Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - ...

Maybe a bit too rare for your taste (4 mutes each side)  U nfortunately lately I have gone wild on cheese. Not any cheese. Just cheese which melts into strings as you pull it from  your mouth....too many TV commercials!!!!

B urgers and sausages are my favorite kinds of meat. They are the best kind for quickie parties with close friends. Good quality bread, burger patties, cheese slices, country sausages, a nice big salad, beer and wine and you've made it. I have written about burger patties many times in the past. I believe this time I came up with the best recipe......

M y respects to the BBQ Pit Boys (bbqpitboys.com). By carefully watching their YouTube recipe I was able to nearly...

W hat can be healthier than Boiled Beef Short Ribs With Steamed Broccoli And Cauliflower. Everything is boiled...the carrots, the celery, onion, and whatever else your little heart desires, such as turnips, leeks, etc., if you happen to have it in your fridge. I have not used any garlic (funny enough) because I don't like boiled garlic! Furthermore I steamed in a so called " Coucoussière " the broccoli and cauliflower cut in small florets. Nothing wrong with this food...start your week nice and light....

You can see the scallion bits in the burger! N ecessity is the mother of invention. At least for me in this occasion. The other day I needed to make some burgers, and was out of onions so I used fresh onions or green onions or scallions. Burgers came out delicious! Used the green part as well. As known the scallion has a different taste/flavor than the onion. Here's how

We finally decided to eat puff pastry I'll have to check my sugar level tomorrow!! A ground beef and porcini mushroom tart sounded like a fantastic idea. Here how to make one:

I t is very pleasant when once in a long while to get out of your daily routine of eating just about the same food, and to try to evade reality. During these days we need to evade reality. So my wife and I fixed up a nice luncheon for two since our daughter Barbara would be away for the day. We had bought some ready made fondue Savoyarde in a sachet made up of three cheeses during the Holidays just in case we would need it for something, but finally we did not. So yesterday we thought of using it for us.... Please refer to my post dated March 3rd 1911 heading "La Fondue Savoyarde"... for snowy evenings and lots of white wine.....

A s I have mentioned earlier we must consume as many vegetables as we possible can,  in any way or form,  because they contain lots of water. I definitely do not mean that we should become vegetarians. Having had some washed up vegetables from the previous day's recipe "Mixed Roasted Vegetables" I thought of processing, ground beef, a zucchini, a medium sized eggplant, an onion and an orange bell pepper into as much of a paste as possible then to just.....

Courtesy Of Wikipedia  Courtesy Of Wikipedia H ad the clever idea of making a Beef Wellington for Epiphany which did not turn out the way I expected it because basically it was the first time I made it. All I knew about it was that you take a piece of beef and wrap it in puff pastry, seal it and stick it in the oven till the the pastry turns out a dark golden color. As I was looking through recipes in the Internet, I came across Mr. Gordon Ramsey's version of it which looked very good and Christmasy. Mr. Ramsay had the whole recipe on You tube. I followed step by step but unfortunately it did not come out as I expected. Everybody else confirmed that it is excellent. I had two things going against me: One was that I had to have other things in the oven with it, and second and most important was that I had to make two pieces. One piece for guests who like their meat well done, and others who like their meat rare like I do. Ingredients: - 2 rectangular pieces of...

I have been absent for quite some time now, been busy with other things much less interesting than food, unfortunately but chores are chores and they have to be done. Today we had "You-var-lakia" for lunch.  Pictures of which are included herewith. They were delicious! If you feel like making them please go to recipe on January 24th 2011. Only here we have 100% beef. Enjoy Stelio

 One Whole Cylindrical Peace Of Beef T he French, the British and the Americans cut their beef differently. Different names for different cuts. And different names for the same cut. Couldn't find the exact translation in the Internet so my only solution is to show you the peace of veal / beef I have cooked. In Greek and in French  is " Noix " which comes in one piece and varies in size depending on age of the animal it comes from. You can buy a whole or half when it is too big. It can weigh up to 3 - 4 kg.It basicaslly looks like a whole filet but this cut needs to be cooked in little water in a pressure cooker (to lower the consumption of gas or electricity)for a long time...

W hat the heck are "Baby Patty Kebab Koftas" ?? Well, they are exactly what they say they are, baby, because the patty is small, kebab because they have the taste of the Egyptian kebab, and koftas because they were round like a ball when they were made and flattened into a patty to make perfectly round patties.  So Baby Pattie Kebab Koftas sounds cute, nice...

O k today is Saint Stylianos day. So basically it is my name day because my actual Christian name is Stylianos, Stelio! (when somebody is calling me from far), or Stelios (when somebody is talking about me to somebody else), or Stelara (when I accomplish something good).  Saint Stylianos is the Patron Saint of children. His job is to protect children. I could not protect my younger daughter, but that 's another story. So...  I promised my wife and only daughter, now, I would braise some beef piece in a special mixture of spices all bathed in wine and tomato sauce over a plain white rice,  which I will tell you if you feel like reading more......

 T oday I made a most delicious chili con carne. I liked it and the most difficult critics, my wife and daughter, loved it. I am basically writing this recipe for my own benefit. What better way is there? I am sure I would have forgotten the doses and steps by tomorrow! For those of you who like chili con carne (beans with chili powder and meat) this may be another way to cook it...

I love American food because I nearly grew up with it ever since the age of 15. Today I would like to share with you a typical American lunch menu which I am sure many of you will like. It is composed of...

 T here is nothing like meatloaf, steaming hot gravy and baked potatoes on a cold day. Oh yes, autumn is here to stay for the next 2 months, the weather is quite cool outside, more so inside our home and since we are in a financial crisis, we are trying to delay central heating for as long as we can. We are using our fireplace and burning wood instead. Very cosy but we need a Christmas tree as well to go with it but by then we will have so much central heating we will be running around the house with T-shirts and shorts! I checked and it looks like have already written about the meatloaf in my very early posts but this time I am adding pictures! Mushrooms and sweet red wine.

Lemon Zest On The Blue Cheese Sauce.Very Tasty!! B urgers can be the base for any dish once you have the imagination.  We are used to have burgers grilled over charcoal in our back yard or baked in the oven with roasted potatoes. Now I would like to share my recipe for stove top grilled burgers with a blue cheese sauce which I hope you will enjoy as much as we did for lunch today...

I love cured and smoked tongue. In Egypt and most of the other countries I've lived in, I used to find it very easily but now in Greece...can't.  So I guess I'll have to do it myself.

Ready Cooked "Kima". S ikander is a good friend of mine and is from Pakistan. We met in Egypt while I was stationed there. The excellent assistant I had, Salwa, a woman, and he, hit it off, fell in love and got married. So I was left without. About 30 years later we met again through Facebook. He continues to live in Egypt, still married to her, and I ended up in Athens (God knows why).  We talk and exchange recipes on Skype. Today's recipe is his "Kima" . For those who know Greek will guess what it is...but for everybody else...