Well used

Our collection of well used Greek cooking and drinking utensils

The briki

A briki is a small long handled pot used for boiling greek coffee.  As someone mentioned recently, every Greek house has a briki.  In fact every Greek house has many brikis.

Every Greek house also has one of these small gas burners which are used almost exclusively for making Greek coffee.  A  hot plate on a stove takes too long to heat the water and the coffee ends up being stewed. 

The little copper pot on the right is the favourite.  It is a 'traditional' pot and is big enough for one coffee. 

The pot in the front is blackened inside and out.   This is the one I use to 'burn' the oil for tossing into the macaroni. 

The small pots behind are big enough for two cups and the larger one on top of the gas burner is for multi-cups, boiling water for my nescafe when the power goes off or even boiling a couple of eggs.

How do you make Greek coffee?  Measure out enough water to half fill your small cup (espresso size), add a heaped teaspoon of Greek coffee and a quarter teaspoon of sugar.  

Put one hand round the end of the long handle and hold tightly. 

Stir well and leave it till the froth just starts to rise up.

Keep your eyes on the pot the whole time. If it rises up and over the coffee is spoilt and you have to start all over again, and clean up the mess.

  Pour it into your cup and drink only the top half.  The rest is a thick sludge of dark coffee grounds.

The lettuces in the orange bowl in the background were given us by Vaso.  I keep them in the bowl in a little bit of water.  They will keep fresh like that for over a week.

Traditional copper wine jugs. 

The one on the left is  well used. This is the half litre jug.  On it is the saying

"whoever drinks wine has a golden heart"

which sounds much better in greek as it rhymes.

The small pot in the front is the quarter litre.  Never used, except as a handy holder for teaspoons and small forks.

At the back are the one litre jugs.  The blue one is a souvenir from the island of Paros.  The other copper pot is old and faded, almost a family heirloom.

The little clay jug is aesthetically pleasing but not practical.  It is too small, would have to be repeatedly refilled and probably end up in pieces on the floor.  I was the one who bought it of course but rarely get to use it. 

For larger get togethers

(Smokey Thursday, Clean Monday, Epiphany, the Prodigal Son, Christmas, New Year, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, 25th March, 28th October, 15th August, May Day, Carnival amongst others)

 and family affairs

(Sundays, arrivals, departures, congratulations, name days and birthdays)

 we have also two  2-litre glass jugs.

SUMMERTIME!

The heat of summer begins to be unbearable after June 20 and goes on relentlessly till the middle of September.  The first thing all greek housewives do is take up all the rugs and carpets and get them cleaned.  We take ours out to the back balcony and  scrub them with shampoo and a broom.  We rinse them off with the hose, hang them over the wall and when they are dry, roll them up, put them in plastic bags and hide them under the bed till October.  All our floors are tiled and they are cool in the summertime under our bare feet, freezing in the winter when we cover them up with rugs. 

Our big concern in the summer months is fire, as those of you in hot countries will know so well.  I don't know how many times I will go out and sniff the air, looking for smoke on the horizon, thinking I have caught a whiff  of some local blaze.  Fire planes buzz overhead at times, only on look out I hope.  The big yellow and red fire fighting Canadairs come in low and fill up in the sea near us if there is a fire on the island.  A fire truck is on patrol all day and night.

We have had a few small fires in our area but they have been brought quickly under control.  

The roof top cinema has opened and shows this years movies at a good price.  You can take your souvlaki up there with you or buy popcorn or chips at the canteen.   The council always arranges concerts, art exhibitions and theatre during the summer, always in outdoor locations.  Last Saturday there was an '80's' concert (greek music) on the beach.  August full moon will be the time for a piano concert at the ruins near us of a temple to Poseidon and there is always some sort of show at Russian Bay which takes place in front of the flood lit ruins of the old Russian Naval station.

This weeks movies, 'Big Fat Greek Wedding no 2', 'Star Wars', 'Batman and Superman' and 'The Good dinasaur'?  Not sure of the english name of that last movie.  I googled it.  The movie is called 'the good dinasaur' - 'kalosavros' in greek.

The older generation go for their medicinal bathe early in the morning.  They wade out up to their necks and then sit there bobbing about, chatting to their friends for an hour or so, discussing their health and what pills they are taking.  Bathing in seawater is supposed to be excellent for the health, will make your constitution strong and keep you robust through the cold and damp of winter.  They all count the number of times they have been into the water and will ask 'and how many swims have you had'?    20 swims for creaky bones, 30 to ward off the flu and 40 to ward off the dreaded lurgy.  

The thesaurus had never heard of the 'dreaded lurgy' so I googled it.  Apparently the term came from the British comedy series 'The Goon Show' meaning 'a dreadful malady'.

