Energising Fruit Smoothie! ©
The perfect energising drink, easy to prepare and full of goodness!
This is my daughter Irene’s delicious recipe!
For two persons
Ingredients
1 Banana
1 Pink Lady Apple
1 Kiwi
4 Strawberries
6 Raspberries
1 Orange juice
A small bunch of mint leaves
1 Thumb size piece of ginger very finely grated
Zest of 1/3 of Lime very finely grated. Not more or it will become bitter.
1 tsp honey (optional)
Garnish
2 Sprigs of mint
2 Whole strawberries
Method
1. Peel and cut up fruit roughly and place in blender.
2. Peel ginger, making sure it is juicy and not a woody piece. On a very fine grater, grate into blender, retaining any fibrous pieces and discarding them. This is important, because otherwise you will not have a smooth finish. Add a little zest of lime and honey.
3. Blend in blender until smooth.
4. Pour into chilled glasses and add ice cubes if it is very hot.
5. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a whole strawberry!
* Note:
Drink straight away, so as not to loose the vitamins!
Any combination of fruit can be used, depending on what fruit you prefer.
Place fruit and finely grated ginger and lime in blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into chilled glasses and add ice if it is a hot day. Garnish each glass with a sprig of mint and a whole strawberry.
Visinada, which is the Greek name given to this delicious sour cherry drink, brings back a flood of childhood memories of wonderful Grandmothers offering one a glass on a hot, hot summers day or drizzling the thick cherry filled syrup over Greek yogurt and if one was lucky enough to be the last in line, licking the spoon from the jar!
Visina/Sour cherries come onto the market after the sweet cherry season is over and they are around for a very brief time, so one wants to make ones order early on and preferably find a man on his donkey to sell you his freshly picked sour cherries from the tree in his garden.
Sour cherries are smaller than the sweet ones and one wants to buy them when they are still firm, otherwise they disintegrate in the boiling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_cerasus
Ingredients
1 kilo of firm Sour Cherries. ( Visina )
1,250 g caster sugar
1 juice of lemon ( to be added at the end )
Two and a half cups of water
*** ‘Cherry- Stoner’ is ESSENTIAL equipment!
Book your ‘Sour Cherries,’ early on from your vegetable man, as the season is short!!
Method
Before beginning, gather together your clean sterilised jars, or one large jar. To sterilise them boil in water and dry in the oven.
1. Choose firm, just ripe sour cherries. If they are at all soft, the skins will come off during boiling.
Place small testing saucers, in the fridge to cool.
2. Lay out two large bowls. Wash cherries and remove stalks into one bowl. Using a Cherry stoner remove stones and place cherries and any juice in 2nd bowl. Throw stones away with stalks. Weigh and reserve.
3. Measure out sugar and water and place in large saucepan. Add two and a half cups of water.
4. Stir sugar all the time, until all the sugar crystals are dissolved and water becomes clear ‘before’ it comes to the boil. This is important so that the syrup does not crystallise at a later date. Some use a pastry brush to dislodge any sugar crystals around the edges.
5. Add cherries carefully so as not to splash cooker or your selves and adjust heat to a slow simmer.
6. Using a slotted spoon, remove froth as it rises. This is also important as white specks will show up in your jars.
7. Simmer for 1 hour, or until a little syrup placed on a cold plate (kept in the fridge,) sets and no longer runs down the plate.
8. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and spoon into sterilised jars.
9. Before the jars are completely cold cover with rounds of grease proof paper and screw down lids tightly.
Cook’s Note :
On a hot summer’s day a spoonful of sour cherries in an ice-cold glass of water, or drizzled over Greek yogurt is delicious.
Wash cherries.
Lay out ingredients and equipment. Place 2-3 testing saucers in the fridge to cool for later use.
Using a cherry stoner and holding fruit over a large bowl to catch the juice, stone cherries carefully, placing point of stoner where the indentation of the stalk is. You want to try to keep your cherries ‘whole.’ I actually hold the sides of the cherry as I am doing this, with my left fingers, so that they don’t split.
Here we have the cherries ready and cleaned!
Weigh your cherries and the rest of your ingredients.
Pour sugar into large saucepan and add two and a half cups of water.
Stir continuously until sugar has completely dissolved and water is clear, ‘before’ it comes to the boil.
This is important, so that sugar doesn’t crystallise.
Add your cherries carefully, so as not to splash any syrup over the cooker or your selves.
