Kea Artisanal, March 2, 2023
I was inspired by a Food and Wine recipe that uses rhubarb which we don’t have so I substituted with apples in a READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, February 9, 2023
The last days of January found me with José Andrés, the renowned chef-humanitarian, his wife Tichi, and Zaytinya’s concept chef Michael Costa strolling around Athens READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, January 19, 2023
The tart egg and lemon sauce complements beautifully these baked light, meatballs READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 29, 2022
Light and aromatic with orange and tangerine, it is the perfect dessert. My mother used to make it, so I chose it for this New Year. It is READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 15, 2022
A more than 200-year old recipe from Frosso Patiniotis, my very lively 96-year old aunt who bakes every year these quite unusual, READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 1, 2022
The epitome of comforting, winter meal for Greeks, fassoláda is delicious, warming, and filling. Flavored with excellent ingredients like READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, November 17, 2022
This pie is a rif on Melitzanopita, the traditional eggplant pie from Central Greece. I thought of adding READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, November 2, 2022
My fish soup, based on my mother’s recipe, although not a real bouillabaisse is truly wonderful. Its flavor relies on the READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 20, 2022
Whipped up in minutes: frozen phyllo-wrapped slices briefly fried are irresistible; and bouyourdi, feta baked in READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, September 8, 2022
I got the original recipe long ago from Albanian friends and this dish has become part of our family’s permanent repertoire: our favorite summer and READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, August 18, 2022
An easy, delicious dish that combines Eastern Mediterranean and Asian traditions. The tart sour cherries are traditionally cooked with READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, July 28, 2022
A simple, delicious salad/lunch that you can make with any local vegetables and greens you can find. With Claudia Roden, we shared READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, July 7, 2022
Inspired by the summer salad-meals of the peasants, it combines juicy vine-ripened tomatoes, complemented with onions, and all kinds of READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, June 16, 2022
Use with pasta, or as topping for flattened dough, to make Lachmacun. You can halve the recipe, but since the work involved in making the sauce is READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, May 26, 2022
Inspired from the traditional Arni Stamnas, it was often baked in an unglazed clay jar called stamna. Used by women to READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, May 5, 2022
Traditionally here we buy beets with their greens, and always boil and use in our salads. I particularly love adding beet stems in READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, April 14, 2022
No recipe needed for this glorious, yet very easy vegetable medley that can be the ideal accompaniment to READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, March 24, 2022
A kind of savory bread pudding, this frittata is made with squash, but you can use any vegetable or green. Adding READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, March 3, 2022
I remember the baked apples my mother used to make all the time back when the fruit we got in Athens was not as wonderful as READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, February 10, 2022
I usually have pieces of my basic bread or laganes dough in the fridge, so I decided to use the wild greens Costas collected from the garden to make this fast and irresistible greens and cheese tart, or pizza-like spanakopita. If you READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, January 20, 2022
I am sharing with you our iconic family dish because most online recipes list store-bought broth, or rotisserie chicken bits, and leftover cooked rice. But these ingredients make READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 30, 2021
English pudding is the most well-known festive cake, but it is somewhat complicated, with lots of strange ingredients, while the Boozy Fruitcake I propose is quite simple, READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 9, 2021
Variations on this heartwarming, vegan soup are infinite. Cooked with carrots, tomato paste, and plenty of Maraş pepper, the creamy red lentils regain their READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, November 18, 2021
This is my rosemary-scented, ‘oriental’ version of the French Duck a l’Orange. My roasted chicken is flavored with North African preserved lemons, and scented with READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 28, 2021
I love Mediterranean wheat berries (farro) or pearl barley pilafs, and use the grains on their own or complemented with rice. And, as I cook with READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 7, 2021
Fragrant, refreshing sorbets, and a hearty pilaf with Bulgur, Tomato, and Eggplant READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, September 16, 2021
