Welcome to Sisters' Sintages, a blog about family, traditions, and good food.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Atherina


When our children were little, one of our favorite activities was going to the beach in Southold with our seine net. This net was used to catch small fish called whitebait or sperring known as "atherina " in Greek. We purchased the seine net at one of the local baitshops cum hardware stores located on the North shore of Long Island where we have a summer home. We attached small weights to the bottom of the net and attached two broom handles to either end of the net. That net and a bucket were all the children needed to keep them occupied for hours at the beach. The best beaches for this kind of net fishing were Gooseneck Beach and Cedar Beach. The fish were most plentiful in August and September. Usually Stella and Mark would manage the net and it was Angela's job to splash the water to chase the fish into the net, since she was the youngest of the group. The net bottom had to be held close to the sandy bottom
while the fish were corraled into the net and brought to shore. These fish were always found close to shore and the children could safely net them in the shallow water. After bringing the full net to shore and laying it on the sand, the children would pick out the sperring and put them in the bucket filled with sea water. Sometimes they would also catch crabs, star fish and hermit crabs in the net as well. These were always thrown back in the sea. After catching enough sperring to fill our bucket, we we would head home so Yiayia could cook their catch. She would put them in a colander to rinse them out and pick out pebbles or stray inedible fish. She would then slice a couple of onions into rings and toss them with sperring. Then she'd toss them in salt and pepper seasoned flour and fry them up in vegetable oil. After they were fried, a squeeze of lemon or a sprinkle of vinegar was all that was needed. Yiayia had a special trick she used to do when making this dish. She would fill the frying pan with enough fish and onions to fill the bottom of the frying pan while the oil was very hot. When the fish looked browned on one side, she would take a plate and cover the top of the pan. She would then flip the pan over and slip the cooked side of the fish onto the plate. She then would slip the uncooked side down back into the frying pan from the plate. She always managed to do this without spilling the hot oil or burning herself. The finished product always came out of the frying pan all in one piece like an omelette. I have never been able to do this, so when I cook this dish the sperring is always in small clumps or individal pieces. I just flip the fish in the oil until they are done. This dish, served with a tomato and cucumber salad is all you could ask for after a day at the beach.

YIAYIA'S FRIED ATHERINA

2 pounds whitebait or sperring
1 large onion or 2 medium, sliced thin
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 1/12 cup of all-purpose flour
1 lemon, halved or 2 to 3 tablespoons wine vinegar
vegetable oil for frying

Rinse fish in cold water in a colander. Drain and toss in sliced onion wth the fish, Season flour with salt and pepper. Add seasoned flour to fish and onion mixture and toss well. Make sure that fish and onions are coated with flour. Heat oil in fry pan to sizzle. Add fish to pan in batches. Do not over-crowd fry pan with fish mixture, because fish will not fry up crisp. It is better to do smaller batches rather than one large one because the fish will steam and turn soggy. Do not attempt Yiayia's trick unless you are very brave and very dexterous. After frying drain fish on paper towel and then plate. Finish off with a squeeze of lemon or a sprinkle of wine vinegar. Traditional accompaniment is a tomato and cucumber salad or a plate of boiled dandelion greens.

PKK

Coffee and Toast

A few days ago I stopped at a local deli to pick up a container of coffee and a buttered roll. I got a whiff of bread toasting in a toaster and suddenlythe smell of the toast took me back to my dad's coffee shop, When I was a litle girl my dad owned a coffee shop on Columbus Avenue and 82nd Street in Manhattan. Sometimes my sister and I would go there before close up time to meet our father. My father would always prepare a special treat for me. He would make me an order of buttered white toast using the square pieces of white bread you'ld only find in restaurants. He would sprinkle the buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon and then give me a cup of coffee in a green and white cup and saucer. Of course, my coffee was mostly milk with just enough coffee to color and flavor it. The toast, always two slices,would sit on the plate squared off and sliced on the diagonal into triangles. The butter would be all melted into the toast and the cinnamon and sugar would seep into toast, especially if my dad had used an extra pat of butter. I loved dunking the toast into the coffee. Towards the end, the coffee would get a little sweeter with a cinnamon taste. Many years later, when I was already married and a young mother, I found a square white bread by Taystee in the market. It was called sandwich white and I bought a loaf home. I was so excited thinking that I could finally re[plicate my father's treat for my children.
PKK

