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It's easy being Greek

Aglaia Kremezi's new cookbook brings the flavors of the Mediterranean to tables everywhere.

Eight years ago, Aglaia Kremezi was touring the United States for her Foods of Greece cookbook. She told a radio interviewer about octopus. "The host said, 'That's where I draw the line. I would never eat that creature.' " Now, says Kremezi, octopus is on menus everywhere. In her new book, The Foods of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean, Kremezi is preaching to the converted. Her sunny dishes rely on easy cooking techniques, some that have been in use on the islands for centuries.

On a visit to Boston, Kremezi explains that the Greek islands feature an ingredients-based cuisine, by which she means that each season there are usually only certain foods available to the cooks. "The cooks are stuck with the same ingredients for two or three months at a time," she says.

So they improvise, devising new ways to use the same old things. And they forage. "They pick capers from wild caper bushes, make stews with them, make strongly flavored stews with onions. Those are relishes to go with bread. The ingenuity is unbelievable."

Bread is the staple of the island cuisine, where animals are kept for their milk and cheese, and many dishes are seasoned with the wild thyme that grows everywhere. "The goats don't eat either thyme or sage," she says, "because they're too potent."

Kremezi writes a Sunday magazine column for the largest daily newspaper in Athens. When she was a girl, she says, "every summer, we rented houses on various islands." Recently, she and her husband bought land on Kea, which is close to the mainland, only an hour's ferry ride from their Athens home.

Kremezi began writing about the unique foods and dishes on Kea and became interested enough to begin traveling around to see what other island women were making.

Chickpeas, it turned out, baked for six hours, a Lenten specialty that she now makes year-round; chicken on baked homemade macaroni (she uses orzo or commercial pasta); and meatballs baked with prunes, redwine, and red wine vinegar, which remind her of medieval dishes she has read about.

"Traditional cooking is, unfortunately, on the verge of extinction," she writes. "The trend for fusion food came to the now-cosmopolitan islands because the professional cooks of the tavernas and restaurants learned the authentic cooking of their region." Real island food, she says, is only found in homes. Perhaps that accounts for its earthy simplicity.

KOUBEBA SYRIANI
(BAKED MEATBALLS FROM SYROS WITH WALNUTS, ALMONDS, AND PRUNES)

From the island of Syros, these meatballs are cooked with dried fruits and nuts, red wine, and red wine vinegar, making a sweet-sour sauce that reminds Aglaia Kremezi of the medieval dishes of North Africa. "Koubeba was probably one of the dishes brought to the island by sailors or merchants from the East who passed through the busy port in the mid-19th century," she writes.

1 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pound lean ground veal or beef
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup ground walnuts, plus 20 walnut halves
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup toasted bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or a pinch of crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Extra olive oil (for brushing)
20 pitted prunes
1 cup chicken stock
2/3 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley (for garnish)

Have on hand a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, work the onion, parsley, and lemon juice in on-off motions to chop the onion.

In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture with the ground veal or beef, ground almonds, ground walnuts, pine nuts, bread crumbs, oil, egg, pepper, and salt. Knead the mixture to blend it thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Set the oven at 450 degrees. Shape 1/4-cup portions of the meat mixture into oval-shaped balls. Arrange them in the baking dish, and brush them with oil.

Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, insert 1 walnut half into each prune (cut the larger walnut pieces in half again).

Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Set the prunes between the meatballs; add the stock, wine, and vinegar. Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes, basting with the pan juices, until they are golden brown.

Turn the oven off, but do not remove the meatballs for 5 minutes.

Taste the sauce and add more vinegar, salt, and pepper flakes, if you like. Garnish with parsley and serve at once.

SERVES 4

KOTOPOULO YOUVETSI
(BAKED CHICKEN WITH ORZO)

Kremezi had a dish like this at a taverna in Avgonima, on the island of Chios, where the chicken was baked with homemade macaroni. She says it's typical of one-pot meals cooked on the islands. ufingredients

1/3 cup olive oil
4 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 6 pieces, or 6 turkey drumsticks
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 stick of cinnamon
1 teaspoon oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or a pinch of crushed red pepper
2 cups canned diced tomatoes with their juice
Salt, to taste
2 cups chicken stock, plus more if needed
1 pound orzo or elbow macaroni, cooked in plenty of boiling salted water for 2 minutes and drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup coarsely grated hard myzithra, kefalotyri, pecorino Romano, or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Set the oven at 400 degrees.

In a large flameproof casserole that will hold the chicken or the drumsticks, heat the oil, and brown the chicken pieces or drumsticks on all sides (brown the turkey in batches). Remove them from the pan.

Add the onion and cook it for 3 minutes or until it is soft. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, cinnamon, oregano, pepper, and tomatoes. Sprinkle the chicken or turkey with salt and return it to the pan. Add 1/2 cup stock, or enough to come about two-thirds of the way up the chicken or turkey. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, and transfer it to the oven.

Cook the chicken or drumsticks for 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Transfer it to a platter, cover with foil, and keep warm.

Bring the remaining 1 1/2 cups stock to a boil. Pour the stock into the casserole with the cooking liquid. Stir in the orzo or macaroni and transfer to the oven. Bake the pasta, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed, adding stock if the pasta begins to dry out.

Place the chicken or drumsticks on the pasta and continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Sprinkle with parsley and cheese. Serve at once.

SERVES 6

REVITHIA STO FOURNO
(OVEN-COOKED CHICKPEAS)

"On Sifnos," writes Kremezi, "the most common Lenten dish is these chickpeas, cooked slowly overnight in the communal oven." Islanders make them in unglazed pottery. Kremezi serves the chickpeas as a main dish, with smoked trout, olives or feta cheese, and country bread.

2 1/2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in water and drained
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup olive oil
2 cups coarsely chopped onions
1 tablespoon dried oregano, crumbled
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 to 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper or a pinch of crushed red pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
Black pepper, to taste

Set the oven at 400 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the chickpeas and salt. Toss well.

In a medium flameproof casserole, heat the oil and cook the onions over medium heat for 4 minutes or until they are soft. Stir in the chickpeas, oregano, bay leaves, pepper, and stock. Bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat. Press a double thickness of foil directly on the chickpeas, then cover with the lid.

Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees and cook the chickpeas for 6 hours or until they are very tender. Taste for seasoning, add black pepper, and serve.

SERVES 6