People rarely think of Greece as a country you go to for the food, but I’ve had some fabulous
meals there. It’s a cuisine based on showcasing fresh ingredients rather than fancy technique, and
Greece has some of the best vegetables, fish, etc. to be found. That simplicity and the famously
healthy elements of the Mediterranean diet make Greek food a natural for today’s home cook.
In The New Greek Cuisine, Chef Jim Botsacos of Manhattan’s Molyvos restaurant offers a
delightful mixture of classic Greek dishes and newer recipes derived from his own Greek-Italian
heritage. Offerings run from casual family snacks to treats you’d proudly serve up to the friends
who are always bragging about their latest gourmet discoveries. There’s also a wealth of information
in the chatty introductions and comments with each recipe. This is a cookbook meant to be used
rather than occupy space on the coffee table, but it’s also a pleasure to read.
Ever had a gyro from a local takeout? The recipe is in here for what that bland white glop on
top is really supposed to be—a wake up and take notice yoghurt garlic sauce. One of my
favorite Greek dishes is shrimp baked with feta and tomatoes. The version here, called Shrimp
Sagnaki with Tomatoes and Feta, is easy and delicious and also taught me that sagnaki—which
I only knew as a flamed fried cheese appetizer—is really the name of the special pan both
this dish and that appetizer are made in. Looking for a new side dish? What about chickpea rice
with its hint of cinnamon that you won’t know is cinnamon, just that there’s an interesting taste
in there.
The book is nicely illustrated even if it is a working cookbook. If the pictures of stuffed
veggies or lamb youvetsi (Greece’s answer to ossa bucco) don’t have you salivating, you might want
to check in with your doctor. My one complaint is a bit of over-reliance on things like heavy duty
mixers, food processors, and other equipment you could certainly expect to find in a well stocked
middle class suburban kitchen, but not in a typical tiny urban apartment kitchen such as mine. You
wouldn’t find most of them in a typical Greek kitchen either, so they aren’t strictly necessary.
But it does mean you need a certain level of cooking expertise to be comfortable working around
what you don’t have.
Recommended with that one reservation about equipment. Pick up a copy and taste just how much
more there is to Greek cooking than baklava and bad takeout gyros.