Herbed Greek Meat Patties with Tzaziki Sauce and Feta Oregano French Fries

I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I started my blog. So much has happened, including the birth of my son Christian! I started to blog before I got pregnant and clearly little Christian took up most of my time over the past year. Now that he is out and almost three months old, I can finally get back to my other love, cooking! In honor of baby Christian and my recent move to the Greek community Astoria, I am posting my Grandmother’s recipe for Keftedaki, aka Greek herbed meat patties. These are super kid friendly and can even be made in larger portions to serve as a burger for a summer barbeque. If you do decide to serve them as a burger try topping them with tzaziki sauce or feta. At one point I will post my spicy feta dip recipe which would be equally delicious. If you are desperate for the recipe now, feel free to email me for an immediate response. I like serving the keftedaki with tzaziki sauce, a Greek green salad and French fries topped with oregano and feta.

Keftedaki - Greek Herbed Meat Patties/Burgers/Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground lamb (these proportions can be adjusted to your taste)

¾ cup grated (or super finely chopped) red onion (about one medium onion)

¾ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

¼ cup finely chopped mint (not spearmint!)

½ cup to1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs (just enough to absorb the excess moisture)

1 Tbs. olive oil

2 tsp. Greek or Mexican oregano

1 tsp lemon juice

2 beaten eggs

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Flour and vegetable oil if pan frying*

Directions

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix, making sure not to overwork the meat. For best results mix the day before (leaving the eggs and breadcrumbs out) and let rest 24 hours so the flavors can combine. When ready to cook add the eggs and breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly. Make little meat balls, patties or burgers. Grill or pan fry. Serve with tzatziki sauce.

I like salt so I put about 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, note that regular table salt is MUCH saltier so use half. After you combine everything make one small meatball and cook it before the rest to taste for seasoning. Adjust accordingly.

*Flour and vegetable oil only if you are going to make little round balls to pan fry. These are great if you are doing a dinner party. Roll the balls and coat them in flour, remove any excess before adding to the oil. Drain on paper towels and then serve them on a platter with the tzaziki sauce for dipping.

Although I like to mix the three meats, feel free to use only one kind if you do not eat pork or do not like the gaminess of lamb. I would, however, try it with the lamb at least once since it adds fabulous flavor. I imagine the recipe would also work with ground turkey or chicken even though I have never tried it.

Best Taziziki Sauce

Ingredients

1 17.6 ounce container of either 0%, 2% or full fat Total Greek strained yogurt. Of course full fat is best. (I highly recommend using this brand since it makes all the difference in the world. You can try other strained yogurts or make your own strained yogurt by using cheese cloth to strain regular yogurt.)

1 cup finely chopped peeled and seeded English cucumber (about a 2 to 1 ratio with yogurt.)

2-3 crushed garlic cloves (if I am not pressed for time I use a mortar and pestle and mash the garlic with a little salt. If I am busy, I use a garlic press)

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp red wine vinegar

Salt to taste

Directions

Combine all the ingredients and let sit in the refrigerator overnight or at least for a couple hours. As the tzaziki sits, the garlic will become more pronounced so if you want to add more garlic I would recommend doing it the next day. Some people prefer grating the cucumber and also adding dill. That is not how my family makes it, but either way is correct. I personally like the crunchiness of the cucumber when it is chopped versus grated.

To seed the cucumber cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. If the cucumber is super watery you can remove excess water by placing the chopped cucumber on a paper towel in a colander and letting it sit for a few hours.

Finished tzaziki topped with olive oil

Feta Oregano French Fries

Ingredients

1/2 lb Good Greek or Bulgarian Feta

1 Tbs Greek or Mexican Oregano

salt and freshly ground back pepper

French Fries (follow the link below or use your own favorite recipe.) I like to fry my French fries in olive oil. It is expensive but it tastes so good and that's how we do it in Greece.

Directions

As any new mother knows, time is now super limited. In order to conserve energy I have posted a link to my friend Azmina’s recipe for French fries. Simply follow her directions and sprinkle with crumbled feta and oregano as pictured below.

http://www.lawyerloveslunch.com/2010/06/quest-for-perfect-homemade-french-fry.html

It's good to be back!

XOXO

Kat and Baby Christian

Perfect Greek Salad

Greek food is the perfect example of why less is more and why the quality of the ingredients makes all the difference in the world. Last week after watching an episode of “The Best thing I Ever Ate,” my husband asked me what my favorite dish was, and the things that came to mind were sea urchin, octopus, tomatoes and fondue. It was an interesting exercise in self-examination, because I realized that my favorite dishes are often the simplest. One of my other favorite things to eat is a Greek salad. Not the one you get at diners or your average Greek restaurant, but the one they serve in Greece. The simple one, the one without radishes, anchovies, dolmades or lettuce. Yes, lettuce, you heard me correctly, there is NO Lettuce in a Greek salad.

Now don’t get me wrong, Greeks like lettuce and in fact we have many salads and dishes with leafy Greens. It is just that lettuce has no place in a classic Greek salad. I have pondered why lettuce appears in the Greek salad west of the Atlantic and have come to two conclusions. First, lettuce helps to keep costs down since it acts as filler and two, restaurant owners were probably afraid that if lettuce wasn’t present, customers wouldn’t think it was an actual salad. You would think that something as simple as a Greek salad would not need a lengthy post or recipe, but I can assure you that other than in Greece, there are very few places where I can get a decent Greek salad.

What makes this salad difficult is finding the right ingredients. Your tomatoes need to be perfectly ripe, your olive oil needs to be the best and your black olives cannot come out of a can. Kalamatas are preferable, but I have gotten away with Nicoise. In Greece you can order either a tomato-cucumber salad (Anguro-Tomata) or Greek village salad (Horiatiki). The difference is that the latter has cheese and olives, but other than that they are the same.

Greek Village Salad a.k.a The Greek Salad

2-3 super ripe tomatoes cut into eights

½ an English or seedless cucumber halved, then sliced

½ small red onion sliced

4 oz Feta either crumbled or in a large slice on top (omit Feta to make this a vegan entree or side)

10-15 Kalamata olives, depending on your taste and the size of the olives.*

1/3 cup olive oil

2/3 cup vinegar (I like a lot of vinegar which will add to the

dipping experience which is described below)

1 tsp Greek or Mexican oregano

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, black olives, salt, pepper, ½ of the oregano, olive oil and vinegar to a serving bowl and toss. Top with feta and add the remaining oregano on top.

*My grandmother also will include thinly slices light green peppers if they are available.

Serves four as a side or 2 as a main.

Serve with crusty bread, which you can dip in the juices that collect in the bottom of the bowl. This is not rude and considered proper form at the dinner table. In fact we frequently eat out of the same bowl and don’t bother to serve the salad on individual plates.

For a variety of bargain-priced, quality feta, olive oil, olives and oregano, go to Titan Foods in Astoria (http://www.titanfood.com/). When I lived in Miami I used to ship from them and even with the shipping included it was still cheaper than buying local. If you are feeling adventurous and want to try other Greek products, feel free to email me for other recommendations on what to buy.

Enjoy!