Greek Recipes: Bifteki, Greek Potatoes, and a Greek Salad

The first recipe I used for the week came from Allrecipes.  It is a recipe for Greek Bifteki, which is basically a Greek hamburger. You use yogurt when mixing the burgers and the patties are stuffed with chunks of Feta Cheese.

It’s a pretty simple recipe and it came out incredibly tender.  We added chopped onions and garlic to our patties while mixing as we really love onions and garlic both.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 pounds ground beef
• 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 ounces feta cheese

Directions

Servings: 4

For a side dish, I used another recipe for Greek Style Potatoes.  Not having a huge selection of potatoes at the stores here, I went for the small mixed color potatoes, which were fine and added some nice visual appeal to the plate.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon
• ground black pepper to taste
• 6 potatoes, peeled and quartered

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a small bowl, mix olive oil, water, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary, bouillon cubes and pepper.
• Arrange potatoes evenly in the bottom of a medium baking dish. Pour the olive oil mixture over the potatoes. Cover, and bake 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the preheated oven, turning occasionally, until tender but firm.

Servings: 4

To go with it, I made a regular Greek salad, using the best tomatoes I could find here, red onions, more Feta, olives (couldn’t find Kalamata at the time), cucumber, and just an oil & vinegar dressing.  I love Greek salad and could probably just eat that for a meal!

Wine pairing:  2004 Monmousseau Rose D’Anjou