In this vibrant cookbook, Susanna Hoffman marries respect for tradition with a keen spirit of innovation to celebrate all things Greek. Devoted to food, filled with the passion and voices of people she's lived and cooked with for the past thirty years, The Olive and the Caper is a collection of 250 recipes that are simply and utterly glorious. sIn Corfu, she cooks shrimp fresh from the trap with a local taverna owner -- and offers us a boldly flavored dish of Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine. She spends an afternoon with a friend grilling eggplant on a balcony in Athens, then develops two spectacular recipes for melanzanosalata (eggplant salad), one urbane and suave, the other rustic and bristling with coarsely chopped vegetables, mint, oregano, and parsley. She learns the secrets of chewy country bread from the baker in Santorini, and translates them for American kitchens. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Traditional Greek cuisine favors sour tastes: lemons, capers, vinegar, wild herbs. Cooking with these pungent ingredients takes a sure hand or, failing that, a good recipe. Hoffman's book supplies the latter in abundance; it attempts nothing less than to capture the whole of Greek food culture between covers. That includes side notes on language, myth, literature and botany; details of regional specialties; lists of native greens; and an explanation of why we say "Greek" instead of "Hellenic." Like many warm-weather cuisines, Greek food relies on an abundance of grilled meats and fish and dressed greens. Hoffman presents them in dazzling variety, alongside familiar exports like Dolmadakia (stuffed grape leaves) and Tzatziki. Hoffman, an anthropologist and cook, includes recipes that might be challenging or improbable for American home cooks: Retsina-Pickled Octopus, Thyme-Fed Snails and "Greek-inspired ice creams" made with mastic or olive oil. There are labor-intensive recipes, too, showing how to make filo pastry and homemade sourdough noodles. Desserts Semolina Custard Pie; Yogurt Cake with Ouzo-Lemon Syrup go far beyond Baklava. With its fascinating trove of information, this work will please armchair cooks and traveling foodies. For those willing to surrender to its searingly bright palate of flavors, it's a boon to the kitchen, too. Photos, illus. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Susanna Hoffman is an anthropologist and cook who has lived and worked in Greece on and off for more than thirty years Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Introduction: The Olive, the Caper, and the Legacy of Greek Food	xiii
Part 1 Honored Drinks, Small Dishes, and Savory Pies
From water to wine	5
Water	7
Wine	8
Ouzo	13
Tsikoudia	14
Brandy and Sweet Liqueurs	16
Beer	18
Coffee	18
Tea	20
Fruitades and Other Drinks	22
Meze: The Grand Array	25
The Simplest Mezedes	27
The Glorious Cheeses of Greece	28
The Many and Varied Greek Olives	30
The Salads and Spreads	32
The Eggplant Urbanization of Miltiades	34
The Cyclades and the Scent of Lemon	44
Two Famous Vegetable Mezedes	47
Inviting Meat Mezedes	52
Zeus, King of the Gods	56
Mezedes from the Sea	59
Tart and Tantalizing Pickles	72
The People, Provinces, and Culinary Specialties of Greece	76
Savory pies: From Filo Pastry	83
Filo Finesse	87
The Shapes of Filo Pies and Pastries	90
The Trail of the Olive	98
Opulent Byzantium	110
Part 2 The Banquet of Dishes
Bread: The Staff of Life!	119
The Bread Man Cometh	123
Greece's First Bread Bakers	126
Cooking Bells and Beehive Ovens	144
Cyprus: the Coppery Island	148
Soup: For Hard Times and Good Times	151
Fava Stories	158
The Mycenaeans and Their Bill of Fare	183
Salads: A Veritable Bounty	187
The Tomato Revolution	194
Pericles, the Father of Democracy	202
The Sarakatsani, Greece's Roving Shepherds	211
Eggs: The Daily Gift	215
Oregano, Dill, and Mint	218
The Greek Diaspora and the Denver Omelet	224
Sustaining grain: Barley, Wheat, Rice & Noodles	227
An Island Harvest	234
The Sin of Opsophagia	236
Saffron	240
The Olympic Games	244
Whence Cometh Trahana?	248
Alexandria, Greek City by the Sea	254
Alexander the Great and the Spread of Hellenism	258
The vegetable parade	263
Simmered, Sauteed & Fried	265
The Herbs of Greece	272
Stewed Vegetable Stand-Outs	282
Apollo, the Sun God	284
Crisp Croquettes and Fritters	292
The Welcome Party	294
Stuffed Vegetables	300
The Renowned Casserole	313
Two Greek Cooks, Two Great Moussakades	314
Classical Greece--A Time of Philosophers and Farmers	318
Fish and shellfish	323
The Foufou	328
Salt Cod, the Fish That Feeds in Hard Times	336
Poseidon	340
Where Did the Name "Greek" Come From?	344
The Aegean and the Ionian--The "Fishing Ponds" of Greece	350
Archestratos and His Fish	354
The Minoans--Inhabitants of Greece Before the Greeks	356
Meat: Of Every Sort	361
Grilling	371
The Caper Family Bush	378
The Warp and the Weft: Sheep and Their Wool	382
An Easter Journey on the Sea	396
Who Were the First Greeks?	402
Birds: From the Coop	407
Chicken and the Changing Squares of Athens	410
The Jews of Greece and Their Joseph's Coat Cuisine	432
Wild game: From the Woods and Sky	437
Aesop's Wild Kingdom: Morals with the Meal	452
Savces, toppings, and marinades	455
The Sauces	457
Souvlaki Stands and the Best Tzatziki	466
The Dodecanese Islands--Gateway of Many Sauces	476
The Toppings	477
Rhodes and the Crusaders	480
The Marinades	482
Greece's Saucy Minorities and Their Foods	484
Fruit as the finale	489
Greece's Fruitful Choices	491
Part 3 Confections Dulcet as Ambrosia
Sweets: In Profusion	499
Time-Honored Syrups	500
From Beehive to Oven	503
The Nuts of Greece	504
Tsikoudia and the Moor	508
A Final Validation	522
How Spices Got to Greece	530
Luscious Puddings	531
Sweetness by the Spoonful	535
Croesus and His Golden Coins	540
Plato, the "Cool" Philosopher	544
Seven Innovative Sweets	548
Night Wine, Day Wine, and the Barefoot Compressor	550
Cyclades Village Wedding	556
Ceremonial Sweets	557
The Ottoman Rule and the Greek Fight for Independence	562
Conversion Tables	566
Bibliography	567
Index	572

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