Greek cuisine: Georgina Hayden's spice lamb chops and an easy birthday cake recipe
Greekish: Everyday Recipes With Greek Roots by Georgina Hayden is available on April 25
French and Italian cuisines have long dominated the food landscape.
Greek food doesn’t traditionally have quite the same reputation, and while food writer Georgina Hayden is well aware of the stereotypes, that’s something she’s keen on changing.
“For a very long time, Greek food was just seen as kebabs, meat on sticks – which is delicious, we love a kebab, don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, that’s all it was – quite greasy, dirty food,” Hayden says.
For Greek-Cypriot Hayden, who lives in London, Greek food hasn’t been afforded the same range as other European cuisines.
“I’ve thought a lot about why Italian food is elevated. Italian food can be very every day, but you have very fancy Italian restaurants — and Italian holidays are very special, aren’t they? But for a long time, you had Greek package holidays — and there’s nothing wrong with that.
“But I think the reason Greek food was misunderstood for a long time, is because I grew up in an era of Teletext Holidays and cheap holidays.”
Hayden, 41, suggests Greece became associated with budget holidays — and while the locations might have been beautiful, the strips and accommodations didn’t necessarily reflect that, and that reputation carried over to food.
But now, there’s something of a change happening. “Greek foods are having a real moment,” Hayden, who worked with Jamie Oliver for over a decade, adds.
“We’re definitely seeing an influx of really high-end — again, it’s not that I need or want food to be posh or fancy. It’s just having a spectrum and a range — if you want to have high end-Greek, now you can. If you want middle and cheaper, you can.”
While she accepts that Greek cuisine loves “our grills and our meat”, she says:
“This isn’t the only thing… We love lentils, a lot of pulses, a lot of vegetables and salads. Actually, dare I say, if you’re vegetarian, you would be laughing if you went to Greece, you would have such a range of things you could eat there.”
So if you were to start cooking a bit more Greek food at home, where should you start?
Hayden’s new cookbook, , has a chapter dedicated to ‘things on sticks’, and for her, this is a great jumping off point. These recipes do very much what they say on the tin — you spear some kind of protein on a stick, be it meat, fish or something like mushrooms, and make a “cracking marinade” to go with it, served with pita bread from the supermarket.
And for Hayden, ‘Greekish’ is the best way to describe her food. “It works on a lot of levels, in the fact that the food is Greek-inspired, as opposed to incredibly authentic,” she notes, which is different to her previous two cookbooks — the last, Nistisima, putting the spotlight on food eaten by Orthodox people during Lent.
This time round, “They’re Greek recipes, but they’re my recipes,” she says. “So there’s an ‘ish’ to them. No one could argue that it might not be the way their granny makes, or the way their mum makes it — that’s where the ‘ish’ comes from.
“But there’s also lots of other ways that it becomes relevant – the fact that I’m Greek Cypriot. Cyprus is a divided island, so the food that I’ve grown up with spans both Greek and Cyprus. I’m Greek, Cypriot — the food is kind of ‘ish’.
“So there’s a looseness that comes with being from this island that’s quite far away from the mainland.” Plus, the book is dedicated to her two daughters, Persephone, six, and Elektra, three.
“They are ‘Greekish’, they’re half me — Greek Cypriot — and they’re half their dad, who is English-Irish. It’s that second generation, mish-mash of cultures that I think we’re seeing now through a lot of food writers, but also certainly the way I cook and live my life. It’s all becoming a nice amalgamation of different cuisines and cultures.”
Few dishes sum up Hayden’s ethos better than the baklava cheesecake. “People are familiar with baklava, they know cheesecake — but we put the two together,” she explains.
“I know there are variations out there and I’m not the first to make it, but my version is a bit different — there’s a whole pack of feta in the filling, which gives this really delicious, salty-sweet [taste].”
When Hayden served this cheesecake up to her 83-year-old yia yia (her grandmother), she got the best feedback possible.
“I sliced it and gave her the first slice and she stared at it very intently… She looked at me and she was shaking her head, which means she had nothing to say to me. Not one bad thing to say to me — and that’s a very rare occurrence,” Hayden remembers.
“The reason I remember it so clearly is because I’m not convinced it’s ever happened otherwise – trust me, my family will definitely tell me everything they think about everything. No one could tell me my baklava cheesecake isn’t good, because my yia yia has spoken.”
And because she’s not drawing on traditional dishes, Hayden’s a bit more nervous about releasing this cookbook into the world.
“Relying on tradition or existing recipes, a lot of the time that can make your life easier, to be honest, because you are referring to things that you’ve read elsewhere or you’ve learned elsewhere. So this one is me in all my glory out there, just waiting for the attack really — it’s like I’ve got nothing to hide behind, which is scary but also really exhilarating.”
