Ivy Liacopoulou

Ivy Liacopoulou grew up in Limassol, Cyprus, a beautiful island in the eastern Mediterranean, where her passion for cooking began as a child, helping her mother in the kitchen. Ivy belongs to a new generation of home cooks who loves to experiment and create new recipes of her own. She is the author of two cookbooks and she owns and manages Cooking Classes, in Nafplio, Peloponnese.

Cypriot Traditional Tahinopita is a Lenten or vegan sweet bread, which is very flavourful as it is filled with tahini, sugar and cinnamon.

Fassolada (or fassoulada, as the peasants call it), is a hearty navy beans stew, or soup if you like and is considered to be the national food of the Greeks.

Patates me avga is a very quick and easy dish with cubed potatoes and scrambled eggs. Although it sounds like breakfast food, we eat it as a main dish with a salad.

Karydopita (pr. ka-ree-dho-pee-tah) is a Greek walnut cake made with lots of walnuts and bathed in a sweet syrup. The word “karydi” (καρύδι) means walnut and “pita” (πίτα) means pie.

Yiaourtoglyko is a very easy Greek dessert made with whipped cream, Greek yoghurt and fruit preserves or compote. Very refreshing for summer days!

Kitromilaki or Nerantzi Glyko, is a fruit preserve made with Seville Oranges when they are small and the seeds have not yet developed inside.

How can we tell if the syrup is ready? That is a good question. There are several methods, old and new, to tell if the syrup has the right density.

Glyko Karydaki, is a Greek fruit preserve of small (or young) walnuts and it is one of the best Greek traditional spoon sweets.

If your preserves have mildew or the sugar has crystalized, don’t throw them away as today we are going to learn how to fix these preserves.

Glyka tou koutaliou, which means spoon sweets, are traditional, homemade sweet fruit preserves, served in a spoon as a gesture of hospitality in Greece and Cyprus. They can be made from almost any fruit, though sour and bitter fruits are especially prized. There are even spoon sweets made from vegetables and flowers.