Leblebi is yet another ingenious combination of chickpeas and all kinds of readily available vegetables, herbs, and spices that READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, August 26, 2021
I am surprised that we don’t find this enticing bulgur ‘salad’ along with the ubiquitous hummus and the other prepared foods at the READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, August 5, 2021
We have been eating purslane since I can remember, as it is one of the very few greens that grow in the dry summer heat here. Lately it has READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, July 15, 2021
Use up any overripe summer or fall fruit you have at hand: cherries, peaches, plums, strawberries, or apricots. Complement them with some READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, June 24, 2021 
Inspired by the traditional Dakos/paximadia Salad from Crete, this is a somewhat different, delicious summer treat, or even an ideal lunch for the hot days. We prepared it with READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, June 3, 2021
I first made this with a few leftover homemade cracked green olives from the batch READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, May 13, 2021
This traditional combination of beets and greens is served on many islands during the spring and all-through the summer. The skordalia (garlic sauce) in READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, April 29, 2021
Green asparagus cultivated in the Peloponnese is the only one we find here on the island. It is succulent and wonderful! We like to briefly grill it on the READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, April 15, 2021
The legendary wetlands of Camargue produce a superb red long-grain rice. Grown in Europe’s largest delta in the south of READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, April 1, 2021
From an old recipe of Aleppo, these cookie rings called ka’ak“were part of the Jewish pantry and offered to guests with READ MORE
Artisanal, March 18, 2021
Asuré is an ancient, delicious, sweetened grain risotto with nuts and fruit, both dried and fresh. It is the perfect vegan dessert and we make it often in the spring, especially during READ MORE
Artisanal, March 4, 2021
As kids, my sister and I used to love this sweet, creamy tyropita. I hadn’t found my mother’s recipe since I never made this particular pie until Costas and I happened upon the mention of Tyrini, the traditional cheese-eating READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, February 18, 2021
We called it strapatsada, from the Italian uova strapazzate (scrambled eggs). It was the comfort food my mother often whipped up in the READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, February 4, 2021
In a rich tomato sauce scented with bay leaves, this simple vegan dish is part of the traditional foods we cook during READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, January 14, 2021
Usually beans are cooked with tomatoes in Greece, as in the traditional Fasolada. But in this somewhat unusual dish READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 31, 2020
Happy New Year!
We hope in 2021 we will meet again around our table on Kea!
With greens, cherry tomatoes, and crunchy toasted olive breadcrumbs. GET THE RECIPE
Kea Artisanal, December 17, 2020
Since we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in our part of the world, and all over Europe, turkey, duck, occasionally goose, and on Kea usually rooster, is the central dish we serve for Christmas. I, too, cook poultry for READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, December 3, 2020
This is a vegan festive version of the traditional raisin bread (stafidopsomo). Similar but much lighter than the Jewish challah, Greek festive Christmas and/or Easter breads (tsoureki) have less fat and more READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, November 12, 2020
Its name is Italian (it literally means “a mess”) but pasticcio as such does not exist in Italy. Its roots, though, are READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 29, 2020
On Chios, quinces are paired with free-range chicken; on Crete with lamb; and on Lesbos with veal. I stew our quince with the delicious local veal shank, but I also braise chicken READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 15, 2020
Inspired by the traditional zucchini and potato Haniotiko Boureki (boureki from Chanea, Crete) the renowned Boston chef created and demonstrated this lighter, delicious, and easy version during READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, October 1, 2020
Sykopita uses up the season’s surplus figs, mashed and mixed with nuts, spices and liqueur or sweet wine, then shaped as a thin flat cake, and can be dried in the sun as it was done in antiquity. Similar fig ‘pies’ are made in Cyprus, southern Italy, and READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, September 17, 2020 Newsletter
There is no better way to showcase the succulent, end-of-summer tomatoes than using them to flavor this simple, yet delicious dish. Similar sauces are whipped-up all over the Italian south and I recently came across the Sicilian Spaghetti Alla Carrettiera which READ MORE
Kea Artisanal, September 3, 2020 Newsletter
