Simbetherio - Mixed marriage stew (Συμπεθεριό)

The moment to rid ourselves of the aging zucchini plants came: the plants had overgrown leaves, the zucchini was sprouting but not growing, it was shrivelling up as soon as it sprouted.. Before I dug them out from the root, I snipped off the most tender part off the plant, which makes a tasty summer stew.

The meaning of 'simbetherio' comes from the relationship of the parents-in-law of the two members of a marriage; the families become related to each other through marriage (they are 'simbetheroi' to each other). The simbetherio dish uses the extended family members of various similar species, cooked in the same pot. The term is usually given to summer-autumn dishes, and not winter meal.

Simbetherio (συμπεθεριό) is the Cretan term for this dish, but it is also known as tourlou-tourlou (= mix-mix, from Turkish). It is really a stovetop briam, a Greek-style ratatouille. In my simbetherio, I used whatever vegetables had been grown in our garden: together with the zucchini tops, I added peppers, onions, tomatoes and eggplant. 

For seasonings, I added some salt, pepper, purslane leaves (known here as glistrida or antrakla) and two sprigs of fresh basil leaves. I could also have added vlita (amaranth) and some stifno (black nightshade), as both grow in our garden, but the pot was already full of sweeter greens and veges, so I left them out. 

Simbetherio is a really simple dish to prepare, and it reminds me of the end of summer, which we often look forward to in Crete, because it's always too hot at this time of year. It hasn't rained since early June, and we're completely parched here, especially since a drought has been declared in the region. 

The most frugal dishes I cook are often the tastiest, because the recipes are based on cheaply produced garden produce.

Well, if you  are having a record-breaking year for tourism in your country, and your hometwon just happens to be one of the most popular summer resort towns for domestic tourism, that means that more and more people need to have showers 2-3 times a day to cool themselves down in the blazing heat, more sheets and towels need to be washed, and more tomatoes need to be grown - and washed! - for making 'Greek' salad. 

This photo was used in the local press today to illustrate the problem of water shortages in Hania.

No wonder there is a drought right now, things will right themselves when the summer tourist season is over. There are talks right now of extending the tourist season by one month each end - ie, to include the whole of March and November - which is great news of course in economic terms, but just how prepared are we for this? Just for the record, there is plenty of water available in the region, but it was planned to be used in dire cases of water shortages. I personally don't classify this case as dire; this is simply a case of άρπα-κόλλα - it could have been prevented if there was any serious planning taking into consideration, given the early forecasting of the record-breaking tourist figures for this year.

Bonus photo: simbetherio, cooked by Ntounias last weekend.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

The new school year (Η νέα σχολική χρονιά)

My dear children, and perhaps especially, dear Son, because you are starting junior high school under a difficult socio-political climate in your home country, with promised disruptions and barriers to your education, and your well-being in general,

You know how I feel about Greek school. It's not as good as it could be, and that is a fair statement. So far, your primary school teachers were generally hopelessly immature young women with no children of their own, all nice enough people, but they weren't the best school teachers.
(You were really lucky one year, Son, when you had that nice man with two kids who was from another Greek city and had taught overseas, even raising his kids abroad.)

Not that you  need to have children to be a good teacher; they were simply clear examples of people who never had to put their house in order - they were simply positioned by the state in a system with no system. Sadly, even your headmasters so far have not been the most approachable people.
(The high school head teacher seems nice; maybe we will get lucky this time.)
It wasn't their fault. They were educated in such a way so as to educate you in the same way.
Their primary aim was not to become a role model for young children; it was to become a state school teacher.
(They were lucky in that respect - they caught the train early. But they didn't expect it to crash.)

Remember what your job at school is: you need to show the teachers that you have learnt what they have told you. Teachers praise you for this. All you are required to do at school is read what they give you and parrot-learn from set texts. When you don't understand something, they will simply tell you to 'read more' (να διαβάζεις περισσότερο). And that is all a teacher will ask you do: 'read, read, read' (διάβαζε, διάβαζε, διάβαζε).

