Huh, Cuttlefish...whodathunk I would ever make it?

I came home with what I thought were giant frozen scallops, only to find upon thawing that they were cuttlefish. I was immediately intimidated, because I've never cooked cuttlefish before, and because I'm not really a fan of cuttlefish (I've had it on several occasions and can eat it, but it's not something I typically seek out). So, to the internet! I found this recipe, made a few adjustments based on the ingredients I had on hand, and ya know what? It was really good! My only criticism is that it was a bit too salty, and coming from a self-professed saltaholic, that's saying something. I think that I could have (should have) left the bacon out, but I had been intent on serving something with bacon to go with the smokiness in the rousanne wine that was to accompany the meal. The recipe called for 90 minutes of cooking, but after an hour the cuttlefish was incredibly tender and ready to go. The recipe was from About.com, and I've cut and pasted it below, with notes in red where I deviated:

Cuttlefish is a relative of both the octopus and the squid, and it tastes like a cross between the two: Not as rich as octopus, not as lean as calamari. This is a Greek cuttlefish recipe that uses fresh fava beans, green onions and white wine. Fresh fava beans are important to the success of this dish, although you can use fresh lima beans in summer. You can also substitute squid or octopus for cuttlefish, which is most often found frozen in Asian markets.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cleaned cuttlefish or squid
• 1/2 onion, sliced into half-moons
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 T. dried oregano
• 1 t. salt
• 1 T. finely chopped lemongrass (optional) (I didn't have any, so I used about 1 tbsp of grated lemon zest instead)
  
• 1 cup white wine (This was from the bottle that my car rental guy gave me, from his home-grown stash, and it was definitely more sherry-like than dry white wine but it worked just fine).
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup chicken or fish broth (I used chicken broth)
  
• 10 scallions or green onions (Didn't have, omitted)
  
• 1 cup fresh (shelled) fava or lima beans (Didn't have, but I did serve up some canned giant beans in tomato sauce on the side that I found at the supermarket and really like)
  
• Lemon wedges to serve (skipped this entirely, the lemon zest was plenty)
  
• Fresh ground black pepper

Preparation:

Cut your cuttlefish into bite-sized pieces, about an inch long. Do the same with your scallions or green onions. I cut the onions on a bias to get that pretty diagonal shape.

Make certain your fava beans are shelled. Favas come in a large pod, and then live in thick jackets that will give you gas if you eat them. If your favas look pale green and have a black or yellow line on them, they need their jackets removed. Do this by boiling them in salty water for 1 minute, then dunking into cold water. The jackets will slip off easily.

In a shallow pot with a lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes and cook the 1/2 onion you cut into half-moons. Do this slowly; you don't want them to brown. Cook until translucent and soft, about 8 minutes.

Add the cuttlefish and the lemongrass and mix to coat with the oil. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Add the bay leaves, oregano, the teaspoon of salt and the white wine and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and let this cook down for 5 minutes.

Add enough chicken or fish broth to almost -- but not quite -- cover the cuttlefish. Mix well, cover and cook over low heat for 90 minutes.

After the 90 minutes has passed, check the cuttlefish. Is it still really chewy? I mean really chewy? Cook it for another 15 minutes. Cuttlefish is supposed to be chewy, but it should not be like rubber.

Once the cuttlefish is the texture you want, add the scallions and the fava beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature with rice or crusty bread. Grind black pepper over the dish at service, and offer lemon wedges to each guest. This dish needs the acid from the lemon, but each person will want a different amount. (I think that perhaps the acidity from the lemon juice might have cut down on some of the saltiness/richness, and now that I think about it, it would have been a good idea.)

Baked Whitefish

Several months ago I bought some frozen white fish fillets at the supermarket. I bought them because I know that I don't eat enough fish, but I really don't know how to prepare the stuff that's sold fresh at the various fish vendors around town (scales and bones and fish heads and innards are an enigma to me). So I figured I could heat these up from time to time, no fuss no muss. I have no idea what kind of fish it is, exactly; I know only that it smells rather fishy once it's thawed. So I've tried to use it in recipes that will downplay its fishiness, and tonight I happened upon one that I actually really enjoyed:

2 lb. fresh or frozen flounder or haddock fillets
Salt & pepper
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. instant minced onion
A few sprigs parsley, chopped
1/2 c. mayonnaise or salad dressing
Paprika

Thaw fish if frozen and drain off any liquid. Arrange fillets in shallow 2 quart baking dish and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Mix 3/4 teaspoon salt with remaining ingredients except paprika. Spread on fillets and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with paprika. Serves 6.

I deviated from the recipe above as follows:

I had no minced instant onion, so I added about 1 tbsp. of powdered garlic instead.
I forgot to add the salt to the dressing, but I think the powdered garlic made up for it.
I had no parsley.
What I thought was a lemon that I pulled off one of the trees outside turned out to be an orange. The trees in the back grow both (I guess whoever planted them grafted an orange and lemon tree together), and the result are trees that grow both lemons and oranges. The oranges have a very zesty, lemony characteristic to them, so this ended up working out. I'll probably try this again sometime with a real lemon, but the results were so good that I'd recommend trying it with orange, too.

I paired this with a glass of Nostos 2008 Rousanne, around which I specifically planned the fish recipe. The wine is a very full-bodied, heavily oaked white, and I thought that the mayonnaise component would help the fish stand up to the wine. The match was perfectly adequate, but not phenomenal. I think that this wine would be stunning with bacon-wrapped scallops, which I'm considering as a component of tomorrow night's dinner with the remainder of the bottle. The only problem is that the last time I had scallops, a couple of years ago, I ended up with a case of food poisoning and I haven't been able to bring myself to do scallops again since then.

Summer's Last Hurrah?

The weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow followed by sunshine on Tuesday - who really knows? What I do know is that today was perfect - warm with the gentlest breeze, and after spending the morning doing Greek homework on the patio and then cleaning up the leaves and some of the poop the outside kitties have been depositing in the garden, I headed for the beach to enjoy a small picnic lunch and to read. I had the place to myself.





























I'm not sure if this is one olive tree or several grown together, but I felt compelled to take a picture of its formidable trunk.

Tamam Taverna

My disappointment at finding Semiramis Taverna closed for the season quickly dissipated when my neighbor led us to this place, which is located on the main street that runs behind the waterfront.

We shared appetizers of giant beans in a mustard sauce and dakos. Dakos is a traditional cretan dish made of rusk, fresh crushed/pureed tomatoes and myzithra cheese, which I had tried once before and wasn't fond of, but which has been redeemed for me at Tamam. The beans were excellent. She had the a pie filled with pork and several other ingredients that I can't recall right now, which was huge with a perfectly browned crust. I was originally going to order that, but when I saw the tas kebab...veal in a tomato sauce with raisins, various spices and yogurt, I went for that instead. I'm glad I did, it was one of the tastiest dishes I've had in a while. We split a 1/2 liter of cabernet sauvignon, and the entire bill came to only 30 euros.

I will definitely be visiting this restaurant again, and I wish I had known about it when Lisa was here because I think she would have really enjoyed it.

By the way, I snagged the photo above from Matt Barrett's Greece Travel Guide, which is an excellent resource. I'm going to provide the link to his page on the right-hand side of mine when I'm finished posting this.

I Miss Working

Not the mind-numbing aspect of the Monday-Friday, 9-5 schedule. Nor spending the entire day under fluorescent lights, surrounded by artificial air that is usually 10 degrees too cold. Nor feeling like my main job is trying desperately to retain clients and employees whom the corporate office seems intent on driving away.

But I miss joining with others in a common goal, and working towards that goal with creativity and having some fun along the way.

And, let's face it...I miss a regular paycheck.

I think of this whenever I'm driving through town and I see people engaged in work; the guys in the mechanic's shop hoisting machinery, the shopkeepers engaged in conversation with customers, the immigrants laying down a stone wall for a new house.

I wish that I could find something here that would occupy me in that way, if only part-time, if only temporarily. I'm sure there must be something, but I have yet to figure out what it might be. Granted, I haven't really looked too hard...

Random Photos

Two of the three "sisters", Pip and Huck, chilling on the lounger last night after getting a special, unexpected treat of mortadella and gouda. I'm supposed to be slowly weaning them off of handouts as my departure from this house approaches, but I'm finding it much harder to do than I thought it would be. Pip has become very affectionate, and if I only had one cat I think I'd be taking her with me. Just as well that I can't, because I think she's happier outside and that she's also the "leader" among the three of them, and I bet her sisters would miss her.

Images from a walk I took today. I've posted pictures of the church on two other occasions I think, but find it looks different and interesting depending on the time of day, and I don't think I have one yet of it mid-day (the others were taken as the sun was setting). Also, hoping the fire here was a controlled burn - it looked to be. Although I did hear an almost completely alien sound to me now - sirens - when I got home. No idea if it was a fire truck or ambulance or cop. I think it may have been the first siren I've heard since arriving here.





















The weather is so perfect that I decided to bring the laptop outside to post this and do other "online" stuff. Kind of hard to believe I went the entire summer without doing this. I guess I didn't realize the wireless would work out here. Too bad!

Τσικουδια, Anyone?

This morning was spent in a relatively productive way...cleaning litter boxes, exercising, general housekeeping. My intent was to get out for a short walk to the beach and back while the sun was still shining, and then to continue in my productive mode by taking care of such things as fixing the toilet seat that I broke while standing on it to reach the light bulb that had burned out, searching for a new emergency medical insurance policy for my remaining six months here, and maybe downloading some new songs to my Ipod and organizing an exercise shuffle.

On my way to the beach I saw one of the local residents, Yiannis, and another fellow working out in Yiannis' yard. He gave me a "Yia sou, Christina" (everyone here calls me Christina) and told me to stop in for some tsikoudia on my way back, which I did. I had only two shots - one from a bottle and one directly from the still (he had me wait until he could set flame to some of the latter that he spilled out on to the table before it was ready to drink), but they were enough to make me think that now was a good time to thank him for his hospitality and make my way home. My already bad greek was getting progressively worse, and when I found I couldn't remember how to say "I don't speak Greek very well", which is something I say ALL the time, I knew that it was time to go. He told me that in the evenings, a number of people gather there in his shed to drink and talk, and he told me I should stop by anytime. I told him that I will, but that I hoped there would be some other women present when I did so. I feel like I'm asking for trouble if I start hanging out and drinking with the local men.

It was great fun to be able to observe the actual production process, to ask him questions about it and just chat in general. He speaks some English, which is very helpful.

The interesting thing that I've found about tsikoudia is that while it brings on a pretty intense buzz during consumption, it dissipates quickly and seems to leave very little after-effect. I arrived home 20 minutes ago feeling quite inebriated, but am feeling just about back to normal now, although a little sleepy. I'm thinking that this afternoon's planned activities may have to wait for another day. Yiannis was nice enough to allow me to take some photos...here they are, along with a few from my walk:


I've watched this vine grow and change since I arrive here in May. The colors now are beautiful (if you look closely, you can see the blue on the berries, which I'm afraid doesn't convey very well in my picture).






My beach:-)









Along the road back towards my village.








Barrels containing Yannis' tsikoudia.








Christmas dinner! There were two others who were just as large as this one.







The tsikoudia making equipment. This was truly a lot of fun for me to observe, having read about it but never actually seen it "in process".