More Hiking Pictures

Just some photos from a hike I took a couple of weeks ago into the hills to the west of Kastelli. I haven't viewed the town and the gulf from this vantage point yet, so it was a nice, new perspective.

I found a great footpath that led straight up to the top of a decent ridge, although coming back down on the loose gravel was a bit of a bitch. I also found tons of wild sage growing along the path, and stopped to have a quick chat with a shepherd who was driving the flock in the picture down the opposite hill.

I went back last week in the hopes of picking a bunch of the sage, but the bees got there before I did and I wasn't in the mood to see if I could take it from them without getting stung.

My plan last week was to try to hike over the top of the ridge and eventually find a way down to the other side, on the road to Falarsana. However, the bees made me nervous, their angry attempts to dive bomb me reminded me of my trip to Gramvousa when I was attacked and stung by several of them, and I finally decided to just get the hell off the mountainside and back to town as quickly as possible. Not wanting to backtrack down the path, I followed the footpath off to the left, in the hopes of eventually meeting up with the paved road that I could see across the valley. And eventually I did, but not before having to walk by a hillside covered with man-made bee hives. I could see the air traffic getting heavy as I approached, so I took my long-sleeved jacket with hood out of my pack and put it on, covering up as much of myself as I could, just in case.

Alas, I escaped unharmed and have decided that I will no longer hike into the hills at mid-day, since that seems to be when the bees are most active.

Cooking with Koula Part III - Kreatotourta, Pilafi & Stamnagathi

This past Saturday we made meat pie, pilafi and horta. Well, Koula made it and we watched, although we did chip in and contribute some soft labor like pulling the mint leaves off the stalks, brushing the pan with oil, etc. In addition to Luella and I, Debra Papadinoff, the president of the CIC, was there. I had exchanged several emails with her regarding an article of mine that they published in the CIC Times, and it was nice to finally meet her in person. As soon as I saw her I realized that she had been on the March 28 CIC trip that I attended, but we had never been formally introduced.


While we waited for a goat's leg to boil, we enjoyed some coffee, bread, cookies and chit-chat.

Once the leg was cooked, Koula set about tearing the meat into bite-sized pieces.



The mixture called for two different types of cheese - malaka (yes, that's actually what it's called, for those of you familiar with the derogatory Greek term), and mizithra. Salt, pepper, mint, oregano, cinnamon and lemon juice also went into the mixture.




And the mixture goes into the pan, which is lined with a dough that was made using yeast and eggs. This is the first time we've made dough like this during my lessons with Koula.





The mixture is then liberally "dotted" with staka, a 100% fat cream in clotted form.






The dough for the top crust is rolled on, cut around the edges, tucked in and then covered with two beaten eggs and sesame seeds.





Straining the broth from the goats leg into the pan in which the pilafi will be made. Pilafi is a traditional Cretan rice dish served at weddings, and seems a whole lot like risotto to me (although there are subtle differences, and pilafi seems easier to make).




Stamnagathi, a type of horta (wild green). I've been eating a lot of this since coming here. It's usually boiled (as it was here) but I've also steamed it to good effect. It's then served with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.




As someone who doesn't even hit the 5" mark, I can appreciate this shot of Koula standing on a chair to reach the dishes in the cupboard. Story of my life!




Meat pie, fresh out of the oven. My salivary glands really kicked into action at this point.






The cooked horta.







The pilafi simmering on the stove.








This isn't the wine we had with lunch, but Koula wanted to share a taste of this rose which her uncle made (at least I think that's who she said made it...please leave a comment to correct me if I'm mistaken, Koula!). It's a blend of Kotsifali (red) and Vilana (white) grapes, and the color was a gorgeous, pale amber-salmon. This was just harvested last fall, so it still tasted very tight, but given a few months I think this will turn into quite a nice wine.


The table is set...










And then we ate:-D







Koula sent us each home with some goodies:

Wild sage, which I bundled and hung in my kitchen and have since used to mix with mountain tea...yum!








And cardamom pods that her sister brought back from a recent trip to Egypt. Luella suggested mixing the seeds from one of the pods into my coffee grounds, which I have done and which tastes SO nice. I'm afraid this might become habit-forming!



Koula sent us home with a copy of the recipe for the meat pie, except it wasn't really a copy because her printer had run out of ink or something, so she hand-wrote it out for each of us! Although I feel bad that she went to all that work, it's kind of cool to have an original, handwritten recipe from a published author of a cook-book:-)

Another Dinner Post

I think this is purslane. I bought it pre-packaged at the supermarket and didn't bother to look up the wording on the package before throwing it out. I don't know if I've ever had purslane before. There was some radicchio mixed in, and I added some chopped tomatoes and leftover grilled zucchini. Simple oil and balsamic dressing w/ salt, pepper and oregano.


