— LOCAL CUISINE —

AMORGIAN RECIPES

The local cuisine fetch is influence from the mountains full of herbs and goats and the surrounding sea. The menu consists of unique tastes, which are ideally combined with the seasons and the natural environment of the island. The traditional Amorgian cuisine belongs to the so-called Mediterranean Diet which is considered to be one of the healthiest in the world. Its base is vegetables, herbs, pulses, fruits, and cereals in combination with olive oil which contributes to longevity and wellbeing.

STARTERS

Amorgos Recipes Fava

FAVA

Fava is cheap and healthy Greek “farmer food” made of yellow peas full of minerals. Also called the “poor meat” as it’s rich in protein. The usual accessories are thin-sliced red onion, oil and lemon.
Amorgos is famous for its fava, and it’s an endemic legume adapted to the local clime. Still today all agricultural work is done by hand, and the harvest is in May.

Recipe by: Yannis, Thalassino Oneiro
Servings: 4

Ingredients
2, 5 dl yellow peas
7, 5 dl water
1 onion
2 teaspoon salt
How to cook

  1. Soak the lpeas for about twelve hours.
  2. Boil them with water, no salt! Peel and quarter an onion and let it cook with.
  3. Lower temperature and simmer the peas for 40-45 minutes. Skim off with perforated ladle.
  4. Blend the peas with a stick blender to a smooth move.  Serve warm or chilled with curled olive oil, lemon slices and finely shredded red onion as an appetizer or snack.
To be serverd with
1 red onion, shredded
1 lemon sliced into wedges
Olive oil of good quality

Amorgos Recipes Spanokopita and Tiropita

SPANOKOPITA – TIROPITA

Spanokopita (spinach pie) and Tiropita (cheese pie) is a key component of traditional Greek cuisine, wonderful appetizers suitable for any occasion. In the villages the make there own pastry but also phyllo dough is used. The pastry is rolled out, cut in pieces, filled with one tablespoon of the filling and then fold in triangles.

Ingredients
DOUGH
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white wine
3 cups flour with baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
pepper
CHEESE FILLING
2 eggs,
Fresh and dry mint
Soft feta cheese or cream cheese
SPINACH FILLING
3 tabelspoon olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 bunch spinach, well washed and roughly chopped
125g feta cheese
1 egg, beaten
Half cup sour cream or yoghurt
1 tabelspoon finely chopped parsley
1 tabelspoon snipped dill
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grind fresh nutmeg
How to cook

  1. Put all ingredients for the dough in a bowl and mix them all by hand.
  2. Roll out the dough and cut in pieces, about 10×15 cm.
  3. Mix together the filling and put a small spoon of the filling on each piece of dough. Then fold them together in triangels and close the sides all around with your fingers.
  4. Fry them in oil on low fire or you bake them in the oven.

SALAD

Amorgos Recipes Amorgian Salad with Misitra

AMORGIAN SALAD

Amorgian salad has the same ingredients as the greek salad but instead of feta cheese, it’s served with mizithra cheese. Mizithra is a fresh, soft cheese made from goat milk and on Amorgos is the most common Xynomizithra, the sour type. It’s snow-white in color and creamy in texture. It is unsalted and has a pungent aroma with a mild flavor and resembles that of Italian ricotta.

Ingredients
4 large tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 green bell pepper, cored
1 red onion
Olives
Capers
Mizithra cheece
1 tsp dried oregano
4 olive oil
How to cook

  1. Cut the tomatoes into large wedges.
  2. Peel and cut cucumber in half length-wise, then slice into thick halves.
  3. Thinly slice the bell pepper into rings.
  4. Cut the red onion in half and thinly slice into half moons.
  5. Place everything in a large salad dish and mix gently.
  6. Put the capers and olives.
  7. Place the cheese on top and pour over the olive oil and vinegar.
  8. Sprinkle the dried oregano over the salad.
To be serverd with
Crusty bread

Amorgos Recipes Greek Salad with Feta cheese

GREEK SALAD

The Greek salad is one of the most popular and well-known Greek dishes outside and inside Greece. Greeks love the choriatiki, which means village salad in Greek. It’s one of the musts on a Greek dinner table and every taverna has it.

