Nomads

So in the event that you did not know, and how could you as I haven't said anything about it, Lex and I have become vegan nomads. We've decided to see some of this fantabulous world and knew that keeping on with the ol' nose to the grind stone wasn't really getting us anywhere nor was it making us happy. So why not throw caution to the wind and head off into yonder places with our trusty back packs and tent.

Well ok, the backpacks and tent hadn't proven themselves to be trusty just yet as they are new. The cookware and camp stove as well but we did some reading and some research so we weren't just picking any old random junk, we hoped.

So far our first stop has been Greece. Visiting family, taking a few days to relax and recover from the jet lag that hit me hard. The poster child of Greece?

One awesome, knarly olive tree. The trees are everywhere but I love these big ones that just have trunk and branches everywhere. Awesome. This one we came across walking back along a trail beach side on Ithaki.

We spent a couple days in Athens. We've been before so we didn't go crazy with touristy stuff but we did visit the new Acropolis museum which wasn't open last time we were in town. It's awesome (but doesn't allow photographs) so I would highly recommend it. I did get this photo just outside the museum which is perched in the midsts of "a series of small walls" as Mr Eddie Izzard would say.

From Athens we went to Ithaki, an island in the Ionian sea just off the much larger island of Kefalonia. There are no shortage of sights to behold, some simple, some delicious, some cuddly.
Montage

Needless to say, all these adorable kitties keep any hint of a rodent problem at bay. Unfortunately some people find them to be a nuisance and they do breed rather easily. There are some nice people around including vets who are trying to keep the population under control by humane means.

As this is a food blog I will be providing yummies to drool over and to try out. Today I give you:

Lex's Banana Rice Breakfast Pudding

So simple and nice. So easy to make even when you're camping! Also great as dessert.

Serves 2

1/2-3/4 c brown rice (quick cook or old school)

2 bananas

2-3 Tb olive oil (or oil of preference)

cinnamon to taste (optional)

Fill medium pot with 2-3 c water and bring to boil over high heat.

Meanwhile add oil to small-medium saucepan and slice bananas into it. You're looking for enough oil to keep the bananas from sticking while they cook briefly.

Once water is boiling add rice and cook until done. Al dente to well done is fine, whatever your texture preference. Quick cook will take 10-15 mins, regular brown rice will be more like 30-40 mins.

When rice has about 10 mins left, place bananas over medium heat and cook to a nice mush. As they cook down they will soften and sweeten.

Add cinnamon to taste, you shouldn't need additional sweeteners. Remove bananas from heat and set aside until rice is done.

Drain rice of excess water and mix together with the bananas.

Serve warm or at room temperature, probably cold too but we couldn't test that as we are operating without refrigeration at the moment.

Feasting Greek Style

So I finally got around to making a small Greek feast the other night. It's only been months since we have been back from that beautiful country but time flies huh.

As this is a food blog on with the food. I didn't make anything particularly difficult but I did try some things I had never made myself before. The most exciting being dolmades. Right off the bat I had a little challenge. How to get the grape leaves out of the damn jar. Upon inspection I realized the leaves are kind of rolled and put in the jar as a tube so they are only coming out as one unit. So there was some dumping the brine, some squeezing shimmying and out they came.

Dolmades

8oz jar grape leaves
4 Tb olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup rice
1 cup vegetable stock
juice of one lemon
2 Tb pine nuts, chopped
1 Tb fresh dill, chopped
1 Tb fresh mint, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed

