BBQ Thursday .... Last Week To Eat Meat For Lent

Easter in 2014 will be celebrated, according to this year's calendar, by both the Greek Orthodox Church and the rest of the Christian world....


Greeks have a special celebration on what is called BBQ Thursday (Tsikno-pempti in Greek). Tsikno meaning: charcoal grilling meat. Pempti meaning:Thursday - which was yesterday,  we can still enjoy eating meat till the end of this week Sunday February 23rd. After that: no more meat, but we can eat dairy products till the end of next week, Sunday March 2nd, which happens to be the known carnival Sunday of Patra. March 3rd, Lent begins till Easter Sunday. 40 days of hard, tough  fasting for those who do it correctly. 40 days of cleansing the body from all toxins.

Our family is not religious to the point that we fast for 40 days. Sometimes we do during the "Holy Week" from Holy Monday to midnight of Good Saturday, the Resurection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we fast only on Good Friday in order to be able to take Communion on Saturday morning early.
Come Easter Sunday we wake up early to prepare our lamb to be put on the spit to turn slowly over slow charcoal to be ready by lunch time. We also color eggs red, put country music and dance the Sirtaki. By night time we have all eaten and drank too much wine or ouzo and fall right into bed.


To come back to the important event here is the meat that we had yesterday. Lit our charcoal BBQ (no gas!)

Feast your eyes to the following pictures.

Charcoal nearly ready

Starting to Grill

Adding some Veggies: Thin wedges of pumpkin

Close up

Nearly ready

Nearly ready

Just about done!!


Ingredients:

  • 1.5 kg baby lamb cutlets.
  • 3 country sausages.
  • Lemon juice.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Half a small pumpkin cut in thin wedges.
Method:
  • Put everything on the grill once the charcoal are well and ready and keep on turning them until they are ready. Hot coals direct grilling.
We had a very Bon Appétit, and enjoyed the food tremendously with some straight ouzo no water no ice!!
Stin e yassas! To your health,

Stelio

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