The Foods of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean [Hardcover]

The food of the Greek Islands, which stretch from the Turkish shore to the eastern Ionian Sea, is simple but packed with flavor. Aglaia Kremezi has gathered over 150 recipes from these ancient, sunny lands and presented them with fascinating historical and cultural notes in The Foods of the Greek Islands, a landmark collection. The dishes she offers, such as Spaghetti with Lobster Sauce, Meatballs with Rice and Herbs in Lemon Broth, and Baked Mixed Vegetables, are as easy to prepare as they are wonderful to eat. Readers long hoping to find authentic recipes for the best Greek cooking, and those who enjoy fine Mediterranean food, should hail the book.

Beginning with island-by-island food profiles, the book then offers sections on meze, the famed small-dish appetizers; pitas and pies; entrees; seasonal salads; bread; and desserts. Welcome attention is also given to beans, rice, bulgur, and pastas, and dishes such as White Bean Soup with Wild Celery and Lemon, Bulgur with Chicken Liver and Currants, and Penne with Olive Oil and Toasted Cheese should become everyday and special-occasion household favorites. Bread and dessert recipes are equally satisfying: Kremezi's Olive and Mint Bread and Saffron, Allspice, and Pepper Biscuits, among others, will please bakers amateur and pro, while the sweets, based on honey, fruits, nuts, and cheese, are similarly tempting. Illustrated with color photos, and with a comprehensive ingredient glossary, the book is a window on cooking few of us could enjoy until its much appreciated arrival. --Arthur Boehm

The Julia Child Award-winning author of The Foods of Greece returns with an equally engaging, personal take on the foods of Greece's many islandsDeach very different from the othersDstretching from Turkey to the Ionian Sea. Like Marcella Hazan, Kremezi has an informed and authentic voice that is gentle enough for beginners, and though her anecdotes and folklore add an inviting context and charm to this cookbook, it's the enticing recipes themselves that make it so winning. Lemons and legumes feature prominently in Greek-island cooking, as does seafood. Among the array of "uncomplicated" yet "sophisticated" dishes Kremezi features are Terrine of Fish with Leeks, Orange and Lemon and Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Herbs, Walnuts and Pomegranates. One might expect Baked Chickpea and Lamb Stew from Greece, but Pork with Cabbage made with tomatoes, red wine, and cinnamon clearly reflects a multicultural influence. An entire chapter on savory pies could almost stand alone with such tempting offerings as Finger-Sized Fried Green Pies, and another on breads includes Savory Cheese and Mint Muffins. Desserts that make excellent use of fresh fruit include Baked Apples with Dried Figs and Almonds in Sweet Wine Syrup and Cherry Spoon-Sweet Preserves. Kremezi consulted on the menu for New York's premier Greek restaurant, Molyvos, and a dozen or so of the restaurant's recipes are included in this standout volume. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Moving east from Italy, travelers encounter Greece and its archipelago. The foods of the Greek islands, as described by Aglaia Kremezi, have suffered from the decreasing harvest of surrounding seas. Nevertheless, these islands carry forward a grand tradition that marries aspects of Western cooking with ingredients of Eastern provenance. In addition to the book's attractive recipes, readers profit from Kremezi's suggested variations for many of the dishes--for example, turning a large lemon custard in phyllo pastry into individual, handily served packets.East of Greece lies the home of one of the world's great culinary traditions, that of the Middle East. Claudia Roden has updated her classic work, first published in 1972, and presents The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. She has used this occasion to add variations to classic recipes and to update readers about newly available foods, such as the increasing variety of eggplants found in contemporary markets. Libraries will want this new edition for the wealth of reference information on Middle Eastern cooking the volume holds. Mort Rosenblum eschews recording recipes in favor of giving the reader a sense of the role of food in the lives of the French. Although the pressures of globalization have altered the way young French people in particular eat, the world's preeminent food culture still carries forward its national obsession. A Goose in Toulouse examines some of France's most significant contributions to the table in a series of essays covering Roquefort cheese, cassoulet, champagne, goat cheese, truffles, and that indispensable annual catalog of French restaurants, the Michelin Red Guide. Rosenblum profiles chefs from the aged Raymond Thuilier, who conceived Provence's Le Baumaniere, through contemporary artists on the order of the Savoie region's Marc Veyrat.In 1958, the National Council of Negro Women published a cookbook documenting their food heritage. Organized to serve as a means of observing annual holidays, it presented recipes from the earliest days of the nation, with contextual commentary. The cookbook marched boldly into territory beyond plantation life with exotica such as sukiyaki and Ceylon curry. A new reprint of The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro offers insight into both the cooking of the first generations of African Americans and the self-perception of their female descendants at the outset of the sixties' civil rights movement.Julia Child's career has now come full circle. Her newest book assumes the reader's mastery of the kitchen skills outlined in her previous tomes. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom offers few traditional recipes; instead, the grande dame of chefs shows how a real cook operates, cooking from ideas and from techniques polished during years of working over a stove, not from a formal recipe. This short book will appeal to anyone whose imagination is as central to cooking as technical skill. Mark Knoblauch
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The food of the Greek Islands, which stretch from the Turkish shore to the eastern Ionian Sea, is simple but packed with flavor. Aglaia Kremezi has gathered over 150 recipes from these ancient, sunny lands and presented them with fascinating historical and cultural notes in The Foods of the Greek Islands, a landmark collection. The dishes she offers, such as Spaghetti with Lobster Sauce, Meatballs with Rice and Herbs in Lemon Broth, and Baked Mixed Vegetables, are as easy to prepare as they are wonderful to eat. Readers long hoping to find authentic recipes for the best Greek cooking, and those who enjoy fine Mediterranean food, should hail the book.

