Grapevine

What do you do when you walk into the garden for the first time in months, to do the autumn pruning, and realize that the grapevine you've been saying bad things about all summer is heaving with bounty? You thought it was shriveling but it just won't die.
I ended up picking two huge bowls of grapes, more than everyone in my family could eat before they went off.
I used about half of it to make syrup for the trifle for the Aviation dinner. You put the grapes, vines and all, in a large pot and cover with cover with water, heat very gently for a couple of hours (if it's boiled it will taste vegetably), leave to cool overnight and then pass through a fine sieve. Yummy. If you reduce the juice for a few hours you get a rich almost syrup, no sugar needed, which makes a nice jelly (cold food tastes less flavorful so you have to make sure it's a little sweeter than you would usually have).
Grapes are nice too frozen, as a snack.
I also made some raisins.
Grapes go in,
Raisins come out
There are a lot of options of how to make raisins on the internet, good old sunshine is the best but not practical for me, I don't have a dehydrator (yet), so ended up using the oven. A nice, cozy 7 hours on 95C fan assisted.
'But Sasha' you say 'I can't run my oven for 7 hours, what do you think I am, a millionaire?'
Well it doesn't actually cost that much, maybe a pound, srsly. But if you're really worried use the oven to cook other things at the same time. Meringues need slow, low cooking for example. Or you could slow roast some of the last summer tomatoes for a sauce.
'But Sasha! I don't want my raisins to taste like vegetables!!'
Dude, use a roasting bag, they're awesome.

As a bonus I finally decided to give myself some time to try and make dolmades from scratch. I vaguely followed the instructions in Vefa's Kitchen for the most basic simple vegan version.
What you do is blanch the fresh leaves in water for a few minutes, then fill with a rice, herb and oil mixture, roll up and cook gently in stock for an hour. The leftover blanched leaves can be stored in the freezer.
Wah-lah!

Taramasalata

I'm so incredibly lucky to live in London. I got really drunk a couple of day ago and apparently kept telling the boyfriend that "all I want is just to have everything I want, whenever I want it, that's all". Drunken tautology aside, in London I can pretty much step out of my front door, wonder around for a bit, and come back with everything I was looking for (*wink wink*). When I was growing up, you know, behind the ole' iron curtain, you got what you were given in a very Oliver-esque way. My first banana when I was about 8 was a really big deal, my brother and I were really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but had no idea what pizza was, that sort of thing. Until a few years ago I had quite narrow horizons, I didn't really care what went into the food I ate, I was only interested in the taste. On our first date I quite arbitrarily told the boyfriend that I didn't like pork because it was smelly (despite being a proud Spaniard he took it quite well), I had a similarly good reason for disliking all Greek food, it was too herby. I used to delight in telling people that mushrooms were gross because they were really like something that grew on someone's foot. Ginger tasted like soap and black bean sauce was washing up liquid. Mangoes taste like onions. Blah. Now that I eat almost everything I tend to get quite short when someone comes out with a stupid comment like any of those. The boyfriend won't eat freshwater fish because of the earthy, dirty taste - moron.

Anyway, when I saw a pot of smoked roe in the Greek Cypriot supermarket down the road from me I got very excited. I love taramasalata and even finding out that it's made out of fish eggs, raw onion and stale bread doesn't put me off. The recipe is from Vefa's Kitchen but it's pretty simple and also quite flexible - basically you put the ingredients into the blender one by one. Apart from the stuff pictured you can also add almonds into the mix but I didn't have any.
Result:

No, not really, but close. I'm not really sure why it came as a surprise to me that the total yield was going to be a bucket, and the appearance would be 'Primrose Garden' from the Dulux catalog. Mmmmmm
I didn't put enough bread in the mix so this is saltier and sharper than the stuff you would get in the shop, but hey, at least there's a lot of it, right? Apparently there are a two types of roe you can get, the acrid orange stuff I used and a delicate white variety which has a nicer, milder taste. Most people use a mix of both. Fancy bastards, I suppose these are the same people who don't have to pick up their blender mid-blend and give it a shake to speed things along.
Oh, but the good news is that this stuff will last 17 years in your fridge!

