Fifteenth of August, “the Easter of summer”, the month of the Virgin Mary, festivals, customs, but also good food.

After the fifteen-day fast imposed by the Orthodox faith, the first word on the table, on the fifteenth of August, is meat, which is supplemented with many other dishes of the Greek land and tradition.

The APE-MPE makes a small reference to special recipes of the festive day, since in most regions of the country grilled meats are the star on the table of Panagia.

Boiled goat with pilaf in Chania

The traditional pilaf is one of the dishes that is not missing from the table of the Chanio 15th of August. It is usually prepared in large cauldrons. In Chania, along with red meat, they also add rooster or chicken to the pot. This simple recipe owes its flavor to the good quality of the meat. Older animals, such as goats and goats, give the tastiest broth.

Boiled meat is always accompanied by pilaf and in many cases with yogurt.

In Chania on these days, meat is also consumed either in an oven with vines, or in the thraka, while in some villages we also find antikristo.

The greens that are abundant in the Cretan land are a key ingredient on Panagia’s table, as are the traditional kaltsounia with cheese. Of course, wine, tsikoudia and racomelo are never missing from the table.

On many Cretan tables, meat pies are also a basic side dish.

All the Cretan land on a table in Rethymnon

Boureki, grilled on the fire, lamb meat, pilaf, fragrant handmade sausages, boiled meat, macaroni with grated dried flower cheese, dolmades with yogurt, stuffed pumpkin flowers, roasted on vines in the oven with baked potatoes, are the most famous dishes that dominate the festive table on the day of the fifteenth of August.

Salads are not missing from the table, green in season, with many herbs, mainly dill and basil, but also dakos, with breadcrumbs, grated tomato, oil, myzithra, coarse salt and oregano, as well as the graviera that rests edge, edge on every Cretan dish.

All together, they are spread on the tablecloths, offering color, the smell of the abundant, hospitable, rich, Cretan land.

When people’s backs are against the walls or their chairs, that’s when it’s time for dessert… Baked apple, galaktoburek, buns, pies and cheese pies fried with honey, spoon sweets with yogurt and of course tsikoudia which also helps with digestion.

Dominant on the Rethymnon table is the bureki. Borek, as it is also known in the neighboring country, Turkey, and means “small pie”. In fact, on the beaches of Smyrna and in Istanbul, there are not a few who confess the heritage they got from Cretan cuisine and the recipes they use, sometimes with variations and sometimes as they are. The word bureki, yes, is Turkish, but kolokythombureko is a purely Cretan recipe which is not missing from almost any home. With foil opened by hand, plenty of flour on the potatoes and pumpkins, finely chopped and mixed with mint, and plenty of homemade mizithra. The oven completes the art of the housewife, offering an amazing treat for which there is no “bad reason”, as the grandmothers jokingly say.

Half a kilo of all-purpose flour, ½ cup of oil, 1 to 2 pods of chives, a glass of water, salt, pepper, about 800 grams of potatoes cut into thin slices lengthwise, 800 grams of zucchini cut like potatoes, chopped mint, plenty of myzithra , about 400 grams, if you want to scrape dry flower cheese as well. Be sure to add a large cup of flour, the same to oil, the same to yogurt, 4 eggs and reserve sesame seeds to sprinkle over the foil before putting the bun in the oven. Make the dough by mixing the wet ingredients and the salt and slowly adding the flour. Rest the dough for half an hour. Wash the courgettes and cut them and similarly the potatoes. We pour the salt on them, drain them, the same for the potatoes. Divide the dough into two parts. We spread one part on the medium-sized pan after we have oiled it well. Spread covering the walls as well. Layer the filling ingredients starting with the potatoes, spread the flour, then the courgettes, spread the flour, rub the dried flower cheese, pour half the mint, spread half the mizithra, and again from the beginning the next layer exactly the same as the first … Beat the milk, oil and eggs and pour the mixture into the pan. Spread the rest of the dough over our ingredients. We push the dough into the walls to close the bun, add the sesame seeds, and cut it into the portions we will serve… cross it, and bake it at 180 degrees for an hour and a half for sure.

When the house and the yard or the terrace start to smell of musk, serve red wine in glasses, wish those around you and enjoy the hot, just-out-of-the-oven bun… Whatever you have left over is delicious even cold.

Recipe for roasting vine leaves in the oven

Whatever meat you choose for your company, cut it into large pieces, the ribs, arms and sides of an almost year old lamb are recommended. Put dried vine leaves in the pan… and spread the meat on top, which will be dry. Nothing else… Turn on the oven at 180 degrees. As soon as it is heated, put the pan and turn the meat every quarter. After half an hour of baking, salt it with coarse salt on both sides. Nothing else… Check how soft you want it and turn off the oven. Leave the meat in the turned off oven for a quarter of an hour. Bon appetit and a healthy new year.

Traditional stew in Evia

The festival in the village of Oxylithos in Central Evia is special.

In the context of the celebration of Panagia Petriotissa or Panagia Hatirianissa, visitors are welcomed by serving them a traditional stew.

The inhabitants offer meat, onions, tomatoes, wine for its preparation and many times it is said that there are more than 170 cauldrons where it is cooked.

It is simmering from the eve. The custom is very old and was observed even in the Occupation, even if at that time they were made with whatever materials were available.

Pastitsada or Corfu

Every year on his day August fifteenth in Corfu, the famous pastitsada with rooster takes the lead on the festive table. A delicious dish that draws its roots from Venetian cuisine and today combines spaghetti with the rooster, while in the Venetian years it combined spaghetti with the “hunting” of the king.

According to the traditional Corfu recipe, first begins the preparation of the rooster which, after browning in fresh butter, is sautéed with herbs, onions, garlic and spices. It is boiled on low heat with fresh tomato paste for at least two hours.

Then the boiled spaghetti, preferably thick, is drained and sprinkled with a little oil, placed in a deep dish and the sauce with the pieces of rooster is poured over them. A common secret of the people of Corfu is cinnamon, which is added to almost all foods with a red thick sauce, while an essential detail for this particular dish is the sprinkling of plenty of grated cheese, which gives color and flavor.

The Corfu pastitsada with rooster comes first in the preference of the visitors to Corfu during the fifteenth of August, while it is customary at many festivals on the island, to roast lamb as well, as this particular celebration is considered as the small Easter of the summer.

Cycladic roast

In many islands of the Cyclades, such as e.g. Paros, Santorini, Ios and Sifnos, the traditional festive recipe is based on pork. The food is called “Cycladic roast”. Rosto is a dish of Italian origin that includes meat with potatoes, carrots and mushrooms, served with thick spaghetti and provides two meals cooked in the same pot without the need to use an oven.

Originally, spaghetti was served as a first course with red tomato sauce. Then the sliced ​​meat was served, which was usually a cheap cut of pork instead of a breast, with potatoes, carrots and mushrooms. Pork roast with rosemary and beer, is also found in Kefalonia, as well as in Cyprus, which is prepared with many types of meat, mainly game.