Christmas is on its way and I am cooking and baking, so I can post Greek festive recipes. Just to give you an idea of how we celebrate in Greece, I will tell you what we normally cook and bake.
In terms of sweets we have basically, three types of sweets: melomakarona, kourabiedes and diples. Melomakarona are cookies made with flour or a combination of flour and semolina, kneaded along with certain spices as cinnamon and cloves and baptized in a light syrup. Kourabiedes are made with flour, almonds, butter, aromatized with rose water and dusted with caster sugar. Diples on the other hand are made with eggs, flour and sugar, aromatized with orange juice and fried in vegetable oil. Then we pour syrup above them and finely chopped walnuts. In my next posts I will give you the recipes for melomakarona and diples just in case you want to try something different this Christmas.
As far as the cooking is concerned for Christmas Day lunch we make turkey, more or less the way it is made in the States with potatoes and stuffing. Now the stuffing is totally different. We make it with chestnuts, pine nuts, raisins and rice along with certain spices. We accompany the turkey with potatoes Greek style and certain Greek appetizers such as tzatziki, melitzanosalata (eggplant salad), or hand-made pies cheese etc.
I know that in the States many people make pork for Christmas holidays. This is a recipe I came up with a few days ago and it was a big success. In fact my husband was still craving about it couple of days afterwards. Once you make the pork is very straight forward and easy. It is also very impressive and ideal for a formal gathering or a nice family lunch or dinner.
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes
Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins
12 prunes, dried
12 apricots, dried
Pinch of salt for each piece
Onion powder for each piece
Green pepper for each piece
½ tbsp to 1 tbsp salt
2 garlic cloves
1 onion, sliced
1/3 olive oil
1 cup white wine
2 cups vegetable stock
¼ cup apricot jam
6 to 7 potatoes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200° C.
Cut the tenderloins in the middle and open them like a book (see pictures). With a kitchen hammer or any heavy flat bottomed object flatten the tenderloins. Salt and pepper both of them and place two rows of prunes and apricots. Roll the sides and stick them together with toothpicks.
Cut the potatoes in 4 pieces lengthwise. Place the potatoes in the pan. Add the tenderloins and the garlic and onion wedges. Throw the salt. Pour the olive oil, the wine and stock. Brush the tenderloins with some of the jam. Place in the oven and cook for at least 2 hours. Every half hour brush the tenderloins with jam. Stop half an hour before the end. Each time you brush with jam check also the food’s liquids. If there are plenty just put it again in the oven. If you see that they are consumed add some water. When the potatoes are very soft and the fork pins them very easily then it’s ready.
Take it out of the oven let it stay for 5 minutes and then with a sharp knife cut the tenderloin in rounded pieces.
Now we have a winner again for the fourth giveaway. And the winner this time is Faith from An Edible Mosaic. Congratulations Faith! Please send me your address so I can mail you the goodies.
Karishma from
Effortless Cooking Easy Baking was kind enough to give the Sunshine Award. She is a very kind person with a beautiful blog full of Indian recipes hers and her family’s. Thank you Karishma as I told you in my mail I appreciate everything so much.
Labels: Main Course, Meat
