.

Since I loooove greens and skordalia I wasn’t too put out, I guess!

Nothing’s changed since then, as far as my tastes go. Like every other year, I’m having unsalted cod today with my skordalia, thank you very much 🙂

March 25th is a unique Greek holiday – being both a religious one and a national one! So it’s a two-in-one kind of affair that is celebrated in every home with a patriotic spirit… and salted-cod, of course.

On this day, the Greeks commemorate the War of Independence from Ottoman rule after no less than 400 years of slavery. I guess this explains why the Greeks are so resilient, huh!

Athens celebrates with a huge military parade which I’ve had the pleasure to attend a few times over the years. Always a thrill, especially when the Tsoliades (the Presidential Guard) pass by in their traditional uniforms, striking one foot down so forcefully it feels like the earth is shaking. The result creates rippling vibes of patriotic pride to rise into the air. The memory brings a lump to my throat just thinking about it!

CHECK OUT THIS POST ABOUT THE ‘EVZONES’ – THE GREEK PRESIDENTIAL GUARD. YOU WILL SEE PHOTOS FROM THE ATHENS PARADE AND A VIDEO OF THE EVZONES. UNMISSABLE STUFF, IF YOU LOVE GREEK CULTURE!

Image copyright: makisgonimo.blogspot.com

As I stated earlier, March 25th is also a religious holiday. It is the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, when Archangel Gabriel announced to Her She will give birth to Jesus.

The day calls for a lunch of cod with boiled greens or beetroots and garlic dip (skordalia).

The latter is made with crushed garlic cloves, potato, olive oil and fresh lemon juice. I can vouch for the fact that it’s utterly delicious. Mind you, it’ll give you hot dragon breath for the rest of the day, but boy, is it worth it!

DO YOU LOVE SKORDALIA? GO HERE TO GET MY RECIPE!

As I mentioned earlier, the fish used for this day traditionally is salt-cured cod. Housewives leave it in water overnight to remove the super-salty flavor.

Using salt-cured fish, in case you’re wondering, is a custom that began out of sheer necessity. When the Greeks started to commemorate the Annunciation of Virgin Mary by eating fish back in the 15th century, people had no fridges in their homes, plus, it was imperative for merchants to be able to distribute fish everywhere around Greece, even in areas far away from the sea, in the depths of the mainland, without the fish spoiling. That is what led them to sell this kind of fish instead, which is cheap and can be stored for long periods, too.

So… years, decades, and centuries later, the Greeks continue their tradition of going for salt-cured cod, even though they now have access to superstores, large fish markets, and freezers in their homes. Crazy, huh? But that’s the power of tradition, I guess!

Thinking of new meals to try during the fasting period that extends all the way to Orthodox Easter, I came up with a vegetarian version of Pastichio last week! What started in my head out of the blue wound up steaming on my plate one cold winter’s night, really hitting the spot! It even satisfied my meat-loving hubbie and that’s a feat in itself haha

As you may know, Pastichio (that is essentially an Italian meal adopted by the Greeks yonks ago) is traditionally made with minced meat. This version is just as yummy, cheesy and creamy – a wonderful alternative.

Curious to see what’s in the pasta mix?

GET THE RECIPE!

 

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FREE books, a beach picnic and a Greek god’s lucky plant

Hello, All! Today, I have the latest fun news from my life in Greece. As always, I am linking up to my latest newsletter where you can check out a multitude of free books, plus a chick lit 99c deal from yours truly. You’ll also get a peek at my forthcoming publication!

March is coming, and that’s a much dreaded statement in my country, seeing that the Greeks regard this month as the most extreme in terms of bad weather. I never understood why it is in the spring, as opposed to winter, but I guess that’s one of the oddities of Greek life, LOL

Indeed. It’s not the spring until April, that’s for certain. Having said that… this year, Andy and I got a taste of the spring a little sooner. For the first time ever, we got to have a picnic in February. And, on the beach, at that!

Our first picnic went swimmingly. Excuse the pun. Especially since no actual swimming was involved haha. No way, as it was chilly under the shade as it was!

