My Favourites by Peter Dacoutros

is launched at Cose Casa

Peter Dacoutros is larger than life. People of every description but especially women enjoy the television programme on One television, Aroma, in which he plays a leading role. In between his numerous and energetic activities he has managed to produce yet another book, his ninth, and his best so far. In it there are 190 recipes and 410 pages. Quite a feat. My Favourites, so beautifully produced by Midsea books and the indefatigable Joseph Mizzi, is a combination of reminiscences, photography and excellent recipes with which we have come to associate with Peter. I love the introduction which is all too short. I would have liked to know more about his interesting background, half Greek and half Maltese. Let me quote him: “… writing this book has sent me on a long, colourful and nostalgic journey which I would like to share with you.

I was brought up around food and busy kitchens. I don’t recall what toys I played with as a child. However, I do remember barely being able to reach up to the kitchen table and amusing myself with bits of mum’s homemade pastry. Soon I was making all sorts of fancy shapes and my own tiny pies or tartlets to bake next to what my mother had prepared.

Another busy kitchen was in my grandfather’s home in Valletta. Every Sunday morning my parents would take me to visit grandpa Ioannis. He was Greek Orthodox in every way and he had a heart of gold. When the conversation sounded too Greek to me, I used to slip into the kitchen where my Aunt Meg kept herself more than busy cooking away a family lunch. Greek of course! She never made a secret of her recipes. She was also very fortunate, as at the time, my grandfather’s schooners returned from his native Santorini every three weeks and brought along all the authentic ingredients for her Greek dishes. My childhood was wholly Greek…. My mother cooked wholesome family meals; mostly traditional Maltese dishes. Although, having married a Greek, she ambitiously learned and grasped the secrets of traditional Greek cuisine.”

The book is vividly illustrated and alive with photos from Peter’s personal photo albums but also of Greece but especially Santorini and Malta. The photos of food look good enough to eat. They really propelled me to choose a couple of recipes and try them out. I have tried Peter’s recipes before and as he says in his introduction: “In compiling my recipes, I have tried to be as clear and concise as possible without cutting corners during the explanations of some of my recipes. I felt as though I was a friend in your kitchen giving you genuine step-by-step instruction for preparing every individual recipe the way I know it, learnt it and tried it.” Indeed, it is difficult if you follow Peter’s instructions not to succeed.

The book is neatly divided up into sections. The first section is Basic Recipes such as basic tomato sauce, pastries and others. The next section tackles Starters. Fava dip from Santorini and Leek and Peperoni Appetiser are certainly two recipes I want to try out. Elsewhere in the book Peter says that Santorini is famous for its Fava beans – the tiny yellow broad beans.

Then there is the section on Main Courses with traditional recipes such as Quiche Lorraine, Chicken and Asparagus Pie, My Shepherd’s Pie and Traditional Stewed Rabbit among a host of others. I love the look of the Chicken Napoleon – with a picture of a charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte, sans his characteristic bicorne hat and a picture of an Empire mantel clock too! The recipe for Spaghetti Caruso has a photo of the famous Italian tenor to accompany it. The fisherman’s pie recipe is accompanied by two pictures of dghajsas. There is even a recipe for Hobz-Biz-Zejt in the section on Street Food. The photo for this recipe looks so delicious that I called up my 1975 baby in Qormi and told her I would be joining them for tea and all I wanted to eat was Hobz-Biz-Zejt with a hobza from next door. Glasshouse tomatoes are somewhat insipid and do not produce the same redness as our summer ones, full of colour and taste, but a little tomato paste produces fairly decent hobz-biz-zejt in winter. Qormi was the bakery of the knights, let us not forget and some of the best bread is still made there. It is a sacrifice for me not to purchase a crispy loaf every time I am there, which is almost every day. It is so very hard to resist. I also happen to know that the Band Club in Qormi (ta’ San Gorg) also produce the most delicious hobz-biz-zejt. There is temptation all round. How can I ever go back to size 16 especially now that Christmas is on our doorstep?

Back to Peter’s book. Another section is on Vegetable Dishes which includes a Santorini salad made with feta cheese and gathers together most of the vegetables and agricultural produce of this idyllic island. Peter’s friend Eddie Madgin has also contributed his recipe for Broccoli Gratin. My darling grandson Harry eats them raw. Even as I am munching away at a Mars bar or some other cholesterol cocktail, there he is enjoying some raw vegetable or another with his beautiful brown eyes glinting and his eyelashes long enough to sweep a Boeing 707, flapping, just like his Granny Suzy’s and his father’s.

