Recipe Stifado

Beef stew Cypriot style, wonderfully robust. This is well served with cracked wheat, pourgouri, and a crisp green salad. The name Stifado refers to any meat that has been cooked with shallots and aniseed.

Something which is not yet entirely proven for serious students of linguistics, but is readily apparent to Italophile Austrian gastronomes: the similarity, which is not just a linguistic one, between Austrian dumplings (“Nockerln”) and Italian gnocchi (pronounced: gnoki). In both countries, these small doughy treats are readily given a spicy twist. You would look for these semolina dumplings, the “Grieß-Gnocchi”, in the soup-bowls on the far side of the Brenner Pass, whereas in the world of Austrian soups you will come across them fairly frequently.

This aubergine salad is served as a starter along with crust bread and various other ‘salate’ or on the table for a late summer barbeque. It can easily be made well in advance and make plenty, because it’s also extremely delicious just on its own for a lunchtime snack, and all the better with some crispy grilled ‘lipia’ bread (a kind of round thin bread, something like a flatbread or pitta). What’s more, it’s simple to make!

Poppy seed cakes are considered a sign of opulence; hence Polish desserts cannot have enough of them. They are often further enriched with honey, dried fruit and nuts. This dish called Kutia in Polish is a traditional Christmas dessert.