Greece is a rustic with deep non secular traditions, a powerful sense of household, and a really festive spirit. And people are all the required elements to make Christmas one of the crucial vital celebrations of the yr.
As with all Greek custom, the important parts will embody a joyful gathering of household and buddies, and a scrumptious desk with dishes which were handed down from era to era.
Listed below are some vacation dishes that may add a really Greek taste to any Christmas dinner.
Greek meze for Christmas
No dinner can start higher than with a selection of sauces and spreads from completely different areas of the nation.
From the normal tzatziki, made with recent yogurt, to the country skordalia, with potatoes and garlic, add some scorching pita bread, with a beneficiant quantity of olive oil, and let the dinner start.
Avgolemono hen soup
Egg-lemon sauce, or avgolemono goes with virtually every little thing; Avgolemono hen and rice soup is commonly the primary meal after Christmas Eve church companies.
This consists of a hen and rice soup made with the very Greek sauce that includes lemon juice and eggs.
Yiaprakia
Yiaprakia is a dish from northern Greece which may be present in each nook of the nation in the course of the vacation season. Yiaprakia are cabbage leaves filled with minced pork, or minced pork and rice.
The Christmas variation of the extra well-known Greek dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) is commonly served with a beneficiant quantity of avgolemono sauce.
Pork
Pork is the primary meat to eat in Greece at Christmastime, a part of an historic custom when households would elevate a pig to slaughter on Christmas Eve and serve it as the primary dish on the next day.
Nevertheless, not all of the pork could be eaten on Christmas day, so the meat was additionally ready to protect it for the remainder of the yr. Sausages, smoked items of pork (apakia) or pork in gelatin (pithi) had been among the methods to protect it.
As we speak, issues are much less advanced, however the pork custom stays. Pork is often served in stews, baked, or roasted, and it’s even discovered inside puff pastry. Nevertheless, pork with celery and avgolemono sauce nonetheless performs a number one position in the course of the holidays.
Turkey
Turkey has rightfully made it onto the checklist of conventional Christmas meals from Greece. It has just lately grow to be a alternative for a lot of households who serve it as the primary Christmas dish.
In Greece, the vacation turkey is made particular by including a wealthy stuffing which incorporates rice and raisins, nuts, together with mincemeat and a beneficiant amount of wine.
Roasted lamb
A lamb that has spent over 5 hours contained in the oven (or higher, inside a wood-fired oven) roasting and absorbing aromas of thyme, oregano and rosemary can solely change into a Christmas favourite.
It’s also served with conventional potatoes which were roasted within the oven alongside the meat.
Greek Christmas Veal Stew
Veal is one other delicacy sure to be served on the Greek Christmas desk. Tender bites of beef, stewed, are even higher when roasted and served along with cognac, apricots, and plums.
A wealthy pan gravy from the slowly cooked meat matches completely with potatoes which were roasted with olive oil and thyme.
Baklava
Not as conventional as Greek Christmas cookies (melomakarona and kourabiethes), baklava continues to be one of many sweets many Greeks like to have in the course of the winter holidays. Baklava is finest described as crusty layers of phyllo dough mixed with walnuts, pistachios and much and plenty of honey.
Krasomelo
Mulled wine from Greece will get anybody into the suitable Christmas spirit. Components embody a bottle of a purple wine (higher if it’s semi-sweet or candy) in addition to spices like cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom, and nutmeg.
In some areas, they add star anise and dried fruit or orange zest as properly. The krasomelo additionally requires just a few spoonfuls of authentic Greek honey.
Rakomelo
For these in want of a stronger spirit to heat their soul and warmth their physique as properly, one of the best thought is the Cretan rakomelo (made from the liqueur raki with honey and spices added).
Rakomelo is served heat, and is sort of just like mulled wine. In line with custom, to make rakomelo you want a clove, a teaspoonful of honey and one other one in every of cinnamon for each 4 photographs of raki. An ideal mixture for these chilly Winter days!
