Notes about Recipes in this book

• Whole chicken soup with avgolemono & orzo

  • stuftpepr on January 29, 2010

    This soup is the classic avgolemono... egg-lemon. The combination of both the thyme and dill tones the lemon to make a perfect palet awakening as a start to the rest of a meal.

• 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

  • TrishaCP on January 20, 2021

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

  • 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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!

• 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.

• Red wine & feta vinaigrette

  • Baxter850 on February 16, 2019

    Delicious and easy. Will make again.

• 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.

• 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