Ingredients
4 large tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 green bell pepper, cored
1 red onion
Olives
Capers
Feta cheece
1 tsp dried oregano
4 olive oil
How to cook

  1. Cut the tomatoes into large wedges.
  2. Peel and cut cucumber in half length-wise, then slice into thick halves.
  3. Thinly slice the bell pepper into rings.
  4. Cut the red onion in half and thinly slice into half moons.
  5. Place everything in a large salad dish and mix gently.
  6. Put the capers and olives.
  7. Place the cheese on top and pour over the olive oil and vinegar.
  8. Sprinkle the dried oregano over the salad.
To be serverd with
Crusty bread

Amorgos Recipes Chorta Mountain greens

CHORTA – MOUNTAIN GREENS

The locals go out to pick the chorta in the mountains and every season has its own chorta such as vlita, wild chards, dandelions… It’s served with oil and lemon as a side dish to meat or fish and is also a part of the diet when fasting.

Ingredients
1 kg Chorta – Mountain greens
5 l Cold water
¼ cup Olive
Salt
Lemon wedges

How to cook

  1. Clean the chorta and rinse it.
  2. Fill a very large saucepan with the water. Put in the chorta and boil it uncovered. When the greens are soft, remove them from the pan and drain.
To be serverd with
Lemon wedges and olive oil

MAIN COURSES

Amorgos Recipes Patatato

PATATATO

Patatato is the “national dish” of Amorgos and is made to many of the panigiria (religious festivals). The whole village or at same festivals people from all the island come together to prepare and cook the patatato. You also will find patatato at many of the taverns around the island.

Ingredients
1 kg goat
2 kg potatoes
Salt and pepper
Cinnamon sticks
1 onion
1 cup of olive oil
1 cup of red wine

How to cook

  1. Simmer a big chopped onion in a deep pan with olive oil. When the onion becomes gold, you add a cup of red wine.
  2. Add the meat in small pieces and stir until it gets little brown.
  3. Cut the potatoes in cubes and add them. Poor water until it cover it all. Then add salt, pepper and cinnamon sticks.
  4. Let it cook in a pressure cooker on very low temperature for about 20 minutes or 75 minutes in regular saucepan.

Amorgos Recipes Briam

BRIAM – ROASTED VEGETABLES

Briam is an oven roasted vegetable dish that can be adapted according to what is in season. Layers of vegetables are baked in a savory tomato sauce and served either as the main meal or as a tasty side dish.

Ingredients
3 zucchini
3 eggplants
2 potatoes
2 carrots
500 gr green beans
1 big onion
½ cup olive oil
Parsley
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoon tomato paste
3 cups of water

How to cook

  1. Chop zucchini, eggplant and potatoes in big cubes and deep fry them.
  2. Chop the onion and simmer it in a frying pan using ½ cup of olive oil.
  3. Cut the carrot and parsley and put all ingredients in an oven tray.
  4. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the vegetables.
  5. Add the can with chopped tomatoes and the tomato paste dissolved in the water.
  6. Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees.
  7. If you wish, shortly before taking it out of the oven, sprinkle some small pieces of feta cheese on top of the vegetables.

DESSERT & PASTRY

Amorgos Recipes - Loukoumades - Honey puffs

LOUKOUMADES – HONEY PUFFS

Loukoumades are pastries made of deep fried dough soaked in sugar syrup or honey with cinnamon and sometimes sprinkled with sesame or powder sugar. It’s served for breakfast, dessert and very common at festivals.

Ingredients
1 kg flour
100 gr fresh yeast or 2 small envelopes dry yeast
½ teaspoon salt
5 foodspoons sugar
Ouzo flavour or vanilla flavour
2 ½ cups water
How to cook

  1. Dissolve the yeast, salt and sugar in the lukewarm water.
  2. Add the flour and the flavour slowly beating by hand, wire or hand mixer until the mixture becomes thick, but not watery and creating bubbles at the top.
  3. Let the dough stand at least 1-2 hours, covered in room temperature.
  4. Then deep fry spoonfuls of the mixture until they appear crispy small croquettes.
SYRUP
2 cups of sugar, 2 ½ cups of water – boil them with orange peel and a stick of cinnamon for half hour at low temperature. At the end, add one cup of honey
To be serverd with
Serve them hot dipped in syrup and sprinkle them with sesame and cinnamon or powder sugar.

Amorgos Recipes - Pasteli - Photo: Ilias Fountoulis

PASTELI

Pasteli is the traditional sweet of Amorgos and it’s served at weddings, baptisms and social events. It consists of sesame and honey in a lemon leaf. The unique with the Amorgian pasteli is that it’s sprinkled with cumin seeds.

