Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Kefir and chia pudding

 

This post is for my friend Maria and is my current favourite breakfast!  And it is well worth the five minutes it takes to prepare the night before. It really is quite similar to some other chia puddings that I have posted about where I have used Greek (i.e. strained) yoghurt, but in this one I am using kefir. I love the combinations of the flavours with kefir, tahini, chia seeds, figs and raspberries.  But you can do the recipe with any combination of fruit or dried fruit.  Do what feels good to you or use what you have in the house! The critical elements are the kefir, the tahini and the chia seeds.  The rest is up to you. And with the kefir, use as much or as little as you want. Less kefir will lead to a more solid pudding, and more will obviously lead to a thinner one.

 

Ingredients

3 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon tahini
2 dried figs
6 raspberries (fresh or frozen)
100-150 mls kefir

Mode

Place chia seeds in bowl which will be used for breakfast
Add tahini to bowl
Roughly chop the figs and place in bowl
Add raspberries to bowl
Mix all ingredients thoroughly
Add kefir to bowl and mix well
Place in refrigerator overnight
Eat for breakfast and enjoy!!



Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Pork balls in avgolemono



Yes, it's meatballs again! Surprise, surprise!  When I was in Athens recently on a couple of occasions I had lovely meatballs in avgolemono at Mouries, one of  the local restaurants in Pangrati near where I was studying Greek. I don't think these meatballs bear much relation to those of Mouries, except for the avgolemono, but the pork, and the sage, and the avgolemono are all flavours I associate with Greece.



Ingredients

500 gr minced pork
2 spring onions
3 cloves of garlic
2-3 teaspoons dry sage
Black pepper
Olive oil
1-2 lemons
2 eggs
1.5 cups chicken stock

Mode

Place minced pork in mixing bowl
Chop spring onions finely and add to pork
Crush garlic cloves and add to mixture
Add dried sage and black pepper to mixture
Combine the mixture thoroughly using hands
Using a spoon form small meatballs
Heat olive oil in a pan and quickly seal the meatballs in batch
Place in an pan which can be heated on the stove-top
Bring stock to the boil and reduce heat to simmer
Squeeze lemon and strain juice
Beat eggs for a couple of minutes
Add the lemon juice carefully while continuing to beat
Then add the hot stock in droplets still continuing to beat
Add the egg and lemon mixture to the pan with the meatballs and combine
Heat until the mixture thickens.
Serve and enjoy!