Stifado (Greek Beef Stew)

This was really nice. I served it with whole wheat pitas and a big bowl of Horiatiki salad and it made a wonderful dinner (and great leftovers the next day too)! I'm not used to including tomatoes in beef stew, but they were actually quite nice. There's not so much tomato in that it comes out like a chili. It's just enough to add an extra layer of flavour and it does go well with the feta.

I used standard pre-cubed stew meat, despite the author's dire warnings against this. They said that the origins of "stew meat" can be mysterious and it's better to buy a chuck-eye roast and trim and cube it yourself. This may be true, but we still had a bunch of cubed stew meat from my parents in the freezer. It's good beef and it needs eaten, so I didn't have any compunctions about using that instead of a roast. It was delicious and came out beautifully tender!

Stifado

Adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2020

Ingredients

• 1kg cubed stewing beef
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 200g cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 3 1/2 c. frozen pearl onions
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/8 tsp. allspice berries, ground
• 2 large tomatoes, cored and chopped
• 2 1/4 c. vegetable broth
• 3/4 c. dry white wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley
• crumbled feta

Directions

1. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add mushrooms and water, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally until mushrooms have released their liquid (5-10 minutes).
4. Add onions and sugar and cook, uncovered, for another 10-12 minutes.
5. Add tomato paste, garlic, cumin, and allspice and cook for 1 minute.
6. Add broth, wine, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, and beef.
7. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer.
8. Transfer to oven and bake at 150°C (300°F), uncovered, for 1 hour.
9. Remove pot from oven and stir stew.
10. Return to oven and continue to cook, uncovered, for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
11. Remove from oven and stir in parsley.
12. Serve sprinkled with feta cheese.

Horiatiki (Greek Village Salad)

I love Greek salad. Especially when it's got lots of stuff in and isn't completely overwhelmed by the lettuce. Horiatiki is like a chunky, lettuce-less version of the typical North American take on Greek salad. And it's amazing!

I see prepared horiatiki for sale at the grocery store every once in a while, but it always looks a bit sad. Now that I've had a chance to try making my own, I'll just do that in the future. It's very easy to put together and it keeps extremely well. And I could eat it all day! Seriously, this salad is delicious.

Horiatiki

Slightly adapted from A Spicy Perspective

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 English cucumber, cubed
• 1 500mL basket cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, chopped fine
• 1 c. pitted kalamata olives
• 1/2 c. fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 200g feta cheese, cubed

Dressing

• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil into the vinegar.
3. Whisk in remaining dressing ingredients.
4. Pour dressing over salad and mix well.

This dish is so close to being vegetarian already, I always feel a bit guilty buying the pancetta for it. I mean, the chicken stock is easy: Just swap it out for vegetable broth. I don't really just want to omit the pancetta though and I don't feel like vegan tempeh bacon will cut it here. So I started Googling around for ideas. I found lots of suggestions for various types of tempeh and tofu bacon. There were also recipes for coconut, chickpea, and eggplant bacon. None of these felt quite right though.

What turned out to be more useful were the pages discussing the flavour profile and different attributes of bacon (and pancetta). Flavour-wise these pork belly products pack a huge wallop of both salt and umami. Bacon also tends to come with a certain amount of smokiness as well as notes of sweetness and a tiny hint of sour. Pancetta, being unsmoked, doesn't bring the smokiness that bacon does. And, although no one really discussed this, I feel like the sweet and sour elements are less evident in pancetta as well. Someone did point out though that pancetta often carries faint notes of nutmeg and fennel as these are sometimes used during the curing process.

Salt and umami can be provided by things like soy sauce and (vegetarian) Worcestershire sauce. Sweet can come from maple syrup or brown sugar. Sour can be in the form of apple cider vinegar or tomato paste. And smoke (if you're going for the whole smoked bacon experience) can come from things like liquid smoke, smoked paprika, chipotle chiles, or... actual smoke, as in you can grill or smoke your food to add some char and/or smoky goodness. Different recipes recommend these things in slightly different proportions, but the basic idea is the same.

So, I have some ideas of how to handle the flavour side of things now, but there's also the issue of texture. Tempeh is great. I really like tempeh. But I don't think it's got quite what I want in the way of texture for this. Tofu is probably a bit closer to what I'm looking for. In a pinch, I'd probably slap a marinade on some tofu, fry it up and chuck that in. I feel like it might still be missing something though. Then one of the pages I was browsing suggested olives as an idea for something that would provide some of the same texture of pancetta (albeit with a decidedly different flavour). I like that idea! Olives. Brilliant! I think we now have a plan for how to make these beans vegetarian!

Please note: I haven't actually tested this recipe yet. I just think it sounds like a good idea. I'll test it and report back the next time I'm making γιγαντες πλακι.

Vegetarian Gigantes Plaki

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 onions, chopped
• pepper, to taste
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 150g green olives in brine, drained or 75g green olives and 75g cubed tofu bacon
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. fennel seeds, ground
• 1 (828mL) tin whole San Marzano tomatoes, broken up
• 450g dried butter beans (aka jumbo lima beans) or great northern beans (if you can't find the others)
• Parmesan rind
• 8 c. vegetable broth
• Parmesan and crusty bread, to serve

Directions

1. If you feel like being fancy you can saute your onions and garlic in the olive oil first and then toss in the spices and olives/tofu and cook them a little bit. If you're not feeling fancy, just dump everything in the pot in one go and set it to low for 10-12 hours. It'll be delicious either way.
2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with extra Parmesan grated on top and a piece of crusty bread on the side.

Γίγαντες Πλακί (Giant Baked Beans)

I found this recipe during some aimless Internet wandering. It looks to be a slow cooker adaptation of γίγαντες πλακί (gigantes plaki) or giant baked beans. Apparently dried runner beans (γίγαντες) are traditionally used for this. I couldn't find any, so I tossed in some great northern beans instead. And wow! Did they ever come out nice! This one is definitely a keeper. This was both easier and more delicious than any other baked bean recipe I've ever tried. Seriously good.

Γίγαντες Πλακί
~450g great northern beans (or gigantes if you can find 'em)
2 bay leaves
~1 tsp. red pepper flakes
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
4 onions, chopped
1 (28 oz.) can San Marzano tomatoes, smashed/broken up
a few sprigs of thyme (or maybe 1 tsp. of dried)
~1 tsp. dried oregano (optional)
~150g cubed pancetta
1 good-sized hunk of Parmesan rind
8 c. chicken stock
2 Tbsp. olive oil
pepper, to taste
crusty bread, to serve

Apparently with the traditional method, you cook the pancetta and vegetables first and build a fond and all that good stuff. I think the beans are meant to be soaked overnight as well. However, this slow cooker version just has you throw everything in the pot at once and cook it on high for six hours. My slow cooker is currently out of commission, but letting it simmer on the stovetop all afternoon certainly seems to have done the trick. I did have to add a bit more water partway through cooking, but that was no trouble. And other than that brief intervention, it was completely hassle-free!

And did I mention that this is probably the most delicious bean dish I've ever tried? Ever. Seriously. This made a huge pot of beans. We've been eating them for a week. And I'm okay with this! I'm not tired of them yet and I will certainly be making more in the future!