A Hearty Greek Meal

Briam (pronounced bree-ahm, with the stress on the second half of the word) is a traditional Greek baked dish that you'll find in the better traditional tavernas and in every respectable Greek woman's culinary arsenal. My better half makes a wicked Briam and did so just the other evening. It was so good that I decided that I'd be selfish to keep it to myself and, since whenever I shove a recipe on to the blog it usually gets a great response, here goes folks...

INGREDIENTS

about 675gms of chopped courgettes

450gms cubed potato

1 red onion, chopped up small

3 cloves garlic

1 large red pepper, seeded and cubed

400gms or a can of chopped tomatoes

2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup of hot water

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3 tablespoons chopped parsley (plus a sprig or two to garnish)

Seasoning (sea salt and ground black pepper)

Frankly, any vegetables you have to hand will do as a substitute for those referred to above. As you'll notice in the photo above, my resident chef will often throw in some broccoli and/or cauliflower for example.

METHOD

Get your oven pre-heated to 190ºC and bung all those chopped vegetables into a large baking dish...

Mix it all together well, stir in the olive oil, hot water and oregano. Spread it all evenly in the tray and season it, before bunging it in the oven for about half an hour. Then take it out, stir in the parsley and a little more water. My wife often throws in fresh chives and basil too (above)...

 Whack it back in the oven for a further hour or so, setting temperature just a little higher, say about 200ºC for the last 15 minutes. Take a look and when the potatoes are brown it ought to be good and ready...

Serve it up in a large bowl with some fresh home-made bread if you've got some. Pitta would do just as nicely. With a little local red or white table wine to accompany it, you have yourselves a very hearty and extremely nutritious hot Greek meal for a dark autumn evening.

Incidentally, the pills are only herbal!! To help me sleep.

Sometimes I think I'm just far too good to you!! Well, actually, it ought to be my lovely wife who takes the credit really. But then, she'd kill me if she knew I'd shared this with you as she likes to keep these things to herself!