Ingredients

• 1 kgr flour
• 1 glass of oil
• 1 glass of sugar
• 1 glass of wine, ouzo
• 1 ¼ glasses of water
• 2 bags of barm or yeast
• some salt, cinnamon and clove
• fennel crushed, vanilla, sesame

Recipe from Meganissi

Put the flour with some oil to a basin. Μix the ingredients with some melted barm in lukewarm water.

Knead and mix well. Keep ¼ of the yeast and with the rest of the mould make a big roll, put it to a No28 baking pan and in the middle put a metallic pot to keep the hole of the roll open.

With the ¼ of the yeast make some twists and flowers to decorate the roll. On the top put some white almonds. Bake in a moderate oven.

Koulouri tis nifis (the roll of the bride) is made from the mother of the bride and sent with the rest of the dowry to the groom’s house.
They cut it when they make the bride’s bed, on a Monday day, serving it to the guests. (Marriages are performed always on a Sunday day)

If you wish to keep this custom, you will have to offer and some sweets in the wedding dinner.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• A bonito
• Salt, pepper,oregano
• 1 cup of oil
• 1 lemon (the juice)
• 1 classic ceramic tile

You scrape the palamidi, cut and throw its head. Make a cut with the knife on its length.

Put the fish in the oven in a well oiled tile and then altogether in large baking pan.

You cook at a medium heat (170 degrees)

When it is ready, clean the rest of its bones and skin. Cut it into slices and put it in a large plate, with some salt, pepper and oregano.

Mix in a bowl some oil and the juice of lemon and pour it on the fish.

In this way of cooking, the fish becomes lighter and spicier.
If you do not have a tile, use a well oiled pyrex or a baking pan.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 1- 1 ½ kilo of brown picarels, koutsomoures (a fish like mullet), bonito or eels
• ½ – 1 glass of oil
• 1 glass of vinegar
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 bundle of rosemary
• 2-3 leaves of laurel
• 1-2 cups of black raisin

Scrape the fishes, wash and salt them in a strainer.

Fry and put them in a ceramic pyrex.

Then, in the frying pan, after throwing away the oil and wash it well, pour some drops of water, the garlic, which is cut in very thin slices and the leaves of rosemary. Leave it until it boils and the garlic softens. Mix the rest of the ingredients; stir for a while and leave them to boil for some more time.

Pour the sauce to the fishes to cover them.

You can serve it as soon it is cold.

In this way of cooking, the fishes will be preserved for a long time. It is a tasty traditional recipe, still cooked at the fish villages and in town of Lefkada.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 2 roosters or 1500 gr beef
• 2 big onions
• 1 head of garlic
• ¾ cup of oil
• 2 spoons of butter for the pasta
• Cinnamon, cloves, whole and crushed
• Ground nutmeg
• Salt- pepper
• 2 big spoons tomato paste
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 700 gr of pasta No3
• grated hard cheese

Cut the rooster or the beef into pieces. Pour oil in a shallow stewpot. Roast the meat and put the garlic and the onions. Add salt and pepper, 3-4 glasses of water, tomato and the spices. Cover the stewpot and leave the meat to boil on a low heat for 2 hours. It may need a little bit of water during the boiling procedure. You pour some and taste it, in case you need to add some more spices for a spicier taste. The food should remain with a thick sauce, red and dark from the spices, enough for the pasta.
Boil and strain the pasta putting some butter inside.
Serve it with sauce and grated cheese. As a second dish you serve the meat with some sauce.
The pasta will be tastier if you pour its sauce inside the stewpot half an hour before serving.

After you finish your meal, you will definitely think that there is no comparison with Italian pasta.
By far, this is the best pasta… Kokotos makaronada!

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 1 yellow pumking of 3 kilos
• ¾ cup of oil
• 1 cup of sugar
• ½ cup of honey
• 2-3 cups of nuts
• 2-3 cups of black and sultana raisin
• 3 cups of sesame
• Plenty of cinnamon
• 1 spoon of salt
• 4 home made pastry sheets or 6-7 frozen
• Dose for baking tray

You cut the pumpkin in the middle. Throw away the seeds and the strings of its inside part and grate it piece by piece with the onion grater or with a spoon (every half piece). Pour the salt in the pumpkin, leave it to strain for a while and then squeeze it.
Put the pumpkin with some oil inside a swallow stewpot and cook it until it looses all its juices and dries up. Then add the rest of the ingredients and stir the mix for a while.
Spread with oil the baking pan and put 2 sheets inside. Spread the mix and cover every spot of the pan. Cover it with the other 2 sheets after spreading with oil and sprinkle with some water the top of the pie.
Cook it on a medium heat.