Ingredients
Equal amount of sesame and honey
Cumin seeds
How to cook

  1. Put honey and sesame seeds in a big pot and let it simmer under constant stirring about 20-30 minutes, until it reach 125-130 ºC.
  2. Pour the mixture out on a baking sheet and spread it out with a spatula and then sprinkle it with cumin. Leave it cool down to room temperature.
  3. Cut it into diamond shapes and put each piece in a lemon leaf.

NOTE! If using a wooden appliance or wooden bench to pour the mixture on, it’s important to keep in mind that you clean everything with red wine before use.

Amorgos Recipes - Spoon sweet with rose petals

SPOON SWEET WITH ROSE PETALS

Spoon sweet with rose petals “Gliko tou koutaliou” (Sweet of the spoon) are popular in Greece and usually served with Greek coffee and a glass of cold water. Most are made of whole fruit, though some kinds are made of pieces or purees.

Recipe by: Maria, Tholaria

Ingredients
The petals of 5-6 roses
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
Juice of one lemon (On Amorgos the instead use some leaves from the geranium “Queen of Lemon” (Pelargonium citrosa)
How to cook

  1. Collect rose petals, choosing interior that is more tender. Be sure to cut off the white ends.
  2. Put the petals in a pot, and crumble the sugar over with your fingers.
  3. Let it rest for 2 hours.
  4. Put water in a saucepan and the candied rose petals and put on low heat for about 15 minutes, stir from sticking.
  5. Once a boil add the lemon juice and got the fire.
  6. Save the sweet, after cooling in dry sterile jar.
To be serverd with
Greek coffee and/or a glass of cold water.

Amorgos Recipes - Spoon sweet with grapes

SPOON SWEET WITH GRAPES

A very healthy dessert has been prepared for centuries, using fresh local fruits. Grapes are very popular, especially the variety without seeds. These kinds of sweets you will always find in the Amorgian houses and is offered to the visitors on small plates with a spoon kept in a glass of cold water.

Ingredients
1 kg grapes
1 ½ kg sugar
2 cups water
Some leaves of citrus geranium or lemon leaves or orange peels.
How to cook

  1. Clean the grapes from the stems.
  2. Put all of the ingredients in a saucepan and cook slowly until the grapes are soft and syrupy, about 2 hours.
  3. To get a natural flavor put some leaves of citrus geranium or if you prefer lemon leaves or orange peels.
To be serverd with
Greek coffee and/or a glass of cold water.

Amorgos Recipes - Xerotigana

XEROTIGANA

Xserotigana is the traditional sweet of Amorgos which is made for Christmas and Easter but also offered in weddings and baptisms along with traditional pastels. A reference point to the local tradition of Amorgos, the Xserotigana, accompanies every joyful moment in the life of the Amorgians. Festival of Xserotigana is held 5 of September in Aegiali.

Ingredients
1 lb/450 gr all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons tsipouro, ouzo or grappa
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water

3-4 cups olive oil for frying

Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup water
1 stick cinnamon

Topping
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon roasted sesame seeds, rub in a blender to become powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon powder

How to

  1. Put flour into a large mixing bowl and make a small hole with your fingers in the center. Pour in the ouzo (or other alcohol you choose), olive oil, salt, and water. Knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes or until smooth. Cover and set it aside to rest for about 10 minutes.
  2. While the dough is resting, make the syrup. In a large saucepan, bring the honey, water, sugar and cinnamon stick to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat until slightly thickened, 10 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick and turn the heat to the lowest possible setting to keep it hot without boiling.
  3. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll each out to a thin sheet. Roll into very thin sheet with a pasta machine or rolling pin and cut into strips about 8-10 cm wide and 20 cm long and fold them into shapes or just leave them as they are. Fry them for a few seconds only, until golden brown, and remove with a slotted spoon or tongs. Strain on kitchen paper and let cool. Using tongs, dip them, one by one, into the honey syrup and turn to coat. Transfer them to a large bowl and sprinkle lightly with the mixing of coarsely chopped walnuts, cinnamon powder, and roasted sesame seeds powder. Repeat until all of the pastries are coated. Carefully transfer the pastries to a serving platter and pour any remaining honey syrup on top. Serve right away.