Comfort Foods



When I was a little girl, the best treat my mother had to offer was not candy, cookies or cake. It was a special treat that some Greeks may be familiar with, the beaten, sugared egg yolk or "ktipito avgo". She would separate the egg yolk from the egg white by cracking the egg shell in half and shifting the yolk from shell to shell letting the white separate from the yolk. She would then drop the yolk in a cup and add sugar. Then the tedious process of beating the yolk and sugar with a spoon would begin. If she was tired or in a hurry, the finished product would have a grainy texture because the sugar was not completely incorporated into the egg yolk. However, when she had time and energy, the treat would be satiny and glossy, the sugar having been beaten into submission by her vigorous beating of the mixture against the side of the cup by the spoon. This was the sweet that I longed for. Shiny and smooth with not a hint of a sugar grain. For a really special treat, she sometimes added cocoa powder to the mixture, which gave this treat an extra special kick. Vivian and I remember this treat from our childhood, but Vivian also remembers a different experience involving eggs. She grew up in Greece during the Great Famine which took place during wartime and post WW II. She remembers our mother chasing her and giving her a precious raw egg to drink, which Vivian didn't like, while all the while telling her that her aunt's children were being deprived of the precious egg that Vivian didn't want to swallow. I, being the child born in America, had the benefit of having my egg yolk with sugar, which was in very short supply in wartime Chios. Vivian has told me that they used carob as a sweetener during that time. Yiayia also used to make this treat for her grandchildren, Stella, Mark and Angela. Stella still has memories of her Yiayia making her special "ktipito avgo me chocolata".
Another special treat that both our mother and father would make for us, especially when we had sore throats, was a drink of hot milk, butter and honey. They would heat up a glass of milk in a small sauce pan until it simmered and then pour it into a glass. They would then add a pat of butter and two to three spoons of honey. They would stir this all up and let us sip it slowly. It always soothed our sore throats and it became a sick time tradition. My children still ask for honeyed, buttered heated milk when they have sore throats.
Our father didn't have a sweet tooth, but he had one favorite dessert. He loved honey and nuts, particularly filberts (hazelnuts) and honey. He would shell the filberts, add them to a cup and drizzle the nuts with honey. If he didn't have filberts, he would substitute walnuts which are actually more common in Greece, but he preferred filberts. I remember sitting with him and him letting me use the nutcracker, while he cracked the nuts with his hands. We usually had a jar of Greek honey from Mount Hymettos which was considered the best Greek honey avaiable here in the United States. We purchased it at the Greek specialty store, Margaritis on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. After cleaning the nuts and drizzling them with the honey, we would proceed to eating them. Daddy would also sometimes have a shot of Metaxas, a Greek brandy,with his honey and nuts. Truly a dessert fit for the gods.
PKK

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter Tradition.



I am again victorious this year. My red Easter egg emerged the winner in the famous Easter egg war which is a tradition in every Greek home during the breaking of the Lenten fast. Some families have their egg war when returning from the Resurrection midnight mass. In our family, Easter Sunday is the time when we crack our eggs.
Family and friends gather around the Lenox bowl and select their egg to do battle with. We then challenge each other and one by one the eggs get cracked. The person left with the uncracked egg is the winner and saves his egg in a special place until next years's battle.Three years ago my best friend Debbie spent her first Greek Easter with us. She was the winner that year, and she still has her red egg in a Tupperware container in her fridge. Last year Stella's friend Christian was the winner. This year I had the winning egg. I hope it brings me better health. In my dotage I have become like my mother. As she grew older, she always looked forward to having the winning Easter egg or to getting the lucky coin hidden in the Basilopitta. She felt it was a good luck omen and so do I.
PKK

Vivian's Tsoureki-Easter 2010



Tsoureki is the traditional yeast bread which Greek families serve at Easter. The recipe which follows, is the one I used this year, and is a combination of several recipes that I have used in the past. The tsourekia this year not only looked good, they also tasted great!!

Ingredients
2 cups milk
2 envelopes of active dry yeast (4 1/2 teaspoons)
9 cups of all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 teaspoon of orange zest
1 teaspoon of lemon zest(optional)
*1 tablespoon of mahlepi, ground very fine
¼ cup butter, melted
5 eggs, well beaten

Glaze
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
½ cup whole blanched almonds

Procedure

• Warm the milk and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast, ¼ cup of the sugar and one cup of flour. Cover and proof for one hour.

• In another bowl, combine eight cups of flour, the salt, remaining sugar, orange rind, lemon rind, and the mahlepi* Make a well in the center. Add the yeast mixture, melted butter and the beaten eggs. Start mixing from the center, outwards, while bringing the flour in the well. Stir the mixture together until a ball forms.