Pastitsada kerkiraiki and maintanosalata me pligouri

Oh my God, what a fricking mouthful. I'm a little perverse, I guess, there are English names for these dishes in the book, but I like the original titles. It makes it harder for people to stumble on to my blog, and I only want hardcore die-hard fans! I signed up to Google Analytics to be able to check how many hits I get a day, and found out that besides refering sites like the amazing Foodie Blogroll, the only other source of traffic I had was people Googling 'klops' and stumbling on my failed attempt at the Jewish classic. Try Googling 'kerkiraiki' and see how far you get, even if you spell it right...
Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, the book I'm using is Vefa's Kitchen (from my birthday trousseau!)
I'm not sure I asked for this for any reason other than to complete my Phaidon cookbook set. The only experience I have with Greek food is blurred drunken memories of the office Christmas party at 'The Real Greek' last year. I occasionaly have a lump of feta in my fridge, and I quite like teramasalata - the end.

Like it's Spanish compatirot, this book provides the recipes in the simplest possible format. Two or three to a page, with a few photographs here and there, both of which elements make it almost impossible to know what the final product is meant to look like. Perfect for a novice!
I decided not to make the pasta, and instead of basil I had fresh thyme, um... and canned tomatoes are just as good as fresh, right?
I'm not really a big fan of beef, it always makes me super bloated, and there is a not in the book to say that Greeks tend to eat veal rahter than beef - good luck finding it, blah blah blah, changer le disque! I'm going to stop bitching about stuff, I'm a little older - SERENITY NOW!
Grating the onion was no fun, and it's a little crazy to me to put cinnamon in savory dishes, but what do I know.

The bulgur salad was an afterthought, so I don't have a photo of the ingredients. But I'm I'll give you some cradit and assume that everyone knows what, you know, tomatoes and parsley look like. To be honest, I was pretty hungover when I was making this, and the memory of the new camera was kind of messing me about as well. Excuses excuses...
Result: The salad is that little lump in the background, roasted vegetables on the side and the big pile of stuff right at the front is the beef stew. The colour is pretty amazing, and the grated onion melted into the sauce - so good!
You don't really get anything particularly 'Greek' until you try the salad, the parsley and lemon juice are really tangy and refreshing. I would like to make a point of not mentioning the bulgur, but I just can't keep it to myself... so disgusting... well I'll just say it:
I've never really cooked bulgur wheat, I heard it's good for you and all that crap so I bought a bag ages ago, I tried cooking it like porridge, wasn't impressed with the results, decanted it into a pretty glass jar, and forgot abou it at the back of the cupboard.
I now know that you're actually meant to prepare it like cous cous by soaking it in water. So, I put the dusty old bulgur in the bowl, fill it with water and forget about it for 30 minutes. I'll type the next bit slowly because it literally made me stop in my tracks - when I came back to drain it there were a dozen maggots floating on the surface of the water. Ew. I ran out of the kitchen screaming, I don't care how old I am, I'm still a girl! 'It's all protein' said my dad. No way!

Beef Stew with Pata from Corfu
1/4 pint olive oil
1.5 kg lean stewing beef or veal cut into serving pieces
1 large onion, grated
1kg tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 small cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper
500g thick tube shaped pasta
grated cheese to garnish

Heat 120ml of the oil in a heavy pan over high heat. Add the meat and cook, stirring frequently, for about 8 minutes, until browned all over. Add the onion, reduce the heat, and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and basil and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer, adding water if necessary, for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender and the sauce is reduced.
(then there are instructions for boiling the pasta too, but I didn't do it)

Parsley and Bulgur Wheat Salad
80g medium bulgur wheat
80g finely chopped fresh parsley
15g finely chopped fresh mint
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 finely chopped scallions
50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Put the bulgur wheat into a bowl, pour in 250ml water, and set aside for 30 minutes, then drain off any excess liquid. Transfer the drained bulgur wheat to another bowl and stir in parsley, mint, tomatoes, scallions, and half the lemon juice. Set aside for another 30 minutes. Best the oil with the remaining lemon juice, the salt, and pepper and pour the mixture over the salad.