Funny, isn't it, that they do not ask you to 'study' (μελέτα) - in Greece, we read, not study. In New Zealand, we were told to study what we learnt, not just to read it. But there's not point in my telling you what I did in New Zealand 35 years ago. Things will have changed there too, in all likelihood. To get through your system, you have to do what is expected of you. And in Greece, it is to read, read, read. So just remember to do as the teacher says: read, read, read.

A blast from mummy's past. I was always an average student at secondary school, as attested by my national grades (ie the same exam was sat by all students in the country on the same day). The blue certificate (end of Form 5) shows that I didn't do well in science (I didn't like the subject) or English (I didn't understand the subject, possibly due to reasons explained by a alck of cultural perceptions). My NZ teachers always praised my potential though, as attested by the pink paper (end of Form 6) which contains subjective grades awarded without examinations. The green paper (end of Form 7) shows my grades in the exams of the final year of high school, which were not very high at all, but I recall that I didn't study at all for them in that year. By this time, I was terribly bored of school, and I knew that these exams did not count towards my university entrance (I had got into university the previous year). Since I didn't apply for university the previous year (I thought myself too young, and I believe in retrospect that I was absolutely correct about this), I just bided my time, until the year ended and I could start the next phase in my life. 

I want you to know that it does not matter to me or your father if you don't get the best marks in class. We both know that your life's path will not rest on what you did in school at age 12. What we want you to do is to finish each class in high school with passing grades in all your subjects. It doesn't matter to us if you get a 50% or an 80% or a 99%. But if it matters to you, then make sure you read, read, read, to get the mark you want. You know we will not send you to frontistiria to raise your grades - that can only be used as a last resort, and we have not reached that stage yet. Some subjects will seem difficult for you. That's OK, though; some subjects were difficult for us too when we were your age. Neither of your parents were A-grade students, nor were they top of the class.
(I was top of the class Form 3, my first year of high school, but that really doesn't count, because I was placed in a class of girls who were not expected to do very well academically. This was due more than anything else to the teachers' prejudices - they regarded the primary school that I came from as lower status than the ones in the high school's catchment areas. So they placed me with the dumbells. They admitted that they had made a mistake the following year, when they gave me the 'Student most likely to succeed' award at the end of Form 4, placing me in a smarty-pants class in Form 5, where the girls in it were expected to do well academically. Indeed, they did. But I was never top of the class after that. So in essence, I was never really top of the class.)

You know we will never scold you if your mark is not as high as other children's. We just want you to get through the system. We want to say, "Bravo, you did it!" at the end of the school year. And I am telling you from now, that that is what we will do. So just remember that we will not scold you for what you don't know (not even teachers know everything); we will only scold you for not working out a way to show your teachers what you do know.

We had just as much help as you did, too; your grandparents may not have known as much as, perhaps, your parents do now, but they provided your parents with the right conditions to help their children get through school. And that's what both your parents did - they got through school and became valuable members of society. So, just remember, it's up to you to get through school, not us. We're just providing the conditions. You will work out your own ways to get through school. That's what is going to help you ultimately, when you leave school: you will have worked out ways to get you through life, and you will continue to work out ways to help you get on with your life.

Some people are already trying to scare us by telling us that high school is really difficult, because it isn't like primary school, as if your parents were naive or something, like we do not know the difference. They tell us that learning Ancient Greek (a dead language, like the Latin I learnt at school) is terribly hard and if we don't provide you with 'extra' help, you won't pass the exams. I don't know why they try to scare us so much. But I know they are the same people who stare at us in disbelief when we tell them that our children never do any homework during the weekends, because we have disciplined you into finishing your homework every weeknight, so your whole family can have the weekend free, with your school bags packed on Friday night for Monday morning, while your classmates were still finishing off their homework on Sunday night.
(You know how annoyed we get when you cannot undertake that one responsibility that we place on you - getting your homework done promptly and appropriately. That, together with keeping your room tidy, is what we mean by putting your own house in order.)

