Cypriot cuisine Information & Cypriot cuisine Links at HealthHaven.com

Cypriot cuisine is the cuisine encountered on the island of Cyprus, located in the eastern Mediterranean. Cypriot cuisine is shaped by the island's Mediterranean climate, geography, and history. Reflecting the two dominant populations, Cypriot cuisine has evolved as a fusion of Greek and Turkish cuisines, with local twists on well-known dishes. Further influences are evident from the neighboring Levant countries, with similarity to Lebanese cuisine. There are remnants too of French, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon influences stemming from the island's occupation by the French Lusignans, the Venetians, and the British. Modern western cuisine (especially fast food) has an increasing influence on the day-to-day diet on the island. The names given to the foods of the Cypriot cuisine are different amongst the two dominant populations.

[edit] Food preparation

Frequently used ingredients are vegetables such as courgettes, green peppers, okra, green beans, artichokes, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and grape leaves, and pulses such as beans (for fasoulia), broad beans, peas, black-eyed beans, chick-peas and lentils. Pears, apples, grapes, oranges, mandarines, nectarines, mespila, blackberries, cherry, strawberries, figs, watermelon, melon, avocado, citrus, lemon, pistachio, almond, chestnut, walnut, hazelnut are some of the commonest of the fruits and nuts.

The best-known spices and herbs include pepper, parsley, roka, celery,thyme, and oregano. Traditionally, artisha (cumin) and kolliandros (coriander) seeds make up the main cooking aromas of the island. Mint is a very important herb in Cyprus. It grows voraciously, and locals use it for everything, particularly in dishes containing ground meat. For example, the Cypriot version of pastitsio (locally known as macaronia tou fournou) contains very little tomato and generous amounts of mint. The same is true of keftes or keftedes (meat balls, köfte in Turkish cuisine), which are sometimes laced with mint to provide a contrast with the meat.

Grilled halloumi cheese

Cypriots grill over charcoal. They grill halloumi cheese, olives, mushrooms, loukaniko (pork sausages), and of course kebabs. These are souvlaki (shish kebab), sheftalia, or gyros (doner kebab in Turkish cuisine). Kebabs are made from various cuts of lamb, pork, or occasionally chicken, and very rarely beef. They are typically served stuffed into a pita pocket or wrapped in a thin flatbread, along with a salad of cabbage, parsley, and raw mild onions, tomatoes and sliced cucumber. Greek Cypriot souvlaki is usually made of pork, whilst the Turkish Cypriots use lamb in their shish kebabs. Similar in appearance, the flavour is quite different, especially as the Turkish Cypriots sometimes use a spicy marinade. Gyros is grilled meat slices instead of chunks, and the taste is made different by the salad or dressings added.

Pourgouri (bulgur, cracked wheat) is the traditional carbohydrate other than bread. It is steamed with tomato and onion; a few strands of vermicelli pasta are often added to provide a texture contrast. Along with pourgouri, natural yoghurt is a staple. Wheat and yoghurt come together in the traditional peasants' breakfast of trahanas, a primitive form of pasta, in which the cracked wheat is steamed, mixed with sour milk, dried, and stored. Small amounts reheated in water or broth provide a very nourishing and tasty meal, especially with added cubes of well-aged halloumi.

For Greek Cypriots, there are many fasting days imposed by the Greek Orthodox Church, and though not everyone adheres, many do. On these days, effectively all animal products must not be consumed. Pulses are eaten instead, sometimes cooked in tomato sauce (yiahni) but more usually simply prepared and dressed with olive oil and lemon. On some days, even olive oil is not allowed. These meals often consist of raw onion, raw garlic, and dried red chilies munched along with these austere dishes to add a variety of taste, though this practice is dying out.

Maybe because pulses are consumed on fasting days, there are very few dishes that combine meat and dry pulses, such as one might find in Italy or Spain. Moutjentra (mujaddara or mejadra in other Middle Eastern cuisines) is a dish that combines of lentils with rice and fried onions. This dish is to be found in many cultures all the way to the Indian subcontinent.