We picked to visit our favourite beach near home. We’d missed it so much since last October when we stopped swimming. A couple of the trees were chopped off, and one had been uprooted completely – we guessed from the extreme weather conditions of the previous months. It was especially sad to see the huge tree (willow or aspen, not sure) with the generous shade chopped off at the trunk. I couldn’t find my bearings for a few seconds without it there, it was odd. It’ll make many people sad this summer when they arrive at the beach to find its shade is no more. More than four different families could sit under it comfortably – its shade was that generous.

A couple people were swimming when we arrived in the morning, much to our surprise. I asked a lady in her 30s who’d just come out of the water if it was cold, and she nodded fervently with a laugh saying it was indeed freezing. It was her first swim since November, she said. She hopes to keep swimming from now on. Quite over-confident an intention, if you ask me, since March is fully ahead of us. She said it was pleasant as she stood in her bikini but, by the time we’d set up in our favourite spot, I saw her putting on jeans and a sweater in a hurry LOL.

For a while, it was very quiet on the beach, especially since the three swimmers left, but then, at lunchtime, families and quiet couples descended (probably from the taverna on the road) to sit in the sunshine. Such a lovely day. And it brought the summer closer, somehow. Bliss.

Since I’d never visited this beach during the winter before, I was pleasantly surprised to find these green plants with the long thick leaves you can see in the photos. They were strewn all over the ground, even under the trees. These are special plants to the Greeks! They hit the stores once a year – in the New Year – for good luck, believe it or not! People buy them and hang them outside their homes.

I have to admit. I never knew what they were really called until today! Writing this prompted me to actually check it out online and it only took a bit of searching for Greek New Year customs to identify it.

My parents have always referred to this plant simply as ‘Riza’, which is just the Greek word for ‘Root’. And my father described it occasionally as some kind of wild onion, because of the shape of the root. Well, his notion was bang on!

As my Internet search revealed, the plant is called Agriokremmydo (wild onion) or Skylokremmydo, or Askeletoura, or Agiovasilitsa. The latter refers to Agios Vasilis, the Greek Santa Claus – makes sense as the plant is used in the New Year, where Agios Vasilis makes His visit to the children, according to Greek custom.

The Latin name of the plant is Urginea. Apparently, it is the plant of Pan (the god of nature in ancient Greece). It was believed to offer fertility, good luck, and good fortune.

From what I learned online, the custom of hanging these roots outside homes in the new year is largely followed on the island of Crete. It seems to be followed in Athens too, though not by many. Although, as I stated earlier I see them in some stores in the new year, I don’t see them outside people’s houses that often.

Anyway, my family never had to buy one, since Urginea grows naturally all over the fields here every winter. Just before the new year, even now at 80 years of age, my father will go up the road to the first open field and dig up two of these plants, taking great care to remove the root whole and intact. He’ll deliver one plant to my husband and me, the big round root covered in aluminium foil. All I have to do then is tie a piece of string around its stem and hang it at the gate. Once it’s dried up a few days later, we just throw it away.

And now you know about this plant, I bet you can tell just how ‘lucky’ I felt as I sat drinking in the stunning sea view, while surrounded by such auspicious plant life haha

Visit Facebook to see all the photos from that awesome day!

In my latest newsletter, I am sharing a bunch of FREE kindle books to suit various tastes and the latest that’s fun from my life in Greece. It’s all bound to put a smile on your face! Check it out!

 

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Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
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Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
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Vasilopita, the Greek New Year cake with the hidden coin

Greek custom dictates that every family cut a Vasilopita on New Year’s Eve, which is a traditional cake with a hidden coin inside. The person who finds the coin in their piece will have good luck all year! The word ‘Vasilopita’ originates from Agios Vasileios (St Basil). It literally means ‘Basil pie’. The Greek Santa is Agios Vasileios, not St Nick. The legend of him bringing gifts started like this…

When Agios Vasileios was the bishop of Caesarea in Asia Minor, a ruthless tyrant and his army threatened all people of Caesaria to hand over their gold or perish. St Basil was forced to ask the poor city folk to bring to him their meagre gold possessions. According to legend, a miracle rid the city of the tyrant in the end so the gold was never handed over to him. When St Basil was presented with the task to return all the gold to the people, he decided to send to every household a little bread, each of which contained one golden coin or item of jewellery picked randomly. This is how the custom of the Vasilopita started!