Rinse the vine leaves in warm water, pat dry. You want to pick out 24 leaves without rips or missing bits. Cut off any stems that are still attached. Do not toss out the extra leaves, you'll still use those.
Heat 1 Tb olive oil in pan over medium heat and cook onion until soft. Add rice and toast for 30 seconds or so. Add veg stock and half of the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat and stir in pine nuts, dill & mint.
Lay out your 24 vine leaves, shiny side down. Divide filling evenly among them, about 1 rounded Tb per leaf, at the base of each leaf. Fold in the sides of each leaf then roll up. Line the base of a heavy pan with some of the extra grape leaves then fill the pan with the dolmades. Pack them together or they might come open during cooking. Mix the remaining oil, lemon juice and garlic and spoon over dolmades. Add enough water to the pan to cover then place an inverted plate on top to hold them down. Bring the water to a boil then cover, lower heat and simmer gently for about 1 hr. Towards the end of the hour, remove the lid and let the water evaporate. Remove from heat and allow the dolmades to cool.
Store in the fridge until ready to serve (remove a little early if you don't want them so chilled, I like them at room temperature). You can use extra grape leaves to decorate your serving plate.

I made skordalia (a potato & garlic dip/spread) and melitzanosalata (an eggplant salad/dip). The skordalia needs some work but the melizanosalata was delicious.

Melitzanosalata

1 lb eggplant
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tb lemon juice
1 Tb olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pierce eggplant with a fork several times and roast in the oven for about 1 hr. Eggplant should look deflated and skin should blacken a bit. Scoop out the pulp and combine with remaining ingredients, mashing eggplant with a fork to create a creamy texture. To create a completely smooth dip use a food processor, stick to a fork for more texture.

We had a chickpea salad at our first meal in Athens. It was awesome. Simple, cool, a sprinkling of large salt crystals. Yum.

Chickpea Salad
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1 small cucumber, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 cup black olives, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 Tb olive oil
1 Tb balsamic vinegar
1 Tb fresh thyme or oregano (or blend of both)
freshly ground black pepper

Combine ingredients except black pepper in large bowl. Toss to mix & coat everything in oil & balsamic. Season with fresh pepper to taste.

At every meal you have bread, so perfect for sopping up that beautiful green fresh olive oil. Usually it was white bread although wheat bread seems to be making more frequent appearances these days. The older ladies of the village will still think you strange for wanting whole meal bread. I served this with some fresh wheat oregano olive rolls.

A Return from the Greek Isles

Yes, it's been a while. In general I go through phases of unfocus or maybe narrow focus. I go through each day doing the basics: eat, sleep, work, repeat. This causes everything to be neglected. Blog posts most of all. However this time I do have a real excuse. At about the time of my last post I was on my way to Montreal to fly from there to Athens Greece. We returned a couple weeks ago but I am only now getting my head back in the game.

It's so disorienting to be away for long enough to settle into a different community and pace of life and then come back here. Now Burlington is pretty chilled out when compared to other "cities" but the Greeks have the market cornered on chilled out. Even in a busy city like Athens where there are tons of cars and bikes on each street just sit down to a meal and everything just slows right down.

My husband's parents live on the little island of Ithaki (I'll have to add some links as I find them) in the Ionian Sea. My pictures so far are of the food from our favorite restaurant Polyphemus. Set in a garden so you are completely surrounded by olive and lemon trees, herbs and some vegetables and just lots of beautiful green and splashes of color in flowers.

The Greek version of hummus, this is fava. Made from yellow split peas, olive oil, garlic, red onion. On top drizzle some bright green olive oil and a sprinkling of oregano. I've tried to make this a couple times but haven't quite got the taste right. I'll post a recipe when I figure it out.

Another favorite of ours (we ate it nearly everyday in one form or another), Melitzanosalata. This is an eggplant salad made from roasted eggplant, garlic and olive oil primarily. Depending on which restaurant you are at it's always different. This has been left a little chunky and has a healthy dose of garlic and drizzling of that gorgeous olive oil. I am closer to a recipe on this one.
This is simply a fried pita. I haven't seen this offered at any other restaurant we visited but damn this just makes eating those dips heaven.
And no meal is complete without the classic Greek salad, without the feta of course. The vegetables were always just so perfect here. Tomatoes just so big and juicy. Olives a plenty. The greenest olive oil I have ever seen and probably ever will see.