  Schools close around 15th June and re-open about 10th September.  3 months holidays! It is just too hot for small children to concentrate.  

Backgammon by the sea.

The best way to keep cool on a Sunday afternoon.  A bar on the water.

AUSTERITY/POVERTY

Health -
We now pay full price for doctors visits and medecines.  Both are subsidised but payments from government to the health service are months behind.  K has medecine for the next month so we watch and wait for doctors and chemists to lift the ban.  They  get paid in dribs and drabs. Meanwhile people are dying because they can't afford to pay the full costs of their doctors bills.  Old age pensioners are the ones most hit.  They are the ones with most medical costs and their pensions have been cut so much they were already finding it tough to survive.  In many cases their small pensions are supporting  extended families as their children lose their jobs.

 ' Coffee' is just coffee.  This is one of the biggest adjustments we have to make.  I just enjoy a coffee and time to people watch and read a book (no more magazines - an extravagence now). 'COFFEE' for a greek is a big part of his social life, especially here on Poros.  All your friends and relatives will likely pass by while you sit  at your favourite cafe.  Conversation begins, people are invited to sit down.  If you do the inviting, you pay for their coffee .  Long, serious, furious  but friendly discussions take place on everything from the lack of fish in the Saronic Gulf to the treachery of politicans and the state of your grandchildrens health.  Talking is thirsty work, a cold beer or a small glass of ouzo help keep the throat oiled.  It all costs.  You count your money before you sit down and hurriedly make excuses of  broken washing machines waiting to be mended when the going gets tough.  The Greek would wither and pine without this 'social intercourse'.  'Coffee' is now a special occasion and is at the top of the budget list. K still has a weekend ouzo, but at home with 'lakertha' (greek sousi) he has caught and made himself.

 -  RECIPE for GREEK SOUSI
First catch your fish.  'Lakerda' is one of the tuna family.
The fish has to be hung for a few hours to drain off all the blood.
K fillets this and soaks it in brine for a couple of weeks.  Then it is kept in vegetable oil, in the fridge.  Small chunks  are put in a saucer with olive oil and lemon juice and enjoyed with a glass of ouzo and a few slices of homemade sourdough bread.

Holidays.  No more.

We're finally using everything in the freezer.  Good news.  The two year old kalamari was surprisingly tasty. 

14 September - The day of the Holy Cross.  A big celebration in the Greek Orthodox calendar.  It is a day of strict fasting.  We had split peas and onions (a sort of pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold) and fried kalamari - not the two year old frozen sort.  It is the name day of the Stavros-es and the Stavroula-s and salted cod can be served at these celebrations.  The cod is de-salted, fried and served with a strong garlic-bread sauce.

- RECIPE for BASIL SOURDOUGH SPONGE  The greek housewife takes a bunch of basil to  church to be blessed.  The priest  dips the basil in holy water. This basil is  taken home by the housewife to make the sourdough sponge for the following year.  The basil is soaked in water. Flour is added to the water and this is the beginning of the sponge which will ferment and bubble in a few days - hopefully.  Doesn't work apparently if you have your period.

-  RECIPE for  new SOURDOUGH from GRAPEJUICE after the grape harvest.  K brought a plastic bottle of juice back and we made 'moustolevria' which is a sweet made from the juice and semolina and then I forgot the rest of the juice and put the bottle in the fridge.  When I eventually got it out and opened the top it popped and fizzed, already fermenting like the wine in K's barrels.  I added the flour and in a few hours the sourdough was bubbling and rising and I am making my first loaf with this right now.

We also make 'moustoukouloura' (grape juice cookies) from the juice and any surplus juice is boiled for hours until it becomes a thick syrup.  This is  'petimezi'.  It is very sweet and besides being used to make sweets is supposed to be good for winter coughs.

The grape skins and pips can now be made into raki but you need a still for that.  K and his friends tried to get hold of a still a few years ago but it was too expensive to buy.  One day.

You can get high on the smell in K's shed at the moment.  The fermentation lets off a strong heady tang.  The wine has been bubbling away for a week now and he will send a sample down to the local wine-tryer to see how the fermentation  is going.  The first sample told him the alcohol level was 12.8.  That is a bit low and he was told to put sugar in it to raise the alcohol level.  But K doesn't like putting sugar in the wine and has left it to see how it progresses.  PS He did add a kilo of sugar to the juice yesterday because the fermentation was slowing down.

Today we have a north wind which will affect the wine . The north wind is kind to the wine.  It helps the fermentation.


