Having a Turkish and a Greek friend can cause problems. Or not? In the kitchen not at all. The friends of Anikó Mészáros cooperate to bring the taste of holiday to Lund.
It was still last semester when we had the idea of a joint Turkish-Greek dinner. After these two proved that their two cultures are one and the same – including cuisine –, we also wanted to taste those famous meals.
If we should give prizes for the joint dinner meals, definitely Turkey won. Although, if we wanted to remunerate effectiveness, Greece would be the winner. Here is what happened.
18.00 Turkish shows up with food pre-prepared, just needs to fry in oil. Never enough of meatballs: we had Turkish meatballs, which taste a lot different from the Swedish ones. It’s impossible to follow our Turkish chef cooking, she always goes a different way. I got this recipe as inspiration.
20.00 According to plans, dinner is about to start.
20.30 Greek shows up with… a bottle of wine.
– So what are you going to cook?
– Should I cook anything?
20.40 Greek goes to ICA.
21.00 Greek comes back from ICA with cucumber, Greek yoghurt and garlic. Lots of garlic.
21.15 Tzatziki is ready. We can eat.
Fifteen minutes to cook your part of the dinner. Very effective! Although there was so much garlic in it that all the vampires left Skåne that night.
After the Turkish-Greek joint project turned out to be only Turkish, last weekend we had an invitation to a Greek one. I have to say my stereotype about non-cooking Greeks has failed. We had the best dinner. Maybe it wasn’t Greek, but it was certainly delicious. As I was told, it’s quite impossible to make proper Greek food here – and now I’m not thinking about Greek salad. Although there can be some problems with the taste of tomato you can buy in Sweden… the point is that for a real mousaka you have to be in Greece. So here is a non-Greek Greek recipe:
First you cook the pasta. Meanwhile, heat oil and add 1-2 onions, garlic, parsley, mushrooms, sweet peppers, salt, pepper and of course sauce of tomato. You can also add small pieces of chicken or bacon etc. After that, drain pasta and add to sauce mixture. Then you bake all together in the oven for 15-20 minutes. That’s it!