These people don't know how you have been raised. They don't know the underlying principles that your parents have used to bring you up so far. And even if we told them what we were doing and how we were doing it, they would not be able to understand it. They might even say that we are not doing things the right way.
(They often berate us for getting you to finish your homework as soon as you come home from school, because they claim, and quite unjustly in our opinion, that you are tired. So they recommend that you come home, 'play' (whatever that means at the pre-teen stage), 'relax' (by watching some crap on television), 'eat a snack' (hello, there aren't any in our house these days, unless you make them yourselves), and then do your homework (just when your after-school sports activities are about to start). Each to his own - they really have no idea how we are raising you. )

So try not to listen to them. It's not that they are doing things the wrong way; they are just doing things the way that things have always been done before them, and they are too scared to change now. For some of them, it is too late to change, anyway. So just remember who raised you and how they raised you. You can't choose who raised you and where you were born, but you can choose everything else in life. You can choose the way you want to get through life, and that's ultimately what we want to help you to do.

Ayiasmos - the first day of school everywhere in Greece begins with a priest blessing the teachers and students with Holy Water. After today's Ayiasmo at the high school, the children were then broken up into class groups according to their surnames. The children then picked up their new set texts for the year - 32 books - and went home. Day 1 over. 

Good luck, kids. We know you will find a way to get through school. But good luck, anyway; sometimes, luck is very handy.
(Son, did you hear what was said in the Αγιασμό this morning? Your high school won a national prize for the methodology it uses, which is now being touted as πρότυπο for other schools. Maybe luck will be on your side after all.)

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

Abundance (Aφθονία)

If I were to find one word that characterises my life in Crete, I think it would have to be 'abundance'. We're not rich, but we're not poor either; we don't buy luxury food items, but we can always afford to try a novel food product, whether local or imported; we find going out for a meal unaffordable, but we're never hungry; our food chain often falls in the lower order, but the quality of our food is always very high. Food, accommodation, safety: we have all three to the point that we can claim that we feel comfortable.

My fabric finds during a Northern European holiday - these will be used in some way in our kitchen. 

Especially concerning food, there is plenty of it where we are. Yet these days, we are being warned that food prices are set to rise because crops in America have been destroyed due to drought, and what food is available must also be turned into biofuel (presumably to satisfy politically motivated interests).

When last in NZ, I bought this set of NZ-themed fabrics, to be used in our living room; now that its nature has changed, with the addition of the wood-fire oven, some redecorating is called for. 

I cannot imagine not having enough food to cover my family's needs. I can imagine an earthquake destroying my house and I can imagine having the power disconnected for a long time, but I really can't imagine a food shortage on this island (barring war that is, where I might have my food taken away from me by force). Not even climate change seems to have seriously affected the Greek food supply. The Mediterranean must be one of the last places to feel a food shortage, due to the area's fertility:

Here, until now, we have not seen such phenomena and perhaps the Mediterranean zone will be one of the last that will be subject to the consequences of climate change, due to our location and, to date, its temperate climate. In addition, the impending food crisis finds Greece, due to the economic crisis, in the process of a return to the primary sector and the intensification of agricultural holdings. Perhaps, in this sense, the combined unhappy situation of the economic crisis and the impending food crisis offers, as incongruous as it sounds, an opportunity for growth and regeneration in us.

Food and water seem to be the most important basic needs of all mankind. They are both needs that people need to secure for themselves every day. In Crete, we don't always need a lot of money to secure them either. People living on the island are now starting, very slowly, to realise that we can satisfy our basic needs in ways that others in more advanced societies are not always able to, despite their better salaries and their higher living standards.

On a weekly basis, we fill up our recycled milk and drinks bottles at a local spring. The water is guaranteed to be cool and fresh. It's not found far from our home and it's free for all to use. Although I believe that our water supply is safe, during the summer, tap water is not always safe to drink, as most resources are channelled to those with greater needs (hotels).