The most versatile and intriguing of all the summer vegetables, eggplants can be an easy and wonderful main course baked with peppers and onions, like a Greek rustic version of ratatouille, or the most elaborate luscious Moussaka which I propose with and without meat in a READ MORE
August 20, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
The two baskets of grapes we gathered from our old vines were too few for wine and too seedy to eat; so Costas and I decided to press them and take the juice to drink, freeze some to make granita, and certainly make moustalevria READ MORE
August 6, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Mediterranean striped bass right out of the water is a truly delicious fish, I think. They were the day’s catch, plus a mackerel, and I decided to bake them on a bed of local potatoes with slices of our thick-skinned, sweet lemons. I dressed them with READ MORE
July 23, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Ricotta-based sweets are very popular both in Greece, in southern Italy, and in Sicily. But we cannot compare the various often rustic treats with the glorious Sicilian Cassata READ MORE
May 13, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
We stuff all kinds of chard leaves —watch the VIDEO— creating delicious bundles; also, we braise and cook them, along with their crunchy stems, with fresh fava pods, and of course with rice, meat, fish or chicken… READ MORE
March 9, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
I think you will love my newly tweaked recipe for Fast and Fragrant Preserved Lemons that I freeze or keep in a jar with olive oil to flavor my skordalia (garlic sauce) or chop them to add to dressings, particularly for potato salads, boiled greens (horta), steamed broccoli or cauliflower, and READ MORE
February 3, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
This kumquat-cheese bread is the winter variation of the basic summer recipe included in my book Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts. For topping in the summer version, I use figs, blue cheese, and READ MORE
January 9, 2020 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Slightly soggy, not particularly crunchy olive-oil-fried potatoes, accompanied by an olive-oil-fried egg, or just yogurt, or a piece of tangy feta was the ultimate comfort dinner for my sister and me READ MORE
December 20, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
These dark-chocolate-nut-and-fruit bars are delicious and almost guilt-free, as they have no added sugar. They are a breeze to make, and you will love them! They also make a much-appreciated edible gift; they are an ideal offering for a friend’s dinner party, since flowers are a pain for the hosts who must stop everything and READ MORE
November 22, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Crunchy with walnuts or pecans, sweet with raisins and wheat berries, and enticing with a special Eastern Mediterranean aromatic blend, the main course I propose will be loved by vegans but also by READ MORE
November 7, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
I keep a bowl or basket with fragrant quinces at our kitchen table almost all winter long. I get the quinces from our trees, and often I pick them when they are still a tiny bit green because if I leave them on the trees, worms and wasps will eat them before READ MORE
October 24, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Very few of our pomegranates ripen without bursting, but their sweetness is unbelievable! With our own pomegranates or with the pomegranate juice of the fruit produced on Kea we make a refreshing sorbet (granita in Greek) scented with READ MORE
October 3, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
This moist, fruity cake is inspired and loosely based on a recipe for Rustic Tuscan Apple Cake that my friend Val Harrison posted in her brilliant site ‘More than Burned Toast.’ I tweaked the recipe, READ MORE
September 19, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
In the summer there are precious few of the fresh, tender fennel leaves we love at the base of the tall stocks that dot the Kean landscape. The flowers will soon become green READ MORE
August 22, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
On our stony and arid island it is almost a miracle that the contorted, frail-looking fig trees with trunks often infested by colonies of ants manage to give this small, sweet, delectable READ MORE
August 8, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
We make it with our garden’s aromatic damascene roses but you can use store-bought petals to first create the rose petal jam and then this easy, refreshing dessert READ MORE
May 3, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
We make it with our garden’s aromatic damascene roses but you can use store-bought petals to first create the rose petal jam and then this easy, refreshing dessert READ MORE
April 25, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
Fresh from the garden, the colorful, tender blossoms are stuffed with a small piece of feta cheese and a mint leaf. Then they are dipped in batter and fried. Enjoy them, as any fried vegetable or fish with my creamy-tangy Skordalia: A Garlic Spread with almonds, lemon or unripe grape juice (verjuice), lemon zest, and yogurt. READ MORE
April 18, 2019 Kea Artisanal Newsletter
As the coiled tahinopites bake, the thin layer of dough cracks and the stuffing oozes out, caramelizing; These crunchy, darkened, sugary bits are the best bites… READ MORE