Traditionally, the father or the mother of the house cuts the cake, naming names as they cut… First, they cut a piece for Christ, a second one for the Virgin Mary, another for the house, which they set aside. And only then do they start naming each person of the household as they cut. This way, if the coin is found during cutting, they know who it belongs to. If the coin is found in one of the first three pieces, it is placed in the corner of the house where the family keeps their icons, for good luck. In Greek homes, this corner is often found in the parents’ (or the couple’s) bedroom.

In my humble opinion, everyone who participates in this custom is a winner… There’s plenty of laughter to be had and a strange excitement blossoms in every home during this process, as if the coin is real – a coveted piece of gold…

Why don’t you have a go to see who wins the coin in your home this year? There’s plenty of time still! In Greece, Vasilopita cakes are baked and cut for good luck all the way till the end of January.

Here’s my recipe. Enjoy!

 

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Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon
Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
Planning to visit Greece? Check out our FREE guide to south Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Are you an author? Check out our FREE promo tips & resources here.

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Delicious Greek Christmas desserts

Hi, All! Today, I am sharing about the Greek traditional desserts for Christmas, the New Year cake with the hidden coin, and some delightful cookies too! These change shape in the oven and are the perfect fun thing to do with kids this holiday season. Enjoy, and happy holidays!

I love the Greek Christmas desserts you can see here but they present a problem for me each year. I can’t help myself and start eating them from very early in the month of December. By the time Christmas arrives, I have to look for trousers one size bigger to wear haha

But, looking at this picture from my local bakery, can you really blame me? Especially if you’ve tasted Greek Christmas desserts and know just how yummy they are.

Here they are, in more detail:

KOURABIES (Plural: KOURABIEDES)

These tiny round cakes have a solid dough that’s rich in almond chunks, and they are dusted heavily with icing sugar. They can also be found in the shape of a crescent. A classic festive prank in Greece is to offer someone a kourabies and dare them to say ‘Thothoros’ as they chew. This is just the Greek name for Theodore. It’s not the meaning, but the making of the sound that matters here. The result is always the same! A sprinkle of icing sugar emitted from the person’s mouth to dirty their own clothes. Not recommended in the times of covid – but it has to end sometime, doesn’t it? So keep in mind for later, if you’re a prankster. Trust me. It’s priceless.

MELOMAKARONO (Plural: MELOMAKARONA)

These golden delights can easily become a favorite, especially as in the recent years bakers and sweet shop owners have gone a step further to coat them with milk chocolate or dark chocolate! Personally, I never go for those, as I find them sickly sweet. The classic melomakarona of this picture are more than adequately sweet on their own. The taste is all in the honey syrup and the heavenly woody spices (cinnamon and cloves). Melomakarona come in soft and harder varieties. The softer the better, in my humble opinion.

DIPLA (Plural: DIPLES)

These pastries are fried, then sprinkled with chopped walnuts and drizzled with honey or syrup. The ones my mother used to make looked like short ribbons with serrated edges, and sometimes she’d fold them in thirds. The classic shape one can find in the shop, though, is the rolled up one you see in the picture. After all, the name Dipla is derived from the word Diplono, which means “To fold”. I have to admit that diples, being fried, are not the healthiest option, but they are definitely my favourite of the three, with melomarona following closely behind. Diples are crunchy and fluffy – a temptation I personally find impossible to resist!

Note: This is not a recipe post, as you can see, mainly owed to the fact that I’ve never tried my hand at making any of the main three Christmas desserts. It’s hassle-free at the bakery, if you ask me LOL! But, if you’re feeling eager to try, just google the name of the dessert with ‘Akis’ next to it, and it should take you to the site of famous Greek chef Akis Petretzikis. All his recipes are awesome! This is the one for melomakarona, for example!