Bring to the boil.
Remove all the froth that accumulates, as this will later show up as white specks in the jars.
*******Keep a careful eye, as the syrup can easily boil over.
When the cooking time is nearly up, test a little syrup on a cold saucer, that you have previously kept in the fridge. The syrup is ready when it sets, as you tilt the plate. If it runs down the plate, boil for another ten minutes and try again.
Remove from heat and add lemon juice!
Ladle out into a large sterilised jar, or several small ones.
Delicious over Greek yogurt, or a spoonful placed in a glass and covered with iced water on a hot summer’s day!
Greek Homemade Halva ©
This is a delicious recipe and a great favourite during lent. Every home has its own special recipe and it makes a delicious end to a meal.
10-12 persons
3/4 hour to prepare
Ingredients
3 cups of Semolina
1 cup olive oil
3 cups white sugar
6 cups water
1 stick of cinnamon
1/2 cup almonds
Powdered cinnamon
Method
1. Place almonds in saucepan cover with water, bring to the boil and boil for two minutes.
2. Pour almonds into sieve and place in bowl to cool. Once cool enough to handle, using fingers, push almonds out of their skins.
3. Pat almonds dry with kitchen paper.
4. Oil frying pan and roast almonds lightly. Reserve for later. ( You can also add a few ground almonds to Semolina.)
5. Measure out water, into saucepan, add sugar and a stick of cinnamon. Bring to the boil stirring continuously to dissolve sugar. Simmer on a slow simmer for ten minutes.
6. Measure out Semolina into bowl.
7. Rub a few drops of olive oil round the inside of your mould and keep to one side.
8. Place olive oil in large saucepan and add Semolina.
9. Over a medium heat “continuously” stir Semolina, until golden. 5-8 minutes. ( Be careful to keep stirring, or it burns easily and will make the end result bitter.)
10. Once the Semolina is golden in colour, remove from heat and continue to stir for one minute. Most importantly, leave to cool for five minutes, “before” adding “hot syrup”. If you hurry this, when you add the hot syrup, it will splutter and can be dangerous!
11. Stir until the Semolina starts to thicken, this happens quickly. Before it completely thickens and is still a little liquid, pour into Mould. Smooth off the top of your mould with a spatula. Leave to set covering with clingfilm, so that it does not dry out.
12. Before turning out, run a knife around the rim of the mould, 1 cm deep to help turn it out. Place serving plate on top of Mould and turn upside down. With the palm of your hand tap firmly on mould several times, to help Halva drop out.
13. Sprinkle with cinnamon powder and decorate with your roasted almonds!
**** Cook’s Note : Please be very careful to allow golden semolina to cool for five minutes, ‘before’ adding hot syrup, or it will explode and you can get burned!
Oil mould generously and to help halva drop out of your mould, hold plate and mould and give it several sharp taps on a wooden surface. Glass moulds are the easiest, this old fashioned mould I used, gave me quite a lot of trouble! The good thing is that you can smooth the halva back into shape with a knife!
Like most things, once you have made it once, it is much easier to make the next time!
Place almonds in saucepan cover with water, bring to the boil and boil for two minutes.
Pour almonds into sieve and place in bowl to cool. Once cool enough to handle, using fingers, push almonds out of their skins.
Pat almonds dry with kitchen paper.
Oil frying pan and roast almonds lightly.
Measure out water into saucepan, add sugar and a stick of cinnamon. Simmer on a slow simmer for ten minutes.
Measure out Semolina.
Rub olive oil round the inside of your mould.
Place olive oil in large saucepan and add Semolina.
Over a medium heat “continuously” stir Semolina, until golden. 5-8 minutes.
Once the Semolina is golden, remove from heat and continue to stir for one minute. Most importantly, leave to cool for five minutes, before adding hot syrup. If you hurry this, when you add the hot syrup it will splutter and can be dangerous!
Stir until the Semolina starts to thicken and before it completely thickens and is still liquid, pour into Mould. The semolina thickens quickly, so do not delay.
Smooth off the top.
Place serving plate on top of Mould and turn upside down.
Sprinkle with cinnamon powder and decorate with your roasted almonds!
Greek Homemade Halva is a typical sweet in this lenten feast. You can find the recipes to all these dishes in my blog. Clockwise: lettuce and fennel salad, Taramosalata,Octopus Salad, Humus, Dolmadakia Yialantzi , Bean Salad and to your right Halva.
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