Maybe it's time to give thanks to this for those of us lucky enough to be living here.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

The road to Proussos (Ο δρόμος για τον Προυσσό)

Tune in every second day this week to see how we spent our family holiday in Central/Northern Greece.

The town of Karpenisi is a nice quiet place to overnight, to see how the locals live and entertain themselves at an altitude of 1000 metres above sea level, but you need to travel to the outlying regions to find a bit more amusement to sustain a longer visit. A car is essential on such a journey. The village of Proussos is the main attraction point in the area, due to a monastery located here, dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Proussos (Mary from Proussos, or Proussiotisa, as she is known in the region). The journey is only thirty kilometres away from Karpenisi, and the road offers relatively good driving conditions. What most people don't realise about this simple journey is that this route is lined with some of the most stunning scenery in Evritania, concealing a number of the most picturesque villages and landscapes in the region.

Enlarge the map to see the villages that lie between Karpenisi and Proussos

There is something for everyone here in this short-distance trip: local food delights, religious travel, nature hikes, sightseeing, traditional architecture, as well as children's activities and places to chill out in true Greek style. Few of the magnificent sights pictured below are visible from the main road. These sights of interest have not been developed into tourist attractions: they are simply 'there', waiting to be discovered by the lucky traveller: you really need to know where you are going, as not everything is sign-posted. I was provided with a text message of the route from my friend in the area, and followed it as well as I could, which turned this half-hour journey into an eight-hour day-trip. There were so many delights to take in off the main road, that we didn't manage to fit them all into the one day that we had to complete this trip in. Had I not been given these directions, I would not have known what there was to see and do off the main route; we would simply have gone to the main tourist destination (the monastery), and then returned to our hotel.

In just 30 kilometres... 

"Just a few minutes out of Karpenisi, there is the picturesque village of Koryschades, an architecturally protected area with a traditional feel to it... 

Buildings in Koryschades are protected by law, so that all constructions keep in line with the general traditional style.

... In the village of Voutyro, apart from a nice cafe near the village church, there is a wildlife breeding centre, where wild species are bred (mainly birds and deer), which are later released in the wild.

My husband was quite surprised to learn that some of the partridges he has hunted during the game season in the past might have been bred here.

Near the turn-off for the village of Nostimo, there's a clearing on the road, which leads to the river Karpenisiotis running beside it. It's a nice place to take a river walk as far as the water will let you...

 The flora of the area was very interesting, with intense colours; at one point, we came across a whole lot of tomato plants growing happily in the rocks over the riverbed!

... Further down the road is a small but interesting cluster of villages: Megalo Horio (= the Big Village) has quite a good taverna before the village with an open green space for the children to play in, but you might like to go to Mikro Horio (= the Small Village), which is opposite Megalo Horio, where there is also a good taverna...  

It wasn't lunch time yet (our picnic lunches were more than enough), so we simply toured these villages, stopping off at various points on the road to enjoy the views. It's quite a treat to come across natural waterfalls, rock pools, winter preparations, quaint houses and wood art.

... Follow the road from Mikro Horio to Palio Mikro Horio (= the Old Small Village)...

Palio Mikro Horio has a very beautiful square, decorated with plants growing inside logs. The waiter brings you a glass of icy cold water straight from the spring (where the watermelons have been placed to keep them cold), and you sit under a very old plane tree, which provides a great deal of shade, keeping you cool under the hot summer sun.

... for the best view of the valley and Velouchi...

Just a few metres away from the cafe at Palio Mikro Horio is a road leading to the church of Agios Sostis (the Saviour), from where you can see the whole valley and the Velouchi ski resort.

... Coming back on to the main route, you will pass a narrow strip of road running by the river Karpenisiotis, which was carved out of the mountain rock...

This narrow gorge seemed to spring out of nowhere.

... Eventually you will come across a bridge where three rivers meet: Karpenisiotis, Trikeriotis and Krikelopotamos... 

