A Mother’s Love on Every Plate – Part 2 -Akropolis Restaurant - Greek Inspired Recipes

Mothers have a special way of teaching us that the best things in life are meant to be shared — especially around the table.
We see this beautifully at Akropolis, a small Greek restaurant where mother Nicki, her husband Angelo, and their son John Tsakonas work side by side. And we share Gloria Goodtaste inspired Greek recipes with a twist of creativity.

Visit the Gloria Goodtaste website to view the full stories and available recipes highlighted in this podcast with pictures and additional info to further enjoy this episode.  Go to: https://www.gloriagoodtaste.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello everyone, and welcome to a new episode of Food for Body, Mind, and Spirit. I'm your host, Gloria Goodtaste, and as always, I'm joined by my wonderful co-host Tech Tom.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hi everyone, Tech Tom here. Today we are continuing our beautiful thing, a mother's love on every plate, part two.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

That's right. You know, mothers have a special way of teaching us that the best things in life are meant to be shared, especially around the table.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

And in my house, my mother would spend a week making pirogies. Three different flavors sauerkraut, baker's cheese, and potatoes with onions. She would make dozens and dozens and dozens. Why would she make dozens? Because she had six brothers who would get the word that my mother made pierogis. So they'd just drop over to our house to see what was happening. And guess what? My mother was making pierogies. And of course, she would give them a sample to take home. And she had six brothers, so she had to make lots of pierogi. And they were delicious. And she gave them to her as a gift. And guess what happened? Each year they would show up for Christmas just like last year. Just see what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Well, you know, my mother made a thing called Kuglas. And I'll tell you, when I watched her make that, she'd say, Come over here, I'll show you how to make it. And she hands me this potato and this grater. It was a box grater. And she said, just shred it up and down. I'm going like, that's a lot of potatoes, Mom. To keep short. Keep shredding, Gloria, keep shredding. I'm going like, it took a lot of potatoes to make a cookie list.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

This was before food processors, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Well, you better believe I cheat a lot right now.

unknown 2:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

But she would make this kouglas, and then everyone would kind of fight for the edges of it. And she would make it for Thanksgiving, for Easter, for anything that they were celebrating. The funny thing is, guess what I make now? I make a kouglas. And guess what my granddaughter's like? Kugel's. So you can tell a mother's love goes and it filters down to food. To food, to all the other people of the family. And I would imagine that when I expire, my kids will be making couglings. So we went out to find out what other places would we find mothers and families doing this. And we were so lucky because we ended up finding someplace.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

We went to Acropolis, which is a small Greek restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana, where Mother Nikki, her husband Angelo, and her son John Tosconis work side by side every day. Together they serve authentic Greek dishes made with love, tradition, and an open heart. Their dedication creates such a warm, welcoming space and the same spirit inspired by Gus Calanceto's stories about his mother Julia, as well as the Tusconis' family and their restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Well, I'm really excited today because we are going to be sharing with all of you out there our favorite Greek recipes for you to enjoy at home. How many of them? Six.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Six of them?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yes. Six recipes that we found. Alright. And each one of these are really very special because you might not have ever seen a recipe like this before.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I think our listeners are going to find out that these recipes are really delicious.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Well, we'll start with a bright and clever dish. Now notice I'm saying clever, all right, because when I thought about this, I thought, ooh, this is really clever. Alright, when I made it. It's a Greek potato salad with crisp potato peel crumbles. Now I know you have never tried this kind of recipe before, but guess what? It is out of this world. Good.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

The potato crumbles are made from potato skins.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Usually they go down to garbage disposal.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

