Street Food - Greece
This week's Street Food box is from Greece, with a couple of different kebabs, some sauces, salad and a flat bread to serve it all on.
Hmmmm, you can almost taste the dysentery!
Hmmmm, you can almost taste the dysentery!
menu
A Greece-y Box
Chicken Souvlaki
Chicken Souvlaki
Grilled chicken kebabs.
Beef Kofta Kebabs
Grilled beef kebabs.
Tzatziki
The universal yoghurty cucumber sauce.
Hummus
Mashed chickpeas. Yum!
Greek Salad
It's Greek because it has Greek cheese on it.
Flatbreads
Like bread, but flat 🙂
Chicken Souvlaki
fowl snack
I'm not quite sure why you would need garlic powder in the marinade if you're adding fresh garlic, but there we are.
We had 2 chicken breasts, or more accurately the breasts of 1 chicken. And no thighs.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts or 12 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
For the Marinade:- 4 tblsps olive oil
- 2 tsps dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried mint optional
- 1 tsp garlic powder optional?
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
Tip the chicken into a large bowl and add the marinade ingredients, along with 1 tsp salt and plenty of black pepper.
Mix well, ensuring each thigh ?? is well coated.
Cover and chill for at least 3 hours, or up to 48 hours if you have time.
Reader, we did not have time!
Griddle the chicken until cooked, seasoning with salt.
This should take about ten minutes.
Turn as you cook.
They taste almost as good as they smell on the griddle.
Beef Kofta Kebab
meat snack
It's easy to overdo the olive oil when mixing these, so add it gradually until the mixture coheres.
It's best made with beef with as high a fat content as possible.
Oh, and mince the onions pretty finely.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 200g beef mince
- 2 tsps extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1½ tsps sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 medium or small onion, quartered, finely diced
Combine all the spices with the minced meat and just enough oil to moisten the mixture.
Roll into sausage-like shapes then hold each one in the palm of one hand and flatten it with three fingers of the other.
Griddle until cooked; this will take 8-10 minutes.
Griddle until cooked; this will take 8-10 minutes.
Of course you could add any herbs or spice you like: chilli, coriander, mint, garlic, za'atar, etc.
You could also thread the sausages onto wooden skewers to grill or barbecue them instead of flattening them for the griddle.
Tzatziki Dip
dressing salad veg
Not my favourite dressing, but I must admit it does seem to suit flatbreads and kebabs.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 360g Greek-style yoghurt
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tblsps lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, grated finely
- dash of extra virgin olive oil
- bunch of mint, thinly sliced
The best result is achieved by peeling and de-seeding the cucumber before grating.
Hang the grated cucumber in muslin cloth or a tea towel in order to squeeze out all the excess liquid, if you like.
Add a drizzle of olive oil.
Reader, we didn't like - and just removed the seedy centres before chopping our cucumbers, since we like our tzatziki a little bit chunky. Apparently.
I also puréed my minced garlic by rubbing it with a dash of sea salt on a chopping board using the side of a chef's knife.
Combine the yoghurt, cucumber, lemon juice and garlic.
Stir through the mint and season with salt.I also puréed my minced garlic by rubbing it with a dash of sea salt on a chopping board using the side of a chef's knife.
Add a drizzle of olive oil.
Hummus
salad veg vegan
The indispensable Greek accompanim, accomapnme, accompon, er, side dish.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- 60ml cold water, plus 30ml for a looser consistency
- 1 small garlic clove peeled and crushed
- 1 lemon, juiced and ½ zested
- 3 tblsps tahini
Optional Extras:- 1 tblsp olive oi, to garnish
- mint
- coriander
- basil
Thoroughly rinse the chickpeas in a colander under cold running water.
The preserving brine will be very salty and full of additives.
Tip into the large bowl of a food processor along with 60ml of water start with less and work up
and blitz until almost smooth.
Add the garlic, lemon and tahini and blitz again.
If the consistency is too thick, gradually pour in up to 30ml more water.
Blitz again for 5 minutes, or until the hummus is smooth and silky.
Stir through some minced herbs, if you like. Adjust seasoning. Add a drizzle of olive oil.
Greek Salad
salad veg cheese
Best not to mix the feta in through the salad or it will smudge, smear and dirty.
Leave it crumbled on top for best presentation points.
Leave it crumbled on top for best presentation points.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- half a block of feta cheese
- half a cucumber
- 2 tomatoes
- mint and basil
- olive oil
Optional Extras:- olives, torn
- chillies, sliced
- a squeeze of lemon juice
Roughly chop all the vegetables and the herbs, tear the olives with your fingers, drizzle with a little lemon juice if you like,
combine everything with the olive oil.
Crumble the feta cheese on top.
No need to add salt - the feta is already pretty salty.
Flatbreads
bread veg
Bread doesn't get any easier than this.
Well, except they aren't really breads - there's no real leavening other than a bit of bicarb.
So you don't need to knead or prove the dough. Just get it well combined.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 350g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 350g natural yoghurt
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.
Season if you like.
Dust a work surface with flour and knead for a minute or two just to bring everything together (this isn't a traditional bread recipe).
Divide the mixture into 6 or 12 portions. Flatten each one, then roll out to a round or oval shape about 3mm thick.
Stack them up to serve as they cook.
Dust a work surface with flour and knead for a minute or two just to bring everything together (this isn't a traditional bread recipe).
Divide the mixture into 6 or 12 portions. Flatten each one, then roll out to a round or oval shape about 3mm thick.
You can cut half a dozen lines into the centre of each round, if you like.
Griddle or fry in a dry pan over high heat for 2 minutes per side or until they show scorch lines and begin to puff up.Stack them up to serve as they cook.
You can brush them with herby garlic butter when they come of the griddle if you like.