Omega Restaurant's Easter Feast!

As it is coming up-to Easter the weather should be a little better for you, we hope!



On Easter weekend we will have all the family together to eat, so here is a family favourite. Two staple dishes for our table & is very easy to make too!

So why don’t you give it a try….

These recipies will servre 4-6 people

Tzatziki:

You will need: 500gm Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, ½ cucumber (grated), 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic, a teaspoon of finely chopped dill, 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Take the skin off the cucumber & grate into a bowl, add salt, leave for 20 mins. Drain off fluid & squeeze out the rest (the easiest way is by hand), next add crushed garlic, pepper, dill,, yogurt & olive oil. Mix well until the colour is even. Cover & put in the fridge.

This can be made up-to 3 days in advance.

Keftedes (meat balls): Use ½ Pork mince & ½ Beef mince, it tastes better. The secret ingredient in this dish is a little ouzo!

You will need: 500gm pork mince, 500gm beef mince, a clove of garlic (crushed), 1 egg, a tablespoon of fresh flat leaf parsley (chopped) & oregano, a splash of ouzo, salt & pepper.

Method; put all ingredients in a bowl together, mix well (so you can only see one even colour).

Take a small amount & roll in the palms of your hand until they are a round golf ball size shape, do the same for all the mixture, when you are ready to cook them roll in plain seasoned flour & shallow fry for 2- 3 mins over a med to high heat, then turn them over for 2 – 3 mins.

They should now be a nice golden brown colour.

Pop them into an oiled roasting dish & cook in the oven for 15mins at 180 degrees.

& there you have it a fantastic Greek Combination of flavours that can be a lunchtime snack, a main course dinner or if you, like us, are having the family over it can be 2 of the many dishes on our table!

Hope you all enjoy it, don’t forget to let me know when you do!

From Me, Costas & My big Greek Family

Happy Easter

xx

Zingy Spring Pork Lemonato

Greek Cooking: Pork Lemonato, bring the spring into your kitchen

This is a lovely fresh spring dish best served with rice & lettuce, spring onion & balsamic vinegar salad.

Pork Lemonato recipe (serves 2-3people)

You will need;

500ml vegetable stock

500gm pork

2 medium onions (sliced)

2 medium lemons

2 cloves of garlic (sliced)

3 bay leaves

2 sprigs of rosemary (or a Tbsp of dried rosemary)

1 small glass white wine(100ml)

1 tbsp Oregano

Olive oil (150ml + extra for the saucepan)

Salt

Pepper

Water

Method:

Wash the meat & cut into cubes (trim off excess fat)

Put meat into a frying pan of water (approx. 500ml) & boil on a high heat for 5 minutes.

When water starts to froth & a scum appears around the edge of the pan turn off heat & remove pork from the pan.

In a medium size saucepan (with lid) heat a little olive on a medium heat add sliced onions.

When onions are see-through add sliced garlic.

Add 500ml of vegetable stock.

Add 250ml white wine

Add 150ml olive oil.

Add juice of 2 lemons

Add pork

Add Salt

Add pepper

Add bay leaves

Add oregano

Add 2 sprigs of rosemary

Stir & cover with the lid

Bring all to the boil. remove lid. then simmer for 30mins or until sauce has reduced by half.

Remove from heat & leave for 10-15mins. So the meat can rest before serving.

Sun shines through the rain.

      Clean Monday, this is the start of lent so today we only eat certain foods today including octopus (because it has no blood) white beans & stuffed vines leaves or cabbage. We must not eat anything from Animals or the produce of animals as a sacrifice (you are supposed to do this for 40 days, but over the years it has been cut down a little bit), also there is a tradition of flying kites (don’t know why) so this morning we took our 9 year old twin nephews (Diamondis & Ignatios) to the beach armed with our home made kite, consisting of a black bin bag for the body & shredded carrier bags for a tail & flew the kite nearly as far as Petra! The wind was a little stronger than normal & Costas almost did a Mary Poppins and took off!

The sun is shining & the sky is blue, which is lovely as recently it has been nonstop rain!

