Growing up my grandmother from my Dad side used to fry peppers eggplant and zucchini with her special tomato sauce all the time when we used to visit. My Dad is from beautiful Drama, Greece and to be specific from the tiny village Kali Vrissi in Drama. You could literally eat 20 peppers a person since they were so so good due to that the veggies were fresh from the garden. And you know village gardens are the best. I remember my uncle ( my dads brother ) wife ate 30 of those peppers for lunch when my Gma prepared them, and shes a tiny person but really the peppers were something else, you could taste and smell the sweetness of the vegetables.Also my Gma used to make this fresh tomato sauce but then at the end throw and egg in there and make it scrambled tomato egg sauce, I dont know how else to describe it, I will prepare it ones for you and show you. In this recipe I havent added the egg due to that I only had 2 eggs for my veggie egg wash. I am so proud of this dish and Im sure my Gma would be too. The lazy tztziki I believe exists in every greek houselhold when you dont want to wait to grade the cucumber, drain it etc. Its just as delicious and with a bite. I have cooked this meal a thousand times in the past but never like this.I also think this is my best presentation and I havent used a filter nor edited it, natural lighting is so important and I was lucky when taking the pics at that time of the day. Now, us greeks fry eggplant, zucchini and peppers a lot with or without breading but this time I put extra love in the recipe. This meal is very fast and easy and it feeds 6 non greek adults, 4 greek adults :).
No, I didnt have time to grill the baguette bread, in my mind, I was in the show “Chopped America” and had to get the food into my mouth asap because my time was running out 😀 Lol.
I love going to the turkish market across the street to shop for vegetables.
Ingredients:
- one medium eggplant
- one medium zucchini
- 500 gr fresh red and yellow cherry tomatoes
- one baguette ( turkish size 🙂 )
- 250 gr quark
- 3 small cucumbers (again those are from the turkish market, they have all kids of sizes, use as much as you like)
- 2 eggs
- flower & bread crumbs for the batter
- 12 green california peppers
- 500 gr frozen chicken breast ( thawed )
- 2 lemons
- 2tbs greek oregano
- olive oil
- feta cheese
See pics below for execution:
I was also going to make a red beet salad but wa seager to eat the goodness without a salad 🙂
slice the eggplant
slice the zucchini
Always season your flower, egg wash and bread crumbs
heat up your pan, has to be hot, otherwise your veggies will stick to the pan. Turn down the heat to medium and fry them until golden brown
fry your peppers in two batches, sprinkel with salt and fry til golden brown
And, done!
wash and cut cucumber in cubes, add it to the quark along with olive oil salt & pepper and a splash of vinegar. lazy tzatziki done without garlic
Voila
cut the chicken in cubes and fry it until it has little crust
almost there
add the juice of 2 lemons and the oregano, stir until combined
YUM- It was very hard for me to wait until this was on my plate
in a small pot add all cherry tomatos 2 cups of water, olive oil, salt & pepper. I also added two larger tomatos I had in the fridge since they were too soft for a salad. Those are the best for tomato sauce. Let it cook for 20 min.
Since we are moving and I packed most of my electronics, I mashed the tomatos. You can use a mixer for a more smooth consistency. I love having tomato chunks though.
VOILA-YUM
Now thats one greek plater
Dinner is ready
because I cant get enough of those yummy looking plates
plate from top-No, I didnt have time to grill the baguette bread, in my mind, I was in the show “Chopped America” and had to get the food into my mouth asap because my time was running out 😀 Lol.
Have to get a picture from all corners- See this warm sauce melting the greek feta cheese?
Its hard for me to sit here writing and not grab another plate :-/
The crunch from the fried veggies, the sweetness of the fresh tomatoes and the peppers, the saltiness from the feta cheese, the lemony chicken and the creamy lazy tzatziki. It was heavenly!
perfect last bite 🙂
Kali Oreksi
XO
Katy
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