Secrets from Yiayia’s Greek Kitchen — Book Review

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The Secrets from Yiayia’s Greek Kitchen:  Meze, Soups and Dips is a book I have been eager to get my hands since I first heard about it earlier this year.  In May in fact, my lovely friend Sarah mentioned she was working on it.  And then I promptly forgot about it, I am ashamed to say.  Until last month when over dinner in Devon Sarah mentioned it again.  That not only was the book now in print and about to be published but that there were going to be dips sold at farmers markets too.

Oh lordy lordy lordy.   How fabulous is this?  There is something really exciting about seeing a friend launch a business.   Many of my blogging chums have developed their blogs in to businesses and I have been awe of them all.   This one feels a little bit more special as it is the brain child of Sarah, her sister in law Eva and her mother in law Yiayia (Greek for grandmother).    These three ladies have spent months translating and perfecting these recipes to make sure they really do work.  Then photographing them and putting them all together in a beautifully produced book.

Translating recipes is no easy task when it has involved “a slosh” of this or a “wine glass full” of something else.

My only disappointment is that whilst all this recipe production was going on I wasn’t called upon to sample the products.

And that really is the only disappointment.   The book has pages of beautifully shot photos of the food interspersed with  family photos and stories about the food.   You really get a sense that family is at the heart of everything the Greeks do, and never more so than when it comes to food.

There are thirty recipes and it includes all the Greek menu staples would hope to find in any Greek Taverna:  Dolmades / Spanakopita / calamari and Keftedakia

It is available from Amazon at the moment and will shortly be available in bookshops.

Please do also follow the family on social media, and then buy the book for all your friends.  It is less than £8!

On Facebook:  Yiayia’s Kouzina

And on Twitter:  Yiayia’s Kouzina