Spinach with rice a.k.a - Spanakorizo

Spinach with Rice a.k.a Spanakorizo

 More Greek words ;)  Spanakorizo, this is a dish I discovered at a local tavern here in Corfu and it's delicious especially if you love spinach. It can be served as a side dish or as a main course.

By Mommy's Kitchen
Published 11/30/2014

Ingredients

2 cups rice
1 1/2 spinach
1/2 lemon
1 beef cube knorr
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon dill
2 sprigs fresh onions
5 cloves of garlic
himalayan salt or regular salt  and pepper to taste
/12 teaspoon of oregano
1/3 cup of olive oil

Take your Spinach and cut the bottom of the stems. Soak them in water 3 or 4 times until they there's no dirt at the bottom of the bowl or pot.Drain and cut chop small pieces.

Finely chop all of you remaining greens as seen in the pictures below your dill, parsley, fresh onions, garlic. Add your rice and all your greens in a pot along with your olive oil and saute for about 10 minutes.

All my greens are fresh.

My parsley is fresh, I had so much that I placed it in the freezer. You can still chop it up.

Chop your garlic into small pieces.

When all your greens are chopped up place them in your pot add your rice, oil, oregano salt and pepper to taste.  If  you would like you can add 1 knorr meat boullion. Saute for 10 minutes.

I just love capturing food while it's cooking, it looks so mouth watering! 

Add 5 measurings cups of water. Cover and let cook for 30 minutes.

When the rice is sliced in the center it is ready, I prefer it a bit al dente. When it's ready to serve

squeeze half a lemon stir and serve. You can serve as a side dish or as a main course. Another tasty dish from my kitchen to your. 

KaleOrexi !!!!

Yield: 5 servings 

Prep Time: 00:20 min.

Cook time: 00 hrs. 30 mins. 

Total time: 50 mins. 

Tags:Greek food,Greek recipes, easy lunches, side dishes, easy recipes, Spinach recipes 

Boozed up meat

Most of my recipes have sentimental value, when I cook a meal I always have a memory attached to it. This recipe was given to me by my local butcher Vaggelis, he's such a sweet man and very humble, since he knows that I always try to new recipes he suggested the following. It was mouthwatering and juicy !! I hope you enjoy.He didn't give me a name so I did, it's my butcher's boozed up meat !

 Ingredients:

3 pounds of beef ( choose the roast beef type) 

1 can of beer ( I use sweet beer)

1 regular onion

1 teaspoon black peppercorns
3 garlic cloves 

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/3 cup of Olive Oil 

wax paper

Clay pan ( if you have, other wise use a regular pan) 

Take a deep bowl, pour your beer, add all the ingredients and mix then,  cut your onions in small pieces and add it in mixture. Take your beef wash it ( I always do ) place it in the mixture and allow it to marinate till  the next day, this will  make your beef  very tender and juicy. There wasn't any left overs !

                                       

I use a clay pot ( makes the food tastier), place your meat inside, pour some of the mixture, add your oil, cut your garlic in small pieces add salt, pepper and oregano to taste. Cover it with wax paper as seen in picture.

Place in oven cook at 350 for an hour or until it's tender you can serve with boiled rice or baked potatoes like I did. 

A picture is worth a thousand words they say, if that's so I wish this picture could show you just how tender the meat is. My son was asking for seconds !!! 

Another dish from my kitchen to yours ! KALE OREXI !! 

Baked Pasta with Chopmeat A.K.A Pastichio ( A Greek Dish )

You can't get more Greek than this,well you can but just as a matter of saying. Waking up on Sunday,  the lingering scent of this beautiful dish just tickled our noses and instead of toast, we would say, is it ready ??? My mom being Greek, would always get up before everyone and prepare this beautiful dish, even if we went out to lunch she would still cook  therefore when we would come back from our outing we would have something to eat. She was just being Greek. Pastichio was not only a Sunday dish, it was a holiday dish, Christmas time, Birthdays, namedays, barbecues etc. Any  holiday would be accompanied by Pastichio. I learned to make it just like my mom and now I'm serving it from my table to yours. It takes about 3 hours to make but you will have it for two days, if it's possible .