 

Ok, so these are neither Greek nor Christmas cookies either, but I love to bake them on new year’s eve, then put them on a platter with chocolate coins for good luck. They look fantastic and the added bonus is they are not as punishing to your waistline as you’d think! There is no trace of chocolate or butter in them – instead, they contain cocoa powder and sunflower oil, but taste fluffy and chocolatey as if they were the real thing. I call them Magic Snowballs because when you put them in the oven they look like little white balls and then something whimsical happens! They start to change shape right before your eyes…

GO HERE TO GET THE RECIPE. THEY ARE PERFECT TO BAKE WITH KIDS. ENJOY!

 

Last but not least, this is the Greek New Year Cake with the hidden coin inside. It is called ‘Vassilopita’ and is baked on new year’s eve in honour of St Basil (the Greek version of Santa Claus). Check out my recipe here!

 

 

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Kelly ran a marathon and wound up running a house. With a ghost in it! Both humorous and moving, with delightful sweet romance, it’s just the ticket to lose yourself reading! Read more on Amazon

Summer love and a mysterious haunting in Corfu! Effrosyni’s debut romance, The Ebb, has received an award from Amazon! Check it out here

Beach fun and sweet romance mixed with magic spells and bird shifters… The Raven Witch of Corfu is an original story that will rivet you with its unrelenting suspense. The final twist will blow your mind!
Available in paperback , box set or 4 kindle episodes!
 
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Porphura: Mollusks with a royal secret

 

A mollusk with a gift for emperors and kings. Tasty too!

This type of purpura mollusk is called porphura (dated Greek word for ‘purple’, pronounced ‘porfeera’).

In ancient times, these mollusks were used to extract the color purple, which was then used to dye the clothes of kings and emperors. The practice is 3,000 years old.

‘Porfeero’ is the Greek name of this special, royal shade of deep purple. Those with royal blood were once called ‘porfeerogenitos’ which means ‘born of the purple color’. According to Pliny, this color shade resembled coagulated blood. It is recorded in Homer’s works and in Greek mythology too. Zeus recognised and saved Perseus because he wore this color. Theseus proved that he was of royal descent by appearing dressed in this color before King Minos.

Nowadays, the use of the porphura mollusks to the Greeks is limited to being a meze, a rare one I presume, as perhaps it may be illegal to extract them from the sea for trade (like is definitely the case for ‘achinos’, i.e. sea urchins, and the oblong mollusks called ‘petrosolines’).

Still, porphuras often stick to the nets, and the fishermen tend to keep a few when that happens, just enough to enjoy with their ouzo 🙂

I got this small batch from a local fisherman once, as a gift. Never before in my life had I cooked so many and I hadn’t had them in decades. As a child, I was forever looking for porphuras during my swims in the local beaches. Back then, there were many in the shallows, simply sitting on the sand in plain sight. So, I’d catch just two or three, wash them well and boil them at home in a ‘briki,’ the tiny pot for Greek coffee. Then, I’d extract the flesh from the shells and eat it warm with a slice of bread.

As you can see in the photograph, something long and pointy is necessary to extract the flesh from the shell after they’ve been cooked. Those ouzo forks are the best for the job, but one can try with a tweezers too, though I don’t think it would prove as efficient. Smashing the shells after cooking them with a small rock is the last resort. In this case, it is necessary to wash the flesh well to make sure there are no remnants from the shell.

I don’t enjoy eating these cold, but others have them straight from the fridge – after boiling them, of course, because the flesh is very hard to eat raw. The more they boil, the softer they get. Allow at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. Once cool, they can be kept in the fridge in a tub with olive oil and vinegar. They last for about a week or so. To have them warm straight after boiling, try them neat or with some lemon juice.

They’re also very nice with this dressing prepared in a blender: Olive oil, crushed garlic clove, lemon juice, parsley.

I can almost see some of you flinching right now, LOL! Not everyone would be willing to eat a mollusk, I guess. But, at least, now you know how the kings and queens of the past had their clothes dyed, huh! 😛

 

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