The rice gives to the people 20% of energy and the 13% of protein their body needs. Rice for the 50% to 66% of the population of earth is an important source of receiving food energy.

 

The classic rice must wash out with clean water before cooking while the processed  rice does not need wetting. You should count 60 gr. unboiled rice per person if it is going to be an appetizing and 80 to 100 grams if it will be the main course and according to the ingredients you will add to.

 

The most usual ways of cooking rice are:

 

The rice Creole type which boils in a lot of liquid (water, broth, milk) we count 2 ½ measures. Water for 1 measure of rice, meaning 60 gr. rice for 200 ml liquid (plate for 1 person).  We put the rice to the boiled liquid; we cover the pan and leave it to boil in low fire for 20 minutes. The rice is usually sautéd with onion in oil or butter before we add water or broth. It also boils in 20 minutes. The time the rice boils depends on its type and the treatment it has been through.

 

The recipes below are few from the most characteristic anyone meets in the area of Axios Estuaries and have as a base the rice.

 

Rice with mussels

Ingredients

• 1 ½ kilo of mussels

• 350 gr of rice

• 3 cloves of garlic 

• 1 small pungent pepper

• 300 gr of small tomatoes slightly cut, fresh or conserve.

•  ½ cup of olive oil

• 2 onions slightly cut

• Sugar,salt, pepper, parsley

 

Execution

Clean the mussels removing their “beard” and wash them very well. Wet them in a copper for about 3 minutes until their shell opens. After filter their juice, keep it for the rice. Then in a copper warm the olive oil and put the onions and the garlic until they get rosy. Add the rice and parch it for 1-2 minutes, then add the tomatoes, the salt and pepper, the sugar, the green pepper, the juice from the mussels and add hot water. Leave the rice to boil and five minutes before the boil is completed, remove the pepper and the mussels. Garnish with parsley and the plate is ready.

 

 

 

Goose with rice-(15th of August)

Ingridients

• Almost 2 kilos choose

• 3 tablespoons of butter

• 1 glass of rice 

• 2 middle onions cut in the grader

• 2 table spoons of slightly cut parsley

• Salt and pepper

 

Execution

Clean and put out the guts of the goose. Parch it and after washing it with hot water, put salt and pepper. In a copper put butter leave it to burn and put the liver of the goose, the slightly cut onion, the parsley, salt and pepper. Add the rice which we have half boiled in salted water. Mix it well and put it out of the fire. Fill in the goose with the mixture, needle it and put the goose in a buttered in a pan. Bake it in a oven medium heat for about 1 hour and a half.  

 

 

 

Ostracea with rice

Ingredients

• 50 ostraceas 

• 1 onion slightly cut

• 1 cup of oil

• 1 cup of rice

• Salt, pepper

• Dill, mint

 

Execution

Put ostraceas in hot water to open their shells. Put their flesh in water and press it to clean them from sand. Strain carefully the water and repeat 3 times. Then in a copper warm the olive oil and put the onions until they get rosy. Add ostraceas and at the end add the rice, salt, pepper, dill and parsley. For every cup of rice 2 cups of water is needed.

 

 

Rice pudding

Ingredients

• 1 kilo of milk

• 1 cup of rice

• 1 ½ spoons corn flower

• 2  vanillas

 

Execution

Boil the milk. When it starts boiling put the rice and mix it well. Leave it to boil in a slow fire. When see that the rice has mashed add the sugar. Mash the corn flower in 2 spoons of water and put it to the rice pudding, stir a little bit so that it will start boiling, put the vanilla and put out the fire. Then serve it in a bowl. Note: the rice pudding should not be very curdled, but has to be served waterish because when it gets cold it jells.

