Recipes of Santorini and other Cycladic islands

Tomatokeftedes or Pseftokeftedes (tomato pancakes)

Serves 4-6

• 1 ½ cups tomatoes, finely chopped (dehydrated  Cycladic tomatoes, if available)
• ½ cup spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoon fresh spearmint, finely chopped
• a pinch of dried crumbled oregano
• 1 cup plain flour or a little bit more (depending on how juicy the tomatoes are)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• salt, pepper to taste
• olive oil for frying

Method...

• Combine in a bowl, tomatoes, onion and herbs.
• Mix the flour with the baking powder. Add in the bowl, a little a time and stir constantly until everything combines to a mixture, firm enough to form little balls (pseftokeftedes).
• Heat enough olive oil in a frying pan and deep-fry the pseftokeftedes, until golden.
• Remove them from the pan and place them on kitchen paper to absorb the extra olive oil.

Note: There are many variations of this dish. Every cook, depending on his/her taste, adds different spices in the mixture or pseftokeftedes

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Fava Pantremeni (split pea puree)

Serves 4

• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1-cup split peas, cleaned, washed
• water for boiling the splits peas
• 2-3 tablespoons vinegar
• salt, pepper to taste

For the sauce:

• ½ cup olive oil

• 3-4 tomatoes, peeled, finely chopped (small dehydrated Cycladic tomatoes if available)

• 2 large onions, finely chopped

• pinch of cinnamon

• 1 bay leaf

Method...

• Boil the split peas.
• Heat, on a pot, half of the olive oil and sauté the onion until translucent.
• Add the split peas, stir with a wooden spoon, for 1-2 minutes, add water, enough to cover the split peas, by approx. 2 cm.
• Boil, for 1-1 ½ hours, over low heat until a smooth puree.
•  Stir occasionally. Add a little warm water if needed.
• Remove from the fire and add the remaining olive oil and vinegar.
• Cover the pot with a linen towel and let it stand for about 30 minutes.
• Prepare the sauce.

Heat the olive oil, over low heat, and add the onion until soft and translucent.

Cook for about 10 minutes. Add, tomatoes, cinnamon, bay leaf salt and paper.

• Cover the frying pan and boil the sauce for 20-50 minutes, over low fire until the sauce thickens.

Serve and pour the sauce on top.

Note: pantremeni (married in Greek) refers poetically to the matching of split-pea puree with tomato sauce and occasionally with capers.

The famous Santorini split peas are of the variety called “chingling vetch”, which is very close to yellow split peas.    

Good luck!!

Some more recipes coming soon...

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