Katerina's Kouzina, Πόρος, Póros (2026)

08/06/2026

𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞

As you probably know, lemons are an endless inspiration to me.
I use them in many different ways in my cooking, from soups to desserts.
In today’s recipe I use lemons for a sweet; please enjoy these sugared lemon slices with chocolate! They go nicely with a cup of coffee and tea or on top of your favorite cake!

Ingredients
200 grams sugar
200 grams water
5 lemons
150 grams chocolate

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/desserts/sugared-lemon-slices-with-chocolate.html
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04/06/2026

𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐢

Today we are talking souvlaki. A very Greek recipe that most of you might know or have tasted at some point. On this blog I share with you a very special version: The Prawn Souvlaki.

Out of all the different types of souvlaki that we make in Greece and all the combinations we make with things on a skewer, the ones with the prawns are the nicest, the juiciest, the tastiest and the loveliest, if they are made well of course!

Ladolemono - dressing
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, today I present you the one and only most fantastic way of preparing prawns: Prawn Souvlaki! Given an extra special taste because of the delicious Ladolemono-dressing; a mix of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper.

My personal advice: this typical seafood dish is best enjoyed with a nice glass of ouzo!

Ingredients
2 skewers
4 big prawns
3 tablespoons of good quality olive oil
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
A pinch of oregano
2 lemons
Salt and pepper

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/fish/prawn-souvlaki.html
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01/06/2026

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚 – 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬

This traditional recipe is the symbol of Greek summer: Gemista. These stuffed tomatoes and peppers are so juicy, delicious and healthy, I love them!

Every family has their own Gemista recipe and every island and region has its own variation. This is the recipe from my mother and our family here from Poros. It’s the most classic and typical of the Gemista variations in Greece.

Tomatoes and peppers
Gemista literally means stuffed. To make this dish you can stuff all kinds of vegetables. Now let’s get some of these deliciously fresh tomatoes and peppers and start cooking!

-Remove the pulp of the tomatoes and the ribs and seeds of the peppers.
-Put the tomatoes and peppers together in a baking dish.
-Prepare the stuffing with the rice, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, parsley, mint, raisins and the tomato mash. Don’t overcook it. The rice should not be soft, because it will soften later during the baking time.
-Sprinkle the tomatoes with some sugar. Fill the tomato and pepper shells with the rice mixture and replace the tops.
-Arrange the stuffed vegetables in a baking dish and drizzle them with a little olive oil, the rest of the tomato mash and some water. -Bake them in the oven for 50 minutes.

You can serve the Gemista warm or cold, however you like. Either way, I hope this recipe will make you taste the Greek summer!

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/vegetarian/gemista-stuffed-tomatoes-peppers.html
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28/05/2026

𝐎𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐲’𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐞

At Odyssey we love making lemonade! Beautiful, delicious and healthy drinks that taste like summer and give a happy feeling. We will share some of these lemonades with you on Katerina’s Kouzina, starting with one that I love very much: Rose Lemonade! It’s made with rose petals, lemon, pomegranate seeds and rose water. It creates a very romantic mood!

Rose garden
I love roses, but not all of them. I love the ones that grow naturally in the gardens and have that fantastic fragrance that says: “I am a rose”. I don’t like the ones that we buy from the flower shops that have no smell. For me it’s not about the looks of a rose, but about the smell.

This rose lemonade is inspired by my mother’s neighbour Ka Matina, who always had roses in her garden. You did not even have to touch these flowers to smell them; just passing by her garden was enough to be surrounded with an overwhelming rose aroma. She took such good care of her roses that another neighbour asked her to take care of her garden as well.

Rose lemonade
Ka Matina was a person with green fingers and a heart of gold. She always had a smile on her face and told dirty jokes. Her husband loved her and they had the type of relationship that you read about in novels. I remember as a child that she would sit with my mother at the stairs in front of her house, doing their favourite sport: embroidering while saying hello to everybody that passed by.

