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  This cookbook was listed in Publisher Weekly’s Best Food Books of 2009.

  This cookbook was listed in The Chicago Tribune’s Best Cookbooks of 2009.

  See Serious Eats review of this cookbook and sample recipes for Lamb burger and Pork soffrito with spicy peppers and cabbage. This book was listed in their Best Cookbooks of 2009.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cretan spiced tuna with bulghur salad

  • blepharisma on September 29, 2013

    There are a few parts to this recipe, but don't be intimidated! The dressing and the spice mix are quite easy, and can be done in advance. The final preparation of bulghur salad and tuna is quite easy. We loved this meal. The only things we changed were the omission of the raisins (not so fond of raisins in savoury dishes) and the roasted onion and shallots in the dressing (just didn't have them on hand at the time - will try it next time). So much flavour, and an unexpected combo of ingredients. This would be a great dish to make for guests - the instructions include plating, and most can be completed before the guests arrive!

• Beef stew with leeks

  • chawkins on October 16, 2016

    Recipe available on line here:http: //www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beef-stew-with-leeks-356409 Delicious. It tasted Moroccan to me because of the cinnamon. Based on the comments on Epicurious, I tripled the amount of vegetables used. I also cooked in the Instant Pot, browned the beef on the sauté mode, then softened the vegetable (Hugh carrots cut in thirds). Removed vegetables and returned beef to pot, added the red wine, skipped the red wine vinegar, but replaced it with equal amount of red wine. Added only one cup of water. Cooked on high pressure for 9 minutes, natural release. Then added the vegetables and cooked high pressure for another 3 minutes, quick release.

• Souvlaki: chicken & pork shish kebab

  • SenseiHeidi on June 14, 2021

    This had a lot of flavor. There were no leftovers. Don't be put off by the meat turning white (bleaching - due to the vinegar). I easily brined a pork tenderloin (1.39 lbs) and 6 trimmed chicken thighs in the amount of brine given. I did not make the Greek salad or Ladolemono - maybe next time. Used dried spices, 2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp crushed rosemary.

• Grilled lamb chops

  • Frogcake on March 04, 2017

    Very good. I marinated the chops using the souvlaki marinate and served with roasted lemon purée, which I couldn't find in the indexing. The lemon confit is fabulous mixed one to one ratio with mayonnaise or really delicious on its own with the lamb. I halved the recipe, which was plenty for four of us. There are no specific instructions for the prep of the purée. When removing the pith I was successful using a knife edge and my thumb to scrape through to the pith underside. Very easy to do. The purée would be amazing with any fish or you could also use it as a condiment for sandwiches.

• Kefi lamb gyro

  • foodgloriousfood on April 29, 2022

    I have been looking for the best possible gyro meat recipe for years and hope to one day find the most delicious recipe imaginable. I had high hopes for this one. This is very labor intensive. I made the suggested greek salad and Tzatziki to go with it. For the gyro, you grill onions, add to the rest of the ingredients to make a meatloaf, bake for 45 mins. Let sit for 24 hours. Make a spiced oil. Slice and fry the meat in the spiced oil. Serve in pita with the salad and tzatziki. You would think with all that prep the resulting gyro meat would be incredible. It was just ok. The search continues.

• French fries

  • mcvl on September 17, 2010

    DI 2 for pickled French fries, at the bottom of the page, plus brine from p. 74

• Spinach rice

  • twoyolks on December 27, 2016

    This was bland and just didn't taste very good.

  • purrviciouz on April 05, 2018

    This was delicious with the souvlaki chicken. I used the chicken broth, increased the salt, and doubled the lemon juice.

  • TrishaCP on January 20, 2021

    This is flavorful and easy to prepare. I salted to taste.

• Shrimp with orzo & tomato

  • blepharisma on September 09, 2013

    A nice combination of flavours, but I found the cooking technique to be a little more than was necessary for the result. Still, a nice weekday meal if you already have the garlic confit on hand.

• Eggplant spread

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Great dish. Let the eggplant drain for an hour and that worked fine. Would make again for a meze platter.

• Tsatziki

  • twoyolks on April 08, 2019

    The vinegar made this very tart. I think that some vinegar is a nice addition to tzatziki but this seemed to be too much.

• Chickpea spread

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Don’t need to make this again. 40 sun dried tomatoes made this too sweet. It is also too garlicky. Least favorite dish of the meze.

• Roasted pepper & feta spread

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Best of the meze dishes I made out of this cookbook. Great well balanced flavor. Used fresh lemon zest.

• Pastitsio

  • twoyolks on March 28, 2023

    I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It's not quite good enough to justify the amount of work that goes into it.

• Greek salad

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Great Greek salad although it has a shelf life of a couple hours and is a lot of work. Use of iceberg lettuce is different but tasty when eaten immediately after dressing the salad. This is a special occasion Greek salad.

• Twice-cooked gigante beans

  • foodgloriousfood on February 04, 2024

    Made this with Rancho Gordo large white Lima beans. Cooked in the pressure cooker for 30mins first instead of simmering them. We quite enjoyed it the first night with a slow roasted parchment wrapped lamb leg but the next night the beans just seemed a bit stodgy and boring so I threw them in a Buffalo chicken chili today and that was a great rescue. Wouldn’t make this recipe again as it was a multi-step process and was just ok.

• Garlic confit

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Simple and delicious. Will make again although it’s hard to mess up garlic confit.

• Chickpea confit

  • Baxter850 on February 04, 2025

    Easy and good. Used in chickpea spread.

• Cretan spice mix

  • blepharisma on September 29, 2013

    I love recipe books that include a few spice blends. This one is fantastic on fish (it's used on tuna in one of the recipes in the book), but I think it would also be great on chicken and roasted veggies.

• Red wine & feta vinaigrette

  • Baxter850 on February 16, 2019

    Delicious and easy. Will make again. Made again in January 2025. Still delicious. Makes a ton.

• Fine Cooking

  The book is compelling enough to be read cover to cover like a memoir...but don’t stop there. You’ve got to cook from it to fully experience Psilakis’s brilliance and big heart.

  Full review