Rethymno’s burekia, Corfu pastitsada and roast on grapes are some options.
After the fifteen days of fasting imposed by the Orthodox faith, the first word on the table on the fifteenth of August is meat, complemented by many other dishes of the Greek land and tradition.
APE-MPE made a small reference to the special recipes of the feast day, because in most regions of the country, grilled meats are the main characters of the Panagia table.
Boiled goat with pilaf in Chania
Traditional pilaf is one of the dishes that cannot be missing from the table of Khanya on August 15. It is usually prepared in large pots. In Khania, in addition to red meat, they also add rooster or chicken to the pot.
This simple recipe owes its flavor to the good quality of the meat. Older animals such as goats and goats produce the most delicious broth.
Boiled meat is always accompanied by pilaf and often with yogurt.
These days in Chania, meat is consumed either in a grape oven or in a traka, and in some villages we also find antichristo.
Herbs, which are abundant in the Cretan soil, are the main ingredient of the Panagia table, as is the traditional kaltsounia with cheese. Of course, wine, tsikoudia and racomelo are never missing from the table.
Meat pies are also a main side dish on many Cretan tables.
Bourekis and other delicacies on Rethymnon tables
The most popular dishes on the August 15 holiday table in Rethymno are fire-grilled bureks, lamb, pilaf, aromatic handmade sausages, boiled meat, macaroni with grated dry flower cheese, yogurt dumplings, stuffed pumpkin flowers, and roasted dishes. on grapes in the oven with fried potatoes.
Seasonal salad greens are not lacking on the table, many herbs, mainly dill and basil. Dakos are also topped with walnuts, fried tomatoes, ghee, mizitra, coarse salt and oregano.
For dessert, they offer roasted apples, galaktoburek, tsourkaki, honey-fried pies and cheese pies, spoon sweets with yogurt and, of course, “digestive” tsikoudia.
On August 15, bureki dominates the Rethymnon table. Börek, as it is also known in the neighboring country, Turkey, means “small pie”.
Rethymno pumpkin pie
Kolokythombureko is a purely Cretan recipe that almost no home is missing. Homemade mizitra with plenty of flour, finely chopped and mixed with mint, on potato and pumpkin, with hand-opened foil. The stove completes the art of the housewife. The recipe is as follows:
- Half a kilo of all-purpose flour
- ½ cup oil
- 1-2 shots of tsikoudia
- A glass of water
- Salt, pepper
- About 800 grams of potatoes are cut lengthwise into thin slices
- 800 grams of zucchini cut like potatoes
- Chopped mint
- A lot of mizitra (about 400 grams, if you want to rub dry antho cheese)
Before putting the bread in the oven, be sure to add a large cup of flour, the same oil, the same yogurt, 4 eggs and spare sesame seeds for sprinkling on the foil. Make a dough by mixing the wet ingredients and salt and slowly adding the flour. Rest the dough for half an hour.
Wash the pumpkins and cut the potatoes in the same way. We pour salt on them, drain them, the same for potatoes.
Divide the dough into two parts. After well oiling a medium-sized pan, we spread a portion of it. Spreads covering the walls as well. Layer the filling ingredients, starting with potatoes, flour, then pumpkin, flour, rub the dried flower cheese, pour half the mint, half the mizitra and again put the next layer from the beginning in exactly the same way. the first…
Whisk the milk, oil and egg and pour the mixture into the pan. We spread the rest of the dough over our ingredients. We push the dough to the walls to cover the bread, add sesame seeds, cut it into portions that we will serve… cut it and bake it at 180 degrees for an hour and a half.
Recipe for roasting grape leaves in the oven
Whatever meat you choose for your company on the table on August 15, cut it into large pieces. Ribs, arms and flanks of almost one-year-old lamb are recommended. Place the dried grape leaves in the pan… and spread the dry meat on top. Nothing else…
Turn on the oven at 180 degrees. As soon as it is heated, put the pan and turn the meat every quarter. After cooking for half an hour, salt both sides with coarse salt.
Check how soft you want it and turn off the oven. Leave the meat in the turned off oven for a quarter of an hour.
Traditional stew in Evia
The festival in the village of Oxylithos in central Evia is special. As part of the feast of Panagia Petriotissa or Panagia Hatirianissa on the fifteenth of August, visitors are welcomed with a traditional stew.
Residents offer meat, onions, tomatoes, and wine for its preparation. It is said that there are more than 170 pots in the place where it is cooked.
The layer is boiled from the eve. This custom is very ancient and was observed even in the occupation, even if it was made from the materials available at that time.
Pastitsada or Corfu
In Corfu, on August 15, the famous pastitsa with a rooster leads the table. A delicious dish with its roots in Venetian cuisine. Nowadays it combines spaghetti with rooster, and in the Venetian years it combines spaghetti with the “hunt” of the king.
According to the traditional Corfu recipe, the rooster is prepared first. After frying in fresh oil, it is fried with greens, onions, garlic and spices. It is boiled for at least two hours with fresh tomato paste over low heat.
Then the boiled spaghetti (preferably thick) is drained and sprinkled with a little oil. Then it is placed in a deep dish and sauce with rooster pieces is poured over it.
The common secret of the people of Corfu is cinnamon, which is added to almost all dishes with a red thickened sauce. A must-have detail for this special dish: sprinkled with plenty of grated cheese for color and flavor.
Corfu Pastitsada with Rooster is in the first place among the preferences of those who come to Corfu on August 15. At many festivals on the island, it is also customary to roast lambs, as this special holiday is considered the “little Easter” of summer.
Cycladic fry
On many islands of the Cyclades (for example, Paros, Santorini, Ios, Sifnos), the traditional holiday recipe for the August 15 table is based on pork. The dish is called “Cycladic roast”.
Rosto is a dish of Italian origin, consisting of meat with potatoes, carrots and mushrooms, served with thick spaghetti. It allows you to cook two dishes in the same pan without using the oven.
Originally, spaghetti with red tomato sauce was served as a first course. Then the sliced meat, usually instead of the breast, was served with cheap pork, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms.
Rosemary and beer-braised pork is found in Kefalonia, as well as in Cyprus, where it is made from many types of meat, mainly game.