The Cross and the Cleaver: Food travels…Opa!
By Rev. Piotr
What do you do when you are sick and tired of shoveling snow, slipping on ice, putting on three layers because it is -37 outside… sick and tired of that whole “winter thing”?
Some people pull out their summer holiday pics to remind them of the warm times and places, some put on a CD with Hawaiian tunes, some watch movie happening in Africa, some just turn up the thermostat. Me … I cook.
I let my imagination wander over to the Mediterranean. Should I have a dish of sardines Calabrian style, orecchiette pasta from Apulia, or Occitanian cassoulet? Perhaps variation on Moroccan tagine followed by Turkish coffee and Egyptian basbousa? Choices, choices, choices.
Well, today, instead of endless pondering, lets go straight to…Greece. This is a Greek-style dinner that I cook based on blending various recipes, and personal preferences. As for the amounts of ingredients – figure it out, you know your, and your company’s, appetites 
.
First you lay your hands on some pork chops or chicken breasts, I have also used chicken thighs when on sale. Put them in a heavy-duty freezer bag. Add a generous glug of olive oil, less generous amount of red wine vinegar, juice of one lemon, teaspoon of sweet paprika, two crushed garlic cloves (or tsp. of garlic powder), teaspoon of dried oregano and a sprig of rosemary (or heaping tsp. dried Italian herb mix instead of the last two ingredients), salt and pepper to your liking. Seal the bag and massage the meat in the marinade for one minute, then put in the fridge for at least and hour (thought more would be just fine). Medium sized potatoes cut into thicker wedges (or large chunks if you prefer) and put in single layer in the casserole dish (drizzle the dish with olive oil beforehand). Cover the potatoes with chicken broth mixed with juice of two lemons, tsp. of oregano or Italian herbs. Scatter over them a handful of small pieces of butter (can be a garlic butter stick you can see in stores). Cover with aluminium foil and pop in the oven already preheated to 400° F and roast for approx. one hour.
In the meantime, chop into rough chunks (I like approximately at least ¾ inch size) the following: English cucumber, bell peppers (while purists will tell you they have to be the green variety, I use whichever are on sale nowadays), tomatoes (grape tomatoes cut in half are always something you can fall back on) and feta cheese. Add a generous amount of Calamata olives and several half-rings of red onion (chopped green spring onion works just fine as well).
For the dressing mix juice of a lemon with a glug of olive oil splash of red wine vinegar and tsp. of brine for the olives. Top up with heaping tsp. of dried oregano (no substitutes this time!) I am assuming we are not going to BBQ in -20 something, so when salad is already resting on the table and potatoes are about two-third way through preheat a non-stick pan on a stoved-top to med-high (use grill pan if you have one). Drizzle, or brush, with olive oil when hot.
Take the meat out of the marinade and gently grill until done. Something I like to do is pour the marinade into the pan when the meat has some colour on the outside and put the lid on, to steam the meat in all that marinade flavours. Then I remove the lid, cook off all the marinade liquid and make sure the meat is cooked through. Serve on a platter with lemon wedges. And there you have it. Greek style dinner of salad (Horiatiki), Greek lemon potatoes (Ellenikos Lemoni Patatas), and marinated pork/chicken (marinarisméno choirinó/kotópoulo). Finish it off with some strong coffee and baklava….OPA!
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