Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska

Improvising with Eggplant and Rosemary

Eggplant Kebab on Rosemary Skewers

Completing an eggplant trifecta, yesterday we had Eggplant Kebab on Rosemary Skewers. (Eggplant Clafoutis and Spaghetti with Eggplant and Tomato Sauce make up the trifecta’s other legs.)

Eggplant Kebab came about through sheer serendipity. I was washing eggplant, idly thinking about how to prepare it, when I noticed the vase of ...

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Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano with Recipe for Spaghetti with Eggplant and Tomato Sauce (Pasta alla Norma)

Andrea Camilleri

Andrea Camilleri, photograph by Pensiero

(From Greece)

English language books are hard to find on the island.

I carefully select those to bring with us, focusing on books we’ll both enjoy and want to reread. After several years, most books recede far enough into memory that rediscovering them is a pleasure. ...

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Greek Wild Thyme Honey with Recipe for Cinnamon-Honey Tart (Melopita – Μελόπιτα)

Thyme Covered Hillsides Tigani Bay

Sandy beaches and rocky promontories alternate along the island’s irregular coastline. Mounds of wild thyme cover the hills sloping down to the sea, and scent the sea air with their heady aroma.

Harvesting Wild Thyme

By the start of summer, the wild thyme is in bloom. Yiannis, our ...

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Cooking in Packets Seals in Juices & Flavor

Salmon Kleftiko Packet

During the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Turks, Klefts were irregular guerilla fighters. Among their many feats, Klefts famously stole sheep and roasted them slowly over buried fires. This trick prevented the Ottomans from smelling meat and finding the guerillas.

Kleftiko is a lamb dish named after the Klefts’ ...

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Tasty Mediterranean Tart Keeps for Days

 

Workmen have been at the house for a week replacing our ancient furnaces with a new boiler. For the last five hours they’ve been struggling to run long lengths of pipe through a narrow opening in the basement ceiling’s sheetrock. The sound made by repeatedly pounding and banging on metal ...

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Mango and Feta Salad and Pan-Fried Scallops with Mango Salsa (Μάνγκο και Φέτα Σαλάτα & Χτένια με Μάνγκο Σάλτσα)

Fruit and cheese pair beautifully.

Pears and blue cheese, apple and cheddar, watermelon and feta: all are wonderful combinations.When I came across Mango and Feta Salad on Feeding Maybelle, I started craving it immediately. Feeding Maybelle is my Taste and Create partner this month.

Taste and Create is an event created and ...

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