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.

Ladenia is a vegan flatbread, similar to pizza, which comes from Kimolos island. The traditional ingredients on top the Ladenia are onions and tomatoes.

Homemade Pizza Dough is very easy to make. My friends and relatives say that it’s the best crust they’ve ever had. A few minor details make all the difference. I use bread flour instead of all purpose flour, honey instead of sugar and my other secret is to wet the dough with olive oil before rising, which makes a lovely, elastic dough.

This homemade marinara sauce recipe is easy tomake with just a few ingredients such as ripe tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions.

Pastitsio ala Italian is a twist I made to the classic Greek dish, substituting some of the traditional ingredients we use in Greece with Italian ones.

Glyko Melitzanaki (pr. meh-lee-tzah-NAH-kee) or Vazanaki (pr. vah-zah-NAH-kee) in Cyprus, is a fruit preserve made with baby eggplants.

Today we had two reasons to celebrate. It’s my son’s birthday but it was also his graduation from the University. Although the lemon cake was made for my husband ten days ago, I didn’t have the time to prepare the post for the new cake, which is a Vanilla and Chocolate Cake, so here is …

The idea of flavouring a ryzogalo (Greek rice pudding) with lemon and krokos Kozanis (saffron) sounded perfect in my mind, so I made a twist to the classic rice pudding by adding these two flavours.

Lemon curd is a dessert spread and topping like a velvety custard, usually made with citrus fruit, zest and juice of lemons or even limes, oranges or tangerines, butter, eggs, corn flour (starch) and sugar. It can be eaten as it is, or served as a spread on bread or biscuits or as a filling for pies, tarts or cakes.

For this month’s challenge of the Royal Foodie Joust, I made Veal in Dark Beer with a Sweet and Sour Pumpkin Sauce.

This Greek roasted pork (or lamb) is stuffed with bacon, halloumi, feta, as well as other ingredients then it is wrapped in vine leaves and baked in the oven with potatoes.