Anastasia Drawing & Dreaming

a Greek Feast
My mum made koupes the other day - yum!!
These are one of my favourite Cypriot treats and remind me of my Grandmother Evroulla, mum's mum,
who would always make them for us.

Its not everyday you get fresh hot koupes, my mum rarely makes them as they are deep fried to a perfect golden crunchy crisp
and she's a bit of a health fanatic
but every now and then she'll suprise us!
if you're ever in Cyprus you'll find them everywhere - typical street food!

They arent so simple to make by hand, quite a lot of skill and patience is required so the bulgur wheat casing doesnt crack during the cooking process.
The filling is a fragrant savoury mince.
i love to nibble off the top and then squeeze lots of lemon inside so it goes all the way to the bottom - delicious!!

My Grandmothers generation never followed recipes,
they observed, tweaked and experimented - the only problem with that is as the years go by,
traditional dishes are hardly on the menu...i guess thats why i adore Tessa Kiros.
i have all her books but i keep going back to 'Falling Coudberries' (what a dreamy title....)
there's two chapters dedicated to Greece and Cyprus - all my family favourites are right there and easy for me to follow!

I recently bought her latest cookbook 'Food from many Greek Kitchens'
its so lovely and the beautiful images that accompany her recipes are stunning!
makes you feel like you're there in that hot medditerenean heat!

a recipe that did make me smile was Fava beans -
Greeks love their legumes...gassy but extremely healthy, i call them intestine cleansers. heehee...

When Andrew and I were holidaying on the Greek islands many years ago we wandered around looking for a local taverna and came across a religious street festival - people were dancing all night and eating bowls of free Fava beans that the village locals had cooked - we joined in on the fun and both became fans of the Fava bean -
happy memories!