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Monday, 06 February 2012 20:20 |
 A Blog from Greece – Life at The Lemon Tree on Crete
I love cake and all things to do with cake but have to confess that before moving to Crete I never did any baking – I would pick up cakes from the supermarket or bakers. My friend Jayne baked some lovely cookies when I saw her and they were lovely warm to eat straight out of the oven; I have carried this memory with me for a long time on these shores far from home. I did once pick up a ready made cookie mix packet (that in truth I don’t really think counts as baking yourself, more a kind of assembling) but they were lovely and were enjoyed on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Cakes here are everywhere, there are little cake shops all over town and cakes are bought to celebrate all sorts of occasions: holidays, name days, saint days, birthdays, special days, funerals, days to remember someone dead, Christmas, Easter, anniversaries and so on….. On one of these days you will see many people wandering down the streets with boxes of cakes. When it is someone’s name day, they will have little stacks of beautiful boxes of cakes to share with everyone; similarly when someone is in hospital there will be boxes and boxes of cakes for the visitors (and there are lots and lots of visitors in Greek hospitals and we are talking at all hours – but that is another story or rather blog).
Thus living in this land of cake and all things to do with cake it may seem a little strange that I have been compelled to bake cakes (and lots of them). It started off with a few longings of cake from home, little scones and shortbread biscuits, both of which are completely alien to here; admittedly my first attempts at baking them were not my best but they hit the spot and spurred me on to more baking adventures.
There are lots of cakes here but I have found that they fall into a few categories – either very sticky and sweet pastries and I am thinking here of the lovely baklava and similar little beauties; very creamy incredible stand-stopping cake affairs or the traditional little nut and cinnamon type of biscuits that are produced in the kitchens of the villages in their hundreds.
Now I like to eat cake and a raspberry and cream puff has saved my soul from many a situation; here I am reminded of the first year 10 English group that I taught during my teacher training in south London where this tea time treat was what gave me the strength (or vision) to face these strong students who were somewhat in disregard of their teacher in training. Pretty much a case of learning on your feet (and I am talking about the teacher) and you either sunk or swam and luckily I learnt how to tame, enlighten and educate these little rascals but I have to pay homage to the cream cake that got me through!
Thus being a girl not adverse to a cream cake it still shocks me that I have to admit that the cream cake in Greece has me beaten. The realisation occurred when I was sitting by the seafront in Sitia and was waiting for Mark to return from a paperwork errand in town (and there are always lots of them!) I ordered what sounded like a lovely little coffee that was topped with cream (lots of it)and was tempted by the cakes on the menu but even I found the creamy layers and toppings rather too much and had to admit defeat.
The baklava and all their friends are lovely little fellows, perfect with a little strong coffee and glass of water but they can be a little rich (and no it is not a case of me eating hundreds of them….) I was looking for something more homely and cake like. I found some sugared covered ringed donuts in town and in our first year would pick up one when we were in town but when I realised I had got to know the baker quite well and was in danger of turning into a donut it was time to tackle some baking.
What got me started on this baking malarkey was a combination of homesickness, needs must (as in having a sweet tooth craving that needed to be satisfied)and financial security as in not wanting to bankrupt the business with my purchase of cake. One thing that had startled me (along with the numerous layers of cream in cakes) was the cost of cake here and we are talking lots of Euros! On the way back home in our early days here after picking up mum and dad from the airport we stopped at a lovely little bakers in Makrygialos, a lovely long stretch of beach framed by cafes and restaurants. I thought I would pick up some cakes for tea that day and coffee the next morning. Well, eight little cakes came to eighteen Euros and that did seem a lot of money to me; they were lovely but not fancy (and thus demanding this exorbitant amount of money).
It also seemed that most of the Brits that you met out here were undertaking their own baking adventures and were producing cakes and biscuits with memories from home. It seemed like they were on to something and I started to think about this baking project more seriously. There were many experts on where to find certain baking ingredients across this end of the island and many a trip has been undertaken with a divergence to pick up tins of golden syrup from a supermarket known to stock them.
It started then with Easter; a time in Greece where every household is involved in baking or buying tons of cake and we thought we may as well join in. Throughout the year our neighbours gave us fruit, vegetables and eggs and we were warned by the Brits living out here that we were soon to be swamped with Easter cakes and biscuits. Thus we had to come up with an English version of something cake like to give to the villagers during the festivities. At that time we had the news magazine ‘The Week’ delivered and one of its features was a weekly recipe drawn from publications. Thus it was their simmel cake recipe that gave me my inspiration and I was able to produce a lovely version of this, iced and topped with chocolate eggs for our neighbour Manoils at Easter. I have to admit there was a moment I felt quite proud of my new accomplishment as Mark handed over the cake to him. I had also made up a batch of hot cross buns that were not quite as successful being on the somewhat chewy side but the great thing is that our neighbours received them joyfully and happily munched on them; not knowing of course what they should of tasted like they thankfully enjoyed them as they were.
Another memory of that cake is making for another Easter gathering with our friend Doretta and her family who return to their village house at Easter or summer. It was lovely to see it take its place on the table alongside the Greek creations and be enjoyed; although I nearly fell off my chair with suppressed laughter when Doretta suggested to a friend of hers she should consider me to make her wedding cake.