The section on Street Food is a mixture of Maltese and English recipes with Bigilla, Welsh Rarebit, Cornish Pasties, Cheese Scones, Maltese Honey Rings and Mqaret which I love. Whenever I am in Valletta I try to be strong and, on my way out to the car park, not go up to the mqaret kiosk and buy half-a-dozen and sit and eat them in the car park. But more often than not the flesh is weak and I give in to my greediness. There is little that is more satisfying than eating half-a-dozen authentic mqaret in the car where no one can comment on my greediness, with Piaf or Chopin in the background. And as I finish them I resolve to start a diet the following day.

The Desserts and Sweets section of Peter’s book is full of alluring photos and enticing recipes. The section that follows is on Traditional Seasonal Fare including Prinjolata and Zeppole di San Giuseppe; Kwarezimal and Traditional Kusksu Bil-Ful and Kurabiethes which according to the text are a Greek sweet and served on special occasions, especially at Christmas and New Year. “Tradition has it that no young pretty girl will marry unless she can make good Kurabiethes,” he writes.

I have tasted this light sweet several times at Peter’s fabulous Christmas parties. They were also served at the launch of this book which took place at Cose Casa at Balzan. This outlet which is run by André and Stefania Agius has been extensively refurbished and I would like to spend an entire day looking at their cookware and gifts section.

Mrs Kate Gonzi launched My Favourites in this household store with its extensive floor space and excellent displays. It was a lively launch with plenty of delicious canapés and drinks served throughout the long evening. This is a coffee table book with a difference. It is also very useful and practical. It was obviously written and compiled with love and care and attention to detail. Congratulations all round.

Santorini: The Enchanted Isle by Richard England

It seems appropriate to write something about another of Professor Richard England’s many works of art. He is the ultimate Renaissance man, who excels at everything he undertakes. He is elegant in every word he writes, every drawing he makes and an aesthete. He never seems to run out of good ideas either.

The text and drawings of this book are by Richard England with a Foreword by the renowned Greek architect Alexander Tombazis who states: “the flowing lines from Richard England’s hand and the keen observation of his eyes well suit Santorini. His keen eye is unmerciful leaving no detail uncovered.”

In the blurb of the book we read that Professor England first visited Santorini in 1990. “Entranced by what the Nobel Prize poet Odysseus Elytis described as its ‘lamp black quality’ and ‘Medusa like domes’, England returned to the island many a time to capture through his sketches and drawings the visual poetry of this volcanic isle and its cubic man-made geometries.’

This beautiful book documents Richard England’s ‘responsive hand to his inquisitive eye in a series of tantalizing drawings illustrating an artist-architect’s understanding and appreciation of the unique qualities of this magical Aegean isle. The accompanying texts and quotations further enhance the sketches. Like instruments in an orchestra they take up the soloists’ themes and harmonize them into a visual-literary concerto. As our planet today rapidly dissolves into a characterless global village, unique environments such as that of Santorini offer a much needed soul enriching antidote.”

This book is a work of art in itself. It has plenty of white space where the eyes can rest; excellent quotations and superb black and white line drawings with which we have come to associate with Richard England. This is another book which has been created with love and attention to detail. Here is one of the quotations in the book which seems particularly appropriate: ‘Elegance is refinement achieved by simplicity’ Bruce Alsopp. And I cannot resist another one: “I don’t want reality, I want magic” wrote Tennessee Williams. Yes, I found this book magical.

Serata all’Operetta

on 12 December

This Tribute to European Opera promises to be a great night out with Artists from Laboratorio Lirico Europeo of Milan. Book your tickets from the Manoel Theatr

The programme includes lively selections from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (Mein Herr Marquis and Czardas); Boccaccio by Franz Von Suppé (Mia bella fiorentina); La Principessa della Czarda by Emmerich Kalman (Hurra’ Hurra’; Ma senza donne; Canta un coro d’angioletti); La Danza delle Libellule by Franz Lehar (Foxtrot of the Gigolettes; Bambolina); La Duchessa del Bal Tabarin by Leon Bard/Carlo Lombardo (Waltz of Frou Frou; Ah! come si sta ben); La Perichole by Jacques Offenbach  (Ah! quel diner); The Geisha by Sydney Jones (My Mimosa); The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan (I’ve got a little list); the famous Spanish Zarzuela - La Tabernera del Puerto by Pablo Sorozabal (No puede ser); Il Paese dei Campanelli by Carlo Lombardo  (Nella notte misteriosa; la giavanese; foxtrot of Luna tu); The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar (Song of Niegus; Vilja; tace il labbro); Cin ci La’ by Carlo Lombardo (Bambola; la canzone della margherita;  and by general request O Cin ci La’).

The gran finale will include the lively executions of E’ scabroso le donne studiar from Lehar’s La Vedova Allegra and so it goes on. Don’t miss it. You will come out of the theatre feeling very cheerful and in love with life.