Koulouri Thesalonikis

The recipe I’m going to cook today, I found, a couple of years ago, on a site called “sintages apo spiti”. If what I’m saying seems Greek to you, it’s because it is Greek. It means homemade recipes or (in another meaning) well mannered recipes.

Today we are cooking what in Greece we call “Koulouri Thessalonikis”. It is a kind of bread that  we traditionally eat for breakfast and it is supposed to be originally made in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second biggest city.

The ingredients we’re gonna need are

• 400- 500 grams of general purpose flour
• 1 package of dry yeast (8-9 grams)
• 2 x ½ cup of warm water
• 50 grams of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 100 ml oil (I prefer olive oil but you can use vegetable oil as well)
• Sesame seeds

First we need a small bowl in which to put the first ½ cup of warm water, together with the yeast. We stir the yeast so as to dissolve it in the water and then put 2-3 tablespoons of flour in, and stir again. Put a paper towel over the bowl and leave it be for 10 minutes.

While waiting we choose a bigger bowl and we measure in the 400 grams of flour, the 50 grams of sugar and the tablespoon of salt. We mix them together a bit and wait for the yeast.

   After the 10 minutes , the yeast mixture must have bubbles on the surface and a kind of sour smell. We put it in the flour mix, add the water and the oil and start kneading until we have a soft dough that doesn’t stick to your hands. Depending on the flour you use, you might need a couple of extra tablespoons of flour so keep it close.

When the dough is the way we want it, we leave it to rise for half an hour.

Now that our dough has risen it might stick a bit to our hands again so we can put a bit of flour on its top to help us handle it better.

Before starting this final step, we must do a couple of things. Turn on the oven at 200 celsius (392 fahrenheit), place on your table or counter a cup of water with a silicone brush in it and finally a plate or bowl or what suits you better with the sesame seeds.

We take the dough and divide it in 10-12 parts, depending on the size that you want the breads to be, mind you they will rise again while baking.

Now we take each ball and make it a long (or short if you prefer) string and put it aside. We water them so that the sesame will stick on, pass them through the seeds, close them into circles and put them on our baking pan.

It is preferable to have lined the pan with non-stick baking paper.

   When everything is in the pan, we bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on the oven) until they have a light brown shade.

You take them out and place them on a rack to cool off. The little breads remain soft 2-3 days inside a plastic bag. If you want you can do as I do, double the recipe and after they are completely cool put them in small plastic bags in pairs or something and then in the freezer.

I take one bag out of the freezer and into the refrigerator overnight and in the morning put them in my husband’s lunch bag. They are almost as good as the fresh ones.

A spicy cheese salad and a cool tuna salad

My family, loves having lots of side dishes when eating. A couple of different kind of salads is the most common thing. During summer, in Greece, we have a variety of peppers that is small, green and hot. It's a chilly pepper of some sort. We use those peppers to make what our friends in Thessaloniki call "kaftero" which literally means hot but in this case it actually means spicy.

 To make this salad you need :
- one or two chilly peppers the ones you prefer
- feta cheese
- vinegar
- good olive oil
- a food processor  

Take a frying pan and cook the peppers until they're soft. If you having a barbeque, put them on the fire they will taste even better. Peel the skin and take out most of the seeds if they're very hot. Put them in the food processor, half the cheese, a table spoon of oil and vinegar and blend until smooth.
 Now, you should try the mixture periodically to adjust the flavor to your liking. If it is too hot, put more cheese but don't put it all from the start as if you don't have more peppers you won't be able to make it hotter.
If you don't like feta cheese you can substitute it for some other soft cheese. When my mother makes it for my grandmother who doesn't eat salt, we use a kind of cream cheese.

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  Once, we went with some friends in a fish restaurant in Loutraki (a seaside little town, a couple of hours outside Athens)  and we ate a crab salad that my husband really loved. Upon returning home he asked me to make him this salad but with tuna instead of crab. The result was extremely satisfying so I want to share it with you.
Ingredients:
- 1 large cucumber
- 1 can of tuna in brine
- a couple of spring onions
- some dill
- mayonnaise 

Take the cucumber, peel it, take out the seeds, cut in small pieces and put in a salad bowl. Cut the onions in pieces and throw them in the bowl. Take the tuna, drain the brine, cut in smaller pieces and into the bowl. Use a couple of spoonfuls of mayo and mix all together. Last, mince some dill and mix it with all the other ingredients. You should put it in the fridge for at least half an hour.
If you don't have spring onions or dill you can use just the cucumber and the tuna. My husband prefers it this way.