After our first season here in 2006 and with Charlie on the way and our wedding approaching it was time to get down to some serious baking. We were to have a small gathering on the day of the wedding after the registry and then have a larger party here at the restaurant the day after. We were undertaking all of the catering and thus it was all hands to the pump or rather to the wooden spoon as I began preparations for our wedding cakes and various biscuits and cakes. Of course there was something of a homelike charm about them (in a kooky kind of amateurish way but I am just thankful we are not still paying the wedding bill six years down the line). Thus I produced wedding cakes, vanilla shortbread hearts and lovely little fairy cakes; it was very sweet (although somewhat exhausting at six months pregnant).
I also turned out some lovely Salmon and pesto in layers of toasted bread for the wedding buffet that were a hit but also display my culinary skills outside of baking and is the reason Mark, the chef runs the restaurant and I look after the children and indulge in the odd bit of baking.
One of the things I longed for out here was a flapjack and with memories of munching a lovely little half-covered chocolate flapjack on the morning drive home from Marks (which had been picked up from Waitrose) or eating some from M&S I had a strong craving for them. In these early days here then, I had a tub from M&S sent over and as I munched on them looked at the ingredients – oats, sugar, syrup, butter and a few other bit, I thought it can’t be too hard to make some myself. I searched my bookshelves for those lovely little baking books I had bought back in England and had been much loved but not actually used to bake anything and searched within to find a simple recipe that has now become one I use on a regular basis to produce a tray of flapjacks.
At Christmas I bake a couple of Christmas fruit cakes and produce lots of little versions that are wrapped up in paper with ribbons and look quite lovely. Whilst at Easter the kitchen again fills up with little home produced Easter parcels for the villagers and for a little while looks like a factory! I have come to think that it is nicer to give something that is homemade rather than bought and we have always found it more appreciated. I was a big Blue Peter fan but never really got to grips with the projects apart from in a half-hearted way and thus I have found it is quite rewarding now to make something yourself.
My main love is cookies and I used to love the big round cookies with smarties that you pick up from the in store bakeries of supermarkets. I set about baking some of my own cookies, usually of the chocolate chunk variety but lovely with marzipan pieces too and cookies are turned out on a regular basis. I think it is true to say that once you have started baking cookies it is unlikely you will want to buy a shop bought pack of cookies again as there is just no comparison; there is nothing really that can compare to the smell and taste of warm cookies just out of the oven. The boys of course love to lick out the bowl and can’t wait for the first cookie out of the oven and it is a satisfying feeling to pop something in the luchbreak box. I do buy the odd pack of biscuits for them so they grow up with some reference outside of the kitchen rather than some sense of being denied anything that wasn’t homemade!
The lemons that we have are of course a great inspiration for us both and my lemon cake will continue to be baked on a regular basis over the coming months whilst we have lots of them. A slice wrapped up makes a lovely treat on a little picnic lunch after a walk.
I do not pretend to be an expert in these matters at all or even that good. I just enjoy it, they taste nice and often look pretty too and that is enough for me. My baking undertakings are on a needs must basis to satisfy my sweet cravings and to make something for the family; sometimes in the restaurant if someone is stopping for a pot of coffee or tea and I have just done some baking, then we will serve a little home-baked treat with that. Like everyone I make mistakes – like forget the baking powder occasionally in the muffins or add too much flour and not enough chocolate to the brownies (thankfully you only do it once). We had a recent event of me trying to make peanut brittle in the kitchen and dutifully following Nigella Lawson’s recipe to the last letter so that when the kitchen filled with smoke I declared in a somewhat overconfident manner, ‘no, no it is supposed to be like this, she says to be warned as it will be smoking hot’. And indeed it was as Mark and the boys beat a hasty retreat!
My new project this year will be to try to reproduce two of my favourite Greek sweet dishes – Baklava, lovely layers of syrupy phyllo (filo) pastry layered with walnuts and almonds and Galaktoboureko – a delicious custard phyllo pie, that Mark has called Star Galactica. I will be attempting these two dishes with both excitement and a little trepidation and will be blogging about them as my baking develops over the coming weeks. Life being the circular path that it is I will no doubt find myself in an English kitchen someday with a craving for these Greek little pastries and undertaking the reproduction of these.
Our emphasis in these blogs from Crete is on food because that is what we do at The Lemon Tree, but we aim in these little blogs from Crete to also give a reflection of life in a Greek Village on Crete. Simply put, we live here; have a family here and a business. Thus we encounter daily both the joys and tribulations of life in a Greek village, some of which are familiar to the whole of Crete and Greece, some of which are unique to village life; some which villagers alike share or are experienced by us as settlers in this land. Alongside these writings you will find recipes and ideas about food.
For previous blog articles please click on the link at the bottom of the ‘blog page’ and if you are searching for a particular food recipe such as curry or food ingredient such as cabbage – then type in the keyword in the search box on the website and Hey Presto! This will bring up the recipes that contain this ingredient.
We write the blogs together; mostly the food stuff is Mark and some of the other bits are Anita or what we come to through general chat (or heated discussion, depending on the day….) Mark is dyslexic - he writes a first draft, hands it over to Anita (who puts on her old English teacher’s hat) to redraft and develop, adding a bit here and there; this seems to work!
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'..In his kitchen and restaurant, Mark made us travel through Crete, England and many other countries all over the world. The best experience we had: a surprising fantasy-menu that was especially created for us. We thought we were travelling in paradise! Every meal is a composition of colours, tastes and flavours..'
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