In the area of Axios Estuaries, and in the greater area of Thessaloniki mussels have become a local delicacy, because of the big number of Greeks in the meditteranian coast of Asia, who came seven decades before in the area from Turkey and brought with them their love for mussels. Some of the more characteristic local recipes that anyone meets in the greater area of Axios Estuaries are those below:

 

 

 

 

Steamy mussels

Ingredients-6 persons

• 2 kilos of mussels

• 1 small pungent green pepper, cleaned without seeds

• ½ cup of oil

• ½ cup of wine

• 1 big onion

• ¼ cup of lemon juice

• 3 tablespoons of slightly cut parsley

• 2 cloves

• Fresh pepper

 

Execution

Wash very well the mussels and scrub their shells with a small brush, removing their “beard” and strain them. Put in a big pun the oil, the wine, the parsley, the onion, the garlic without the green seed in the center, the pepper and leave them to boil. After that add the mussels and boil all the ingredients together for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the fire and burn it out with lemon juice. After throw all the mussels that did not open, serve the rest of them with their juice. In case we want the sauce to be less, take the mussels from the pan with a punched scoop and boil the juice until it gets less.

 

 

 

Fried mussels with garlic sauce

Ingredients, 4-6 persons

• 1 ½ kilo of mussels

• 2 cups of flour

• 1 cup of beer

• Oil for fry

About the garlic sauce:

               Ø    5 cloves of garlic, 
               Ø    5 slices of bread for toast, 
               Ø    100 gr, pounded nuts
               Ø    ½ cup of oil

 

Execution

First prepare the garlic sauce pounding the garlic with little salt in a mortar. After that wet the bread and strain it very well. Also put it in the mortar and keep pounding. Then add the nuts and the oil little by little and keep blending (we can prepare the garlic sauce by putting all the ingredients to the blender). The garlic sauce must be smooth and homogenous.

 

Mix the water with the beer and little water if it is necessary, until a mush is created. Put into the mush the flesh of the mussels and fry it in the hot corn oil or the olive oil. After strain them in an absorbing paper, serve them with garlic sauce in the plate.

 

 

Fried mussels with cheese

Ingredients, 4-6 persons

• 750 gr Mussel flesh

• 500 gr Little tomatoes scaled without their seeds, melt into the blender

• 1 onion slightly cut

• 2 cloves of garlic melted

• Salt

• Pepper

• Origano or parsley

• Sugar

• 10-15 corns of green pepper

• 200 gr of smashed feta 

• 100 gr of scrubbed cheese

• Slightly cut parsley mint

• 4-5 tablespoon of olive oil

 

Execution

Warm the olive oil and sauté the onion until it gets blushed. Then add the mush of the tomato, the sugar, the salt and pepper, the green pepper and sew them for 25 minutes. Afterwards add the garlic and the origano and keep boiling for 5΄- 6΄. Put into individual “saganaki” a lot of sauce we add the mussels. Put the cheese and the rest of the tomato sauce. Bake into 200 degrees for 15΄-20΄ and serve after adding  the parsley.

 

 

 

Souvlaki mussels

Ingredients- 4 persons

• 20 big mussels, the flesh

• 4 big mushrooms 

• 1 big green pepper

• 1 lemon

• 1 big onion

• 1 fresh tomato

• Salt

• Pepper

• Rosemary

 

Execution

Wash and clean the mussels and strain them very well. Then wash and cut the rest of the ingredients into slices, and pass the mussels along the broach by turns with the rest of ingredients, the mushrooms, the pepper, the onion and the tomato. Spread with olive oil and add salt and pepper. Roast them to the kitchen grill or to the charcoals.  Serve with two-coloured rice, white and brown, and garnish the mussels souvlakis with fresh rosemary.

 

 

 

Mussels with mustards and butter

Ingredients, 6 persons

• 2 kilos of mussels

• 100 gr of butter

• 1 onion cut into grommets

• 4 melted cloves of garlic

• 1 green pepper cut into grommets without the seeds

• 1 tablespoon of mustard

• 100 ml of dry white wine

• Salt

• Pepper

• Little sugar

• Chilli

• ½ skein of slightly cut parsley

 

Execution

Clean the mussels removing their “beard”, wash and boil them until the shells open. Keep a glass of their juice, warm the butter into a poacher and sauté the onion. Afterwards add the green pepper, the salt, the pepper, the chilli and we mix them for 2- 3 minutes. Melt the mustard into the mussels’ juice, add it to the poacher with a little sugar and boil for 5 minutes. Then add the wine, the mussels, the parsley and keep boiling until the liquids evaporate.