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Foreword
The foods you will find in this book are the ones I like to cook every day or on special occasions, traditional and contemporary dishes that I love to eat. I collected many of them on summer vacations and special trips, others were given to me by great island cooks, and quite a few were handed down to me from my family, originally from the islands of the Cyclades.
I learned to cook from my mother, my grandmother and my aunt. Even before going to school, I remember shelling peas in the large kitchen of my grandfather’s old house, which had a wood-burning cooking stove with a large hood over it. I was too short to reach the sink and had to stand on a stool in order to rinse and trim the wild greens or wash the dishes. I would help my aunt roll bitter orange peels and thread them like a necklace when she made her rolled bitter-orange preserves. My mother taught me how to prepare the artichokes that overran our garden. My younger sister and I always helped shape the Christmas honey cookies. We learned how to remove the stones from cherries using a hairpin-there were no special instruments for that then-and we looked on as my mother scaled and gutted all the many kinds of fish my father brought from the port of Piraeus, where he worked. Watching my grandfather slaughter a hen with a small ax was traumatic, and we would cover our eyes as the hen flapped, headless, around the yard. But the dark-fleshed, chewy meat we cooked in stews or soups was so much more flavorful than that of the pallid, sickly looking chicken we eat today. Both my mother’s and father’s families trace their roots to the islands: My father comes from Andros, my mother from Kea. I grew up on the outskirts of Athens, beside a large garden next to my mother’s family’s house. Nikitas Patiniotis, my grandfather from Kea, was a handsome and remarkable man. Calm, loving and compassionate, he often went as far as to buy the worst, almost rotten vegetables from the greengrocer who passed each day with his mule. This made my grandmother furious.
“He is a poor man, Anna, and if we don’t buy them, who will?” I remember him saying to her apologetically. My grandfather taught me all about the different wild greens -how and when to collect them. He spoke to me about all the plants of the garden, relating the story of the fragrant bay, once a beautiful woman. He identified the various insects for me, explaining how they lived and what they ate, insisting that there are no bad and good creatures but that each fulfills a purpose.
When I was fourteen, we left our house in the country and went to live in a flat in the center of Athens. Ever since, I have longed to return to the country. Now that we have purchased a house on the island of Kea, I feel I have come full circle. Traveling from island to island, reading old books and kitchen ledgers, researching history and customs and building friendships with island cooks have made me proud of my origins. This book is not an encyclopedia of Greek island cooking but a very personal selection from thousands of recipes that I have collected over the years. Besides relying on personal preference, I have chosen dishes that can be successfully cooked away from the islands and outside Greece. Some islands are better represented than others, and I have undoubtedly missed some foods worth recording. Each village on each island has many different versions of the same dish, often using diverse ingredients; and Greece has about 170 inhabited islands in all.
It would be impossible to claim that I know all there is to know about the island foods. My search continues.
-Aglaia Kremezi
Kotopoulo Youvetsi Baked Chicken with Orzo
Makes 6 servings
1/3 cup olive oil 1 41/2-pound free-range chicken or capon, cut into 6 pieces, or 6 turkey drumsticks 1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced 1/3 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes 1 cinnamon stick 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or pinch crushed red pepper flakes 2 cups grated ripe tomatoes (see page 27) or canned diced tomatoes with their juice Salt 2 cups Chicken Stock (page 267), plus more if needed 1 pound orzo or elbow macaroni, cooked in plenty of boiling salted water for 2 minutes and drained 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/2 cup coarsely grated hard myzithra, kefalotyri, pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat and sauté the chicken or turkey in batches until golden brown on all sides. Set aside. Add the onion to the pot and sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, cinnamon stick, oreganoo, pepper or pepper flakes and tomatoes. Sprinkle the chicken or turkey with salt and return to the Dutch oven. Add about 1/2 cup stock, or enough to come about two-thirds of thhhhhe way up the chicken or turkey. Bring to a boil, cover and transfer to the oven.
Bake for about 11/2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Transfer the chicken or turkey to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
Meanwhile, bring the remaining 11/2 cups stock to a simmer. Add the stock to the cooking liquid, stir in the pasta and bake, uncovered, for about 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed, adding more stock if the pasta begins to dry out.
Place the chicken or turkey on top of the pasta and bake for another 10 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Serve immediately, sprinkled with the parsley and cheese.
This Chicken Dish is a common Sunday one-pot meal of the islands. In her wonderful taverna in Avgonima, Chios, Kalliopi Delios cooks homemade macaroni in the chicken-tomato stock. Orzo, elbow macaroni, ziti and penne rigate are good alternatives. This recipe is based on Kalliopi’s.
Text and interior photographs copyright © 2000 by Aglaia Kremezi