Beginning with island-by-island food profiles, the book then offers sections on meze, the famed small-dish appetizers; pitas and pies; entrees; seasonal salads; bread; and desserts. Welcome attention is also given to beans, rice, bulgur, and pastas, and dishes such as White Bean Soup with Wild Celery and Lemon, Bulgur with Chicken Liver and Currants, and Penne with Olive Oil and Toasted Cheese should become everyday and special-occasion household favorites. Bread and dessert recipes are equally satisfying: Kremezi's Olive and Mint Bread and Saffron, Allspice, and Pepper Biscuits, among others, will please bakers amateur and pro, while the sweets, based on honey, fruits, nuts, and cheese, are similarly tempting. Illustrated with color photos, and with a comprehensive ingredient glossary, the book is a window on cooking few of us could enjoy until its much appreciated arrival.

(Amazon.com Review -Arthur Boehm )

The Julia Child Award-winning author of The Foods of Greece returns with an equally engaging, personal take on the foods of Greece's many islandsDeach very different from the othersDstretching from Turkey to the Ionian Sea. Like Marcella Hazan, Kremezi has an informed and authentic voice that is gentle enough for beginners, and though her anecdotes and folklore add an inviting context and charm to this cookbook, it's the enticing recipes themselves that make it so winning. Lemons and legumes feature prominently in Greek-island cooking, as does seafood. Among the array of "uncomplicated" yet "sophisticated" dishes Kremezi features are Terrine of Fish with Leeks, Orange and Lemon and Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Herbs, Walnuts and Pomegranates. One might expect Baked Chickpea and Lamb Stew from Greece, but Pork with Cabbage made with tomatoes, red wine, and cinnamon clearly reflects a multicultural influence. An entire chapter on savory pies could almost stand alone with such tempting offerings as Finger-Sized Fried Green Pies, and another on breads includes Savory Cheese and Mint Muffins. Desserts that make excellent use of fresh fruit include Baked Apples with Dried Figs and Almonds in Sweet Wine Syrup and Cherry Spoon-Sweet Preserves. Kremezi consulted on the menu for New York's premier Greek restaurant, Molyvos, and a dozen or so of the restaurant's recipes are included in this standout volume (Publishers Weekly )