This refreshing salad combines tender potato chunks. Alright. And I use golden potatoes because I love the color of it. And zesty Dijon mustard, crisp onions, sweet red peppers, and calamata olives. That gives it that kind of a nice-looking Greek look. And the star, of course, are the homemade crisp potato peel crumbles, baked until golden and really crunchy.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Which put a crunch factor into the dish. Which potato salads do not have.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Right. Alright. And I know that, Tom, one of the things you're gonna love is that this is a zero waste dish because you do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Using the peels for texture is so smart. They are really taste good, which amazed me. I love them, and I never have seen them before anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It absolutely is fantastic. But this is what you have to remember. When you serve this dish, make the potato salad, keep it separate. Make the peels, keep it separate. All right, and just keep them on the side. Don't put them in the refrigerator, wrap them up in the aluminum foil that you've put on the pan and put them on the side. And when you're going to serve this, you'll take the potato salad out of the refrigerator. Now there is a real advantage to doing that because in chilling the potatoes, you're going to be creating a thing called resistant starches. And if you've listened to any of the health magazines, they say that guess what, this makes your potatoes good for you. So you want to chill them nicely, put them in the bowl, and then you take the crumbles that you put on the side and you put them all along the edge of it. It looks fantastic. And of course, put a little parsley in the center because that makes it pop.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

And another amazing thing is that the Ziki sauce is made from yogurt, not mayonnaise. So you're making another healthy uh twist to this recipe.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Absolutely. Well, this is a recipe I think you are going to absolutely love because you're going to want to use this for lots of affairs because it looks really unusual and tastes absolutely delicious. It's full of Mediterranean flavor, perfect for any of your get-togethers.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I'm adding it to my summer must-try list. And now we're going to move to our next recipe, which is quick dry row soup with taziki sauce again.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Mm-hmm. Well, like all good gyro flavors, it's going to have savory, spiced broth, finished with a cool tzeke's drizzle, and crispita triangles. Now you're saying to yourself, mmm, that sounds interesting. I've never had a soup that's quite like that. I know you're saying that.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

That sounds brilliant, like a decontrist gyro in a bowl. You need to tell your listeners how long it takes to make this recipe.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Well, let me say, if you start with the lamb or the beef, you can count on a couple of hours of doing that. Of course, you know, I'm not one, I'm not one to do that, Tom, am I?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So I think I cheated a little bit. All right. So what did I do?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

We went to the Acropolis restaurant, we ordered a Euro.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

And they give you a ton of meat with their Euro sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Don't find a place that doesn't give you lots of meat on your euro. You want to have a lot of meat on that. And then, of course, buy a couple of them and then take some of the meat off of it. And you'll be able to use that meat to make the soup.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

How about that? Click and clever.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

It is. But this is the neat thing. The soup is very, very easy because you're going to be actually starting with a ready-made beef broth. Add some spices, you do some tomato paste in it, a couple of onions that you're going to be putting inside, and you'll cook that down. Stir in the meat that you have brought home that you've cut into pieces that are bite-sized. And guess what? It gives all the flavor to it by doing that.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Again, we have the Tziki sauce with yogurt.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

No mail.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

No mail. In the center of each bowl. Now, if you want to make it absolutely healthy, you want to probably try to put some maybe lentils in the soup that will give it that extra boost that you'd want to have. And it goes along excellently. Makes a dinner a winner.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

It's quick and easy, great for busy evenings or chilly days. Now we're talking. Absolutely. And we move on to Greek garlic scardalia. What is scardalia? Scardalia is a Greek garlic dip or spread made by combining crushed garlic with a thick base such as dalbread or pureeed potatoes. It uses lots of olive oil and either fresh lemon juice or wine vinegar. Some recipes add nuts such as almonds or walnuts. This tespe can be found in many European countries such as France or Spain, and it's called an Yahoui. The Lebanese has turum, and the Turks enjoy terratur.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Right. Now this classic dip is going to be for rice potatoes, lots of garlic, lemon juice, plenty of olive oil. What makes it unique is most of the dips that are served are made cream-based. By using a potato in it, it's actually going to be having a little more density to it. It will be thicker. It goes well with any of the pita crisps that you might want to serve. Again, by putting them in the refrigerator, you'll create that resistant starch in those potatoes, which means that's going to be healthier for you. This is a really great idea to serve for an appetizer, I think.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

