Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

J uly 30th was my birthday. My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday so I surprised her by asking her to make me some of her fantastic vine leaves. Maria remembers her teens when her mother used to ask for her help to wrap and stuff vine leaves for some large party the family was having. So basically this recipe dates back to granny Loula's days!

These Gambas Come 6-8 Pieces To The Kilo I have one culinary souvenir from my days working in the Red Sea Area of Egypt and this is the size, ease and low price I could come back home in Cairo with nearly 10 kilos of these huge, shrimp/prawns/gambas fresh out of the sea. Always kept a big ice chest in my Chevrolet 4 x 4 for such occasions. For somebody who really likes prawns, the best way to eat them is plain with just lemon and olive oil.  A kind of sauce can be made on the side just in case someone wants to dip his prawn in it. The other day was my 65th birthday, a milestone in my life.  So I decided to have some friends over to give them (and myself) a real treat.... here's how:

I am about to give you an idea you may not have thought of before to make your chicken kebabs even tastier and more presentable to your guests. We all know rosemary goes very well with chicken. As you cut your fresh rosemary from your plant at home try to cut short branches. Hold the top of each little branch with one hand, leaving behind the top of the branch, slide your thumb and forefinger down the branch with the other hand. You will end up with a bare branch with a head of rosemary on top.  Marinade your chicken pieces anyway you like, adding the loose rosemary leaves then instead of using a normal wooden skewer you use the bare branch of rosemary to pass through each peace of chicken like in the picture below. Cut any protruding branch behind. Hope you like the idea which by the way is not mine. Enjoy Stelio

  B atida is Portuguese or Spanish for Shake.  So Batida de Ananas con Cachaça is a pineapple shake with Cachaça. For anybody who may not know what Cachaça is, it is a rum made in Brazil straight from sugar cane. It does not go through the extra stages of turning it into the real rum Jack Sparrow, the Pirate, used to drink sailing around the Caribbean. Cachaça has a very subtle back taste of the black rum we know as Captain Morgan's. Cachaça is not like Bacardi.  In fact Cachaça is very pleasant and very alcoholic so we consume responsibly as with other alcoholic beverages.

G ees I really missed you guys!! I had to be serious for a while and look after my business other than cooking. I would love to share with you a recipe that came to my mind while reading various cooking magazines and figured you would love it. Everybody loves cheese unless prohibited due to health reasons.

 Y esterday Sunday evening, we were watching the Greek elections on TV, all super markets were closed and suddenly we all had an urge to eat sweet. So I thought of something that we could use from what we had on hand between our pantry and the deep freezer and it went like this:

Lovely color. T his is a second way to make this dish which I shared with you on July 8th 2011. In my opinion it is much better. You will need: Serves 4-6 -  1.2 kg of  potatoes, sliced medium ¼ inch thick. -  500 gr milk -  200 gr fresh cream 35%  -  ½ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg. -  4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped. -  1 Tbsp. butter. -  Salt and pepper to taste.