Stretching from the shores of Turkey to the Ionian Sea east of Italy, the Greek islands have been the crossroads of the Mediterranean since the time of Homer. Over the centuries, Phoenicians, Athenians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Ottoman Turks, and Italians have ruled the islands, putting their distinctive stamp on the food. Aglaia Kremezi, a frequent contributor to GOURMET and an international authority on Greek food, spent the past eight years collecting the fresh, uncomplicated recipes of the local women, as well as of fishermen, bakers, and farmers. Like all Mediterranean food, these dishes are light and healthful, simple but never plain, and make extensive use of seasonal produce, fresh herbs, and fish. Passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, most have never before been written down. All translate easily to the American home kitchen: Tomato Patties from Santorini; Spaghetti with Lobster from Kithira; Braised Lamb with Artichokes from Chios; Greens and Potato Stew from Crete; Spinach, Leek, and Fennel Pie from Skopelos; Rolled Baklava from Kos. Illustrated throughout with color photographs of the islanders preparing their specialties and filled with stories of island history and customs, THE FOODS OF THE GREEK ISLANDS is for all cooks and travelers who want to experience this diverse and deeply rooted cuisine firsthand.

AGLAIA KREMEZI is an internationally known expert on Greek cuisine and author of The Foods of Greece, which won the Julia Child Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals for the best first cookbook. She has lectured around the world about Greek and Mediterranean food and runs a widely respected cooking school on the Greek island of Kea.

Foreword The foods you will find in this book are the ones I like to cook every day or on special occasions, traditional and contemporary dishes that I love to eat. I collected many of them on summer vacations and special trips, others were given to me by great island cooks, and quite a few were handed down to me from my family, originally from the islands of the Cyclades. I learned to cook from my mother, my grandmother and my aunt. Even before going to school, I remember shelling peas in the large kitchen of my grandfathers old house, which had a wood-burning cooking stove with a large hood over it. I was too short to reach the sink and had to stand on a stool in order to rinse and trim the wild greens or wash the dishes. I would help my aunt roll bitter orange peels and thread them like a necklace when she made her rolled bitter-orange preserves. My mother taught me how to prepare the artichokes that overran our garden. My younger sister and I always helped shape the Christmas honey cookies. We learned how to remove the stones from cherries using a hairpin-there were no special instruments for that then-and we looked on as my mother scaled and gutted all the many kinds of fish my father brought from the port of Piraeus, where he worked. Watching my grandfather slaughter a hen with a small ax was traumatic, and we would cover our eyes as the hen flapped, headless, around the yard. But the dark-fleshed, chewy meat we cooked in stews or soups was so much more flavorful than that of the pallid, sickly looking chicken we eat today. Both my mothers and fathers families trace their roots to the islands: My father comes from Andros, my mother from Kea. I grew up on the outskirts of Athens, beside a large garden next to my mothers familys house. Nikitas Patiniotis, my grandfather from Kea, was a handsome and remarkable man. Calm, loving and compassionate, he often went as far as to buy the worst, almost rotten vegetables from the greengrocer who passed each day with his mule. This made my grandmother furious. He is a poor man, Anna, and if we dont buy them, who will? I remember him saying to her apologetically. My grandfather taught me all about the different wild greens -how and when to collect them. He spoke to me about all the plants of the garden, relating the story of the fragrant bay, once a beautiful woman. He identified the various insects for me, explaining how they lived and what they ate, insisting that there are no bad and good creatures but that each fulfills a purpose. When I was fourteen, we left our house in the country and went to live in a flat in the center of Athens. Ever since, I have longed to return to the country. Now that we have purchased a house on the island of Kea, I feel I have come full circle. Traveling from island to island, reading old books and kitchen ledgers, researching history and customs and building friendships with island cooks have made me proud of my origins. This book is not an encyclopedia of Greek island