As you will understand, for this rose lemonade it’s very important to gather rose petals with a great smell. Together with the smell of the rose water it will melt your heart! The pomegranate seeds and lemon are full of antioxidants and vitamins that make this such a healthy drink. Curious about our other Odyssey drinks? Keep your eye on the blog!

Ingredients
1 litre of water
A handful of rose petals
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
Half a lemon, sliced
2 teaspoons rose water

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/drinks/odysseys-rose-lemonade.html
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25/05/2026

𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚 – 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐬

I don’t know how common a sight this is in other countries, but my childhood memories include watching my parents – alone or with friends – walking slowly through fields slightly stooped over and gaze fixed intently on the ground, casually chattering in between stopping and prying greens from the ground with the short-handled knife in their hands.

Vegan recipes
The image evokes nostalgia only because in my mind it evokes my parents – but the sight is still common around Greece. This is because it’s a big tradition to eat horta, edible wild greens. They are part of our many vegan recipes. We make salads, pies and also serve the greens as a vegetable on it’s own with lemon and olive oil. It’s one of my favorite foods.

Those of us who grew up in the Greek provinces or on the islands are lucky enough to go foraging for wild greens. Chervil, shepherd’s needles, nettles, chard, sow thistle, wild mallow, wild fennel, and wild rocket are just a few of the edible greens found on hillsides and mountain slopes.

Healthy and nutritious foods
Greens are among the most healthy and nutritious foods you can eat – and what’s best is that they grow wild, with no help at all. For centuries, the Greeks have valued them for their medicinal properties and their suggested benefits for conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure and as a source of antioxidants.

Horta is seasonal and local
Wild greens are both seasonal and local. You’ll find different ones in different regions at different times of the year. Greens, of course, are most plentiful in spring, from March to early May. This is best time to forage for wild greens, especially for savory pies. While tradition dictated greens be picked wild, today many of the more popular ones like amaranth and chard are cultivated.

👉 Find the full story on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/blog/horta-edible-wild-greens.html
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21/05/2026

𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬

In the Odyssey Bistro you will always find jars filled with cookies. They are one of our favorite things to bake! Making them, we like to experiment with ingredients, shapes and flavors.

Taste of summer
A few months ago we wanted to create a cookie with the taste of summer. Immediately lemons came to mind. We wondered how we could best accentuate their lovely flavor. It quickly came to us. What would rock the summer feeling better than the combination of lemon and mint?

From the vegetable garden on the roof of the Odyssey Bistro we picked the mint we needed and fresh lemons are always around. With the sun on our skin in the patio, we shaped the dough into cookies on baking trays.

Lemon and mint cookies
Not much later the aromas from the oven made the whole Odyssey kitchen smell like summer. We were all excited and eager to taste. Ever since we can’t stop eating the lemon and mint cookies, they are so yummy!

Do you want the taste of Greek summer at home? Let’s start baking! Get yourself some fresh mint and lemons and gather the other ingredients.

Ingredients
1 kilo flour
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of sunflower / vegetable oil
½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup water
Rind of a lemon

For the top
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons of sugar

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/desserts/lemon-and-mint-cookies-from-poros-greece.html
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18/05/2026

𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 - 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐞

During my childhood my mother used to prepare sardines in the most wonderful way. She would make grilled sardines on the barbecue or fry the fish in olive oil with some horta (edible plants). It was the ultimate summer food! We needed nothing else, it was fantastic! Fair enough, sometimes we would finish the meal with nice and cool watermelon to ‘clean our mouths’, as my parents said. On top of that, we did not have to keep anything for the cat…

Cats don’t like sardines
You see, as a child my mother told me that cats don’t like sardines. “Cats love all other types of fish but not the sardines,” she said. My mother explained that for this reason, we eat the sardines with their heads and tails. I wondered why the cats would not like sardines, but of course I believed my mother.

During one of my cooking lessons in the summer I was preparing grilled sardines with my cooking students and we started talking about it. We decided to test my mother’s theory. We put some sardines on a plate for the cats that every now and then pass by the Odyssey. You can imagine my astonishment when I saw the cats not only eating the sardines, but miaowing for more and licking their lips!!!

Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 kg sardines

Lemon - mint sauce
1/4 of a lemon
Red pepper corns (10 pieces)
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup of olive oil
A bunch or a cup of mint

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/fish/grilled-sardines-with-lemon-mint-sauce.html
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14/05/2026

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐙𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐳𝐢𝐤𝐢

There are a few Greek recipes that all people love. Usually those recipes are very simple and require simple ingredients that are easy to find and not expensive.
The ingredients often grow in our garden and during summer we have too much of them. Fried zucchini with tzatziki is such a wonderful recipe!

Ingredients
3 medium size zucchini
1 cup olive oil (or sunflower oil) for frying

For the batter
¾ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup corn flour (not cornstarch) *
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon oregano
1 ½ cups water

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/vegetarian/fried-zucchini-with-tzatziki.html
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11/05/2026

𝐃𝐚𝐤𝐨𝐬

Paximadia is a traditional dried bread that the Greeks have been making since antiquity. It is usually made out of barley and wheat, water and salt. This makes them sweeter, nuttier and more crunchy than their wheat-only counterparts. The bread is very hard and needs to be softened before you eat it, with water, wine, tomato juice or olive oil. The rusk is baked twice, so you can keep it for a very long time, even years.

Paximadia
All the Greeks have paximadia in the house. I remember going to the olive farm and always taking rusks with us. My father put some wine on them and we ate them with olives. You can eat paximadia in different ways, but the Cretan recipe Dakos is the most famous. It’s traditionally eaten with Cretan Mitzithra cheese, but you often see it (outside of Crete) made with feta. Dakos is simply rusks, tomatoes, feta and olive oil and it’s so delicious!

Paximadia is an important part of Cretan culture. Their rusks have been awarded PGI status (Protected Geographical Indication) and are part of their daily diet. You will see them proudly served all over the island.

I hope you feel inspired to try this Cretan tradition!

Ingredients
6 Cretan dakos (large round barley rusks) or other rucks
6 large mature tomatoes, cut into pieces (as in the pictures)
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
150 g feta cheese (5.5 ounces)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Optional
10 - 15 black olives
1-2 tbsp capers
Oregano or mint

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/vegetarian/dakos-2.html
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07/05/2026

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐛 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐊𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐬

One of the best things in life is baking your own bread. I love creating dough and watching it transform. When the bread comes out the oven, its fantastic smell fills the whole house (and your neighbourhood) with that wonderful baking bread aroma! Second best things is to eat it of course. This bread recipe is one of my favorites: Fresh herb and Kalamata olive buns!

Growing herbs
Another thing that I love doing is growing my own herbs in the garden, like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and mint. The past years I have been experimenting with adding a lot more savor (‘herby’) taste to my freshly baked breads and rusks. After a lot of experimenting, failures, disappointments and setbacks, I came to realize that fresh herbs are very nice for baking bread, but fresh basil and mint (or spear mint) don’t do well because they have a lot of moisture.

Thyme, rosemary and dill
For this recipe we have used a combination of thyme, rosemary and dill, but you could use whatever herbs you love of course! If you have to use dried herbs instead of fresh herbs, you must use half the amount of the fresh herbs; otherwise the taste can become bitter and the smell too intense.

Ingredients
3 cups (450g) strong plain flour
1 sachet dried yeast (7 gr)
2 tablespoons olive oil + half a cup for the oven tray
1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon of chopped dill
1 tablespoon of chopped thyme
1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary
1 chopped red onion
¼ of a cup chopped spring onion
½ of a cup chopped Kalamata olives
1/2 teaspoon salt

👉 Find the full story and recipe on my blog!
https://katerinaskouzina.com/vegetarian/fresh-herb-kalamata-olive-buns.html
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Katerina's Kouzina

08/06/2026

04/06/2026

01/06/2026

28/05/2026

25/05/2026

21/05/2026

18/05/2026

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11/05/2026

07/05/2026

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