The cuisine of Akrotiri is a wonderful blend of Italian, Greek and Turkish. I decided to go for homemade meatballs in a tomato sauce over angel hair, a Greek style salad, and fried halloumi cheese.
For the meatballs, I bought 85% lean ground beef. I wanted a little more fat content for texture and flavor. The baking process will melt out a lot of the fat, and I wanted some left in the meatballs.
I diced about 3/4 of a Vidalia onion I had left over. I mixed the onion into the ground beef, along with half a teaspoon of salt and freshly ground pepper. I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon, and half a teaspoon of allspice. I worked my hands through this mixture for a while, making sure the spices were mixed into the meat.
I then rolled the meat into little meatballs. These were a little smaller than golf balls. More like ping pong balls. Before I began cooking, I preheated the oven to 500 degrees. I put aluminum foil over a baking sheet, sprayed it with cooking oil, and placed the balls evenly on the sheet. Into the oven for about 7 minutes they went.
Now I worked on the tomato sauce. Into a skillet I put 4 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a 28 ounce can of peeled tomatoes, some salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. To be honest, I could have done without the sugar; so, I will say the sugar is optional.
I first fried the garlic to a golden brown. I love the smell of garlic frying in olive oil. It helps me channel my inner Italian mother. All of the other ingredients are then added, and simmered for 15 minutes. Last, I put the cooked meatballs into the sauce, and simmer for another 20 minutes.
While the above was cooking, I prepared the salad. This was a fairly simple Greek style salad. I cut 2 tomatoes into chunks, and put these on the bottom of a large bowl. On top of this, I sliced a peeled cucumber, thinly sliced half of a red onion, half a block of feta cheese, also sliced, half a cup of whole, pitted kalamata olives, and a couple tablespoons worth of chopped fresh parsley.
For the dressing, I whisked together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of oregano, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of rice vinegar. This is sprinkled evenly on the salad.
I cooked up some angel hair pasta and placed the meatballs on that. You can also use rice, if you want to be more traditional.
The appetizer was simple; but, the most expensive part of the meal...about half the cost. It was fried halloumi cheese. This is a wonderful sheep cheese that has a strange, Teflon like texture. When you chew it, it squeaks. I sliced an 8 oz. cube into slices, and fries it with a dab of olive oil..a couple of teaspoons worth. Each side was browned at about a minute and a half.
Like I said, I have never heard of Akrotiri before; but, I am glad I finally did. This was a delicious lay over to tomorrow's destination, Albania. Will somebody get this goat out of the kitchen?! It keeps trying to eat my cook book!
MEATBALLS AND TOMATO SAUCE:
Meatballs:
1 1/2 lb Ground beef
1 Large onion, diced
1/2 ts Salt
Pepper to taste
1 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts Allspice
Sauce:
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp Olive oil
28 oz Canned peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp Tomato paste
1 to 2 tsp Sugar (optional)
SALAD:
2 Tomatoes, wedged
1 Medium cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/2 Small red onion, sliced
1/4 cup Feta cheese, crumbled or sliced
1/2 cup Whole kalamata olives, pitted
1 or 2 tbsp Parsley, freshly chopped
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 ts Oregano
1 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tbsp Rice vinegar
FRIED HALLOUMI CHEESE:
1 8oz package Halloumi cheese
1 ts Olive oil
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