Easy recipe for the 1/2 kilo of pork cutlets I had bought:
Saute chopped onion and garlic in oil, add pork to brown.
Add about 1/2 cup of red wine, 10 oz. can of chopped tomatoes (I use the stuff that comes in the cardboard package since reading about how the aluminum cans leak dangerous stuff into the tomatoes over time), enough water to just cover the pork, 2 bay leaves, lots of cumin, and slightly less dill, fennel, salt and pepper. Cook covered over medium heat for about an hour and a half.

This turned out very nicely, I was surprised at how much the sauce condensed down even with the lid on. I think this is because my stove doesn't really have a "low" setting, so it cooked at a higher temp than I would have wanted. Didn't matter though, the pork was tender and the sauce flavorful.

I've become addicted to dipping my fried potatoes into Greek yogurt seasoned with salt, pepper, dried garlic and dill, although I probably didn't need to include that since the sauce for the pork was already pretty rich. Seemed like a bit of overkill on the flavor.

Not bad overall, though!

Iced Tea

It's not something I typically drink, and definitely not something to be found in abundance on a Greek island (they have the canned Lipton crap, but it's rare to find any fresh-brewed, much to my sister's dismay).

However, I recently brewed up some mountain tea with wild sage that Koula had given me at our last cooking lesson, and I had some left over after pouring my cup, so while it was still hot I added a liberal spoonful of honey and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

I like it!! Just brewed another batch for tomorrow. Hopefully my sister will like it, too!

Polyrina to Sirikari R/T Via the Sirikari Gorge

Well, we never actually made it to Sirikari. The trail wasn't always very well marked, and we got a late start from Polyrinia because we had trouble even finding the trailhead. Soooo, I'll have to go back and try again sometime, but we had a fabulous, leisurely walk of about about 6 1/2 hours when it was all said and done through some gorgeous terrain.

I should probably write more about it, maybe describe where we got lost so that others can be aware should they decide to try it, but then they'd miss out on the adventure of it all and I wouldn't want to deprive them of that aspect;-) Actually, I'm just very tired and don't have it in me to go into any more detail right now!

So here are just some pictures, and as always, they don't do justice to the actual surroundings.

Easter

One of the motives that played into me deciding to extend my stay in Crete was the desire to experience Greek Easter. I've heard that it's quite a big deal, and I was banking on being invited to some sort of celebration, whether in a Cretan home or with other expats to a restaurant or taverna. I was fortunate enough to receive two invitations - one from my new neighbor to join her at a taverna on the beach and one from a friend in Rethymno to join him and his family. I had already accepted the invitation from my neighbor, so I told my friend in Rethymno that I hope to be able to celebrate with him and his family the next time I'm in Crete for Easter (I'm hoping that won't be too far in the future!).

We extended the invitation to my former neighbor in Drapanias, as well as the people who were living in my new neighbor's house but are now living in my old house! It seems we've got a game of Musical Houses going on here...

Anyway, we had a really nice time. Our host, Maria, is the owner of Giorgiali Apartments and Taverna. In addition to keeping us laughing with her wry sense of humor, she cooked us up some great food to include stamnagathi (horta/wild greens), skordalia (garlic dip), dolmadakia (small stuffed grape leaves), fried potatoes, kokkoretsi (organs from the lamb, cubed, seasoned, wrapped in fat and intestines and then grilled alongside the whole lamb), lamb and fish. And of course, plenty of homemade wine, and raki, fruit and coffee at the end of our meal.

We arrived at 2pm and left around 8pm, and I think the length of time that we spent should give an idea of how well we enjoyed ourselves.


The food.






After our meal we played the egg-cracking game, in which each person takes a hard-boiled egg that has been dyed red and squares off against each other person. You basically bang your eggs together, and the one with the uncracked egg in the end is the winner. And guess what...I WON!! I hardly ever win anything, so please excuse me if I gloat a bit. It's also supposed to bring lots of super-special, irrevocable good luck to the winner, which is good because just this week I both broke a mirror and had my candle go
out on my way home from Saturday night Easter-eve service, which is supposed to be bad luck.

My neighbor loves to collect wild, edible things and Maria's mother was more than happy to show her some of what can be found right in the front yard of the taverna. The man with the sheep is Maria's father.


Some photos from around the taverna, and from the three apartments, which Maria was kind enough to give me a tour of. Next time I return to Crete for the winter months, I will stay here. Each apartment faces the sea, they are well equipped and clean, and about 1/2 the price of what I've been paying in the off season. The rates are much higher in the summer months.



OK, I think that the baby is Maria's daughter. She was being handled by so many people throughout the day that I can't be sure. Hell, she might be mine for all I know. At any rate, I thought the pictures of Ricardo making goo-goo faces with her were just precious:-)