[edit] Meals

[edit] Seafood

Popular seafood dishes include calamari, octopus, cuttlefish, red mullet (parpouni or barbouni), sea bass (lavraki), and gilt-head bream (tsipoura).^[1] Octopus, due to its robust nature, is made into a stiffado (stew) with red wine, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. Calamari is either cut into rings and fried in batter or is stuffed whole with rice, cumin, cloves, sometimes adding mint to the stuffing, and then baked or grilled. Cuttlefish (soupies) may be cooked like calamari or like octopus in red wine with onions. It is sometimes prepared with spinach, but without adding garden peas, which are a popular accompaniment for cuttlefish in Greece and Italy. Calamari, octopus, and cuttlefish commonly feature in mezedes, a spread of small dishes served as an appetizer or a meal.

The most traditional fish is salt cod, which up until very recently was baked in the outdoor beehive ovens with potatoes and tomatoes in season. Gilt-head bream is popular because it is relatively inexpensive and like sea bass extensively farmed. Until recently, salted herrings bought whole out of wooden barrels were a staple food. They are still enjoyed, but not as much now, as fresh fish and meat are regular alternatives.

[edit] Vegetables

Bamies in tomato sauce

Cyprus potatoes are long and waxy, though not overly so. Locals love them baked in the oven, preferably the outdoor beehive (fourni). Many Cypriots add salt, cumin, oregano, and some finely sliced onion. When they barbecue, some Cypriots put potatoes into foil and sit them in the charcoal to make them like jacket potatoes - served with butter and/or as a side dish to salad and meat.

Salad vegetables are eaten at every meal, sometimes whole. More often, they are prepared chopped, sliced, and dressed with lemon and olive oil. In the summer, the usual salad is of celery leaves and stalks, parsley, coriander leaves, tomatoes, and cucumber. Summer purslane is very popular as are wild dandelion leaves.

In the early spring, artichokes are in season. Cypriots eat the leaves by detaching and bitting off the fleshy base. A common preparation for the stalks and the heart is braised with garden peas, with a little onion and perhaps a chopped tomato. Meat is sometimes added.

Bamies (okra or ladies' fingers) are baked in the oven with tomato and oil, and kounoupidhi (cauliflower) is also given this treatment. Cauliflower is also made into moungra, a sour pickle covered with a marinade of vinegar, yeast, and mustard seeds.

Goloji is a gourd rather like a marrow but thinner. It is sometimes stuffed with rice and meat (referred to as yemistes in Greek, dolma in Turkish) and is common in all areas of the Middle East and Asia Minor. It may also be sliced into rather thick slices and cooked with fresh black-eyed peas.

Vazania (aubergines) can be prepared in a variety of ways, including stuffed and in moussaka. They are commonly fried and stewed slowly in oil, where the cooking time brings out the flavour and also allows them to shed the oil they have absorbed.

[edit] Meat

Being only a very recently urbanized country, Cypriots traditionally ate fresh meat once a week, on Sundays. This was usually a boiled chicken, served with a starch (maybe pasta, maybe pourgouri) cooked in the liquor. This would stretch the meat to go round the family. Other fresh meat dishes were only enjoyed very occasionally, sometimes en mass as a feast such as a wedding. Now, as people are better off and meat is available, traditional meat dishes are enjoyed frequently.

Tavvas is a lamb casserole, rather like a North African tagine, spiced with a good deal of cumin. Afelia, when well prepared, is a delicious saute of pork, red wine, and coriander seeds. Psito is large chunks of meat and potatoes cooked in the oven. Plenty of fat is used in its preparation; traditionally, this would have been rendered pig fat, but now sunflower oil is used. Olive oil is used as a dressing for salads, vegetables, and pulses and is not used to cook meat dishes.

Preserved pork meat is very popular, and before refrigeration, it was the main source of red meat available to Greek Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots being Muslims traditionally do not eat pork. During the initial brining of meat to be cured, Cypriots also add red wine; therefore, there is a characteristic flavour to most of the charcuterie from the island.

Lountza (italian Lonza) is made from the pork tenderloin. After the initial brining and marinading in wine, it is smoked. Although it can be aged, many prefer younger, milder lountza. It is often cooked over coals or fried with eggs as well as a sandwich filler or part of a meze. Stronger than lountza and made from the leg, is chiromeri, which is similar to any smoked, air-dried ham from Southern Europe, although the wine flavour makes it characteristically Cypriot. In non-mountain areas, the same meat used for chiromeri is cut into strips along the muscle compartments and dried in the sun as basta. The shoulder of a freshly slaughtered animal is cut into chunks about the size of an almond along with a smaller quantity of chopped back fat, which are marinated in wine and brined, stuffed into intestines, and smoked as sausages (loukaniko. The Italians have a sausage of the same name.

