Zambolis apartments

Zambolis apartments
For your holidays in Chania

Thursday 25 March 2010

Salt cod (Μπακαλιάρο)

A brief break from my travel musings to concentrate on the food of the holy times ahead of us...

It's a double holiday today: the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and Greek Independence Day. As the 25th of March always falls during Lent, it is one of the days when the fast is broken with fish. The traditional meal for this day is salt cod:

bakaliaros

- bakaliaros (fried salt cod)
- skordalia (garlic dip)
- batsaria (boiled beetroot)

Coincidentally, this same meal is also the traditional meal for Palm Sunday which is coming up this weekend, so we'll get a double dose of this just before Easter, which this year is coming very early for us Greeks.

choucroute bakaliaros guacomople
A new combination in a similar style to the old tradition...

Never being a stickler for tradition, I decided to skip the beetroot and skordalia today, replacing them with cabbage from the garden, cooked like a choucroute in the tradition of Alsace (I have developed a fancy for French food), and avocado garlic dip (guacomole) instead of the skordalia - all good substitutions to cut down on costs by using our own home-grown stuff.

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9 comments:

  1. I hope you are having a wonderful day...it sure looks delicious.

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  2. Looks lovely! Do you have an avocado tree?

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  3. I used to loathe beetroot until I went to Greece and ate them with skordalia. Now I love them, so long as they are fresh and not the things in jars, puddled in screeching malt vinegar that I remember from childhood.

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  4. Made skordalia last night...husband thought he'd died and gone to heaven....wonderful....Hope I don't have to breath on anybody today....

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  5. we dont have an avocadeo tree, but there are plenty in the village - you just roll your window down...

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  6. Just had a little catch up on your holiday to France and England. Looks like you had a lot of fun! Well done for searching out such good value places.

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  7. Mmm how I love eating bakaliaro skordalia. Too bad it's so difficult to find salt bakaliaro in Holland. I love the substitutions you made though. Very "rebelious" :)
    I wish you a Happy Easter!
    Magda

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  8. I love your spin on the meal! Didn't get to eat bakaliaro on Thursday (made another fish dish) but we're going to enjoy it today.

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  9. Gotta switch up the menu a bit, keep things interesting, be it adults or children.

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