I love it when summer segues into
autumn - and we’ve had a languorous, elongated mellow autumn this year. What I
enjoy most is the change of seasonal produce and so, accordingly, the change of
food fare. We are also very fortunate to have green-fingered, generous
neighbours who regularly send over home-grown supplies. Lettuce is, of course,
for us an autumn/winter veggie so it features in our ‘ecological produce box’ with
the peppers, spring onions, and parsley. The bell peppers were incorporated
into that day’s menu of chicken and pepper souvlaki, roasted on the grill pan,
while the conical, green flask peppers graced the tomato salad along with the
onion, while the parsley garnished the rice.
I began including tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds,
in recipes when catering for the non-salt dietary needs of a visiting cousin. I
regularly make our own version of pesto using our ground, salted almonds
(instead of the traditional pine-nuts) and basil leaves, to which are added
cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese and olive oil. This is a lovely fresh sauce
with pasta of your choice. For our cousin, I felt the omission of cheese would
mean something was missing from both the flavor and texture of the pesto, so to
compensate I added some tahini, which has since become a regular ingredient in
many dishes.
With eggs,cream, tahini, cheese, peppers and
mushrooms, I made a savoury bake - rather like a quiche filling - delicious
accompanied with roasted red peppers as a salad.
Another vegetable that our
neighbours grow is Swiss chard or seskoula. This boils up very quickly and can be served
with oil, lemon and salt The sweet red peppers, here called florines
as they are widely grown in the northern Florina area, are dry-roasted in
the oven, stripped of their skins, then salt and a little vinegar are added to
their own delicious oils.
Below you can see grilled chicken breast with
caramelized onions, kritheraki – a rice-like pasta type – cooked with leeks and a
healthy swig of lemon juice, served with fried pepper and Swiss chard salads.
Savouring with that a nice, chilled Macedonian wine - what more can you ask
for? 
Below,
with the leeks, you see the lotus fruit
which I’ve made mention of before. I got tired of only making cookies with them
and cast around for other options. This first one is a recipe I adapted: was
for apple, now makes lotus muffins.
Fate seemed to
conspire to have me acquainted with pasta flora, aka pasta frola. Two years ago, when in
Aegina with Angeliki, a neighbour presented us with her home-baked version
which was delicious- as was the version our cousin served up when we visited
her last year. Then during our stay at Amanita
Guest House in Pelion, for breakfast Marianna served us a cherry-filled one
which was memorable. Since then it’s been my quest to produce the beautiful base
which is not short-crust pastry as some recipes would have it, nor is it a base
of sponge, the texture of which I’ve
strangely got an aversion to. It falls somewhere in between the two.
My first attempt,
below, with lotus fruit filling, was too thick, making the tart a bit heavy. My
second attempt, playing with lotus and raspberry jam fillings, had a base that
was thinner but needed just a touch more baking time.
I’m very fortunate that our neighbours are
happy to be culinary guinea-pigs and also give me useful post-delivery
feedback! My dream would be that some kind Argentinian can provide me with an
authentic fail-safe recipe. In the meantime, both Z and neighbours may continue
to be on the receiving end of further variations while I strive for pasta flora perfection!
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