English Speaking People are Word Thieves!

As I go food shopping I see many products with Hellenic/Greek names and I feel obligated to explain the origin of these names. I took a few pictures at the supermarket and I post them here with a terse explanation about the origin of their name.

Here they sell balsamic vinegar. I remember by grandfather, Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, who would drink certain teas as a balsam (βάλσαμο). Balsam is a substance that you get from a tree or plant. 

Tzatziki Sauce - Τζατζίκι

So many times people tell me that they make the best tzatziki in the world but in reality their recipe spells disaster.

The yogurt and cucumber MUST be strained because they contain a lot of extra liquid that makes a soggy tzatziki sauce and has a strange feeling when you eat it. Pay attention and continue reading.

This recipe is authentic and easily made.

May I whine a little? Who was the ad wizard that created all these "Greek" yogurt products? They have NOTHING TO DO WITH GREECE AND GREEK YOGURT. These products taste terrible and they have nothing to do with Greek yogurt.

There is one problem with tzatziki sauce, though. It has garlic and I strongly suggest to stay away from it if you are planning on a hot date later on that day or meeting you boss for the first time after eating it.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup of plain yogurt
• one medium cucumber
• ONE medium garlic clove - if you are planing on a hot date (good luck)
• or TWO medium garlic cloves if you just don't give a hoot
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup of dill. 

Feel free to multiply these ingredients if you are planning for several side dishes.

Start with the plain yogurt...

Important: Strain the yogurt for 30 minutes...

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Foil Wrapped Vegetables

For dinner tonight I prepared a beautiful grilled pork tenderloin with a generous side of grilled vegetables wrapped in a pocket made of aluminum foil.

I had cooked pork tenderloin on the grill before and that was neither the challenge nor the inspiration for this entry. It was the vegetables that I wanted to cook them differently. I had these mind numbing thoughts of grilled vegetables and I just could not solidify them to a normal state of recipe execution. I had to do a lot of improvisation.

I went to the supermarket and purchased a variety of vegetables for this event: broccoli, asparagus, and onions.

I am getting ahead of myself.

First I had to prepare the pork. I took it out of the package, washed it and then trimmed as much as I could of the fat.

I drizzled some olive oil and...time for the mustard! I rubbed about three tablespoons of mustard on the pork.

Then, I mixed the rub ingredients together

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder,
• 1 tablespoon onion powder,
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper, 
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin 

and sprinkled them on the pork. Of course, the olive oil and the mustard helps and the rub sticks on the pork.  Here is the pork tenderloin next to the rub waiting to be processed.

Choose a Name Wisely

That's right. Naming a dish cannot be taken lightly. This concept is true in many areas. Giving a blog entry a title, for instance. I could have named the entry "Dandelions," or "Cooking Dandelions," but instead I named it "Hey Man, I am Cooking Weed." Just the word "weed" caught the readers' attention. The entry drew the second highest traffic the blog ever had. Of course most visitors were looking for a different type of content and they left immediately but nonetheless they came to the site. I tried.



Recently I went to a favorite sandwich shop, The Village Market and Cafe located in Gardiner, NY for a quick bite. Well, what can I tell you. I love meatloaf and I can't have enough of it. They have a nice sandwich that they call Workin' Manwich Sam-ich. They serve the meatloaf topped with caramelized onion, cheddar (love it!), and horseradish mayo. Never has one sentence contained so many favorite words of mine. But I digress. Since this is my favorite sandwich I want to see it do well and become a favorite of many customers. But then it hit me. Perhaps, and only perhaps, a female would not order this sandwich because its name is...too masculine. I can only picture heavyset, bearded men, order this sandwich.

Sure. They have other sandwiches like: Yes Dear, BLT, and Tofunito. I can see a lumberjack or a young female order a BLT, but, no way, no how, would a teenage girl order a Workin' Manwich! They also have brownies there too and they call them...brownies! If they called them Girly-Whirlies instead would a lumberjack order one? Would a police office go up to the counter and order a Girly-Whirly?

So, I explained to the person behind the counter my issue and the message was relayed to the manager/owner. But the message was received with bridled enthusiasm and a nervous smile.

Why can't they name this sandwich: Best Meatloaf Ever, or Hot-to-Trot 'loaf, or even better, Yummy-Yummy-Down-my-Tummy Meatloaf, or...The Grilling Greek's Meatloaf.

I beg any local readers of this blog to go to The Village Market and Cafe and tell the owner(s) about this issue and urge them to change the name of this sandwich. It will make me soooooooo happy.

Oven Baked Beans - Fasolada sto Fourno - Φασολια Πλακι στο Φουρνο

A few years ago the family went to Hellas for a month long vacation. While there, we visited a beautiful island, Syros. Every day we would go to a different beach where we would stay there for several hours, swim, sunbathe, have lunch, sunbathe, swim, take a nap, swim, and go back to the hotel. Rough life I tell ya. Rough!

There was one restaurant there that cooked oven baked beans, fasolada, that was to die for. They had the beans in a huge pan, 20" x 50" that would only fit in an industrial oven. The beans were about 2" high and they were in a thick tomato sauce. Yum! I remember staring at the pan, salivating like Pavlov's dog.

In Hellas they use giant beans for this dish but I am having great difficulty finding these beans in the USA. So, like the versatile Odysseus that I am, I improvised and bought the beans that you see below. I followed the directions listed on the package to prepare the beans. HOWEVER, since in the end I wanted to bake the beans I followed the recipe to the final point where it stated that I should cook the beans in a pot for 1.5 - 2 hours. I cooked the beans (against their recommendation) for 1 hour only.

 This recipe has three steps:

1. Prepare the beans,
2. Prepare the sauce,
3. Put the beans and sauce together and bake.

STEP 1

Here are the beans soaking in water for one hour. This was the first step as I read it on the package.

Hey man, I am Cooking Weed

I had to buy two pounds of dandelions to complement our dinner last night, I just could not resist the temptation. In Hellas when you go to a restaurant to eat you always order a plate of weed. Yum! When I saw dandelions at the supermarket I bought two bunches of it.

You will need to cut the bottom of the weed about two inches high. Here I am using my middle finger to point because my index finger has...a Hanzaplast.

After I cut each bottom I add the weed in a bowl because you need to wash the leaves very well. There is a lot of dust and dirt that needs to wash away.

I used the dish drainer to set the clean weed to dry.