Rivers and bridges are landmark sites in this part of the country, Greece's most mountainous region. This old bridge looks rather desecrated with the more modern concrete tarmac on the top - it is no longer used, as another bridge has been built in its place (the one we were driving on, where this photo was taken). If you take the river route, you will come across one of the most amazing views of villages nestled in the mountains - apparently, the road was so narrow that not even donkeys could pass through here, and a new-born donkey had to be carried into the area by a villager in his arms, so that the village could have their first working animal.

... A little after that, the Proussiotissa monastery will come into view. From this vantage point, you get amazing views of the valley... 

On our way to the other sights, we passed by the monastery and thought we'd visit it on our way back... but we ran out of time. So we just made the sign of the cross (like most Greeks would do) while we were in the car. The Proussotissa monastery is a significant one in Greek terms; Greeks may not be outwardly religious, but they often ask favours of the Virgin Mary, especially in difficult cases, such as that of infertility - many a Greek will tell you that they came here on a pilgrimage because they couldn't have a child, and after their visit, lo and behold, they begot one.

... Continuing on the road, a little further away, you will come across a sign directing you to an area called Tornos. As you drive along this route, you can visit Mavri Spilia (Μαύρη Σπηλιά = the Black Cave), before you get to Tornos. It takes about 30 minutes to reach the cave from the footpath, where there are pools, bridges and waterfalls.  It is slippery to enter the cave so be careful...

At this point, we were unlucky. The sign pointing out the road to the Black Cave was not visible to us because of roadworks blocking the route at the very point where we were to drive on to see this attraction. The signs diverted us to a dirt track, from where we continued on to the village of Tornos. We missed out on a spectacular nature walk, viewable here in this series of 21 photos.

After your walk in Mavri Spilia, drive on to Tornos, where there is also a nice footpath below the church, with running waters, little bridges, and a water mill, that takes about an hour for a round trip back to the church.

 
It was almost 3pm by the time arrived at Tornos, so we did about half the walk; at least we didn't miss out on this waterfall. We also came across bridges, rivers and rockpools. There were probably fairies flying around the place too...

There's no taverna in Tornos...

There was indeed no taverna at Tornos, but there was a cafe. It was closed, but somewhere nearby I could hear people talking from a television show. I could also see quite clearly through the cafe window. The cafe seemed ready for business: the tables were laid with a clean crisp white tablecloth and a fresh hydrangea in a glass of fresh water, as if the owner was expecting guests...

... But you can also return to the village of Proussos near the monastery, where the taverna is OK...

The return trip meant viewing the landscape from a different angle, and it was quite mesmerising. But the taverna that we wanted to visit at the village of Proussos was closed...

... Or if you prefer, when returning to Karpenisi, you can stop at the village of Gavros, where there is a large square with some tavernas clustered together... 

... so we continued on to Gavros, a small village nestled between two mountain ranges, with the river running beside it.

... There you can have grilled trout at the "Spiti tou Psara"...

We were recommended the taverna "To Spiti tou Psara", which means "The home of the fisherman." Trout was served here, but since we aren't really hot on fresh fish (and possibly our pockets weren't padded well enough), we chose from the more standard range of Greek meals available; the taverna offered a good variety. The total cost of this meal was just 33 euro for the four of us. The most interesting part of the meal was the very kindly taverna owner, a grandmother in her late 50s, who told me how I could replicate her delicious pita in my own home, as well as how to make her very tasty dessert which we were treated to at the end of the meal. The pies were made in typical  Evritanian fashion, the feta was produced locally and the cake - karidopasta - is a specialty of the area. 

... Did you notice the children's adventure park, Saloon, located just three kilometres out of Karpenisi? It offers horse-riding (a little pricey), and it's a nice place to rest and have a drink (not too expensive at all).

 

We didn't need to notice the adventure park; the children did that for us. The price of these rides cost the children's parents just as much as the taverna meal!

