At Home

At home, once again.  Once again I ask, where else would I be?

These are a couple of my pickled walnuts before I chucked them.  One of the problems of making unfamiliar recipes is that you don't know how they are supposed to taste.  These tasted terrible, to me.  Not very pickle-y and not salty nor tasty and definitely not delectable.  The contents of the jar went onto the compost.

Tahini.  We have always had a good selection of tahini in our supermarkets. Now we can buy tahini mixed with honey and  another with kakao, cocoa.

 Tahini is something that the greeks always ate and continue to do so, especially during orthodox fasting days of which there are many.  Anyone who might fast is fasting now, for 40 days before Christ-mas.  Our sometime neighbour, an elderly woman and very pious would fast on every day designated by the church.  During the fast she ate no eggs, meat, dairy products and fish only on days allowed.  Wednesdays and Fridays are strict fasting days, no oil permitted either and she would often tell us that she was preparing tahini soup, tahinosoupa,  to eat.  I never asked her, god bless her soul, how she prepared it though often wondered.  So I just did a google.

It looks as though the base of the soup is rice or pasta which is boiled.   The rice is boiled in lots of water so the mixture is sloppy like soup.  Tahini is mixed with lemon juice and added to the rice at the end of its cooking.  You can also add tomato paste but I bet she didn't. 

'Enjoy' with a handful of olives but no olive oil.

 

Not everyone is fasting. We make use of our wood stove which has an oven over the fire.  K cooks 'traditional' pork chops with lemon potatoes.

There's enough there for a couple of days. He always cooks quantities. 

'You never know who might drop by'

Even now