Greek Recipes and Cookbooks

• Village/Country Salad (generally known outside of Greece and Cyprus as "Greek Salad") - This is a salad based on tomato, cucumber, bell peppers and red onion (lettuce is rarely used). The salad is seasoned with salt, black pepper and oregano, and dressed with olive oil. Additionally, feta cheese, olives and capers are sometimes added.
  
  
  
• Pita bread - A flat bread prepared using wheat flour and yeast, but prepared without being allowed to rise.
  
  
• Greek dips - A variety of dips are commonly served with Pita bread, either as a starter or as a side dish. These include Hummus (chickpea dip), Melitzanosalata (eggplant dip), Skordalia (garlic sauce dip), Tahini (sesame paste dip), Taramosalata (carp roe dip) and Tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber and garlic dip).
  
  
• Keftedes - Fried meatballs with oregon and mint.
  
  
• Dolmades - A memorable dish, made with grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, vegetables and sometimes meat.
  
  
• Kleftiko - Lamb marinated in garlic and lemon, and then slowly baked on the bone in a pit oven. The name of this dish is derived from "Klepht" which refers to bandits and warlike mountain people who lived in the Greek countryside when Greece was part of the Ottomon Empire - most of whom participated in the Greek War of Independence. The word "Kleftiko" can be translated as "stolen meat" or the the "meat of thieves".
  
  
• Stifado - A beef and onion stew, flavoured ith red wine and cinnamon.
  
  
  
• Moussaka - Perhaps the best-known Greek dish (outside of the Greece), moussaka is a baked dish consisting of layers of minced meat and sliced eggplant and tomato, topped with white sauce and baked.
  
  
• Souvlaki - Meat, fish or shrimp grilled on a skewer.
  
  
  
• Baklava - a sweet pastry made from layers of phyllo dough, with chopped nuts and sweetened with sugar or honey.

• Recipes and Cookbooks

The Greek Vegetarian: More Than 100 Recipes Inspired by the Traditional Dishes and Flavors of Greece By Diane Kochilas St. Martin's Griffin Paperback (208 pages) List Price: $21.95 Lowest New Price: $12.37 Lowest Used Price: $11.13 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 16:03 Pacific 25 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here Amazon.com: In Ithaca, the villagers so revere the olive that they give names to the olive trees that bear them. We're not talking upstate New York here, but Greece, the land that gave us rosy-fingered dawns and spanakopita. Diane Kochilas gives us the Greek way with vegetables in The Greek Vegetarian, and she should be given some kind of humanitarian award for the effort. For anyone fussing over increasing greens, vegetables, and grains while reducing the place of meat in the usual American diet, The Greek Vegetarian is a place of comfort and repose, a place to settle back in the sun and flip through the pages and let the deliciousness of all these wonderful food ideas lap over your life like warm waves from the Aegean Sea. There are 100 recipes herein, and they come from the traditions of Greek cuisine. No one is stretching just to make a dish vegetarian (oh, OK: there's one recipe for vegetarian souvlaki). Only recently have Greeks gained the dubious title of biggest meat eaters in Europe, and even then all they did, according to the author, was make their plates bigger for the added meat. They still eat a diet rich in vegetables. Always have; always will. But some specifics. Kochilas divides her book into Meze, the little dishes of Greece, and Main Meals, the pastas, soups, stews, casseroles, savory pies and breads, the egg dishes. There's Beet and Apple Salad with a Yogurt Dressing, for starters. How about Roasted Eggplant and Chickpea Salad? Or Arugula Salad with Wrinkled Olives and Orange Slices? The Classic Greek Bean Soup is included. So too is a dish of Potatoes Stewed with Kalamata Olives. The possibilities build, one upon the other. This book bursts with flavor the same way a vine-ripened, sun-warmed tomato bursts at the first bite. It will dribble down your chin if you're not careful. --Schuyler Ingle

The Parthenon Cookbook: Great Mediterranean Recipes from the Heart of Chicago's Greektown By Camille Stagg Agate Surrey Hardcover (120 pages) List Price: $24.95 Lowest New Price: $16.47 Lowest Used Price: $37.86 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 16:03 Pacific 25 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here Product Description: This collection of terrific Greek recipes, from old favorites to unique house specialties, is also a tribute to the oldest restaurant in Chicago's fabled Greektown, a landmark innovator of legendary dishes like saganaki and the first gyros in Chicago. Filled with colorful history and lush photographs, the book features 40 of the restaurant’s most popular recipes from all courses, appetizers to desserts. They include Feta a la Soto, Marathon Salad with Shrimp, Moussaka, Sokolatina, and more. In addition, Greek wine pairings are included as well as full Greek dinner menus with tips for entertaining.

Greek Cooking: The Classic Recipes Of Greece Made Simple - 70 Authentic Traditional Dishes From The Heart Of The Mediterranean Shown Step-By-Step In 280 Glorious Photographs By Rena Salaman Southwater Paperback (96 pages) List Price: $14.99 Lowest New Price: $8.86 Lowest Used Price: $9.90 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 16:03 Pacific 25 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here Product Description: Recipes range from appetizers, soups, fish and shellfish, poultry and meat; through vegetarian dishes, side dishes and salads; to desserts, cakes, sweets, pastries, cookies and breads.

Secrets of Fat-free Greek Cooking: Over 100 Low-fat and Fat-free Traditional and Contemporary Recipes (Secrets of Fat-free Cooking) By Elaine Gavalas Avery Paperback (176 pages) List Price: $14.95 Lowest New Price: $8.48 Lowest Used Price: $4.00 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 16:03 Pacific 25 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here

Greek Cookery: 300 Traditional Recipes By Aspasia Angelikopoulu Mardin Publishing Paperback (208 pages) List Price: $16.95 Lowest New Price: $9.71 Lowest Used Price: $8.85 (As of 16:03 Pacific 25 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here