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6 Greek Street Food Recipes
Koulouri, souvlaki in a pita, tiropita from a bakery window, loukoumades from a stall, bougatsa at seven in the morning.
A sesame bread ring in the morning, souvlaki in a pita, tiropita from a bakery window, loukoumades from a stall. Greek street food is eaten standing up.
The list is short because the food is. Souvlaki and gyros are the two wraps. Tiropita is the pie to carry. Saganaki is fried cheese. Loukoumades are honey puffs that have to be eaten within minutes of leaving the oil. Greek coffee is on the list as well.
At home the hard part is heat. Get the pan or the grill properly hot before anything goes on it.
Every recipe on Kalliopi's Kitchen carries the dish's Greek name and a pronunciation, its region where that is meaningful, ingredient quantities in both metric and imperial, and an honest note on what commonly goes wrong. Nutrition figures are calculated estimates and are labelled as such.
1. Pork Souvlaki
Souvlaki · Σουβλάκι · soo-VLAH-kee
Little skewer is what the word means, and to a Greek it is the meat, not the wrap. Order one in Athens and two bare skewers may arrive with bread, lemon and raw onion. The meat is nearly always pork, and shoulder has the fat to survive a hard fire. Beef barely comes into it.
Yiayia’s tip: Leave gaps between the cubes. Meat packed tightly against itself on a skewer cannot brown on the touching faces. Small gaps let the fire get in and give you crust on all sides.
Make Pork Souvlaki2. Loukoumades
Λουκουμάδες · loo-koo-MAH-des
Possibly the oldest dessert Europe still eats: honey tokens much like them went to the winners of the ancient games. The batter is wetter than any dough you could handle, and that water becomes the steam that blows the middle hollow. They do not keep. Within twenty minutes of the fryer they are soft.
Yiayia’s tip: Keep the spoons wet. The batter sticks ferociously to anything dry. A bowl of water beside the pan, and dipping the spoons between every single puff, is the difference between this being easy and being maddening.
Make Loukoumades3. How to Make Greek Coffee in a Briki
Ellinikos kafes · Ελληνικός καφές · eh-lee-nee-KOS kah-FES
Neither espresso nor filter. The grounds are cooked in the water, poured into the cup with it and left to settle at the bottom. The one skill is not letting it boil, because boiling kills the kaimaki, the dense foam on top. Sugar goes in with the water, since stirring later lifts the grounds.
Yiayia’s tip: Match the briki to the quantity. A briki should be roughly two thirds full for the foam to build properly. Making one cup in a large briki gives you almost no kaimaki.
Make How to Make Greek Coffee in a Briki4. Pork Gyros
Gyros · Γύρος · YEE-ros
Nobody has a vertical rotisserie at home and nobody needs one. Marinated pork slices are pressed onto an upright skewer in a tin and roasted as one piece, so the fat runs down and bastes what is below. Then the meat is sliced thin and crisped in a hot pan. Most home versions skip that.
Yiayia’s tip: Freeze briefly before slicing. Forty minutes in the freezer firms the joint enough to slice thin and evenly. Trying to slice soft pork shoulder thinly is genuinely difficult.
Make Pork Gyros5. Saganaki
Σαγανάκι · sah-ghah-NAH-kee
The name is the pan's, not the cheese's. A small two-handled frying pan is a sagani, and anything cooked in one is a saganaki, prawns and mussels included. The cheese must be firm and low in moisture, usually kefalotyri or graviera, or it runs into a puddle. Three minutes, then straight to the table.
Yiayia’s tip: Thick slices only. Under about 1.5 cm the cheese has melted through before the outside has coloured. Thickness is what buys you the contrast between crust and molten centre.
Make Saganaki6. Tiropita
Τυρόπιτα · tee-ROH-pee-tah
The pie Greeks eat most, usually standing up, before ten in the morning, from a bakery window. With no spinach to hide behind, the cheese has to be right. Feta alone bakes dense, rubbery and too salty, so a soft mild cheese goes in with it: anthotyro, mizithra or ricotta, two parts feta to one.
Yiayia’s tip: Soak the feta if it is very salty. Twenty minutes in fresh water or milk before crumbling takes the edge off without losing the character of the cheese.
Make Tiropita
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