Like I said, Sun shines through the rain.

another reciepe coming to you all very soon, so what this space.

Out Door Dining... Only In Greece.

We are now well in to 2010 & have come to that time of year when My work begins!
We are looking at our Menus once again to juggle things around a bit!
So… we have decided to go back to basics & create a ‘’MEZE’’ style menu.
For those of you that are not familiar with this term I will briefly describe what that means;
Traditionally your table would have a small bottle of Ouzo, water, Salad, meat or fish, chips, bread & cheese.
You & your friends would then take your time slowly picking at your food & sipping your Ouzo, Staying for hours enjoying company & great local food.
We would like to encourage our guests to truly indulge themselves & experience our lifestyle & culture at its best.
Our aim is to allow everyone to sample a wider variety of Greek dishes at a very low cost,
How do we do this? Simple, by reducing down our portion size! This means that you will be able to choose a wider selection from our menu & not feel like you have overindulged.
And your pocket will be satisfied too!
So come along to Omega Restaurant & Meze House, Anaxos Lesvos.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy Holidays everyone! have been very busy cleaning up after the summer & now we are renovating the hotel! our work is never done!
Costas has nearly finished with the olives (hoorah)& his Mum has been sitting up the olive press waiting for our oil (hot off the press, Iam sure this is where the saying comes from)
If you have never dipped your fresh crusty bread into fresh warm olive oil,well, what can I say, but YUMMY! Of course this is the oil we use in our restaurant, it is your chance to sample our hard work.

Here is another Reciepe for your collection, this one is a quick way to make Soutzoukakkia.
Meatballs in tomato sauce, served with pasta topped with grated feta cheese & don't forget your bread to dip in the sauce.
This reciepe will feed 4 people (so halve it if you are having a romantic night in or double it if your are having a little party)
You will need
500g minced pork
500g minced beef
salt, pepper, garlic,oregane & parsley
1 medium onion
500g pasta
100g cheese
flour
olive oil
1 egg
2 tins of chopped tomatos

method:
1. put your pasta on to boil(add salt to water)in a large saucepan.

2. mix together your minced park & beef
3. add salt,pepper,parsley(fresh), 1 glove of crushed garlic.
4. add 1 egg & mix very well together.
5. take golf ball size pieces & roll into balls.
6. roll balls in flour, place on a plate & leave to rest while you make the sauce.

7. finely chop 1 medium onion.
8. heat a little olive oil in a medium saucepan, fry off oinons until the are see through.
9. add your tins of tomatos (if you are like Costas & you don't like chunky sauce, simply sieve the tomatos into the pan)
10. add oregano & parsley (about a teaspoon of each is all you need )to give your sauce a real Greek flavour.
11. turn down the heat to a simmer.

12. heat a little olive oil in a large fryingpan.
13. add the meatballs & gentle fry for 2 mins then turn them over for 2 mins, until they are a very nice colour.
14. turn off heat & add meatballs & oil to the sauce.
15. simmer for 10 mins.

16. your pasta should be ready to be drained.


17. grate or crumble your cheese (we use feta, but any medium flavour cheese is very nice)

18. place pasta then cheese on a plate, then top with meatball & spoon on your sauce.


preperation time 10-15mis, cooking time 15mins.

Serve with crusty bread.

This is a lovely filling meal to have on a winters evening, quick & easy to make too!

Kali Orexi.

Happy Christmas

We wish you all a very merry Christmas
all our love
Costas & Alison

It's a bit of a do

Tuesday 15th September

It's our end of Season 2009 Party

For the first time we will have

''A Bit of a Do!''

on the menu

Garlic bread

Prawn cocktail tarts & other finger food

Good 'ole Chicken in a basket

&

for dessert

Fruit composta (thats mixed fruit salad) with a dash of cream

in between all of this fabulous food we will be playing some good old party games with the backing of our favourite artists from the 60's & 70's

we will ply all our guests with wine & punch

turn on the disco lights

&

have a ball!!

come join us for a night of fantastic fun

I will be your compare for the evening & Costas is our resident Dj for the night.

you never know I might even do a turn

hope you come along!