It's a great Greek version of ioli. I can really imagine it with grilled meats or warm pita.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Exactly. Full true taste of Greece, I'd say. Oh, I just love that. I remember when we went to Greece and we went and saw the sandy beaches and the cozy harbors and the whitewashed houses. Everything seemed to be in white and blue. It was a wonderful feeling. I get that same feeling when I'm in my own kitchen working, and I pick up a good Greek recipe. And one of the recipes that I like to make that seems to bring that right back home to me is the Greek and dipose. Probably because I'm thinking about harbors or something like that. But it really comes up and says this is a great recipe because it's filled with beta and black olive salad. It is an appetizer that you can serve, and it's filled with the beta and walnuts, black olives. You put some pickled peppers in it and some parsley, and then you drizzle it with lemon dressing. It is really a delightful dish to put out because it's so very attractive, too. The thing that probably would be the hardest for most people is shopping though for the end dye, because it's not a product that a lot of people buy often. Tom, what do I often call you?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Procurement Tom.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Okay, my procurement Tom. If I turned to you and said I wanted to make this salad and I wanted some end dive, and you were gonna go to the store, what kind of end dive would you look for?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Well, they're called Belgian endives, which is white with yellow tips. And they're grown in the dark to prevent them from turning green and becoming bitter. So when I go to Kroger, I make sure I look for uh end dives that have white firm bases with the yellow tips, and they avoid the bitterness in the uh endive.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

I love the idea of how they keep them white by growing them in the dark.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

How about that?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

I think that that is just cool. I think they do that with a lot of different vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I think they do too. You got green a white asparagus, that's how they do that same thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, right, they do do it that way.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Right. They bore b uh bold up the sa the ground so they cover the uh asparagus with dirt to keep it growing in the in the dark.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

And the end of is probably the same thing. And the neat thing about that is you can make a beautiful platter and putting in between in the filling with some crisps or triangular crackers of some kind in between makes it really attractive, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

And you know what I love? I love to decorate with a pepperdo pepper. And do you know why I like pepperdo pepper?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

No, tell me.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Because they are so spicy poppy. And no matter where you put them, so actually, if they you look at the picture, by the way, everybody, and you notice this red little blob in the center, you'd say, is that a tomato? No, it's a pepperdo pepper. So, but they seem to really disappear quite quickly when I make them. And I just wonder, Tom, I've seen you nibbling on maybe more than one, huh?

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Yeah, we sneak away at whatever we can get away with.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Well, I guess that's why I always have to make a double recipe. Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Good idea.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Something like that. Well, let's take a look at another recipe which I think you're going to find absolutely wonderful. And it's called Greek rosemary snack cake. And you think it's only a cake, but it's actually a recipe that can double as a quick bread type of cake. So you can use it with savory dishes, you can use it as a dessert. So it and it's made using bright olive oil and rosemary, toasted walnuts, and it has a sunny citrus kind of feel and flavor to it. It has a light glaze, walnut crunch on the top, which makes it very special, and all you have to do is cut it into slices. It freezes really well, and I know what you're saying now. Did I put the rosemary in the cake? Yes, yes, I did. The rosemary is in the cake, and it is delicious.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

That's creative. I love the aroma, the texture, and the moisture, which is incredible when it bakes. It holds up really well for later eating.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Well, you know, people might wonder about using the rosemary in the cake the way we did it.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Well, we're we're blessed with a rosemary plant. Most rosemary plants that I've bought from the supermarket have died. But this particularly rosemary plant I plucked down on top of a potted plant in our sunroom, and it surprisingly thrived. After three years, it is now a rosemary bush. It loves where it is and keeps growing and giving whatever is going on. I like it, I like it. Can I hear from the rosemary bush? Yes, you can. Please, not too much water. I like where I am and I'm happy. Thank you from the rosemary bush.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Well, it's really nice to have my own little rosemary bush that's growing. I know all the other rosemary that we tried to grow died in the house. But this one, because it has two pots, I think. A little one and a big one, tends to keep right on growing for us. And it first of all, if it's healthy, it has a beautiful aroma to it, too. So I think you would love and enjoy this little cake because you can put it away and then cut little pieces whenever you need it and take it out.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

