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Fresh dried oregano, called 'rigani' in Greek. Tis the season.
We rarely use fresh oregano in cooking but dried is used to flavour everything from a greek salad (ellinik salata) to stewed octopodi.
I have a pot of fresh oregano in my garden but it is more to enrich my herb garden than anything else.
The flowers go to seed and are then collected, hung up to dry, rubbed finely and stored in a glass jar. The glass jar is on the bench at arms length ready for action
Octopodi.
This one is well over the minimum kilo allowed and hopefully it has already reproduced. K has banged it on the rocks on the seashore 100 times to soften it and then rubbed it in its own juices to bring it up to the level of taste perfection which he demands
Greek mussels, farmed off the island of Salamina
These have been very lightly steamed in white wine
A perfect meze for an August ouzo
Three water bottles of olives brought by neighbour Vaso early this morning. When the bottle is opened I have to top it up with vinegar and olive juice and they'll last forever. At the moment the olives are aging in a salt and water solution
Beware Greeks bearing gifts.
Today its bottles of olives
Tomorrow it will be a phone call
'My TV's not working can you please come and look at it. Hi Preferably right now.
How much does a technician cost for a home call these days? A bag of almonds, half a dozen eggs, a bottle of homemade wine.
Tomorrow we'll find out what you/she can get for a bottle of olives
Filling up bottles of oil from the 17 litre can
Olive oil from the harvest of November 2017
From trees on the hill across our valley
Pieces of our daily life
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Now that is local food to perfection.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. There is never a gift with no strings attached if your Greek lol
Fresh and local!
DeleteI have just been filling jars with dried Mint, probably prepared in exactly the same way. That oil looks wonderful. I wish we could buy oil like that here. My Olive crop has failed, so no home made Olives for me this year.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't given you the salt/water solution recipe. Sounds as though you may not need it this year. What a pity
DeleteI have an ancient olive tree right in the doorway and oregano in the garden, and yet I buy industrial olive oil and dried oregano.
ReplyDeleteSo much easier to buy your oil but oregano is easy.
DeleteI am not sure - is it just the seed of the oregano that you dry or the leaves as well.
ReplyDeleteNow I think about it and had a look at our fresh plant it does include leaves but the seeds are usually the majority that is dried. They don't cut it till the seed heafs have formed and started drying out a little.
DeleteNo one banged the Octopus I had, on rocks I guess. Because it was like chewing rubber bands. And I never tried it again. ,-)
ReplyDeleteIs that your old neighbor Vaso, or however her name is spelled? :-) Barter, a good way for people, in the same area, to get along. :-)
thank you for the peeks into your daily life. That's what blogging is all about.
That's Vaso in all her glory.
DeleteI have even better photo for another post!
yum! and the smell of oregano is amazing!
ReplyDelete