This was the only day throughout our whole trip where we did not have to refill the car with petrol (the price of petrol in Central Greece is just as high as it is in Crete, averaging, at the time, about 1.75 euro per litre). All the driving distances were short; we just stopped the car every ten minutes or so, to see something we could not see at all in our own little part of Greece. I regret not being able to get to all the sights, as there is always the fear that we may not be able to come out here again, but we all live in hope that this kind of holiday (a cheap one within one's own country) will be able to be repeated in the future, despite the austerity measures being imposed on us daily.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

Water, water, everywhere... (Kάι το νερό νεράκι...)

When you came to Greece on holiday, you probably took that jug of water, the first thing to arrive at your taverna table, for granted, because it was hot, which therefore deemed it necessary to be there. Just as you had sat down, a waiter would come to your table, set it with a plastic tablecloth, and plonk a few scratched water glasses on it, along with a large jug of water topped with ice cubes. After a satisfying lunch in the shade, while all around you singed of scorching heat, you'd go home, take a long shower to cleanse your body of the perspiration you had to endure while sitting under the Mediterranean sun. In the late afternoon or early evening, you'd probably find yourself sitting at a cool cafe by the sea, ordering a frappe, ice-cream or something more tipsy. What was the first thing that came to your table again? That's right, a glass of cool welcoming water, whether you asked for it or not.

For many years, I took my water supply for granted, mainly because it was never disconnected, it was free, and it was always clean. It did surprise me slightly that I had to pay a charge in Greece for the amount I used, because in New Zealand, we could use as much as we liked without feeling that we were using too much.

In the beginning of my stay in Greece, I was taken by surprise with the frugality shown by my relatives in terms of their water usage. Because they had to pay for it, they turned the tap on to run slowly when they were washing, whether it was the dishes or themselves. A basin was always used to catch the running water from outdoor taps, which was subsequently used to water the flowerpots. No one took baths, everyone took showers. What alarmed me more than anything else was the ring of chalk that boiled water left on my pots and pans, the electric jug, and metal worktop in the kitchen where the washed crockery was drying; everyone told me that it was nothing to worry about, just a natural substance called alata.

Today is Epiphany, the 'day of lights', so called because it is considered the day the Christian Orthodox celebrate the baptism of Christ, and in this way 'enlightened' the people. It is also known in Greece as the day of the blessing of the waters. On this day, young men (women have been making an appearance in this event in recent times) dive into the wintry waters of our oceans and lakes (what a blessing it is for Greeks living 'down under', where the seasons are reversed!), to retrieve the cross that the priest threw into the sea as he blessed it. The winner is often presented with a small gold cross, and is bestowed with good luck all his life.

When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,

the worship of the Trinity made its appearance...
Photo: Angela Wylie

Things are very different now compared to what they were twenty years ago. Hania is blessed with a good water supply and there is plenty for all - or so it seems. Nowadays, our fresh water supplies are under constant threat. In the summer, we often suffer from disconnections, and the booming tourist trade has made unprecedented demands for greater supplies. Tourists need to bathe and shower constantly when on holiday, and they always prefer hotels by the sea equipped with a swimming pool (?@#*&$!). They also seem to have misconceived ideas about the water supply, hence the overkill on using bottled water, which entails the garish image of empty water bottles marring our beaches. They never get recycled, and the beach bins are full of them. Most people seem to think that tap water is bad - not so in my area...

One of the ugliest sights that my tired eyes must encounter on a daily basis is the filthy brown water of my neighbor's swimming pool, when it is unused (which is approximately 350 days each year). We live a 10-minute walk away from the sea, and these guys come and use this pool (complete with a lawn which needs watering in a town that sees rain once a month) every time they stay at their summer house, which is about a fortnight per year...

What with the desertification process already making great inroads in the Mediterranean, pretty soon, it will be water, water, everywhere, but not a drop that's potable. And will we ever say no to bottled water? I doubt it.

For a poignant read about the preciousness of water, have a look at what Carolyn has to say about the matter.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.