• Dust a surface with flour and begin kneading the dough until it is smooth. If the dough sticks to your hands, add a little more flour. Knead for about 10 minutes.

• Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a cloth, and put in a warm, draft free place, until it becomes double in size. This takes at least two hours.

• When double in size, punch dough down

• Divide into six small balls and roll the first three balls into strips about 12 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter. Place the three strips side by side, and pinch the strips together at one end. Begin braiding the strips and when you have finished braiding, pinch the other end of the braid. You have formed your first tsoureki.

• Repeat this procedure for the second tsoureki.

• Place the braided tsourekia on a parchment lined baking sheet and let them rise again, for two hours, until they have doubled in bulk.

• While the tsourekia are rising, preheat oven to 350.

• Prepare the glaze by beating together the milk, and the egg.

• When the tsourekia have doubled in bulk, brush them with the glaze.

• Decorate with blanched almonds

• Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the tsourekia are golden brown.

• Remove from the oven and cool on a rack

ENJOY!!!

*Mahlepi is an aromatic spice made from the seeds of the St Lucie Cherry (Prunus Mahaleb.) The cherry stones are cracked to extract the seed kernel, which is about 5 mm diameter. Mahlepi has a very strong aroma, and therefore, a very small quantity is used in in baking to obtain the desired smell and taste. The flavour of mahlepi is similar to a combination of bitter almond and cherry.

*Mahlepi can be purchased from ethnic Greek grocery stores and is usually sold as seed kernels, which must be ground up before use.

VKA

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Memories of Easters Past


The preparation for this Easter holiday brings back many memories of Easters past. Easters spent with family and friends; Easters spent in Bloomfield, NJ with my mother, surrounded by her children and grandchildren; whole lamb on a skewer, being cooked in Pauline’s back yard, while our children took turns in cranking the handle to turn the lamb. This was generally followed by Easter egg hunts, an American custom that we adopted as part of our Easter celebration.

I recall vividly the midnight Resurrections Masses in Manhattan, and my family's efforts to bring the lit Easter candle home on the subway. It was the one day of the year that my father came to church with us. It was a particular challenge to keep the candle lit on the train, from 96 Street to 135street, and then walk from the train station, six blocks to our home. But what a thrill when that lit candle made it into the house!!

Then there are memories going even further back when I was a three year old, and living in an occupied country. During the German occupation of World War II, a desperate poverty and a great famine overtook Greece. My father was in the United States at the time, serving as a soldier in the US military. It was during those dreaded years of the great famine, that my mother, in order to avoid starvation, left her family in Vrondados, with a three year old in tow, and moved in with my father's family in Viki, a northern village of Chios. The journey from Vrondados, to Viki on mule back, took nearly a whole day.

Many of the memories I have of the three years during which my mother and I lived in Viki, are centered around my paternal grandparents’ hearth. Food was plentiful in my grandparents’ home because my father’s people were all farmers and fishermen.

I was the first grandchild of her oldest son, and my grandmother Paraskevi doted on me, and I, in turn adored her. My grandmother had a generosity of spirit which was rare, particularly in days when food was scarce. My grandmother would bake every week and she would make extra bread for her friends and neighbors, as well as, for the poor of the village. She would send me, and her young son Steven, who was two year older than me, to deliver the bread to the poor, the hungry, the widows and their orphans.

The holiday which I remember most vividly as a child, was the midnight Mass of the Resurrection is the village. I remember the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin, "Tis Panagias" as it was called in Greek, where the men would stand on one side of the church and the women on the other. I remember standing in front of my grandmother as she wrapped her arms around me. Just before midnight, all the candles, except one, in the alter of the church, would be extinguished. The church would become completely dark. I remember being frightened, and my grandmother holding me tighter and making the sign of the cross on my chest, continuously, to reassure me that everything would be alright. Then the priest would light his candle and begin chanting, “defte lavete fos, ap tou anesperou fotos” as he lit several parishioners' candles, and within a minute, the church was brightly lit, by the candles that people lit from each other.

I have attended many Easter midnight mass services, since the ones in the village, and although the ritual is universal in every Greek Orthodox Church, nothing compares to the midnight mass in Viki, enfolded in my grandmother’s arms.

For this Easter, in keeping with the traditions of my family, I baked koulourakia, and I made tsourekia. Like my grandmother, I made extra tsourekia to give my next door neighbors. It made me feel good to pass on my grandmother’s tradition.
VKA