The sweet pumpkin pie is very tasty and better cooked with home made pastry sheets. You can serve it after meal, as a dessert.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

In the period of vintage, you will buy must (5- 10 kilos) from the wine presses. You put the must in a stewpot and pour some ash, 2 cups, tied well in a piece of tullecloth.
Put the stewpot to boil by cleaning the top of the must of its foams. After half an hour take the stewpot away from the fire and throw ash (from the fireplace) inside, strain carefully from the tullecloth, all the must.
Put again the stewpot on the fire to boil until it becomes grape juice syrup. It should become thick syrup.

You can keep it in bottles. If it is thick enough, it can be preserved for years.
Years ago, housewives were using it on every winter’s delight. Moustokouloura (Must rolls), bobotas (corn bread),bazinas, petimezopitta (grape juice syrup pie).
Now that’s rare too.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 7 – 8 Home made sheets
• 12-15 eggs, well knocked
• 1 can of concentrated milk (no water needed) in the eggs or ½ fresh
• ½ cup of oil or 1 cup of oil and ½ cup of butter
• 1 kilo of hard cheese
• 1 baking pan

You mould the sheets. You knock the eggs very well and pour the milk inside. Cut the cheese in large piece.
Put the biggest sheet in the oiled baking pan and cover all its spots keeping the pie inside. Spread the sheet with oil (and butter) and with a spoon pour the mix of egg and milk and add the cheese.
Repeat the same with the last sheet. At this time, you turn inside the first sheet and place the last turned from the inside. Spread it with butter and egg, sprinkle some water and prick with a fork the top of the pie.
Cook on a medium heat for 1 hour.

The pie is delicious. You can also make it with fewer ingredients and sheets in a smaller baking pan. Traditionally, it is made for the week of Tirines – on the Carnival days. It is a traditional pie of Lefkada.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 2 amp’s bowels and sweetbreads
• ½ cup of oil
• salt, pepper
• oregano, lemon

Wash the bowels well. With the wooden stick like a pencil, turn the bowels, to wash them from its inside. Make a bunch of 5-6 bowels, 1 meter long and put the sweetbreads between. With some help, twine a string of 2 more bowels around them.
Put the bowels in the baking pan with salt, pepper, oregano and oil. Prick them with a fork here and there and bake them in a medium oven. When cooked, cut the bowels into portions and serve. Add lemon in the plate.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 2 loufes or 2 ducks
• 1 big head of garlic
• 1-2 sticks of rosemary
• 2-3 lemons (the juice)
• ½ – ¾ cup of oil
• 2 cups of water

You scrape and twine the loufes well, pour vinegar to eliminate their smell and cut them into pieces. Put oil in the frying pan and fry them for a while. In a swallow stewpot, put some pieces of the birds, the quantity of the oil of ingredients, the garlic, the rosemary, salt and pepper and water.
Cover and leave them to boil on a low fire , adding some water if necessary. When the meat of the birds softens and its sauce is enough, put them away from fire. Strain the sauce and pour it inside the stewpot to boil for a while. Pour the juice of lemons and shake the stewpot. If the sauce is watery, melt inside the lemon, half spoon of corn flour, to become thicker. You serve together with fried potatoes or rise.

This recipe has a delicious taste. In this way you could cook quails, hares etc.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 1 kilo of boneless beef
• ½ – ¾ cup of oil
• 2 onions
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 glass of wine petimezi
• ½ glass of wine vinegar
• 1 bundle of rosemary
• half spoon of tomato paste
• salt-pepper, water
• 5-6 peeled and sliced quinces or 5-6 potatoes

You cut the meat into pieces, wash it and put it in a stewpot with some oil to brown.
When it starts browning, add the onion (cut into large pieces) to get brown too. Pour vinegar inside and add petimezi, the garlic, the rosemary, salt, pepper, water. Cover and leave the food to boil at a medium heat. Pour some extra water if needed. When the meat is almost ready, add the quinces or potatoes to boil. You check the quinces, not to melt. The food will be ready when the sauce will be thick and brown. Serve the meat and the quinces in a large plate. If it is very sweet, add salt. The old recipe had more petimezi (1 glass of water)

Sofigado is a very old recipe of Lefkada’s town.
It is dated since the Venetians domination days.
Its taste is sweet and sour, reminding tastes of modern cuisine.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• A no 30 baking pan
• 2 home made sheets
• 1 kilo of brown picarel (thin)
• ¾ cup of oil
• 1 big onion
• 2 mellow peeled tomatoes
• 200gr. of cheese (village)
• parsley, salt, pepper

You cut the picarel’s heads, wash well and salt into a strainer.
Oil the baking pan and put 2 sheets inside, sticking out from the edges. Oil the sheets. Put the picarel in a ray shape, add pepper and cut the onion into thin rings. On the top, scrape the mellow peeled tomatoes with an onion cutter, cut into thin slices the parsley, spread the cheese all over the top and pour oil. By turning the sheets from inside, to create an edge, cook to 170 degrees.