A traditional practice that is dying out fast is to render pig fat for use as a cooking medium and a preservative. Loukaniko and also chunks of fried salted pork meat and fat can be stored in earthenware jars submerged in the lard for a long time, even in the heat of the island.

Lamb and goat meat is also preserved as tsamarella, made very salty to prevent the fatty lamb meat from going rancid. Very popular amongst both communities is preserved beef. The whole silversides and briskets are salted and spiced quite powerfully to make pastourma (Turkish: pastirma). The same meat and some fat is chopped finely and made into pastourma-loukaniko sausages. These preparations may have come from the Armenian community and are found throughout the Middle East.

Greek Cypriots consider snails a delicacy but this is not as popular with Turkish Cypriots. Snails are in season in late autumn, when the first good rains arrive after the hot summer. After being purged, they are either prepared as a pilaf with rice, or cooked in cinamon, onions and tomatoes as a stifado.

[edit] Mezedes

Taramosalata, a fish roe dip

Also called meze or mezethes, this is a large selection of dishes with small helpings of varied foods, brought to the table as a progression of tastes and textures. The meal begins with black and green olives, tashi (a Cypriot variety of tahini), skordalia (potato and garlic dip), taramosalata (fish roe dip), and tzatziki (Turkish: Cacik), all served with chunks of fresh bread and a bowl of mixed salad. Some of the more unusual meze dishes include octopus in red wine, snails in tomato sauce, brains with pickled capers, kappari (capers), and moungra (pickled cauliflower). Bunches of greens, some raw, some dressed with lemon juice and salt, are a basic feature of the meze table. The meal continues with fish, grilled halloumi cheese, lountza (smoked pork tenderloin), keftedes (Turkish: Kofte) (minced meatballs), sheftalia (pork rissoles), and loukaniko (pork sausages). Hot grilled meats – kebabs, lamb chops, chicken – may be served toward the end. The dessert is usually fresh fruit or glyka – traditional sugar-preserved fruits and nuts.^[2]

[edit] Cheeses

Anari served for breakfast in a Limassol hotel

Halloumi, or known as hellim in Turkish – is the national cheese of Cyprus, halloumi is a semi-hard white-brined cheese with a rectangular shape and elastic texture, made from a mixture of goat and sheep milk; sliced and consumed fresh, grilled, or fried; aged halloumi may be grated over pasta dishes.

Anari, or known as Nor/Taze Nor – a crumbly fresh whey cheese, similar to ricotta, made from goat or sheep milk; usually eaten unsalted (though salted versions are also available), sometimes with a drizzle of honey or carob syrup.

[edit] Drinks

[edit] Non alcoholic

Ayrani, or known as Ayran in Turkish, is a traditional yoghurt-based drink made of whey and is found in several countries of the region. It can be found on chilled supermarket shelves, or bought from the declining number of traditional street sellers.

Triantafylon (Turkish: Gül şurubu), a syrup made from the extract of the Cyprus (Damscus) rose, is enjoyed as a refreshing sweet cordial. You either add water or milk in it, especially in the summer months. This is not to be confused with rodostemma, or anthonero (rose water) which is used to sweeten machalepi(a traditional Cypriot sweet) and other sweetmeats.

[edit] Alcoholic

Chilled local beer is a popular drink. The local breweries of KEO and Carlsberg command the lion's share of the market. The Turkish brand Efes is the bigggest Beer brand in North Cyprus. Wine has a long tradition on the island, evidence of which goes back for millennia. Commandaria is a popular dessert wine, which enjoys the distinction of being the oldest wine in continuous production.

Cyprus also has a tradition of brandy production, with Cypriot brandy having been produced by various Limassol-based distilleries since 1871. Cypriot brandy is commonly drunk with meze dishes and forms the base for the distinctive Brandy Sour cocktail, developed on the island in the late-1930s.

Zivania, a grape distillate similar to raki or grappa, is another popular spirit.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Common names of fish from fishbase.org
^ Cypriot mezedes, Cyprus Tourism Organisation web site

[0] Common names of fish from fishbase.org

[1] Cypriot mezedes, Cyprus Tourism Organisation web site

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