In May of 2011, faced with her homeland’s burgeoning crisis of “food insecurity,” Greek journalist Xenia Papastavrou hatched the idea for “Boroume,” a home-grown activist-charity whose aims were addressing Greece’s nutritional needs, stemming the country’s waste of edible foodstuffs, and making the most of internet connectivity in a nation stretched to its human limits.
Papastavrou envisioned a Greece where everyone would pitch in to feed their hungry and malnourished neighbors, and much less good, useable food would be pitched out.
Five years on, Boroume (which means, in Greek, “We can!”) is saving and distributing some 15,000 portions of nutritious food per day.
Managing Director Alexander Theodoridis states, “Breaking the mold of the ‘classical’ food saving model, i.e. a food bank with a warehouse and high logistical costs, Boroume has revolutionized food saving. We are able to ‘rescue’ any kind of food, almost anywhere, and direct it to those in need. … Ninety percent of our team are volunteers, all our food-saving and offering endeavors are based on working closely with donors and recipient charitable organizations, and our budget is covered by private donations.”
And Boroume’s very latest recipe for success in Greek kitchens is something we can all now contribute to: a cookbook whose proceeds go to fund the charity; and a compendium of reminiscences of Greece and recipes to treasure in your own kitchen, wherever that may be.
A Taste of Greece: Recipes, Cuisine & Culture, published this year by teNeues and edited by Her Royal Highness Tatiana of Greece and internationally known culinary author Diana Farr Louis, both of whom have made Greece their permanent home, comprises short chapters contributed by some 40 internationally beloved celebrities and fond Philhellenes; 40 delicious love letters (plus recipes) to an ancient land now pulling itself up by its bootstraps; and many lovely, full-color photographs.
This book is all about generosity, about giving, and paying it forward, and I cannot encourage you more strongly to proceed directly to the publisher’s site http://www.teneues.com/shop-us/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=A%20Taste%20of%20Greece (or, alternatively, your favorite online book-seller) and order a copy.
The cohort of celebrity contributors includes Diane Von Furstenburg (with a recipe for Roast Lamb with Garlic & Lemony Potatoes), Bob Costas (who has a weak spot for Stuffed Grape Leaves), Nobu Matsuhisa (weighing in with Sardines with Wasabi Panzu), Rita Wilson (with fond memories of her mother’s Greek New Year’s Cake), along with Margaret Atwood, Arianna Huffington, Jim Gianopoulos, etc., etc. Quite a congregation of Philhellenes!
All those included answer the same three questions for the book’s editors: What is your favorite Greek food? What does Greece mean to you? What is your fondest memory of Greece?
Dean Karnazes, known internationally as the Ultra Marathon Man, hailed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and founder of Karno Kids, a charity that fights childhood obesity, contributes one of my favorite entries.
To Karnazes, a grandson of Ikaria, Greece means, “Arete. Harmony of mind, body, and spirit.”
And Arete is what A Taste of Greece: Recipes, Cuisine & Culture embodies and celebrates.
So, order this book, pull a chair (or karekla) up to the table, and prove that, when we all join in, we can (boroume) make a difference in one another’s challenging lives.
Not Your Grandmother’s Quiche
(Tarta lachanikon me kinoa)
Ingredients:
½ spaghetti squash, seeds removed
1 tbsp coconut oil
½ sweet onion, diced
1 cup/30 g baby spinach
1 cup/185 g cooked quinoa
¼ cup/30 g sliced sun-dried tomatoes
4 eggs, beaten
Pinch cayenne pepper
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1) Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
2) Place the squash cut-side down on a baking sheet and bake until tender, 40 to 45 minutes. While the squash is baking, heat the coconut oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until translucent. Add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Let cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F/160°C.
3) Using a fork, scrape the spaghetti squash flesh into a bowl. Add the spinach and onion mixture, the quinoa, and the tomatoes and mix together. Add the beaten eggs, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste; stir gently. Scrape the mixture into a 9-inch/23-cm pie plate and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly, slice into wedges, pound your chest several times while hooting, “AROO! AROO! AROO!” and grind away.