It doesn't last too long. The little pieces come off really quick.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

That's right. It really is, especially if you have it with coffee or you want it as a light little dessert. Right. And finally, we couldn't finish the program without having a backlava recipe. So, where did we go and have a backlava, Tom?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

We went to the Acropolis restaurant. And we had a blacava sample from the Acropolis restaurant as a gift.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Right. And Nikki gave us that nice piece of it, right? Right. It was delicious. It had phyllo dough in it, and it had the sticky syrup. Yeah, I know you love the sticky syrup on the top of it, but it was delicious. And when I came home, I absolutely knew that we had to make a backlava recipe. But then I said I didn't want to deal with the phyllo dough. So I said, I'll make a biscuit, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

And I, of course, I wasn't gonna start by saying, I'm gonna make my biscuits from scratch and the yeast dough. So instead I called out, hey Pillsbury, how about letting me have some grands?

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Grands flaky biscuits.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Absolutely. And the reason I wanted the flaky biscuits is because they have little slits in the made in layers. Right. And if you know anything about hassleback, hassleback potatoes also have slits like that. So that would fit really well. And if we wanted to make the biscuits like that, the slits, we would have to put some apples maybe for a little flavor. And in between each one of the apples, we would be putting a little bit of the nuts on either side.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Right, to keep the apples standing up vertically.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Now, the important thing about doing the apples is you don't want big pieces of apple because they wouldn't cook through and it would be difficult. So if you take your peeler and you just take the apple and you just take a shaving on the apple, it will be just about the right size.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

It's about a half inch high by two inches long.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Mm-hmm. And then if you're going to put that. Now, the convenient thing about these biscuits is that one package will give you eight biscuits.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Right. You put two on the top, two on the bottom, two on the left, two on the right.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

And then you slit them with a knife or with a pair of scissors about a quarter inch deep across the top. And there's tight marks in the biscuits where they're layered that you can cut across and separate if you're very, very careful. If they're not, you could just cut through them and you make a slit. And two slits per biscuit.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Right. And you put the little apples in.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

And then you put nuts on each side to hold them up vertically so they cook. And they look good that way.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Right. And then, of course, you're going to put the whole thing in the oven. And when it goes in the oven, it's like magic.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

They grow, they fill out the biscuits, they cover up the sins of whatever defects you put into the biscuits while you're putting them together.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Right. And meanwhile, you make a beautiful little honey sauce that you're going to put over the top, which A little bit of either lemon or orange rhyme. I used orange when we made ours. And what you're going to do is as soon as when it comes out, you're going to be spooning that over the hot biscuits. And then, of course, you're going to put some more nuts over the top of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

And that's how you end up making hassle back apple baklava biscuits. How about that? I bet you didn't think I could do that, huh?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

No.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

It's amazing, isn't it? Right. They are delicious. You can have them for dinner, a dessert, for breakfast if you want. So baklava biscuits are really, really easy to make. If you can just put the apples in and get the nuts there, and if they collapse, don't worry about it. They still taste good. So everything will taste good anyway, especially when you put the honey sauce over the top of it. So it's almost like one of those caramel biscuits, but it makes it twice as easy to make.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Wow, what a lineup. From clever salads to sweet baklava biscuits. There's truly something for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Well, thank you, Tom. All six recipes can be found on glorygoodtaste.com. I hope our listeners try them. Taste a little bit of mother's love on their own plate. And whether you're cooking for your family, hosting your friends, or treating yourself, remember food made with love nourishes our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. I want to thank you all for joining us today. Please share this episode and leave a review if you enjoyed it. It really helps us. I'm Gloria Good Taste, and remember to always put a little good taste in your life.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

And I'm Tech Tom, wishing you good food, good health, and good spirits. See you next time on Food for Body, Mind and Spirit.