Georgina Hayden’s spiced lamb chops with houmous
This quick and easy meal looks – and tastes – incredibly impressive.
Servings
4Preparation Time
10 minsCooking Time
8 minsTotal Time
18 minsCourse
MainCuisine
GreekIngredients
8 lamb chops
2 garlic cloves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander
Olive oil
2 lemons
2 shallots
2 green chillies
A few sprigs of mint
30g pistachios or almonds
200g houmous, shop-bought or homemade
Method
Place the lamb chops in a mixing bowl or dish and crush in the garlic. Season well and add the ground cumin and coriander. Pour in enough olive oil to coat and squeeze in the juice of one lemon. Really massage the flavours into the chops, then cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for as long as you can, bringing it out 20 minutes before you want to cook. If you don’t have much time, just leave to one side on the kitchen counter for at least five minutes.
While the lamb is marinating, peel and finely slice the shallots. Place in a small bowl with the juice of the remaining lemon and a good pinch of salt. Halve, deseed and finely slice the chillies. Toss through the lemony shallots. Pick the mint leaves and roughly chop. Finely chop the pistachios, then set aside. Spoon the houmous out on a serving plate.
Place a griddle pan on a high heat and get it hot. Grill the lamb chops for about four minutes on each side, this will give you just-blushing lamb. You can cook them for less or more time depending on your taste. I like to finish by propping them up on the fatty side to get it crisp (this was always my mum’s favourite bit).
You don’t want to crowd the pan, so you might need to do this in two batches; if so, rest the cooked chops in a very low oven while you cook the others. As soon as all the chops are ready, place them on top of the houmous. Toss the mint through the shallot mixture and scatter over the top with the pistachios.
Georgina Hayden’s grilled halloumi with apricots
No one’s ever going to be sad about a whole chunk of halloumi for dinner.
Servings
2Preparation Time
6 minsCooking Time
10 minsTotal Time
16 minsCourse
MainCuisine
GreekIngredients
1 x 250g piece of halloumi
Olive oil
4 apricots
2tbsp honey
A few sprigs of oregano or thyme
Method
Preheat your grill to medium-high. Carefully score the top of your halloumi in a criss-cross pattern – don’t cut too deep, you want to keep it intact. Rub the cheese with olive oil, in between the cuts, too. Halve the apricots, remove the stones, and halve again into quarters. Place the halloumi in a snug dish (ideally metal) and nestle around the apricots, drizzling them with olive oil, too.
Pop under the grill, not too close, and grill for eight to 10 minutes, so that the fruit starts to caramelise and the halloumi is tender and charred on top. The success of this recipe depends on having the right distance from the grill and heat, so check a few minutes into cooking and see if you need to raise the temperature or lower the grill bars. It’s quite a forgiving technique, so take your time and see what works with your grill. When the halloumi is ready, drizzle with honey and scatter over the thyme or oregano. Serve immediately.
Georgina Hayden’s chocolate party cake
Take your birthday cake to the next level by baking this Greek version.
Servings
12Preparation Time
15 minsCooking Time
30 minsTotal Time
45 minsCourse
BakingCuisine
GreekIngredients
375g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
50ml brandy
125g unsalted butter, plus extra for the tray
250g dark and milk chocolate (I like half and half)
3 large eggs
175g plain flour
75g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
½tsp fine sea salt
200ml whole milk
250ml double cream
Sprinkles or fruit (optional)
Method
Place 175 grams of the caster sugar in a small saucepan with the cinnamon stick, brandy and 150 millilitres of water. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then simmer for 5 minutes until syrupy. Leave to cool.
Preheat your oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5. Grease a deep 30cm x 20cm tray. Melt the butter in a small pan or microwave. Finely chop the chocolate, then set aside. Place the eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on a medium speed with the remaining 200 grams of caster sugar. After a minute, increase the speed to high and whisk for four minutes, until pale and voluminous.
Meanwhile, in a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and fine sea salt. When the eggs are ready, whisk in the milk and melted butter, then fold in the dry ingredients and 50 grams of the chopped chocolate. Pour the batter into the prepared tray and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until just cooked through. When a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, it is done. Remove from the oven and poke holes all over the sponge and evenly drizzle over the cooled syrup. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
To make the ganache, place the remaining 200 grams of chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the double cream until it is hot, but not boiling. Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate, leave for 30 seconds, then slowly stir until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes then spread over the cake. Serve as it is or topped with sprinkles or fruit.
- by Georgina Hayden is published by Bloomsbury. Photography by Laura Edwards. Available April 25.
