What is the national Greek dish. The most popular national Greek dishes: recipes

Greek is Mediterranean cuisine, which has much in common with the culinary traditions of Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, Israel, Turkey, Syria and Palestine. It exists for more than 4 thousand years and is directly connected with the history and culture of Ancient Greece.

Today Greek cuisine, like in ancient times, can not be imagined without cereals, olive oil and wine, as well as vegetables (eggplants, zucchini), olives, cheese, fish and meat.

Features of Greek cuisine

In the Mediterranean cuisine of Greece, there are several characteristic features that are based on the use of a certain list of products in the preparation of dishes.

1. Olive oil is an ingredient on which Greek cuisine stands. National dishes cooked without it can not be imagined. Olive oil is used as a dressing for salads, added to vegetable, meat, fish dishes and baked goods. It is made from olive trees growing in Greece, and makes the national Greek dishes special in taste.
2. Vegetables - fresh or baked, they are present in almost every dish. Especially often fresh tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, green peppers, onions, and olives are used.
3. Spices in Greek cooking are used more often than in any other Mediterranean cuisine. In Greece, the most common are oregano, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, basil, thyme and fennel. Interestingly, when cooking meat dishes spices are used, characteristic for desserts (for example, cinnamon).
4. Cheeses - feta, casseri, kefalotiri, ladotiri. They are served as snacks in fresh form, are added to salads and popular casseroles from vegetables, meat and pasta.
5. Cereals - most often in the preparation of dishes used wheat, less often - barley. From wheat flour, thin filo dough is made, and also famous Greek desserts are baked from it.

Popular Greek dishes: names

Some Greek dishes have much in common with those prepared on the Mediterranean coast. These include pastitsio (pastitio). This Greek dish is an analog of Italian lasagna, but instead of the pasta, long pasta tubers are used. Or, for example, Dolmades is an analogue of dolma (minced meat in grape leaves), which is widespread among the peoples of Transcaucasia.

But there is in the cooking of Greece and its traditions. It is difficult to imagine Greek cuisine without a national dish of chaniotiko burek. This is a slice of potatoes, baked with zucchini, mizitra and mint cheese. Also in Greece, traditionally prepare pies, using for this purpose the finest dough filo or puff pastry, in which the most varied filling is wrapped. The most popular pies in the Greek cuisine are spinakopita (pie with spinach) and kotopita (chicken pie).

They like soups in Greece. For example, often here is prepared a lean bean soup based on white beans and tomatoes, or magician - a traditional Easter soup, which the Greeks cook on the Great Saturday.

All Greek dishes, the recipes of which are presented below, are hearty and simple to prepare. The obligatory ingredients that make up their composition, such as olive oil and vegetables, make the dishes not only tasty, but also useful.

Greek cuisine: national dishes. Meuse

All tourists who come to Greece, and especially to the island of Crete, are recommended to try the meze. But far from all visitors come to know what it is.

Meze - it's snacks, that is, dishes of Greek cuisine that are served to the table not in batches, but in such a way that everyone can put any of them in their dish. The composition of the meze usually includes olives and feta cheese, stuffed grape leaves (dolmades), meatballs, octopus, grilled vegetables, pickled vegetables, etc. The list, like the number of dishes, can be very diverse.

Traditionally, tahini (sour cream sauce from sesame seeds), lucanin (Cypriot sausages with the addition of coriander), halumi (soft cheese from sheep or goat's milk with mint), stifado (beef with spices in wine vinegar), soufflaki (finely chopped Shish kebab), etc.

Traditional Greek Salad

Greek, or rustic, salad has gained popularity not only in Greece itself, but in most other countries of the world. Prepare it from tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce leaves, red onions, olives and feta. As a dressing traditionally used olive oil, as well as wine vinegar or lemon juice.

Light Greek salad is very popular among all adherents of a healthy diet.

Moussaka

Virtually all recipes of Greek cuisine use vegetables. Especially popular among Greeks is a Greek dish of eggplant - moussaka. It consists of baked layers: the first - aubergines with olive oil, the second - minced meat from mutton and beef with tomatoes, and the third - cheese sauce, reminiscent of taste bechamel. All layers (as in lasagne) are stacked alternately.

A Greek eggplant dish is baked in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Served in a warm form.

Spaakapita (Spanakopita)

The preparation of this traditional Greek pie begins with the preparation of a juicy filling. For this, onions are fried in olive oil. To it are added spinach (250 g), parsley, green onion feathers, feta cheese (400 g), as well as salt to taste and nutmeg on the tip of the knife.

While the filling cools, it is necessary to separate and roll out the dough into two thin layers. The first part is distributed on the bottom of the mold, lubricated with butter so as to cover not only the bottom of the mold, but also close the sides. On top, lay out the entire filling and cover with another layer of dough, cut exactly to the size of the mold. Connect the edges of the dough to each other. The top layer of the pie, before you send it to the oven, prick with a fork in several places. Bake for 40 minutes until browned.

Fasolada: lean Greek soup

This soup is especially liked by vegetarians, since it is prepared exclusively from ingredients of vegetable origin. The main ingredients of this dish of Greek cuisine are white beans, tomatoes or tomato puree, carrots and celery. All the ingredients for the soup are fried alternately in olive oil: first onions, carrots, celery stalk, then pre-cooked beans and tomato puree from 0.5 kg of tomatoes. After that, the vegetable stock is transferred to a pan, filled with vegetable broth, and all together is boiled for another 10 minutes. The soup is ready.

The beans are served hot or cold. Before serving, the soup is seasoned with olive oil, black pepper and dried herbs.

Pasty-chi, or lasagna in Greek

The classic pastycio recipe is pasty layers with meat sauce made from beef and mutton, with white béchamel sauce and cheese crust.

This Greek dish is prepared in such a sequence:

1. Lubricate the baking dish with 9x13 cm butter.
2. Prepare the meat sauce. To do this, in olive oil (3 tablespoons) fry first onions (2 pcs.), Then garlic (4 cloves). After 1 minute add 2 kinds of minced meat (beef and lamb) and fry it until browned. After that, you can add the rest of the ingredients: chopped tomatoes (4 pcs.), Tomato paste (2 tablespoons), parsley. And also spices will be needed: salt (1 ½ tsp), pepper, sugar (½ tsp), cinnamon stick, bay leaf. The sauce will be ready when all the liquid has evaporated (after about 1 hour).
3. Boil 450 g of pasta until half cooked.
4. Prepare the béchamel by frying the flour first (½ cup) on the butter. Then pour 4 cups of milk into a frying pan and cook until it has thickened for about 15 minutes. After that, remove the sauce from the fire, add salt (1 teaspoon), white pepper and nutmeg.
5. Collect the pastypsi layer by layer. The first layer is macaroni mixed with egg and parmesan. The second layer is meat sauce, and the third is white sauce. Top with a parmesan dish mixed with a small amount of breadcrumbs.

Pastrycio is baked in a preheated 180 degree oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Galactobureko - semolina milk cake

As a filling for this pie, thick semolina porridge is used. But it turns out so tasty, that the semolina is not felt at all. To taste it is more like a gentle custard with a light citrus note.

The filling for the pie is located between the layers of dough filo, the top layer of which, after baking in the oven, is poured with sweet citrus syrup, made from the juice of lemon, sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves and honey. The pie is served in a cold form, pre-cut into square pieces.