The maridopitta is a pie of Lefkada, with a spicy taste. Unfortunately, you can taste it only for a while, since the picarel is very thin, only in September days.
There are variations of the pie. Some housewives cover the pie on the top with sheets or with a mush of flour and water.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• A no 32 baking pan
• 3 glasses of oil
• 3 glasses of water
• 2 glasses of sugar
• sesame, cinnamon, almonds (white)
• 1 kilo of flour
• 1 cup of semolina

You boil the water with the sugar for 10 minutes and keep it warm.
Pour the oil (keep 2 digits from the 3rd glass) in a swallow stewpot. Add slowly the flour, in order to create a thick mush and stir with a wooden spoon on a medium heat until it becomes gold. Add the hot syrup slowly and continue stirring until all juices are totally absorbed. It must become a soft halvah. Powder with sesame, spread the “halvah” on the baking pan, straighten up the surface and pour oil all over. Powder with sesame, mark the surface in rhombs and put an almond on each one.
Cook on a medium heat for 1 hour. Check with a knife if the leaven comes off the walls of the pan. If this happens, the pie will be ready.
Powder with cinnamon and sugar. Cut it when it’s cold.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 1 kilo of cuttlefishes
• ½ cup of oil
• 5-6 small cups of rise
• salt , pepper
• 1 spoon of tomato paste
• 1 big onion

Scrape the cuttlefishes carefully, not to break the bag of ink at least to the half of them in order for the rise to turn black with the special taste.
Brown the crumbed onion with oil, and turn the sliced cuttlefishes for a while.
Pour 3-4 cups of water, the tomato paste, salt, pepper and leave the cuttlefishes to boil and soften.
Add the rise, water if needed and stir carefully. The rise will be ready when its juice will be totally absorbed.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Before toasts and fast foods, in the town and villages of Lefkada, people had been preparing the snack of riganada, mostly in the summertime.
In order to make riganada, wet bread (dry and brown hand kneaded), squeeze it, put it on a plate and add enough oil, vinegar, salt and oregano.

Riganada is served together with tomato, salty sardines or cheese.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 600 gr of Egklouvis lentils
• ¾ cup of oil
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 stick of oregano
• salt
• vinegar

Clean the lentils from grits wash and put it with some cold water to boil and strain.
You half full the stewpot with hot water, add salt and the stick of oregano, boil the lentils at medium heat. When the water will be totally absorbed, add oil and stir with a wooden spoon, in order for the lentil to be mixed with oil. Add again a glass of hot water.
You could leave the lentils with more or less juice. Always put vinegar in the plate.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 600 gr lathiria of Karya’s field
• ¾ oil
• 1 big onion
• salt
• pepper
• lemon

You put the lathiria into water during night time.
In the morning, you put the lathiria in the stewpot with some water to boil. You strain.
Pour hot water in the stewpot together with lathiria, the grated onion, salt, pepper and leave them to boil until thejuice will be totally absorbed. Add oil. You stir with a wooden spoon in order to turn the brown for a while and add some lukewarm water to boil well and mash.
Pour some lemon in the plate.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.

Ingredients

• 1.300 gr salted cod
• 1 – 1½ kilo of potatoes
• 1 – 1½ cup of oil
• 2 – 3 lemons
• 1 big onion
• 1 head of garlic
• pepper
• 2-3 glasses of water

On the day before, at night time, put the cod sliced, in a basin of water to soak the salt out.
Change the water for 2 or 3 times.
On the next day, before you start cooking, scrape the scales and wash well for a while.
In a medium swallow stewpot, put the potatoes sliced like wedges, the grated onion, the cloves of garlic and stir carefully.
Put the sliced of cod with its skin.
Add pepper, oil, water, cover the stewpot and leave the food to boil on a medium heat. Check not to stick at the bottom or if some more water is needed.
When it boils, the juice will become thick; Pour the lemons around and shake the stewpot. Boil for a while and turn off the heat.
The sauce should be thick and white.
If we remove oil then we “bind” the sauce with 1 tablespoon of corn flour.

Bibliography: “Cuisine of Lefkada – Xorexa tis nonas, ta mageria tis vavas” (the recipes of godmother and grandmother) of Toulas Skliros.