Let's start wit the ingredients:

Red Sauce

2 pounds chopmeat

1 medium onion or three small ones

1 medium tomato

2 cloves of garlic

1 whole nutmeg or  1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

4 whole cloves or 1/3 teaspoon of ground cloves

1/2  teaspoon of cinnamon

1/3 cup of olive oil

oregano, salt and pepper

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Pasta Pennes or if your have access to a Greek store ask for Special Pastichio Spaghetti I still prefer Penne Pasta

1 egg

2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

4 tablespoons of  butter

Cream or Pudding what ever wording you prefer

8 cups of milk

1 evaporated small can of milk

1 whole nutmeg or black pepper

2 whole eggs

1 stick of sweet butter

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Let's begin with the red sauce:

 

Chop up your onions,tomato and garlic cloves. Place them in your skillet add your olive oil, ( if you like olive oil you can add more )  1/2 teaspoon of oregano and a dash of salt and pepper then saute for about 10 min. then add your chopmeat, saute for about 15 minutes or until brown. Cover chopmeat with water let cook for about 1 hour on high. Once it's ready to thicken add your tomato paste, grind nutmeg, add whole cloves, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and a dash of oregano. When it's ready set aside for later use.

Next we prepare our cream:

Place 8 cold cups of milk in a pot

for each cup we need 2 tablespoons of flour ( all purpose flour)

so 8 cups x 2 tablespoons = 16 tablespoons of flour

1 cup of milk should be the evaporated milk ( tastes a lot better)

  

Before placing on stove add flower and stir very well with a whisk

  

Once the flour has dissolved completely place on stove on high and keep stirring until it thickens into a cream, if the flour hasn't dissolved completely before placing on stove it will crumble up into tiny balls and your cream will not come out good. Make sure it has dissolved completely !!!!  When the cream is read add the whole stick of butter and stir, then add a whole beaten egg and stir, then ( usually) I add at the tip of my teaspoon black pepper, if your prefer nutmeg you can grind nutmeg into your cream. Stir very well  and set aside.

Your cream is ready when it can form a somewhat ball shape when placed in a plate I added red sauce so you can see what I mean.

Pasta time

Cook as per package add salt for taste while boiling

I didn't have Penne Pasta so I used these, they're very  close

Once they are ready drain and place in a pot.

Add 1/2 stick of regular butter

3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon of butter

1 whole egg and mix all ingredients together.

Now get your pan, make sure you butter your pan very well.

Add your first layer of pasta make sure you're not able to see the bottom of the pan

Then add your chopmeat sauce, don't use it all set aside about 4 big salad spoons, this will be our topping when we serve the Pastichio.

Then add your final layer of pasta

Then your final layer, the cream

When your are done, beat 1 egg and spread on top of your Pastichio this gives it color. Bake for 45 minutes  180 celsius or 350 Fahrenheit.

This is how it should look when it's ready. Before serving set aside for 1/2 hour or else you will not be able to cut proper pieces.

While this is cooling you make your sauce for the topping

     

Take your leftover sauce place it in a small pot, add two cups of water,2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 tablespoon olive oil, cinnamon,cloves, oregano,salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil until it thickens, when it's almost ready to thicken simmer it on medium heat. Place in a small bowl, when you are ready to serve your Pastichio. On top of your piece you can add a teaspoon of parmesan cheese. I prefer to grind with my fork Feta Cheese. I just love feta.

Another dish from my table to yours !! And by the way, if you have kids lots of licking and eating before everything goes into the dishwasher and sink !! ;)

One final tip and most important: When baking this dish, add a bigger pan with water, than the one your are baking with, in the oven, underneath the Pastichio, because it will drip therefore this way, the juices will drip into the pan with water.

Enjoy this Sunday dish !!!!