When all through the shed the north wind doth blow
when roasted crabs hiss in the bowl (we wish)
when K's wine doth still and slow
and greasy Joan doth keel the pot ( apologies to our Joan)
Tu-who
Tu-whit, tu-who
To dream of drousy hours b'side the fire
with mugs of vintage thus to lift
to drink the wine and toast the vine
tu-whit, tu-who

apologies to Shakespeare too

All this talk of wine reminded me of the Poros tavernas when I first came here in 1976.  Every taverna made its own wine.  The locals (males ) used to choose which taverna they would drink at according to the wine.  It was the tradition  for the man of the house to repair to a taverna in the evening and have a few glasses  with his friends and 'try to solve the Cyprus problem' before going back to dinner with the wife and kids.  A great deal of discussion went on I remember about which taverna had the best wine and the better the wine the greater the clientele.  Wine back then was resinated. A lump of pine resin was put in each barrel to help preserve the wine and it became the aroma of greece.  The only un-resinated wine available was bottled and bottled wine was not liked by greeks and still isn't. They prefer the local wine from the barrel.  Kostas says that as the grape harvest drew near all the tavernas got out their barrels to clean and there were lines of barrels all along the waterfront.  The first wash must have been with sea water - must ask K about that.  And the sewage went straight into the bay!  Yes indeedy they did use sea water .. and a bit of sweage to clean the barrels. 

The only taverna we can think of now that has its own wine is Dimitri's family taverna up where Elli lives.  He runs Dimitris Family Butchers Shop Taverna - has 7 or 8 or 9 kids to help him - I have lost count. 

Our friend and neighbour, the grape-man, is 'quarter-master' at the navy base.

There were rats, rats
big as bleeding cats
in the quarter masters store

Bet that stands here at the  Poros base too.  He was a good friend and neighbour and has just been transferred to Athens.  We have his 76yr old mother still here.  She gets up at the crack of dawn and weeds the 2 acre vineyard by hand and can slither like a snake under the iron gate of our english neighbours......hmmmmmmm 

He will be missed.  Being the supplier for the base he got the best prices and bought in bulk for himself and often for us too.  50 kilos of flour.  We're still using it and I gave away a lot to the kids.  In the fiery summer heat all the bugs in it come to life.  Freezing the flour before they develop is one answer.  I put 20 kilos in the freezer for 48 hours.  That lot was ok but by July the rest of it was writhing.  I spent many hours sieving.  Fortunately greek housewives are familiar with this problem and the sieve is a big wooden affair making it slightly easier.

We got 10 kilos of salt from friend Vangelis as well.  10 kilos goes a long way.  If we're not freezing, preserving or pickling then no doubt we'll be salting.

Snails.  We haven't collected snails since Crete.  They'll be coming out once the rains start.  We collect them on damp evenings - hunting them down by torch light.  We feed for a week, macaroni and flour (they don't mind a few weevils) so they excrete any nasties.  Then yum, yum.  But they are not french snails.  They are stewed in a garlic, tomato sauce and sucked out with loud noises. 

- RECIPE FOR STEWED SNAILS . First gather the snails.  Put them in a wooden box with a heavy top - and give them air to breathe.  Feed them flour or chopped raw macaoni.

Wash them, discarding any that haven't emerged from their shells, or are starting to smell.  Boil a big pot of water.  Throw them quickly in and ignore their screams as they hit the hot water.  Wash again to get rid of scum and slime.  Slice a wee piece off the top of each one with a sharp knife. 

Prepare the sauce.  Fry lots of onions in lots of (local) olive oil.  Add fresh grated tomatoes, garlic, a bay leaf, salt and pepper.  Add the snails and simmer until the snail is tender.

Suck out one by one, use lots of thick, heavy bread to soak up the sauce. 

I froze 100 young leaves from the grapevine to make stuffed vine leaves.  Still a lot of those left. 

- RECIPE FOR VINE LEAVES
first pick your vine leaf.  About the size of your palm and not too pointy.  You'll have to examine a vine leaf to understand this.  It needs a large flat area in the middle to hold the filling.

Par boil them.  About 2 minutes.  They'll turn dark green and you'll know they're ready.  Then you can freeze them or pickle them to use them later or go on to make 'dolmathes'.

The filling is just a mix of raw rice, lots of chopped onions, garlic of course, a few pine nuts, parsley, mint and dill and lots of salt and pepper.  Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each leaf and roll up, folding in the sides so you have a nice little vine-roll.  Lay them in a saucepan.  Do only one layer.  Cover with water and add a good dose of oil.  Put a plate on top of them to stop them dancing around and unfolding.  Simmer about half an hour.  Eat either with more oil and lemon juice - vinegrette perhaps or make a lemon and egg sauce.

A Pig.  Would be a good idea.  Would eat all the scraps and then we could eat the pig.  Much handier than a dog.  Although apparently the ancients did eat dogs up at the temple to Poseidon.  Archeologists have found the remains of fires and celebratory feasts.  Lots of dog bones.

the girls - Lydia (best friends with K), K, Nels and Natali