Ouzaki...the Greek! Mezes from Lesvos Island
KOLOKYTHOLOULOUDA-ZUCCHINI FLOWERS (put a garden in your stomach!)

What we need (for 12 people)
25 kolokytholoulouda (zucchini flowers)
Mitilini Olive Oil (for frying)
Stuffing
3 eggs
1 οΏ½ cup of feta cheese-grated
1 οΏ½ cup of Mitilini Graviera (or any kind of spicy graviera)
Fresh parsley, fresh pepper

Batter
2 cups of flour
1 spoon of olive oil/ water


How exactly do we do that?
Take all cheeses, the parsley (make sure you have chopped it first), the eggs (after you whip them), and mix them well. If something is wrong, don't worry! The mix you have prepared will let you know, since it will be quite runny, in which case add a little more cheese to bring it back to its normal state! Prepare the butter-make sure it is neither runny nor solid.
Take the kolokytholoulouda (zucchini flowers) and wash them well (try not to destroy them!), drain them and fill them up with the stuffing using a teaspoon. Make sure you don't fill them to the edge, because the egg rises when baked and therefore if you fill them all the way to the edge of the flowers, they will overflow.
Put a lot of olive oil in the frying pan and when this gets really hot, place one by one the flowers to fry them. Make sure the flowers are well done from both sides, take them out of the frying pan and put them on a piece of kitchen paper to drain the oil, and serve them hot.


SALTED SARDINES FROM KALLONH (the Greek sushi!)

What do we need (for 12 persons)
24 Sardines (fresh)
Salt

And exactly how we do this?
We take the salt and put it in a deep pan. Above the salt we put a layer of sardines (one sardine next to the other), with their back upwards and spread the salt on top of top.
We continue in the same manner with sardines and salt.

We leave the sardines into the salt for about 12-24 hours (depending on how salted we like them), at room temperature. We peel them, take out the head and the insides and put them on a platter.

NOTE: Make sure you serve a lot of water along with the ouzo and the sardines!








SARDINES & OCTOPUS ON THE COAL (the well known sea food...)

What do we need (for 12 persons)
40 Sardines
4 small octopuses
Salt, fresh pepper
Olive oil, lemons


And how exactly do we do it?

Begin from the sardines (I guess that after the above recipe you are an expert on sardines). Leave the heads and wash the sardines. Spread the sardines with salt, pepper and oil and put them on an oily double grid. Leave them until they are done on both sides and serve them immediately with olive oil and lemon.
After you are done with the sardines take the octopuses. Wash them well and put them on an oily double grid (if you don't serve at the fire department stay away from the hot grid!). Grill the octopuses and serve them immediately with olive oil and lemon or vinegar.

NOTE: Prefer small octopuses that are easily grilled. If you buy fresh octopuses make sure they are well bitten (on rocks). If you don't have a rock in your yard put the octopuses in your freezer for better results.
If you don't like the membranes (slimy skin) of the octopus, you can peel them off carefully without destroying the rest! You can also marinate the octopuses by leaving them for about 24 hours in a bowl with οΏ½ cup of olive oil, οΏ½ cup of dry white wine or ? cup of lemon juice, black pepper, 2 bay leafs, 1 tea spoon of thyme and some parsley stalks. Dry them and grill them.


CHOPPED TOMATO SALAD

What do we need (for 12 people)
5 large tomatoes chopped in cubes
1 large cucumber chopped in cubes
2 onions chopped
2 hot green peppers chopped
οΏ½ cup of black or green olives without the pit and finely chopped
Chopped parsley
Salt, olive oil

How do we do it?
Peel the tomatoes, take out the seeds, chop them in cubes and put them in a strainer. Do the same with the rest of the ingredients. Put the tomatoes in a bowl; add the cucumber, the peppers, the olives and the parsley. Put the salad in the fridge and when you are ready to serve add the onion, salt and olive oil and mix well.

DRY BROAD BEAN SALAD 

What we need (for 12 people)

οΏ½ kilo of dry broad beans
Salt
Olive oil
Fresh oregano

And how do we do it?
Wash the broad beans by taking out their black eye. Put them in a pot with a little bit of water (just to cover them) and leave them to boil. As soon as they are boiled strain them. Put them again into a pot using this time bottled water. Let them to boil until they begin to mash. Towards the end add a little bit of salt. Serve them with oregano and a lot of olive oil.


DOLMADAKIA (meatless or orphans!)

What will we need (for 12 people)
For the wrapping ...
400 grams of vine leaves
10 large fresh onions (chopped)
The juice form 1 οΏ½ - 2 lemons
1 cup of chopped fresh dill
1 cup of chopped fresh parsley
(if you want you can add 2 spoons of mint)
Salt, fresh pepper

For the stuffing ...
1 cup of rice
3/4 cup of olive oil
1 large scallion

How do we do this?
Wash and scald for 2' the vine leaves by placing them into boiled water-watch out this could be dangerous!-(alternatively you can buy ready to use vine leaves from the super market).
Then prepare the stuffing: Take a bowl and mix the fresh onion, the scallion, the dill, the parsley, the mint, the rice, οΏ½ cup of the olive oil, salt and pepper. Add a little bit of water to make the mix softer.
Put a dessertspoon of stuffing in each vine leaf and roll it. Place the dolmadakia at the bottom of a pot, one next the other (i.e. create rows). Add the rest of the olive oil and a little bit of boiled water. Cover with a plate to keep them tight. Put the lid and simmer until the dolmadakia are left with only the olive oil. If the rice is still hard add some more water and simmer. Minutes before the end add the lemon juice. Serve them cold with some Greek yogurt.


BAKLAVAS

What do we need? (for 12 people)
For the phyllo
1 kilo of crust phyllo
1 kilo of almond kernel
3 cups of butter (melted at room temperature)
For the syrup
8 cups of sugar
4 cups of water
οΏ½ spoon of citric acid

And how is this done?
Take a baking pan (approximately 35 centimeters), butter it and lay two also buttered crust phylla. Spread some almond kernel. Do the same with the rest of the phyla with almond kernel in between. Finish with two buttered phyla with no almond kernel. Cut the baklava in squares. Pour on each piece a spoon of melted butter and cover the pan with a whole crust phyllo. Bake for approximately 1 οΏ½ hour at 150 degrees until it is nice and brown. Then put all the syrup ingredients in a saucepan and simmer them for 5'.
As soon as our baklavas is ready we pour the cold syrup. Leave it until it absorbs all the syrup. Attention! Do not cover the baklava and do not put it in the fridge in order to keep it nice and crunchy.

And some history οΏ½Many researchers place the roots of baklava in Central Asia!